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In the first Trump Administration, Chad Mizelle served as the top lawyer in the Department of Homeland Security where he supported using cell phone data to track migrants without a warrant. Mizelle was also known as an ally of extremist Stephen Miller, who once advocated for blowing up boats of unarmed migrants with drones. After leaving the White House, Mizelle became General Counsel for Jared Kushner’s investment fund Affinity Partners. Affinity Partners has come under scrutiny for conflict-of-interest and ethics concerns from Democrats and Republicans. Affinity Partners received major funding from individuals with ties to foreign governments while collecting over $150 million in fees without paying out any profits. Chad Mizelle is a Trump family loyalist willing to use far-reaching government power to push Stephen Miller’s extreme agenda, which could have major consequences for a second Trump term. |
2020: Chad Mizelle Authored Memo Justifying ICE Officials Using Cell Phone Data Obtained Without Warrant To Track Immigrants. According to BuzzFeed News, "The Department of Homeland Security is purchasing consumer cellphone data that allows authorities to track immigrants trying to cross the southern border, which privacy advocates say could lead to a vast 'surveillance partnership' between the government and private corporations. In an internal memo obtained by BuzzFeed News, the DHS's top attorney, Chad Mizelle, outlined how ICE officials can look up locations and track cellphone data activity to make decisions on enforcement. Mizelle also believes the agency can use the data without obtaining a warrant or violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects the public against unreasonable searches and seizures. That logic could lay the groundwork for the government to use the same data to track everyday Americans, raising red flags among privacy advocates." [BuzzFeed News, 10/30/20]
2018: Supreme Court Ruled Government Needs Warrant In Most Cases To Obtain Geolocation Data
2018: Supreme Court Ruling Held Government Needs Warrant In Most Cases To Obtain Geolocation Data. According to BuzzFeed News, "In a landmark 2018 Supreme Court opinion, Carpenter v. United States, law enforcement officers were ordered to get criminal warrants to obtain geolocation data in most cases directly from the cellphone carriers. 'As with GPS information, the timestamped data provides an intimate window into a person’s life, revealing not only his particular movements, but through them his ‘familial, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations,’' Chief Justice John Roberts said in delivering the majority opinion. 'These location records hold for many Americans the ‘privacies of life.’' [BuzzFeed News, 10/30/20]
Chad Mizelle Was General Counsel For Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. According to POLITICO, "Mizelle is general counsel for Affinity Partners, the investment firm helmed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. " [POLITICO, 12/6/24]
Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners Received $157 Million In Fees Without Distributing Any Profits. According to The Guardian, "A private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has been paid $157m in fees since 2021 without returning any profit to investors, according to a US Senate inquiry. The finding from the Senate finance committee has fuelled suspicions that the Miami-based company, Affinity Partners, may be a foreign influence-buying operation established in anticipation of the former president returning to the White House." [The Guardian, 9/25/24]
Senator Ron Wyden Stated Affinity Partners May Be “Opportunity To Funnel Foreign Government Money To Members Of President Trump’s Family.” According to The Guardian, "In a letter to Chad Mizelle, Affinity’s chief legal officer, he said the inquiry’s findings have 'heightened my concerns that investments in funds managed by Affinity create unprecedented conflicts of interest'. He added: 'Affinity’s investors may not be motivated by commercial considerations, but rather the opportunity to funnel foreign government money to members of President Trump’s family, namely Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.' Wyden said the foreign investors’ fees included $87m from the government of Saudi Arabia. 'Affinity’s failure to deploy capital in a timely fashion while charging excessive fees has reinforced my view that Affinity is likely part of a compensation scheme involving US political figures designed to circumvent the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),' he wrote." [The Guardian, 9/25/24]
2023: Republican Representative James Comer Stated Jared Kushner “Crossed The Line Of Ethics” After Getting Saudi Funding For Affinity Partners. According to The Guardian, "It is not only Democrats who have questioned Affinity’s arrangements. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, told CNN last year that Kushner 'crossed the line of ethics' regarding Saudi funding for the company." [The Guardian, 9/25/24]
Chad Mizelle Was An Ally Of Stephen Miller. According to CNN, "Chad Mizelle, a Trump administration official who is viewed as an ally of senior White House policy adviser and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller, has been tapped to be the Department of Homeland Security’s top attorney." [CNN, 2/12/20]
2018: Miller Advocated Blowing Up Boats Of Unarmed Migrants With Predator Drones. According to Rolling Stone, “STEPHEN MILLER, ONE of Donald Trump’s top immigration advisers, advocated using U.S. predator drones in 2018 to blow up migrant boats full of unarmed civilians, according to an upcoming book by a former administration official.” [Rolling Stone, 6/26/23]
Former Homeland Security Chief Of Staff Miles Taylor’s Book Detailed A Conversation Wherein Miller Allegedly Argued That The Migrants Were Not Protected Under The Constitution Because They Were In International Waters.
According to Rolling Stone, “In a passage reviewed by Rolling Stone, former Trump Department of Homeland Security appointee Miles Taylor writes about an April 2018 conversation in which Miller allegedly advocated an attack on a migrant ship headed for the United States. Miller, Taylor writes, argued for the potential mass killing of civilians by suggesting they were not protected under the U.S. Constitution because they were in international waters.” [Rolling Stone,
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