Thanks so much for joining me today. We have some great news that’s terrible for Trump, and an exclusive investigation Republicans would rather you didn’t see.
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Republicans Kept Checks From Epstein’s Billionaire Client
A review ordered by billionaire Leon Black’s own firm found he paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million. Black says it was for tax and estate advice. On September 16, the House held him in contempt for defying its Epstein subpoenas.
Republicans kept taking his family’s money anyway. On October 12, 2020, the Times exposed Black’s payments to Epstein. That same day, David Perdue’s Senate campaign took in $2,800 from him. Two months later, Kelly Loeffler’s campaign received $1,400. Both now work for Trump. Tom Cotton’s campaign got Black’s money in 2022, and last year Leon and his wife, Debra, each gave $2,500 to Mitch McConnell’s PAC.
Here’s what the headlines about his checks missed: Debra Black’s checks to two senators on this fall’s ballot. Three days after the Times story, Susan Collins’s campaign took $2,800 from Leon and $2,800 from Debra. In December 2025, Debra gave Collins $7,000 more. The Alaska Current found Leon’s $2,800 to Dan Sullivan, but they didn’t report how the same filing shows $2,800 from Debra just eight days earlier.
We searched federal refund records, and none of these Republicans has reported returning a dime. Sullivan’s Senate office sent us to his campaign, which didn’t return two calls, and no one else answered our questions before we published. Collins, Cotton, and Sullivan face voters in 34 days. Those voters deserve to know whose money they kept.
The Alabama Builder Who Stood Up To ICE
Leo Garcia Venegas was born in Florida and builds houses in Baldwin County, Alabama. His lawsuit says that in May 2025, five armed agents—three in masks—jumped the fence at his job site, ran past the non-Latino workers, and went straight for his all-Latino crew. They tackled Leo while he yelled that he was a citizen.
The suit says an agent pulled out his Alabama REAL ID and called it fake, then they handcuffed and held him in a car for over an hour. Three weeks later, they marched him off another job. He says agents grabbed him again this May in his own front yard.
Leo fought back in court. On September 21, Trump appointee and Chief Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock froze the three policies behind it. That included the one that let agents keep holding people after they showed proof of citizenship or lawful status.
The regime told the court those policies didn’t exist. DHS said it couldn’t even find a record of Leo’s June stop, but insisted it had good reason for doing so. Beaverstock wasn’t having it: “The Court is simply not inclined to take the Government’s word for it.”
Garcia Venegas put it plainly: “For the first time in a long time, I will be able to go to work without worrying that I will be arrested for no reason.” They picked the wrong man to push around.
California Clears The Path To Every Front Door
Last December, protesters snuck into an event at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, shouting antisemitic slurs and smashing a vase. On September 25, Gov. Gavin Newsom went to that same temple and signed two laws to keep people safe where they worship and gather.
The first adds a 100-foot safety zone around the doors of every church, synagogue, and mosque in California. Inside that zone, nobody can come within eight feet of a person entering or leaving to hand them a flyer or show them a sign without their consent. It mirrors a Colorado clinic law that was upheld by the Supreme Court.
The second opens the state’s security grants to offsite events like Pride celebrations, marches, and religious festivals. California has paid for security at more than 1,600 nonprofits and houses of worship since 2015, and this year’s budget locked it in at $80 million a year.
FEMA, under this regime, is only putting up $300 million this year for the entire country. One state just put up more than a quarter of that on its own.
The Judge Who Wouldn’t Let Rubio Stall
Cesar Aguirre is an American citizen on Long Island. His wife had her visa interview in Guatemala on January 21, the day Trump’s ban on immigrant visas from 75 countries kicked in. She was refused. She and their 2-year-old daughter, who has Turner syndrome, were stuck there for months. By late summer, the little girl had missed more than seven months of visits with her heart doctor in New York, Cesar told the court.
In August, Judge Jeannette Vargas threw the ban out. We told you about that ruling then. She also ordered the regime to report back, and on September 8 it admitted more than 43,000 applications were affected, with “no fixed date” to finish reconsidering them.
Two days later it appealed—and asked her to freeze her ruling until its officers got more training.
On September 25, Vargas said no. Many applicants, she wrote, “have been separated from family and loved ones, including spouses and minor children.” The regime also complained that re-reviewing tens of thousands of cases was too much work. Vargas had an answer for that: “[T]hose burdens arise from policy decisions independently made by the Executive Branch.” Translation: you made this mess.
All 43,000 applications now have to be reconsidered. The regime’s last report to the court gave no date. Somewhere in that pile is a mother whose 2-year-old has been waiting eight months to see her heart doctor.
We have 34 days left. That’s all that stands between us and a Congress that could finally start to hold this regime accountable for their horrendous acts.
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Onward!
Scott
Should Republicans give back the Black family’s money?
Which Senate race are you watching closest?
The regime told a judge it has “no fixed date” to finish reconsidering 43,000 visa cases. What would you say to Marco Rubio?
They rely on public exhaustion to push through dirty deals and bury misconduct in the dark. Don't let them off the hook—hit Capitol Hill on these four fronts today:
Force the Full Release of the Unredacted Epstein Files
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-demand-acting-ag-blanche-release-all-of-the-epstein-files-now/
Kill the Yosemite Luxury Land Giveaway
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-yosemite-giveaway
Stop the 45 Million-Acre Forest Clearcut Rule
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trump-from-destroying-45-million-acres-of-our-national-forests/
Force a Recorded Vote to Impeach Pete Hegseth
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-pete-hegseth/
That “no fixed date” line made me put my phone down. A toddler doesn’t have a spare year. Rubio does.
Don’t donate your outrage to the algorithm and leave. Pick one race from the map section and tell one person who actually lives there.
Scott can dig the filing. We have to carry it. That’s the deal.