A Kilo of Trouble at Penn State, DC Skips Town

🚔 14 CHARGED IN PENN STATE FRAT COCAINE RING

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced charges Monday against 14 people in connection with a cocaine-trafficking operation that ran, in part, out of two Penn State fraternity houses in State College. The good news is that this crime has no known Monroe County connection (yet).

According to the Grand Jury presentment, 13 of the defendants were Penn State students at or around the time of the alleged conduct in 2023 and 2024. The 14th is the father of one of the students, charged with tampering with evidence. At least four of the defendants are still enrolled.

Investigators say two members of the group, Agostino Abbatiello, 24, of Westbury, New York, and Thomas Robinson, 23, of Pittsburgh, were the operation's main suppliers, making regular runs to Philadelphia and New York for cocaine in kilogram quantities. The drugs were then cut and packaged, primarily inside the Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi fraternity houses, and resold mostly to other Penn State students, largely for cash or through payment apps.

Abbatiello and Robinson, along with Mohammed S. Huraibi, 22, of Secaucus, New Jersey, and Lars Zeepvat, 24, of Mendham, New Jersey, face felony counts of corrupt organizations, conspiracy, and dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity. Robert Zanolla, 24, of Manhasset, New York, faces felony conspiracy and criminal use of a communication facility. Eight more student-aged defendants, Liam Smith, Michael Brogno, Kaden Howe, Connor Hurleigh, Seth Beardsley, Kyle Ridpath, Daniel Price, and Charles Wiseman, face misdemeanor possession and paraphernalia counts. Paul Robinson, 59, of Pittsburgh, Thomas Robinson's father, is charged with tampering with evidence and hindering apprehension for allegedly trying to hide a safe containing drugs and cash.

“This was a coordinated and highly-profitable drug-trafficking crew revolving around two senior members of the fraternities, other fraternity brothers, and pledges,” Attorney General Sunday said. “In fact, according to the evidence uncovered, cutting and packaging cocaine was, for some pledges, an indoctrination into the fraternities.”

Unsecured bail for the defendants arraigned so far ranges from $250,000 to $1.5 million. Preliminary hearings for the felony defendants are still being scheduled. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

🏛️ THE VIEW FROM THE 8TH

Congress has been out of Washington since the first week of August, and it is going to stay that way for a while. The House gets one brief week back, Monday, August 31 through Thursday, September 3, before disappearing again for Labor Day week. The Senate does not bother coming back at all until September 14. So, for the next several weeks, “Congress” mostly means senators and representatives giving interviews and floor speeches about things they cannot yet vote on. Here is where our three, Sen. Dave McCormick, Sen. John Fetterman, and Rep. Rob Bresnahan, stand on two of the big fights.

The SAVE America Act, Stuck in Neutral. The SAVE America Act, the GOP push to require proof of citizenship for voter registration and photo ID at the polls, has had floor votes since March but still hasn't passed — most recently, a June 25 attempt to attach it to an immigration funding package failed 48-50 — despite being a stated Trump priority. It may resurface, folded into a Senate budget reconciliation package, but that package is still being drafted and will not get a vote before September at the earliest.

McCormick has been one of the bill's most vocal Senate boosters, delivering multiple floor speeches arguing it does one thing: “ensures that only American citizens cast ballots in American elections.” He points to polling showing voter ID requirements draw broad, bipartisan public support.

Fetterman is not a yes, but he is not exactly dug in against the idea either. He voted against advancing the bill in its current bundled form, calling it a “Christmas list” of unrelated provisions and telling Republicans to stop “attacking vote-by-mail.” His stated position: he would vote yes on a “clean, standalone bill” requiring photo ID and nothing else. For now, neither version exists, so the fight, and the vote, stays on hold.

Bresnahan's Health Care Gamble. While the Senate argues over voting rules, the House side of our delegation has been fighting over health care premiums. Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies expired at the end of 2025, and Congress never agreed on what to do about it. A Democratic three-year extension and a Republican health-savings-account alternative both failed the same 60-vote Senate test in December, 51-48 each.

Bresnahan broke with House GOP leadership in December, signing a Democratic-led discharge petition to force a House vote, then followed through in January as one of only 17 House Republicans nationwide who crossed over to vote for the Democrats' three-year extension. That is a notable break from the party line for a congressman seeking reelection in PA-08, which the Cook Political Report currently rates a Toss-Up.

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