Timeline Events

Phil Cooney Climate Science Censorship Exposed by Whistleblower

White House Council on Environmental Quality Chief of Staff Phil Cooney was exposed systematically censoring climate science reports to exaggerate uncertainties and diminish human influence on climate change. Whistleblower Rick Piltz revealed Cooney made 294 edits to the 364-page Strategic Plan for …

Trump Launches "Trump University" Real Estate Seminars Without Academic License or Accreditation

Donald Trump formally launched “Trump University” on May 23, 2005, a real estate training program that operated without proper academic licensing or accreditation. The enterprise, incorporated in 2004 with Trump owning 93% of the company, conducted three- and five-day seminars marketed …

Bankruptcy Act Makes Private Student Loans Non-Dischargeable - Weaponizing Law Against Students

President George W. Bush signed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) on April 20, 2005, fundamentally weaponizing bankruptcy law against student borrowers while preserving corporate bankruptcy as a strategic tool. The law amended Section 523(a)(8) to make private …

Trump Admits to Entering Pageant Dressing Rooms on Howard Stern

In a Howard Stern radio interview, Donald Trump admits to deliberately entering Miss Universe and Miss USA dressing rooms while contestants were undressed, stating: ‘I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant… You know, they’re standing there with no …

Public Citizen Report Shows 43% of Lawmakers Leaving Congress Became Lobbyists

Public Citizen released “Congressional Revolving Doors: The Journey from Congress To K Street,” documenting that 43% of U.S. House and Senate lawmakers (86 out of 198) who left office between 1998 and 2004 became registered lobbyists. The report found that 50% of eligible departing …

Tom Daschle Joins Private Equity Firm and Lobbying After Senate Majority Leadership

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) joined InterMedia Advisors, a New York-based private equity firm, as a consultant and chairman of its executive advisory board just months after losing his 2004 reelection bid. Simultaneously, Daschle joined the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird …

Palm Beach police investigation begins after parent reports $300 payment to 14-year-old

Palm Beach Police Department begins investigating Jeffrey Epstein after a parent reports finding $300 in their 14-year-old daughter’s room and learns it came from Epstein for a ‘massage.’ This marks the beginning of the law enforcement investigation that would eventually expose …

John Negroponte Becomes First Director of National Intelligence

John Negroponte is confirmed as the first Director of National Intelligence, centralizing intelligence coordination under White House control. The DNI position was created by the Intelligence Reform Act following 9/11 Commission recommendations, but critics argued it further politicized intelligence …

Armstrong Williams Paid 40K for Illegal Government Propaganda

The Department of Education violated federal law by paying conservative commentator Armstrong Williams 40,000 through Ketchum Inc. PR firm to promote the No Child Left Behind Act without disclosing the government funding to audiences. Williams regularly promoted NCLB on his syndicated TV and radio …

Dick Gephardt Founds Lobbying Firm After 28 Years as House Democratic Leader

Former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) founded Gephardt Group, a consulting and lobbying firm, immediately after his three-decade political career ended with the expiration of his 14th congressional term on January 3, 2005. Gephardt established the Atlanta-based firm with his children, …

Two Decades of Bankruptcy Weaponization: Students Crushed While Corporations Shield Billions (2005-2024)

Between 2005 and 2024, the United States operated a two-tiered bankruptcy system that weaponized debt against students and working Americans while preserving bankruptcy as a strategic wealth-preservation tool for corporations and the wealthy—a defining example of 21st century American kleptocracy. …

Billy Tauzin Joins PhRMA as CEO After Shepherding $200B Medicare Drug Bill

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced that former House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) would become its president and CEO, effective January 2005. The announcement came shortly after Tauzin’s retirement from Congress, where from 2001 …

Oracle Completes PeopleSoft Acquisition for $10.3 Billion After Defeating Antitrust Challenge

