2 months ago
2
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Sensitive documents, including White House blueprints, were improperly shared with thousands of federal employees after being accidentally uploaded through the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Google Drive.
👥 Who’s Involved: Employees of the General Services Administration (GSA).
Your free, daily feed from The National Pulse.
📍 Where & When: The incident originated from the GSA in Washington, D.C.; it began in 2021 and was discovered last week.
💬 Key Quote: “Even if they were not formally classified … they would be closely held for obvious security reasons,” said Steven Aftergood, a former director for the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy.
⚠️ Impact: Potential security risk due to sharing sensitive information with upwards of 11,200 government workers; ongoing investigation and cybersecurity report filed.
IN FULL:
Personnel from the General Services Administration (GSA), responsible for managing federal buildings, unintentionally gave over 11,200 agency employees access to sensitive documents. The documents reportedly included blueprints for the White House.
The issue arose when a Google Drive folder was mistakenly uploaded with settings that allowed widespread access. This misconfiguration occurred in 2021 during the Biden government and was discovered only last week during a routine audit by the GSA’s IT team.
Subsequent to the discovery of the Biden-era Google Drive security issue at the GSA, the Trump administration posted three documents in the compromised folder, not knowing that the materials were widely accessible. Notably, one of the documents contained the banking information for a vendor contracted for work on a Trump administration press conference. The GSA’s IT department is conducting a detailed investigation, and a cybersecurity report has been filed regarding the incident.
Experts in government secrecy, including Steven Aftergood, have emphasized the potential risk posed by sharing certain documents even if they lack formal classification. “Even if they were not formally classified … they would be closely held for obvious security reasons,” said Aftergood, a former director for the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy.
Information about private passageways or security procedures could be considered classified under Executive Order 13526, which governs national security information.
The leak comes just weeks after a corporate media journalist was inadvertently added to a Signal chat with senior officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, about strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Four House Democrats traveled to El Salvador concerning the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant who they claim was wrongfully deported from Maryland.
👥 Who’s Involved: Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA), Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Maxine Dexter (D-OR), and Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ); Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Your free, daily feed from The National Pulse.
📍 Where & When: El Salvador, visit by Reps. began Monday, following Sen. Van Hollen’s visit the previous week.
💬 Key Quote: Far-left California Rep. Robert Garcia remarked, “While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported.”
⚠️ Impact: The case highlights ongoing Democrat Party obsessions with foreign criminals, deportation processes, and concerns about “due process” for illegals.
IN FULL:
Four Democrat members of the House of Representatives have traveled to El Salvador to attempt to represent a foreign, alleged MS-13 gang member and El Salvadoran national, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The delegation, comprised of Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, and Yassamin Ansari of Arizona are questioning his deportation from Maryland, which they describe as wrongful.
Abrego Garcia had been living in the U.S. and faced deportation due to illegal entry. However, in 2019, an immigration judge issued a withholding of removal order, citing fears of persecution by a rival gang should he return to El Salvador. However, the country’s government has subsequently ended the rival gang’s presence.
The lawmakers’ journey follows Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen‘s recent visit to El Salvador, where Van Hollen had the opportunity to meet with Abrego Garcia.
Rep. Robert Garcia emphasized the purpose of their visit, stating, “While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported.” The Trump administration has countered claims of wrongful deportation, arguing that Abrego Garcia is involved with the notorious gang MS-13 and that the withholding of removal order is effectively vacated now that the gang is considered a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
President Donald J. Trump pointed out the tattoos on Abrego Garcia’s hand, which indicate his membership in MS-13.
“They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc,” President Trump said.
Stephen Miller, a senior White House aide, also contended that the deportation was not in error and blamed a Department of Justice attorney for suggesting otherwise.
show less
Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.39 billion adherents worldwide, is dead at 88. The Italian-Argentine pontiff—born December 17, 1936—was the first cleric from outside Europe to be raised to the papacy since Gregory III, who was of Syrian origin, in the 8th century.
“At 7:35 this morning (local time), the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” announced Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, on Easter Monday.
Your free, daily feed from The National Pulse.
The late pontiff’s last public appearance was at the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica yesterday, where an aide read an Easter Sunday blessing on his behalf. While his exact cause of death was not officially confirmed as of the time of complication, he was recently hospitalized with a respiratory illness, initially said to be bronchitis. However, speculation that Pope Francis was actually suffering from double pneumonia was later confirmed—a serious condition for someone of his advanced age with only one whole lung.
Born in Argentina to an Italian immigrant father, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elevated to the papacy, choosing the pontifical name “Francis,” in 2013, following the nearly unprecedented resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Under the Francis papacy, the Vatican was seen by many as adopting more ‘progressive‘ and ‘modernist‘ views on Church teachings, especially regarding the liturgy and mass.
Pope Francis reversed several of Pope Benedict’s decisions, which had allowed the traditionalist movement in the Church to flourish for nearly a decade. This culminated in a de facto ban—for the most part—on the Traditional Latin Mass, a move that received significant criticism from conservative Catholics.
NOT SO PROGRESSIVE?
While often portrayed as a liberal pope, the Francis papacy—outside the liturgy and a handful of other superficial changes—saw little divergence from Church teachings on homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion. In fact, Pope Francis was an outspoken critic of gender ideology, and a document released by the powerful Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Infinita, declared sex-change surgeries and surrogacy to be akin in the gravity of sin to abortion.
He personally intervened when Britain’s socialized National Health Service (NHS) decided to allow ill children such as Charlie Gard to die, against the wishes of their parents, attempting to have them brought to the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital for continued care.
Notably, Pope Francis was also embroiled in a controversy where he allegedly used an Italian slur for homosexuals while arguing against allowing gay men to train as priests. The Pope was later forced to apologize for his choice of words.
Jack Montgomery contributed to this report.
show less
Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.39 billion adherents worldwide, is dead at 88. The Italian-Argentine pontiff—born December 17, 1936—was the first cleric from outside Europe to be raised to the papacy since Gregory III, who was of Syrian origin, in the 8th century. show more
English (US) ·