RealClearInvestigations Newsletters: RCI Today
RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
April 12 to April 18
RCI Podcasts & Videos
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Roger Pielke Jr. about his Substack article detailing how Al Gore’s seminal 2006 book and film on climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth,” helped politicize science.
On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller interviews James Varney about his recent RCI article on Alaska’s effort to build a new, 800-mile pipeline for natural gas. In a separate episode, Miller speaks with Mark Mills, executive director of the National Center for Energy Analytics, about energy affordability.
Featured Investigation:
Newly Declassified Docs Reveal
Bias of Impeachment 'Whistleblower'
Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations that newly declassified documents reveal that then-Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson fast-tracked a politically compromised whistleblower complaint in 2019 that ultimately triggered the first impeachment of President Trump. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard declassified the more than 350 pages of previously secret congressional briefings, which Justice Department insiders say factor into an ongoing grand jury investigation into an alleged conspiracy by former Obama and Biden officials to illegally target Trump.
- Atkinson knew the whistleblower, later identified as CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, was a registered Democrat and Biden loyalist, yet still certified his complaint as credible and urgent – contradicting a DOJ Office of Legal Counsel ruling that it contained hearsay, involved foreign diplomacy rather than intelligence, and did not meet the legal threshold for congressional disclosure.
- The whistleblower secretly coordinated with Adam Schiff's Democratic staff before filing his complaint, contacts he deliberately concealed on required disclosure forms and in sworn testimony to IG investigators – false statements made under penalty of perjury.
- Atkinson conducted no investigation into the whistleblower's political motivations or his undisclosed contacts with Schiff's office, and transmitted the complaint to Schiff over the objections of then-acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire.
- Schiff classified the transcripts of Atkinson's testimony as "Secret" – the only impeachment witness transcripts among 18 never released – preventing Republicans from quoting them and shielding the proceedings from public scrutiny.
- Now-CIA Director John Ratcliffe states the hidden transcripts document the whistleblower's false statements and his coordination with Schiff, concluding: "The whistleblower got caught."
Featured Investigation:
Wall or Sieve? Attacks Raise Questions
About U.S. Immigration System
Ben Weingarten reports for RealClearInvestigations that a series of deadly attacks on U.S. soil by foreign-born assailants has reignited debate over whether America's immigration vetting system is adequate to screen out those with terrorist ties or hostile intentions. While the number of people killed or injured in terror attacks by immigrants is small, experts and officials across the spectrum acknowledge serious structural flaws – though they disagree sharply on how to fix them.
- In early 2025, multiple attacks were carried out by foreign-born individuals, including a Senegalese immigrant who opened fire outside an Austin beer garden killing three, a Sierra Leone national who shot and killed a college professor while shouting "Allahu Akbar," and a Lebanese immigrant who drove a fireworks-filled truck into a Michigan synagogue – his brother turned out to be a recently eliminated Hezbollah commander.
- America's vetting system involves three lead agencies – the State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Customs and Border Protection – but is hampered by incomplete foreign criminal records, unreliable documents, and U.S. databases that don't always communicate with one another.
- A September 2025 DHS Inspector General report found that the State Department issued 12 million nonimmigrant visas over four years without in-person interviews or fingerprints, while CBP officers at ports of entry were unaware those individuals had not been fully screened.
- Vetting of Afghan evacuees admitted after the 2021 withdrawal was particularly deficient. A January 2026 congressional hearing revealed DHS could not always confirm who individuals were, where they lived, or whether parole conditions were being met.
- Critics argue authorities screen for outdated threats – "looking for Communists and Nazis," as one expert put it – rather than indicators of Islamist ideology, though others caution that ideological screening raises serious First Amendment concerns and may prove ineffective in practice.
- The Trump administration has responded aggressively, revoking roughly 100,000 visas, arresting over 1,400 known or suspected terrorists, expanding travel restrictions to nearly 40 countries, and launching "continuous vetting" of all 55 million current U.S. visa holders.
- The U.S. Intelligence Community has assessed that tighter border controls have pushed jihadist groups to focus increasingly on recruiting already-present U.S. residents – suggesting the threat is evolving faster than the system designed to counter
Waste of the Day
by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books
This Land Is Yours For $110,000, RCI
Laptops Are Unused or Missing, RCI
School Secretary Cashed Checks, RCI
Trump 2.0 and the Beltway
How Eric Swalwell Rose Despite Disturbing Reputation, Washington Post
Swalwell Scandal Threatens Wave of House Expulsion Votes, Axios
US Demands Reddit Unmask ICE Critic, Intercept
Report: Federal Red Tape Cost $2 Trillion Annually, Reason
US Demands Reddit Unmask ICE Critic, Intercept
The Anti-Trump Right, City Journal
My Front-Row Seat to the Kennedy Center Implosion, Atlantic
Trump Has Really Cut Legal Immigration, Federalist
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
The California Millionaire Helping Fund Anti-Oil Lawsuits
Washington Free Beacon
This article reports that a California real estate developer and environmental activist named Dan A. Emmett is helping to fund both the law firm filing novel suits against oil companies and Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Emails obtained by the Free Beacon show that between 2017 and 2019, the Emmett Foundation gave $75,000 to a fund that directs charitable donations to Sher Edling, a law firm known for filing suits seeking climate damages from oil companies
The Emmett Foundation was simultaneously bankrolling the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, which lauds Emmett as a "generous supporter," doling out $160,000 to the organization between 2017 and 2024. … [Emmett] is reflective of an emerging trend on the Left in which philanthropic donations and nonprofit organizations are used to bankroll lawsuits aimed at quantifying the damage caused by climate change and forcing the nation’s leading oil producers to pay—and, at the same time, producing climate-related academic literature and course material intended to influence the judges overseeing that litigation. The Free Beacon reported in December that the New Venture Fund, a left-wing dark money group, gave $2.3 million to Sher Edling, the law firm behind a bevy of lawsuits targeting oil companies, and $1.3 million to the Environmental Law Institute, which runs a project to train judges overseeing climate-related lawsuits. (Emmett has also directed at least $25,000 to the Environmental Law Institute since 2019.)
