This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.
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Here’s what The Lever published this week:
LEVER DEEP DIVE OF THE WEEKThe War Profiteers of Palo Alto. After pushing sensationalized claims of foreign threats, Silicon Valley’s military startups are set to score billions in funding for drones and A.I.-powered war machines.
LEVER SCOOPS OF THE WEEK
The Human Trafficking Case That Could Hand Government Contractors Blanket Immunity. In a little-noticed Supreme Court case, the country’s largest private prison operator argues companies should be shielded from lawsuits when doing the government’s dirty work.
Anthony Kennedy Is Trying To Find The Guy Who Did This. The retired Supreme Court Justice who authored Citizens United is suddenly worried about the future of democracy.
Israel’s Hidden Perks In Congress’ $914B Military Budget. Senators worked through a government shutdown to approve nearly $1 trillion in new military spending — including a number of items on AIPAC’s wishlist.
JD Vance’s Stealth Plot To Buy The Next Election. The vice president is behind a push to expand Citizens United and gut what remains of federal campaign finance rules.
Big Chemical Is Coming For Your Kidneys. At the chemical industry’s urging, the Trump administration is reconsidering limits on a toxic substance linked to fatal organ damage.
Big Oil Plots Its Next Forever War. Chevron’s lobbying has paid off as the U.S. authorizes CIA intervention in oil-rich Venezuela.
THIS WEEK ON LEVER PODCASTS
JD Vance’s Supreme Court Plot. Two new Supreme Court cases are designed to end campaign finance laws, legalize bribery, and create Citizens United 2.0.
How Ticketmaster Made It Impossible To Sue Them. Your legal rights are being stripped away by the ticket company’s new terms-of-use agreement.
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THIS WEEK’S LEVER DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
Not yet reading Lever Daily? You’re missing out on news like this:
💋 Noem’s $51 million close-up. Taxpayers are the biggest political ad spenders so far in 2025, thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Under Trump, DHS has spent $51 million in public funds on pro-deportation vanity agitprop. These ads, which star Secretary Kristi Noem, air online and on television — including $9 million worth of airtime on Fox News alone. The administration claims the highly-produced recordings are “public service announcements urging illegal aliens to leave,” and it has recently increased ad buys on Spanish-language TV shows, including the professional Mexican soccer league and Univision’s flagship morning talk show.
🛩️ Commuting in style. West Virginia’s coal baron governor-turned-senator is still adjusting to his new commute to Washington, D.C. — Sen. Jim Justice (R) has flown a private jet back and forth the few hundred miles between the Mountain State and the nation’s capital almost every business day since January. When Punchbowl News first reported on the 40-minute flights, Justice swore that he, not taxpayers, pays for the travel and that he would stop as “as soon as [he got] a place to live.” But last week, Justice flew back and forth from West Virginia to D.C. four times. “To be honest, it’s a pain in the butt getting on and off the plane every day,” Justice told Punchbowl. “Talk about wear and tear.”
😨 The outcome J&J feared. Johnson & Johnson was just ordered to pay $966 million to the family of an 88-year-old woman who died from lung cancer after exposure to the company’s talc-based baby powder, which allegedly contained asbestos fibers. It’s the kind of precedent-setting payout that Whittaker, Clark, & Daniels — a former talc supplier owned by corporate behemoth Berkshire Hathaway — is trying to avoid using a legal strategy known as “Texas Two-Step,” where firms offload liabilities into shell companies and then bury them in bankruptcy court.
FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS
A taste of this week’s good news:
- An ancient trade route could bypass Trump’s tariff war.
- An insidious new version of noncompete agreements faces restrictions.
- Rental price-fixing algorithms get hacked.
- A pork pricing scheme gets fried.
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LEVER IN THE NEWS
Our Master Plan book was released to the public this week, capturing national attention and becoming Amazon’s number-one election-related bestseller. Here are some of the accolades the book received:
- David Sirota appeared on NPR’s Full Disclosure, The Majority Report, Useful Idiots, and The.Ink to discuss the book’s message.
- Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Jacobin, and The American Prospect published op-eds on the matter by Master Plan co-authors David Sirota and Jared Jacang Maher.
- The fact-checking agency Factual included Master Plan in its shortlist of nonfiction books “you’ll be able to trust.”
- The podcast-focused publication PodNews highlighted the success of the book, despite “no big publisher, no giant PR machine & us self-publishing it under our own label,” according to Sirota.
To see what all the fuss is about, order your copy today.
In other Lever-related news coverage:
New York Times Dealbook — The business-focused newsletter featured our story on Ticketmaster’s insidious new arbitration clause.
Breaking Points — Sirota joined the show to discuss Vice President JD Vance’s Supreme Court bid to expand Citizens United.
Raw Story — The publication referenced our reporting on the conflicts of interest in the former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s new memoir.
Common Dreams — The publication referenced David’s tweet on Democratic meddling in elections in two different articles.
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