As we jump into another week of Trump’s chaos, I’m glad to have some more great news for you today. Stories that uncover rampant corruption, a Trump judge ruling against one of his greatest allies, and Pete Hegseth and Mark Zuckerberg losing.
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They Said It Was Legal. A Grand Jury Said Otherwise.
An insurance company called Centene overcharged the state of Florida for prescription drugs—medicine paid for by Medicaid. When they got caught, they offered to pay $67 million back.
$10 million of that never made it to the state.
The money was routed to a charity linked to Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife. It sat there 25 days, before it was moved through two nonprofits and into a political fund run by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ then chief of staff, James Uthmeier. He’s now the state’s attorney general.
An accountant working for a grand jury followed every dollar. He found $8.5 million had landed in Keep Florida Clean, the political fund Uthmeier chaired. From there, $7 million went to the state’s GOP, where it bought television ads to beat a ballot measure DeSantis wanted dead.
Money meant for sick children. Spent on a campaign. Seriously.
For around a year the state of Florida said it was fine, even the head of the state health agency told lawmakers it wasn’t taxpayer money. Uthmeier said everything had looked legal. They said it in hearings, letters, and on camera.
The grand jury didn’t agree, as their finding was that the money was “misappropriated,” and used for a purpose it was never meant for. It was part of what it called a scheme to fund political campaigns. It found the full settlement was money owed directly back to taxpayers. It also said it didn’t have enough evidence to charge anyone. That report was filed under seal in January and only became public days ago.
Money for families that need it—called a donation, sent through a charity with a famous name on it—spent on an election. A grand jury caught it in writing—and now every voter in that state gets to decide what happens to those who did it.
A Trump Judge Wouldn’t Let Them Erase It
Following the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, Congress subpoenaed Trump ally Steve Bannon. He refused to hand over any requested documents, and wouldn’t even show up to testify. So a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress, and he served four months in federal prison.
This February, the DOJ went to court to make that conviction disappear. They claimed the government “has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.” That’s it. No explanation of why. Bannon’s lawyers didn’t object. Both sides wanted it gone.
The Supreme Court wiped out the appeals court ruling in April, the appeals court sent the case back down this month, and all they needed was a judge to sign.
That judge turned out to be Carl Nichols, who Trump put on the bench in 2019. Nichols ran Bannon’s trial, and on Wednesday he told the DOJ that one sentence is not a reason, and that the rules require one. Request denied.
Then, buried in a footnote, he left them something much worse. Higher courts have already ruled that the government can only drop a case while it’s still ongoing. Bannon’s case ended years ago, with a judgment Nichols himself signed. If the DOJ comes back, it has to explain why that doesn’t kill the whole request.
They can try again. But today Steve Bannon still has a criminal record for stonewalling the investigation into Jan 6. And the record of what happened that day is still standing, which is exactly what they were trying to erase.
They Punished A Company For Talking Back
American-owned company Anthropic makes a computer program that the military wanted its hands on. The kind that reads heaps of information fast, then deciphers for you what’s in it. Anthropic said yes to almost everything—but they drew two lines. Don’t use it to spy on Americans. Don’t use it to kill people without a human making that decision.
The regime reacted furiously. On February 24, Pete Hegseth gave them three days to drop their objections. They didn’t. That Friday Trump attacked Anthropic on social media, calling its workers “leftwing nut jobs,” and ordered all federal agencies to stop using their products. An hour later, Hegseth labeled the company an official threat to national security.
Anthropic sued over the regime’s attacks and, on Thursday, Judge Rita Lin gutted the government’s case, ruling the blacklist illegal. When Lin asked what evidence the regime had that Anthropic was a threat, they produced a four-page memo dated March 2—after they had announced the punishment on February 27. They punished the company first, and wrote down the reason why three days later.
One day after calling Anthropic a national security threat, the same official who wrote that memo emailed the company about their contract negotiation: “I think we are very close here.” They were still trying to sign a deal with the enemy they had just called a threat.
Lin called it what it was: retaliation for protected speech. Permanent, effective immediately. Lin first blocked the regime back in March and gave them a week-long grace period before her order kicked in. They asked for another one—this time Lin refused.
They tried to destroy a company for criticizing them in public, and a federal judge just told them they can’t. That protection isn’t Anthropic’s. It’s everyone’s.
Meta Just Turned Off The Like Counts
Attorneys general across the country took Meta to court, saying the company built their social media platforms Instagram and Facebook with the goal of getting children hooked on them. Only eight days into the trial, Meta settled and quit. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg avoided having to testify.
Meta will pay out around $12.7 billion over ten years. It also agreed to update its apps in 47 states and DC. Teenagers on Instagram and Facebook will stop seeing how many likes their posts get, some filters will get switched off, they’ll get two hours max on the apps per day, and feeds are dark 12am to 6am.
Meta admitted to no wrongdoing. The company bought full-page ads in five national newspapers pressuring TikTok and YouTube to match the same terms—which would cost Meta another $5 billion under the deal. Make of that what you will.
For years, parents were told there’s nothing that could be done to protect children from these apps. Turns out that was wrong. All it took was being thrown into a courtroom, and the threat of executives like Mark Zuckerberg having to testify under oath.
Just nine weeks from tomorrow, the midterms will be here. Ballots start getting mailed out this week. It’s been a really long road for us to get here, which makes it easier for me to say that there is no way we are slowing down now.
We are full speed ahead to flip Congress and other seats across the country. Our goal is to turn Trump into a lame duck, and begin holding this regime and its accomplices accountable.
So here is our plan: We will keep fighting. We will keep investigating. We will keep the pressure on Congress. And we will never bend the knee. Never.
To stay truly independent, we have no corporate influence, which means all of our funding comes from our readers. So if you haven’t yet, join us as a paid subscriber today to help us sprint through November and beyond:
One more thing before you go. Hit the ❤️ like button and restack this. The regime’s entire strategy is convincing you that you are the only one who sees it. Every restack is proof to somebody else that they are not standing there alone.
Onward!
Scott
For the comments:
Do you have any kids or grandkids who use Facebook or Instagram? How would the Meta deal change things for your family?
Uthmeier has to face voters in 64 days. If you saw him at a local grocery store, what would you say to him?
Reading is step one. Here's step two.
Five campaigns we're focused on today, and every one routes straight to your own representative with your zip code attached. That's the part that matters — staff sort constituent mail by district and by subject, and volume is the only signal they act on.
Mail voting. A judge in Boston rules Tuesday, and military ballots go out two days later. Congress can end the chaos instead of waiting on one courtroom.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-protect-our-use-of-voting-by-mail-and-voting-machines/
The Epstein files. Blanche has read them. He isn't going to release them on his own. Somebody with subpoena power has to make him.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-demand-acting-ag-blanche-release-all-of-the-epstein-files-now/
Investigate the whole case. Somebody flew those planes. Somebody kept that calendar. Not one of them has ever answered a question under oath.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-fully-investigate-the-jefrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-case/
45 million acres. 625,000 people filed comments against opening our national forests. The agency moved to do it anyway. Congress holds the money.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trump-from-destroying-45-million-acres-of-our-national-forests/
The Forest Service. Fire crews, trail workers, the people who catch illegal logging. Being cut quietly, with no vote and no hearing.
https://tinyurl.com/mrx8cvv7
Pick one. Pick all five. It takes a minute each, and more than 829,000 letters have gone out from this list since November 2024.
Onward!
Scott….thank you for not letting Florida story die.