This article reports that Emmett, who has amassed a fortune through his Santa Monica-based real estate investment firm Douglas Emmett Inc., has used his charity to inject millions of dollars into climate activist organizations and environmental research institutes at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities. He funds Harvard University's Emmett Environmental Law Center, Yale University’s Center for Business and the Environment, UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change, and Stanford University’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources.
Arrests at Anti-ICE Protests Crumble
ProPublica & Frontline
Over the past 10 months, federal agents have arrested hundreds of U.S. citizens, including protesters, activists observing the immigration enforcement operations, bystanders and, in some cases, the family members of people targeted for deportation. This article reports that a review of the cases brought against more than 300 protesters and bystanders accused of crimes such as assaulting or interfering with law enforcement found that many of the cases have been dismissed.
In more than a third of the cases, prosecutors quickly dismissed charges that couldn’t be substantiated, refused to file charges at all, or lost at trial. The tally of cases that end this way will likely climb as many of the arrests remain unresolved. … Current and former federal prosecutors and other legal experts said having that number of arrests come to nothing is particularly striking in the federal system, where U.S. attorneys usually secure convictions or guilty pleas in more than 90% of the cases they bring; only 8.2% of federal criminal cases were dismissed in 2022, according to data compiled by that court system.
This interesting article, however, does not break down the numbers regarding the three categories of dismissals it identifies: (1) couldn’t be substantiated, (2) refused to file charges at all, or (3) lost at trial. It also fails to identify the political ideology of the prosecutors who oversaw the cases.
Report: Federal Red Tape Cost $2 Trillion Annually
Reason
Whoever said government workers are lazy? The Federal Register lists 445 agencies with the legal authority to publish regulations. As of last May, this article reports, the Code of Federal Regulations contained over 48,000 sections, stretching over 175,000 pages. Even as Congress has become a study in fecklessness, regulators are busy beavers. Forbes has noted, for example, that "federal departments, agencies, and commissions issued 3,853 rules in 2016, while Congress passed and the president signed 214 bills into law." The good some of this activity may achieve comes at a high cost:
"Federal regulation's total compliance costs and economic effects are at least $2.153 trillion annually, and certainly vastly higher," comments CEI's Clyde Wayne Crews in Ten Thousand Commandments, 2026, the latest edition of the [Competitive Enterprise Institute’s] annual regulatory snapshot. "This marker is essentially unchanged from last year, as [President Donald] Trump's reported annualized regulatory costs savings of approximately $15 billion are offset by inflation applied to legacy economic costs of coincidentally similar magnitude."
This article reports that CEI’s figure may understate the costs. Three years ago, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) estimated that "the total cost of federal regulations in 2022 is an estimated $3.079 trillion (in 2023 dollars), an amount equal to 12% of U.S. GDP." That NAM report added that "the annual cost burden for an average U.S. firm is $277,000, the equivalent of 19% of the average firm's payroll expenses." For manufacturers with fewer than 50 employees, the NAM put regulatory compliance costs at $50,100 per employee per year.
Mass.: Proposed 50% Property Tax Hike Tearing Town Apart
Scott Calvert, WSJ
Today’s political leaders love to tell Americans they have a laser focus on “affordability.” Then many of them make life more expensive by raising taxes. This article reports on the Massachusetts town of South Hadley where a ballot measure requesting a 50 percent increase in property taxes is stirring debate.
Without millions in additional taxes, local officials warn, there will be deep cuts: no school sports or extracurriculars and slashed Advanced Placement offerings, along with hits to police and public-works staffing. But critics counter that a potential 50% jump in property-tax bills, even phased in over five years as envisioned, would overburden residents already feeling higher prices for groceries, gas and other essentials. Some opponents say the town should instead cut what they deem to be excessive local government salaries and bloat. … If [voters approve the 50 percent tax hike] owners of an average home valued at $417,000 would see their property tax bill rise from $5,640 to $8,477, likely over five years, the town says.
This article reports that South Hadley’s financial crunch, driven by factors like a 42% jump in health-care costs and diminished state aid, may be a sign of things to come nationwide, as towns face higher municipal costs and state-imposed revenue limits just when federal pandemic-era aid that propped up budgets is ending.
CA.: Sex-Changes for Homeless Illegal Aliens
City Journal
This article reports that San Francisco’s homeless shelters are not only housing several illegal immigrants using state services but several male-to-female transgender illegal aliens hoping to obtain taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care. At the city’s largest homeless shelter,
we spoke with two Honduran men, “Lyca” and “Alondra,” who identified as transgender women. Both indicated that the local government gave them shelter and food. Lyca, who wore long hair and red lipstick, was candid about this arrangement. He confirmed that he was an illegal immigrant and that the shelter doesn’t ask questions about immigration status. “Tengo Medi-Cal,” he said, referring to the state health-care program, which, under Governor Gavin Newsom, began providing “full scope” coverage to illegal aliens, which includes transgender procedures, or “gender affirming care.” He said he was receiving cross-sex hormone therapy—and bore the physical signs of having done so.
This article does not provide hard numbers about the issues it raises, making it difficult to determine the extent of the activity it describes.
