Trump Broke His Word To A Federal Judge. Wait Until You Hear What She Called It. Twenty days. Let’s finish this together. Join us.
The line I keep coming back to is in the Justice Department’s own manual: searching a member of Congress’s property needs sign-off from the Public Integrity Section first. Last year that unit went from 36 lawyers to two under Trump, and now his government has sent agents to Ilhan Omar’s door three weeks before her election. Help us get reporting like this to voters who are still deciding. Give a gift subscription to someone in a swing district, or become a Founding Member. Trump Broke His Word To A Federal Judge. Wait Until You Hear What She Called It.Also: what Ilhan Omar told the agents at her door, the Nobel winner Trump swears nobody’s heard of, and the county suing over his arch.
Happy Wednesday, thanks for being here. With all of Trump’s chaos and 20 days to go until the election, I’m glad to have great news for you today. Over the holiday weekend, Trump’s regime broke its word to a federal judge and cut down about 430 trees while it thought nobody was watching. She was watching. Before we jump in, hit the ❤️ like button, then restack. Trump would rather you never saw these stories, so help us ruin his day by sharing them instead. I’ve been fighting Trump since February 2016, and the next 20 days are what it was all for. Every single day, we dig out what the regime hopes you never read and what corporate media ignores, and we put it in front of millions of voters. Our readers have flooded Congress with calls and sent more than 887,000 letters since November 2024, and if Democrats retake the House and Senate, that pressure is how we make sure they do what they promised. No one can stop us from releasing our investigations, and no one can dangle money over our heads to make us look away. We rely only on paid subscribers to make this work possible, and today they also get my breakdown of what’s moving on the House map, where we need just five of the 21 toss-ups to take the majority. Join us!
Ilhan Omar Won’t Be SilencedBefore dawn on Monday, federal agents descended on the DC home of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. “I got awakened by boom, boom, boom,” her neighbor Sharon Jackson told NPR. Agents hauled out boxes marked “seized property evidence.” The probe reportedly targets immigration paperwork her late father filled out when she was just a child. No charges have been filed. At a Tennessee rally on Saturday, Trump said, “She comes from Somalia,” and warned, “Let’s see what happens.” Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told a right-wing podcaster, “Something’s going to happen.” Now it has. Agents from Mullin’s own department came after one of Trump’s biggest critics, just three weeks before Election Day. The DOJ has long avoided public moves against candidates within 60 days of a vote. Its own rules also require approval from an anti-corruption unit Trump gutted last year from 36 lawyers to two. The department hasn’t said whether it signed off. Omar isn’t backing down. “This is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” she said. “I will not be silenced.” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is demanding to know “who authorized this abusive search.” Trump has turned the DOJ on his critics before, and lost. Last year, a judge threw out the cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York AG Letitia James. Omar is on the ballot November 3, in one of the bluest districts in the country. Trump’s agents came to her door, but all he did was give Minnesota one more reason to send her back to Congress.
Judge Reyes Pulls The Plug OnTrump’s ChainsawsTrump has been wanting to turn a century-old public golf course in DC into a championship-level course. Preservationists and two golfers sued to stop him. Judge Ana Reyes told the regime to notify her before it cut down more than 10 trees on the property, so she could review and stop the plan if needed—something the regime’s lawyers pledged to do. At 4:55 pm on the Friday before a holiday weekend, they filed the notice. By morning, saws were running. About 430 trees fell. On Sunday, a park official admitted crews had cut about 200 more than they’d told the judge, then approved the extra cuts himself, after the trees were gone. Trump treats a public park like his backyard and a promise to a federal court like a scorecard he can fudge. Reyes froze the cutting and made officials testify on the holiday. When a regime lawyer claimed they’d done their best, Reyes shot back, “You did your absolute worst.” Under oath, a Park Service deputy director said the go-ahead came from Greg Wischer, a top Interior Department aide, so Reyes ordered Wischer to testify too. Break her order “by two seconds,” she warned, and “there are going to be contempt proceedings.” On Tuesday, she extended the freeze through October 26. That lawsuit can still stop Trump’s course in its tracks, and the regime just gave the judge every reason not to trust it. Trump bet nobody would be watching over the holiday weekend, but Judge Reyes was. Thanks to her, the saws stopped.
Navi Pillay Won The Nobel TrumpBegged ForTrump has spent years begging for the Nobel Peace Prize. Just last week he lied again about settling eight wars. On Friday, the prize went to South Africa’s Navi Pillay, a lifelong fighter for justice. In 1973, under apartheid, Pillay won Nelson Mandela and other prisoners on Robben Island—the prison off Cape Town where they were held—the right to see their lawyers. As a judge on the UN tribunal for Rwanda, she helped hand down the first ruling that rape can be genocide. She later sat on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s war crimes court. When she heard she’d won, she joked, “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.” The same Friday, the regime sanctioned the entire ICC, the first time the US has sanctioned the court itself. Allies from Britain to Japan said they “regret and strongly disagree.” That night Trump sneered, “I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else!” A man who targets war crimes judges has no business near a peace prize. Trump’s case for that prize is that he ends wars, which he clearly doesn’t. On Sunday he claimed on social media that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an “energy ceasefire.” Shortly after, Russia hit a power plant in Kharkiv. “It was clear that Putin does not read Truth Social,” Zelensky deadpanned. Trump spent years begging for a prize he never earned. Pillay earned hers standing up to men like him.