Oracle Corporation completed its acquisition of PeopleSoft on December 13, 2004, for approximately $10.3 billion ($26.50 per share), concluding an 18-month hostile takeover battle after defeating the Department of Justice’s antitrust challenge. The final purchase price represented more than …

Trump Outbids Epstein for Palm Beach Mansion, Ending Friendship

Donald Trump purchased Maison de l’Amitié for $41.35 million at a November 30, 2004 bankruptcy auction, outbidding Jeffrey Epstein who went up to $38.6 million. During the auction, Epstein’s attorneys tried to disqualify Trump over title insurance demands, but Judge Steven Friedman …

Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Files Bankruptcy, Trump Removed as CEO

Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, the publicly traded company that operated Trump’s Atlantic City casino empire, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 21, 2004, unable to make a $73 million interest payment due November 1. The company was drowning in approximately $1.8 billion …

FDA Whistleblower David Graham Testifies on Vioxx Cover-up Before Senate

FDA epidemiologist Dr. David Graham delivered explosive testimony before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, declaring that ’the FDA, as currently configured, is incapable of protecting America against another Vioxx. We are virtually defenseless.’ Graham revealed that his study showed …

Massey Energy CEO Spends $3 Million to Elect Judge in Case Against His Company

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship pours over $3 million into West Virginia’s 2004 judicial election to elect Brent Benjamin to the state Supreme Court of Appeals, successfully defeating incumbent justice Warren McGraw. Blankenship’s spending—equivalent to “a dollar for every West …

Google Acquires CIA-Backed Keyhole, Foundation for Google Earth

In October 2004, Google acquired Keyhole Inc. for an undisclosed amount, bringing In-Q-Tel’s CIA-backed geospatial technology into one of the world’s largest tech companies. The acquisition meant that In-Q-Tel’s equity stake in Keyhole converted to Google shares, making the …

Merck Withdraws Vioxx After Concealing Heart Attack Risk, FDA Failure Causes Estimated 28,000-55,000 Deaths

Merck voluntarily withdraws Vioxx (rofecoxib) from the market after concealing evidence that the blockbuster arthritis drug increases heart attack and stroke risk. Internal company documents reveal that Merck knew of cardiovascular dangers years before withdrawal, while the FDA failed to act on …

Google IPO Raises $1.67B With "Don't Be Evil" Motto

Google completed its initial public offering on August 19, 2004, raising $1.67 billion by pricing 19,605,052 Class A shares at $85 per share. The IPO was unconventional, using a “modified” Dutch auction method that challenged Wall Street norms.

Most significantly, founders Larry Page and …

Porter Goss Begins Systematic Purge of CIA Analysts

Newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss, accompanied by his ‘Gosslings’ staff from House Intelligence Committee, begins systematic removal of senior CIA officials who had challenged Bush administration intelligence claims. The purge targeted the Directorate of Operations and included …

Citizens for a Sound Economy Splits into FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity

Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), the Koch brothers-funded lobbying organization founded in 1984, officially splits into two separate entities following internal strategic disagreements. The 501(c)(4) advocacy activities continue under FreedomWorks (formed through a merger with Empower America), …

Enron Founder Ken Lay Indicted on 11 Counts of Fraud and Conspiracy

On July 7, 2004, a federal grand jury indicted Enron founder and former CEO Kenneth Lay on 11 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to banks. The indictment charged that Lay repeatedly lied to investors, employees, and federal regulators about Enron’s …

Kroll Associates sold to Marsh & McLennan for $1.9 billion

Marsh & McLennan acquired Kroll Inc. for $1.9 billion in July 2004, absorbing the ‘private CIA’ into a major insurance conglomerate. The acquisition represented the full corporatization of intelligence capabilities, with Kroll’s 3,000 employees in 65 offices worldwide …

WHIG-Enabled Torture Authorization Establishes Executive Immunity Precedent for Constitutional Crisis Governance

The Justice Department’s torture authorization memo represents the institutional culmination of WHIG’s constitutional crisis precedent establishment, demonstrating how systematic executive deception creates legal frameworks enabling executive immunity from constitutional constraints and …

