Thanks so much for being here today. I’ve got some great news to share with you, along with new developments in our investigations.
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Agents Logged In Pretending To Be Voters
A federal whistleblower told the Senate that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration officers were ordered to log into state voter-lookup tools and pose as the voters they were investigating.
The whistleblower says agents got access to internal systems and outside sources in order to pull birth dates and partial Social Security numbers. Then they used that information to check if someone was registered to vote on the state site. Some of those tools say outright that only the voter may use them. They got less than two hours of training and were told to review 40 voters a day, for about 12 minutes each.
If concerns were raised internally, leadership reassured agents they wouldn’t be held personally liable if searches were part of their documented official duties.
California Senator Alex Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, didn’t hedge: the disclosure “outlines shocking allegations of unlawful and unethical conduct that includes potentially thousands of violations of state law.” Padilla said you could get falsely flagged, leading to extra screening at airports, problems with your immigration paperwork, or even a referral to the FBI.
Naturalized citizens get caught in it too. Every noncitizen gets an alien number, and a training video says it stays in the Homeland Security file permanently, including after that person becomes a citizen.
DHS rejected the idea that leadership encouraged lawbreaking. It did not say the searches were legal. What it said was this: “It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections.”
The whistleblower still works at DHS. They asked to stay anonymous because they’re afraid of what happens to them, but they talked anyway. Padilla and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent the report to Trump’s DHS Secretary on Sunday.
Flipping the House is how this all becomes subpoenas and sworn testimony.
She Beat This Rule Once. She’s Back For Round Two.
On Friday, a rule takes effect that can deny a green card to immigrants who use Medicaid, food assistance, or housing help. Use the help you qualify for, lose the chance to stay.
In 2019 Trump pushed a version of the same thing, New York Attorney General Letitia James took him to court, and a federal judge vacated it. By 2021 it was gone.
Monday morning she did it again, with 22 states and DC behind her. New York City filed its own suit the same day with five other cities and counties. Standing at City Hall, James named what this is: “Cruelty is the point. Having a chilling effect on immigrants is the point.”
People are already scared enough to act on it. At the same press conference, a woman who works with immigrant families in New York described a mother asking whether she should cancel her disabled daughter’s Medicaid. The girl is an American citizen.
So Mayor Zohran Mamdani said it plainly: “Nothing about your or a family member’s eligibility to access benefits and services has changed. If you rely on SNAP, Medicaid, or programs like WIC and TANF, do not disenroll without first seeking advice from a trusted legal provider.”
In a section of the rule titled Family Assessment, the regime admits the change may “increase the poverty of certain families and children, including U.S. citizen children.”
James has already told them how this ends: “We won, and we intend to win again.”
A “Dear Friend” They Met Eight Months Ago
In May, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin picked up a large part of the tab for Don Jr.’s wedding party in the Bahamas.
The oligarch is Umar Kremlev. According to records ProPublica reviewed, he covered the rental on the private island where guests stayed, which runs about $100,000 a night, plus a $70,000 fireworks show—routed through an Emirati entity tied to the boxing federation he runs. Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship at the Kremlin in April. Ukraine has sanctioned him as a close friend of Putin’s security chief, whose sister he married.
Monday the Trumps confirmed it. Don Jr.’s new wife Bettina Trump posted that “our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.” Trump’s response: “I have no idea who Umar is, never heard of him... Not a big deal!”
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on House Oversight, wrote Don Jr. shortly after the story broke. He wants records by September 28, including anything he sent the White House about who was paying, and told him to preserve everything on Kremlev.
He also wants answers to these: Does Don Jr. hold a security clearance, and did he list Kremlev as a foreign contact? Has he told the Pentagon, or the defense contractors Garcia says he invests in, that he’s friendly with a member of Putin’s inner circle?
Garcia also points out that Don Jr. met Kremlev in September 2025—only eight months before their “dear friend” paid for the party.
Right now Garcia can only ask. Flip the House and he takes the gavel—with the records preserved and the questions already on the record.
Trump Wanted The Court. He Didn’t Get The Ruling.
The question of whether ICE could hold people for months or years without ever getting in front of a judge to argue for release was due to go in front of the Supreme Court on October 13.
But the Trump regime never got to argue it.
A man was released in 2022 after around 21 months in ICE detention over an assault conviction. His case was headed to the Supreme Court, and the regime was using it to get the hearing requirement erased.
In late August, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned him. That ended his deportation case. Both sides told the Court there was nothing left to argue, and on Friday the justices pulled it from the calendar.
Trump lost the thing he wanted most. There is no Supreme Court ruling wiping out that hearing requirement. The rule that covers New York, Connecticut, and Vermont stands. Hold someone long enough—they still get a judge, and the government still has to prove why it should keep them.
Trump’s top lawyer at the Supreme Court, D. John Sauer, says he’ll be back with a new case and the same question. But not on October 13. Sometimes a governor signs one piece of paper and the whole case falls apart.
There are only 48 days until the midterms. And we’ll be here for every second of it, the same way we’ve been since 2016.
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Onward!
Scott
Why do you think someone close to Putin would pay for Don Jr.’s wedding party?
Three hundred thousand Missourians got a gerrymander onto the ballot with clipboards. What would you put on your state’s ballot if you could?
Over 150 members of Congress just officially demanded the Interior Department block the Yosemite land grab. A new bill drops a 20-year prison sentence on rogue AI developers. The Epstein cover-up is falling apart.
The pressure is actively working on all three fronts. Keep burying their desks today:
Block the Yosemite Sell-off:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trumps-yosemite-giveaway
Pass the AI Ban:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-pass-the-ban-on-ai-we-cant-control/
Release the Epstein Files:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-demand-acting-ag-blanche-release-all-of-the-epstein-files-now/
I keep thinking about the whistleblower who still works there. They knew what it could cost them and they wrote it down anyway. That’s the whole job on our side too. Thank you for making sure this doesn’t die in a PDF.