Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Watchdog Group Asks Congress To Investigate If Betsy DeVos Was Involved With Her Brother's Efforts To Spy On Michigan Teachers Union

Watchdog Group Asks Congress To Investigate If Betsy DeVos Was Involved With Her Brother's Efforts To Spy On Michigan Teachers Union
Zach Gibson/Stringer via Getty Images


"Accountable.US," is a progressive nonprofit whose mission aims to hold government groups, individuals and their decisions accountable for unethical behavior.

The group especially focuses on "special interests corrupting our government," according to its website.


Most recently, Accountable.US set its sights on Trump-appointed Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

The watchdog group has alleged that DeVos was involved in her brother's 2017 attempts to infiltrate and spy on a Michigan teachers union. The group has called on Congress to conduct further investigation into the scheme with a particular focus on DeVos' involvement.

The new scrutiny aimed at DeVos arises after the New York Times released a report this past weekend detailing DeVos' brother, Erik Prince's various schemes to hire both American and British spies "for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda," according to the news outlet.

One of those operations included taping closed-door meetings of the Michigan teachers union leaders, gathering information and documents that, if published, could damage the union's mission, NYT continued.

Prince is a well-known security contractor with plenty of ties to conservative causes. He is most notably the founder and former head of "Blackwater Worldwide," a private mercenary firm that killed Iraqi civilians when the U.S. Government hired the outfit.

Erik Prince Mark Wilson via Getty Images

As for how Betsy DeVos is implicated, Accountable.US released a letter to several press outlets, including Huffpost, detailing the grounds of its speculation.

"The involvement of DeVos' brother in this scheme to spy on a labor organization in their shared home state of Michigan raises serious questions about what role the Education Secretary played in it, particularly in light of DeVos' history of hostility with the same union."
"It stretches the imagination to the breaking point to believe her brother never at least mentioned his intel operation to her."
"At the end of the day, who would benefit more from this ill-gotten information than the Education Secretary at war with the union?"

Although DeVos' involvement is still confined to the realm of conjecture, Twitter had zero trouble wrapping its head around the idea.




Thus Congress has not commented on whether or not it will conduct the further investigation that the watchdog group has called for.

More from News

Dolly Parton
Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

MAGA Fan Tries To Go After 'Creepy Creature' Dolly Parton—And People Are Not Having Any Of It

A MAGA X user that goes by the name "JULIE DONUTS" found herself on the wrong side of fans of beloved music icon Dolly Parton—yes, Dolly "Imagination Library" Parton, the celebrated humanitarian and activist—after calling her a "creepy creature" for promoting her new book at Costco.

Parton's book Star of the Show: My Life on Stage was released last month. It is a compendium that chronicles a career going stronger than ever after seven decades on stage and includes many photographs and behind-the-scenes moments that any fan of hers will love.

Keep ReadingShow less
Brett Smiley; Donald Trump
Libby O'Neill/Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images

Mayor Urges People To Only Trust Official Sources After Trump Spreads Misinformation About Brown University Shooting

Brett Smiley, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, urged residents to trust only official sources after President Donald Trump shared misinformation on social media about the mass shooting at Brown University that occured over the weekend.

On Saturday, a shooter opened fire on campus, killing two students and wounding nine others. Authorities identified the deceased as Ella Cook, a second-year student from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek national in his first year of studies.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Share The Most Polite Ways To Say 'I Want You To Go Home Now'

Whether we're introverts, people pleasers, or highly sociable, we still all understand that feeling of being tired and wanting to say, 'That's a wrap!" at the end of the day.

But sometimes, we get that feeling while we still have guests in our home, and we have to figure out what to say to get them out of our house, just so we can get some sleep.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mehmet Oz
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images

Dr. Oz Ripped After Telling Federal Workers To Lay Off The Christmas Cookies

Dr. Mehmet Oz—Donald Trump's administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—sparked backlash after he told federal workers to stop eating so many Christmas cookies, urging them to cut back on how much they eat, emphasizing portion control, and other familiar advice.

In his weekly bulletin titled “From the Administrator’s Desk,” according to emails viewed by WIRED, Oz dedicated an entire section to "Cutting Cubicle Cravings."

Keep ReadingShow less

Plane Crash-Lands Right On Top Of Car On Florida Interstate In Freaky Dashcam Video

Quick, someone call Jake from State Farm, because “holy sh*t!” feels like a perfectly reasonable reaction to having a freaking plane land on your car while you are minding your business on the I-95.

That's exactly what happened on December 8 in Brevard County, where a small twin-engine plane made an emergency landing on top of a 2023 Toyota Camry traveling south near King Street in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Keep ReadingShow less