Supreme Court Protects Cheney Energy Task Force Secrecy

In Cheney v. United States District Court, the Supreme Court rules 7-2 to protect the secrecy of Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force meetings with oil executives. The Court vacates a lower court order requiring disclosure of task force participants and documents, ruling that federal …

Stewart v. Blackwell Applies Bush v. Gore Equal Protection Precedent to Ohio Voting Disparities

The Sixth Circuit Court applies Bush v. Gore’s equal protection precedent in Stewart v. Blackwell, ruling that Ohio’s use of disparate voting systems violates voters’ constitutional rights. Ohio’s four different voting systems, including unreliable punch card systems with …

Canada Concludes Maher Arar Wrongly Rendered to Syria for Torture Based on False Intelligence

Canadian inquiry conclusively determines that Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was wrongly rendered by the United States to Syria where he was tortured for nearly a year based on false intelligence provided by Canadian police. The inquiry finds Arar had no connection to terrorism and that …

SEC Net Capital Rule Change Enables Investment Bank Leverage Explosion Fueling Housing Bubble

The Securities and Exchange Commission votes unanimously to allow the five largest investment banks to dramatically increase their leverage ratios, removing a 1970s-era rule that limited debt to 12 times capital. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns …

Four Blackwater Contractors Killed in Fallujah Ambush, Bodies Hung from Bridge, Triggering First Battle of Fallujah

Four Blackwater contractors—Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Mike Teague—were ambushed and killed by Iraqi insurgents while conducting a delivery for food caterers ESS in Fallujah. The contractors’ bodies were beaten, burned, dragged through the city streets, and hung from a …

Hospital Confrontation Over NSA Surveillance Program

Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andy Card went to George Washington Hospital ICU to pressure hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the NSA surveillance program that the Department of Justice had deemed illegal. Acting Attorney General James Comey raced to the hospital with …

Department of Justice Files Antitrust Lawsuit to Block Oracle-PeopleSoft Merger

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit on February 26, 2004, seeking to block Oracle Corporation’s proposed hostile acquisition of PeopleSoft, alleging that the merger would substantially reduce competition in the enterprise software market and result in higher prices, less …

Washington Post Exposes Abramoff Native American Lobbying Scandal

The Washington Post published a groundbreaking investigation by journalist Susan Schmidt exposing the Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon lobbying scandal involving Native American tribal clients. The investigation revealed that the two lobbyists had charged six Native American tribes more than $82 …

Accenture Awarded Competitive DHS US-VISIT Contract

Accenture, leading the Smart Border Alliance, was awarded a major Department of Homeland Security contract to develop a comprehensive border management technology system. The five-year contract, valued between $10 million and $10 billion, aimed to create a ‘virtual border’ system using …

DC Opportunity Scholarship Program - First Federally-Funded School Voucher System

On January 22, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the DC School Choice Incentive Act, creating the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP)—the first federally-funded private school voucher program in American history. Congress used its constitutional authority over the District of Columbia to …

OCC Federal Preemption Blocks State Anti-Predatory Lending Protections

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) under John Hawke Jr. issues sweeping federal preemption rules that override state consumer protection laws targeting predatory lending practices. This regulatory capture systematically dismantles state-level safeguards that attorneys general like …

The Apprentice Serves as 14-Season Promotional Vehicle for Trump Properties and Brand

Throughout its 14-season run from 2004 to 2015, “The Apprentice” functions as an elaborate promotional platform for Trump’s properties, businesses, and brand, with Trump maintaining a 50% ownership stake in the show and earning an estimated $214 million while simultaneously using …

Scott Bloch Dismisses 1,000+ Whistleblower Cases at OSC

Scott Bloch, Special Counsel at the Office of Special Counsel (2004-2008), systematically dismantled federal whistleblower protections by dismissing over 1,000 whistleblower disclosures without investigation. Coalition of whistleblower groups documented his 95% dismissal rate, with only 25 of 530 …

