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Attilatheblond

(8,026 posts) Sun Dec 7, 2025, 09:21 AM Sunday

Mom of Karoline Leavitt's nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest

In an interview, Bruna Ferreira, who chose the White House press secretary as her son’s godmother, contested the portrayal of her as a criminal, absentee mom.

If Trump wants to find a 'nasty woman' to grumble about, he doesn't need to look beyond his West Wing pool of blonds. Karoline Leavitt is right there, backing up her hard drinking, pugnacious, gambler, occasional deadbeat dad of a brother in what appears to be a nasty child custody battle with his child's DACA protected mother Bruna Ferreira.

Ferreria, brought to the US as a very young child by her parents from Brazil, was picked up and detained by ICE. But the story is not really about that. This is about a nasty man, Michael Leavitt, with a record of drunkenness, brawling in the street, gambling, and trying to wipe his child's mother from their lives. It also illustrates a questionable use of position and proximity to political power against enemies.

We know Trump is a vindictive jerk who uses position to harm those he doesn't like. Maybe that condition is contagious, or maybe his press secretary has always leaned toward using connections to be a mean girl.

The article is not short, goes into a lot of details of the history of Bruna Ferreria and the family Leavitt, but it will become the problem de jour for another Trump appointee.

More excerpts in my reply below, but there are a lot of details in the WaPo article linked. It's a tangled web of good ol nastiness.

3 replies

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Mom of Karoline Leavitt's nephew rejects White House narrative of her ICE arrest (Original Post) Attilatheblond Sunday OP

A number of us DUers suspected this. yardwork Sunday #1

Lotta keen minds on DU and they are pretty sharp at connecting dots, seeing where the routes are headed Attilatheblond Sunday #3

Some excerpt from the article linked above. Attilatheblond Sunday #2

yardwork

(68,775 posts)

1. A number of us DUers suspected this.

Reply to Attilatheblond (Original post)

Sun Dec 7, 2025, 09:23 AM

Sunday

Attilatheblond

(8,026 posts)

3. Lotta keen minds on DU and they are pretty sharp at connecting dots, seeing where the routes are headed

Reply to yardwork (Reply #1)

Sun Dec 7, 2025, 09:36 AM

Sunday

Attilatheblond

(8,026 posts)

2. Some excerpt from the article linked above.

Reply to Attilatheblond (Original post)

Sun Dec 7, 2025, 09:35 AM

Sunday

"Arrested Nov. 12 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ferreira, 33, said it is insulting to sit in orange prison scrubs facing possible removal to Brazil after spending most of her life in the United States while the Trump administration paints her as a criminal. She is being detained for being in the United States illegally, a civil violation, after overstaying a visa when she was a child.

...
"The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the discrepancies between their descriptions of Ferreira and the court records. DHS has not explained why Ferreira was arrested when the administration says it is focusing on detaining violent criminals. Her lawyers contend that video indicates officers were specifically out in search of Ferreira when they detained her.

...
"Michael Leavitt is from a close-knit family with deep roots in New Hampshire. He also had legal issues: He was charged twice in New Hampshire with underage alcohol possession, resulting in a fine and then a guilty plea to a downgraded town ordinance violation.

In 2009, at 19, he was found guilty of drunken driving and fined $620. In 2011, Miami Beach police arrested him for disorderly conduct, alleging that he and another man were fighting in the middle of the street, stopping traffic. The charges were dropped, court records show.

...
"In court, Ferreira and Leavitt traded allegations of abuse and neglect. In April 2015, Leavitt sought primary custody of their son in a New Hampshire court, alleging that Ferreira had pushed Leavitt during an argument when the couple took a trip to Florida. He said she returned home without him, collected their son from his grandparents, and threatened to take him with her to Brazil.

Ferreira denied the claims and in court filings accused Leavitt of abuse, saying on the day of her baby shower he had drunkenly pushed her, punched walls and broken doors. After he won the $1 million, she alleged in court that he cheated on her and gambled away thousands of dollars. Ferreira’s lawyer said in a May 2015 court filing that Leavitt also “threatened to contact Immigration in an effort to have her deported.”

Leavitt has denied those allegations. Over the past decade, a series of judges have ordered the couple to share custody and resolve their differences outside of court."

Karoline Leavitt may have had nada to do with ICE picking up her brother's nemesis, but it sure stinks of abuse of power/influence and needs a lot more attention. We know through observation that Leavitt is a nasty, lying tool.

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