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Burn the Playbook
with Michael Starr Hopkins
Issue #001 | April 10, 2026 |
● 9 min read
The Mistrial
A bribery case. A senator's calendar. And the office they gutted to make sure no one asks.
🎧 | Listen to this issue A $60 million bribery scheme. A gutted watchdog. $600 million in Black voter money routed to white firms. The receipts no one wants read aloud ‚Äî read aloud.
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Sources include FEC filings, court records, and documented reporting. Corrections: [email protected]
If you only read one thing: Ohio's largest bribery case ended in a mistrial. The senator whose calendar connects him to the scheme went back to work.
In this issue
THE LEAD — A mistrial, a senator, and the office that used to investigate both
FRIENDLY FIRE — Democrats can't say three words about Iran
FOLLOW THE $ — A senator's AmEx, a congressman's horse track, $432K in questions
BURN NOTICE — The retrial, the consulting class, and what comes next
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A jury in Ohio just deadlocked on the largest bribery case in the state's history. Six weeks of testimony about a $60 million scheme. Mistrial.
Twelve people heard the evidence and couldn't agree it was a crime.
Now what.
Jon Husted's calendar connects him to the man who took a $4.3 million bribe. He testified via Zoom and said things the documents contradict.
The DOJ office built after Watergate to investigate this has been gutted from 36 lawyers to 2. In 1973, it took the Saturday Night Massacre to gut the corruption investigators. In 2025, it took a memo. The jury deadlocked. The watchdog was defanged. The senator went back to work.
April 10, 2026 • 6 AM ET
● Based on calendar records, court filings, and Senate testimony transcripts
Number of the Day
$2,500
Estimated additional cost per household from tariffs
| $1,700 | → | $2,500 | +47% |
Source: Joint Economic Committee. U.S. factories employ 89,000 fewer people than when the tariffs took effect (NPR). 80-85% of costs absorbed domestically.
That's $208 a month out of your household. Not in taxes. In prices. On things you were already buying.
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This Week
🔥 What We're Exposing
I.
The Black Tax
Both parties • $1 billion raised, 1.7% to minority firms • 6 sources
Kamala Harris raised over $1 billion for her presidential campaign. The most ever raised by a Democratic candidate. Approximately $600 million went to four white-owned consulting firms.
She spent less on Black-owned media than Joe Biden did four years earlier. The first Black woman to lead a major-party ticket spent less on Black firms than the white man before her. Not because she wanted to. Because she couldn't. She ordered her campaign to increase spending with Black businesses. Her staff ignored her. The NAACP president asked for answers about minority vendor spending. He got none.
The loyalty flows up. The money flows out.
Between 2009 and 2012, 98% of Democratic campaign spending went to white-owned consulting firms. 1.7% to minority-owned firms. That's not a gap. That's a wall. Black women are the most reliable Democratic voting bloc in America. Every cycle they show up. They organize. They drive turnout. The money their turnout generates gets routed to white media buyers in DC, white pollsters in Virginia, white direct mail firms in Maryland.
On the Republican side, the RNC's traceable spending on Black-owned firms: approximately $0. Sen. Tim Scott launched a PAC pledging $14 million on minority outreach. It raised $1.4 million. It ended with $50,000 in the bank. The GOP's minority outreach infrastructure was killed in March 2024. A community center became a vape shop. Literally.
The consequences showed up on Election Day. Black men's Democratic margin collapsed from +82 to +47. A 35-point drop. Young Black men turnout: 25%. Three quarters stayed home. 42% of Black voters reported not being contacted by either party. Trump doubled his Black vote share to ~15% while spending effectively nothing on Black outreach. He didn't buy the votes. Democrats lost them.
After the election, the DNC commissioned an internal review. They buried it. No public release. No structural changes. No minority spending mandates. The same white consulting firms that took $600 million and lost are still in the room for 2026.
1.7%
to minority-owned firms. 98% went somewhere else.
Why it mattersBoth parties extract value from Black voters and return almost nothing to Black institutions. The Democratic consulting class controls the revenue pipeline regardless of who the candidate is. The Republican Party doesn't bother pretending. And the 2026 cycle is running on the same infrastructure that produced these numbers.
Hit reply: has a campaign ever asked you to spend with Black firms?
Sources: FEC (Harris) • Inclusv / National Journal • AP VoteCast • Census • Bridgespan • SBA
II.
The Chairman and the Child Predator
Michael Whatley (R-NC) • Senate candidate, former RNC Chair • 4 sources
Michael Whatley is running for Senate in North Carolina on law and order. Trump hand-picked him. |  |
He appointed a convicted child sex offender to state Republican Party leadership.
Harvey L. West Jr. pleaded guilty in 2000 to indecent liberties with a child under 16. During Whatley's tenure as NCGOP chair, he appointed West to the Plan of Organization Committee. West confirmed it himself. PolitiFact verified it. Whatley's campaign declined to comment. 24 days of silence.
His FEC filings show $58,620 to N5YD, LLC for "TRAVEL:AIR." N5YD is an FAA aircraft tail number. Four private flights. Including $16,305 on Christmas Day.
He's running against Roy Cooper, former two-term governor with majority approval. One of the top 3 races that decides the Senate.
Why it matters"Tough on crime" candidate appointed a convicted predator, flies private on Christmas with campaign funds according to FEC filings, and won't answer a single question. North Carolina votes this November.
● Based on court records, FEC filings, PolitiFact verification, and WRAL reporting
Sources: WRAL • PolitiFact • Asheville Watchdog • FEC
III.