Arlington County Sues To StopTrump’s Vanity ArchTrump wants a 250-foot “Triumphal Arch” beside Arlington National Cemetery, more than twice as tall as the Lincoln Memorial. He even announced it would double as “a top grade Military Complex.” Nothing says honoring America’s war dead like a 250-foot monument to yourself. It’s a tyrant’s vanity project. On October 8, Arlington County sued. Arlington National Cemetery holds more than 5,000 funerals a year, and the lawsuit warns construction would “fundamentally disrupt these funerals.” County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti didn’t hold back: “Our community has the most to lose from this egregious and unlawful proposed project.” Trump is already losing in court. After three Vietnam veterans and a historian sued, Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the regime to give her 48 hours’ warning before any arch work. The regime asked her to scrap that order just last month, but she refused. Arlington’s case is in federal court in Virginia, famous for its speed. Trump wants his ego carved in stone beside fallen heroes. The families who bury their loved ones there now have a whole county standing up for them.
Five Seats From Taking Back TheHouseCook moved 18 House races our way. Here’s the new math, and why Mike Johnson is rehearsing his exit. It takes 218 seats to win the House. The Cook Political Report now has us favored in 213 and Republicans in 201, with 21 toss-ups left. Before Friday, We Needed 10 Toss-Ups. Four Republican-held seats slid from toss-up to leaning our way: Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn in Iowa, as well as Ryan Mackenzie and Scott Perry in Pennsylvania. Cook now projects we gain nine to 19 seats. Their Money Can’t Outrun Trump. Cook’s Erin Covey wrote that a massive GOP ad blitz meant to free Republicans from “the anchor” of Trump “has yet to move the needle.” Punchbowl News put ad spending in Miller-Meeks’ district at $37.4 million. Johnson rallied with her in Davenport the same day Cook moved her seat. “I gotta have her,” he pleaded. The Fight Is On Their Ground Now. Four seats Republicans were favored to hold became toss-ups: Rob Wittman’s in Virginia, Bill Huizenga’s in Michigan, Ashley Hinson’s open Iowa seat, and Don Davis’ North Carolina district—which Republicans redrew to push him out. Their own gerrymander is now a coin flip. Johnson Is Already Planning His Retreat. On Fox News last Thursday, Johnson said losing the majority might send him “back to my hometown of Shreveport” to “start a lawn business.” He later told CBS News it was “tongue in cheek,” then added, “I would expect my colleagues would ask me to continue leading this conference.” Their Rigged Maps Aren’t Working. Whip Tom Emmer conceded to Axios: “We’re not gonna win all 13 of those redistricted seats.” Cook pegs the GOP’s net gain from Trump’s new maps at about four. We Can Win On Seats We Hold. On top of the 213 seats already leaning our way, six of the 21 toss-ups are seats Democrats hold right now—including Jared Moskowitz’s in Florida and Marcy Kaptur’s in Ohio. Keep five of those six and that’s 218, the majority, without winning a single Republican toss-up. Trump’s made his party dead weight in its own districts. The Bottom Line: By my count, we’re favored in 213 seats and need 218 to take the House back. Republicans need 17 of the 21 toss-ups, nearly all of them, just to keep the gavel. We need five. I’ll be fighting for every one of them until the polls close November 3—running like we’re behind, straight through the finish. In just the past week, a judge, a county board, a congresswoman, and a Nobel winner all stood up to Trump. We’ve been in this fight right alongside them for more than ten years, and we’re not letting up now. We’re 20 days from the midterms, and we’re going full speed to help Democrats win back the House and Senate. It starts with exposing Trump’s candidates. In the last few weeks, we dug through the campaign money of Republicans running for Senate in twelve states and found checks from a fraudster Trump pardoned and a billionaire who paid Jeffrey Epstein. Then we get that truth in front of voters. What we post is seen by millions every day, and we aim it at undecided voters in the states that will decide these races. And if Democrats take over, our pressure campaign on Congress goes straight to the new majority to make sure they keep every promise. No billionaire, advertiser, or board room funds any of this. Our readers do. When you join, you get my seat-by-seat breakdown of the competitive races three times a week, so you know exactly where your time matters most. Starting October 27, that becomes a briefing every weekday morning. And on election night, you get a seat next to me in our live war room as the results come in. Twenty days. Let’s finish this together. Join us. Then hit the ❤️ like button and restack before you go. Somebody you know needs to see proof today that Trump can be beaten. Onward! Scott What would you say to Ilhan Omar if you could talk to her today? Should officials who play games with a federal judge face contempt? Which race are you watching most closely in the next 20 days? Thanks for your support! Another way to help us out is by gifting subscriptions to friends and family! You can get yours by clicking the link. For all contact Congress links, or to volunteer, you can go here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-the-watchdog-coalition
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Roberts just passed 37,000 letters, and Yosemite is sitting at 19,999. One letter from 20,000. Who wants to send it?
Stop Trump’s Yosemite giveaway: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-yosemite-giveaway
Impeach Chief Justice John Roberts: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-supreme-court-chief-justice-john-roberts/
Stop Trump’s illegal plan to destroy the U.S. Forest Service: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-illegal-plan-to-destroy-the-us-forest-service/
Start drafting articles of impeachment against Trump: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-begin-drafting-articles-of-impeachment-against-trump/
If you sent letter number 20,000, tell me below.