Medicare Part D Passes After Pharmaceutical Industry Writes Price Negotiation Ban

The House of Representatives passed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act at 5:53 AM after an unprecedented 3-hour vote that House leaders held open for nearly three hours past the normal 15-minute voting period to secure enough votes. The legislation created Medicare …

Christopher Poole Founds 4chan: Anonymous Imageboard Becomes Radicalization Infrastructure

Fifteen-year-old Christopher “moot” Poole created 4chan on October 1, 2003, as an English-language imageboard inspired by Japanese site 2channel, initially intended for anime discussion. Poole’s architectural choices—complete anonymity, ephemeral content, and minimal …

Congress Officially Defunds Total Information Awareness Program

Congress passes the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for 2004 (H.R. 2658), containing language that permanently terminates funding for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program and orders the immediate closure of DARPA’s Information Awareness Office. The Senate had voted …

Paul Bremer Issues CPA Order 39 Imposing Radical Free Market Restructuring on Occupied Iraq

L. Paul Bremer III, head of the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) occupation government in Iraq, issues Order 39 on foreign investment as part of his ‘100 Orders’ imposing what economist Joseph Stiglitz calls ‘arguably the most radical market shock therapy tried …

Valerie Plame's CIA Identity Leaked in Retaliation for Wilson's Iraq WMD Criticism

Conservative columnist Robert Novak published his ‘Mission to Niger’ column exposing Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, citing ’two senior administration officials’ later identified as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and White House advisor Karl Rove. The leak was …

WHIG Coordinates Campaign to Discredit Joseph Wilson, Leading to Plame Leak

Following Joseph Wilson’s July 6, 2003 New York Times op-ed ‘What I Didn’t Find in Africa’ exposing the false Niger uranium claims, the White House Iraq Group immediately mobilizes to discredit Wilson and his findings. WHIG members Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, both regular …

HCA Healthcare Pays $1.7 Billion in Largest Medicare Fraud Settlement in U.S. History

The Department of Justice announced that HCA Inc. (formerly Columbia/HCA), once led by Rick Scott, agreed to pay the United States $631 million in civil penalties and damages, bringing the total recovery to $1.7 billion when combined with earlier settlements—the largest healthcare fraud case in U.S. …

Grutter v. Bollinger - Supreme Court Upholds Affirmative Action but Sets 25-Year Limit

On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Grutter v. Bollinger that the University of Michigan Law School’s race-conscious admissions policy did not violate the Equal Protection Clause, upholding the principle that diversity in higher education constitutes a compelling government …

NSA Awards AT&T $500 Million Multi-Year Surveillance Infrastructure Contract

During the Bush administration, AT&T began extensive collaboration with the NSA, involving the installation of surveillance infrastructure across multiple internet hubs. While the precise $500 million contract could not be fully verified, documents confirm significant financial investments in …

Oracle Launches Hostile Takeover Bid for PeopleSoft Worth $5.1 Billion

Oracle Corporation launched an unsolicited hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft on June 6, 2003, with an initial cash tender offer of $16.00 per share, valuing the enterprise software competitor at approximately $5.1 billion. The timing proved particularly aggressive, as Oracle announced the bid only …

FCC Attempts Massive Media Deregulation Under Michael Powell Despite 97% Public Opposition

The FCC, led by Chairman Michael Powell (son of Secretary of State Colin Powell), votes 3-2 along party lines to dramatically ease media ownership restrictions despite overwhelming public opposition. The new rules would increase the national TV ownership cap from 35% to 45% of U.S. households and …

Bush Signs JGTRRA - Dividend and Capital Gains Rates Slashed to 15%, Massively Favoring Investment Income Over Wages

On May 28, 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA) into law, completing the second phase of the Bush tax cuts and fundamentally restructuring taxation to favor investment income over wages. The legislation reduced the long-term capital gains …