The Three Families Buying the Senate
Mike Rogers (R-MI) • MI-SEN 2026 • 4 sources
Three billionaire families are bankrolling one Senate candidate in Michigan. $67 million in outside money. For one seat.
Tim Dunn (CrownQuest Operating CEO): $5 million to the Great Lakes Conservative Fund. Co-founded America First Policy Institute. Documented ties to Christian nationalist causes and white supremacist adjacency.
Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone CEO, $1T AUM): $2 million to GLCF. Plus Ken Griffin (Citadel, $65B): $2.5 million. Paul Singer (Elliott Investment, $69B AUM): $50,000 to GLCF.
Only 20% of his donors are from Michigan.
Rogers wants the Senate Banking Committee. The committee that regulates banks, hedge funds, and private equity. The exact industries writing him checks. 53% of his money comes from out of state.
The Senate Leadership Fund committed $45 million on April 6. The largest and earliest SLF investment in Michigan history. Rogers lost this race in 2024 by 19,000 votes with $21M in outside money. Now it's $67M.
Why it mattersOil money, hedge fund money, and private equity money are converging on one candidate who would sit on the committee that oversees their regulatory fate. Michigan voters are being outspent by billionaires in Texas, New York, and Florida.
Sources: Michigan Advance • Detroit News (SLF) • Detroit News (Schwarzman) • FEC
This is Issue #001. Every Thursday: names, receipts, and the stories they'd rather you didn't read.
Get Burn the Playbook free →| 🔥 |
Friendly Fire
Three Words Democrats Can't Say
As of March, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries wouldn't say "end the war" while 3,600 people were dead. Their position: "the president needs a plan." That's not opposition. That's a suggestion box.
Four Democrats voted against their own party's War Powers Resolution: Cuellar, Golden, Landsman, Vargas.
The base calls the party "weak," "spineless," and "floundering." Thirty-plus incumbents face funded primary challengers. The consultant class focus-groups the font while the party burns.
Why it mattersThe base says fight. Leadership says wait. Thirty-plus primaries will settle it.
Together with
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Curated
Three Stories You Need
| 1 | One Year Later, Tariffs Are Killing Small Businesses 89,000 fewer factory jobs. Small businesses closing or passing costs to you. |
| 2 | The Anti-Corruption Office Has 2 Lawyers Left The DOJ's Public Integrity Section: gutted from 36 to 2. The acting head resigned rather than drop the Eric Adams case. There is functionally no federal mechanism left to prosecute public corruption. Read that again. |
| 3 | Iranians Fly Victory Flags After Ceasefire After Trump paused the bombing, Iranians waved flags of victory, not surrender. Make-or-break talks happen this weekend in Pakistan, led by JD Vance and Jared Kushner. |
Together with
| Smart starts here. 1440 is the daily newsletter helping 4M+ Americans stay informed. We scour 100+ sources so you don't have to. Culture, science, sports, politics, business ‚Äî all in a 5-minute read. Sign up for free → |
Midterms
2026 Watch
House
Democrats need 218 seats. Generic ballot: D+6 (47.5-41.7). If it tightens below D+4, the flip dies. Trump is an anchor on every Republican ballot, but Democrats still need candidates who can win where Biden lost.
Senate
Dems need net +4. GOP defends 22 seats, Dems 13. NC upgraded to Lean D, AK to Lean R on April 1.
Prediction markets (as of April 9): 52.5% D. Key: Michigan (Rogers), Ohio (Husted), North Carolina (Whatley vs. Cooper), Maine (Collins). The map favors Democrats. The candidates don't. Yet.
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Blind Items
FOLLOW THE MONEY
All figures sourced from FEC filings, publicly available at fec.gov.
💰 The Receipt GOP Senator • Leadership PAC AMEX (no itemization)
| 💰 The Receipt Dem Rep • Congress NY Horse Tracks
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Two parties. Same playbook. Names drop next Thursday.
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From the Editor
Burn Notice
I've been in rooms where the money changed hands. So have you. The Public Integrity Section had 36 prosecutors after Watergate. It has 2. That didn't break. Someone took it apart.
The retrial gets a date or it gets buried. I know which way to bet.
Next week: we name the senator. We name the congressman. And the Socko Strategies pass-through that both parties use to hide resort spending. The full Michigan money map.
— Michael Starr Hopkins
Issue #001 Scorecard
3 Stories exposed | $432K Receipts published | 24 Days of silence |
Days of silence
One thing to do
Call your Ohio representative and ask if they support a retrial date for the FirstEnergy case. U.S. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121.
What should we investigate next? Reply with A, B, or C.
A. The three billionaire families buying a Michigan Senate seat
B. The Socko Strategies pass-through — how both parties hide resort spending
C. The congressman whose leadership PAC spent more at resorts than on candidates
One forward. One person who should know. That's how accountability scales.
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🎧 | Missed the audio? Listen now. Every story in this issue ‚Äî read aloud with the context that doesn't fit in print. ▶ Play Episode 001 |
On the watchlist
Sen. Jon Husted (OH) • Michael Whatley (NC) • Three Michigan billionaire families • A GOP congressman's leadership PAC • A Democratic congressman's FEC filings • The billion-dollar Black voter fund
Corrections
No corrections this week. If you find an error, email [email protected].
🎧 Audio edition available ‚Äî reply "AUDIO" for the link.
Follow on X: @burnbook1776
Tips & leads: [email protected]
Read by people who want the file, not the spin.
Published by Big Tree Lane Media LLC
Every dollar sourced. Every name verified. Every comfortable version killed.
Corrections: [email protected]
This newsletter is commentary and analysis, not legal advice. All claims are sourced to public records, court filings, or named reporting.
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