Thanks so much for joining me today for this extremely important edition. It was supposed to be the week that Trump’s regime scared Democrats into backing off from their upcoming investigations. Trump’s own White House lawyer wrote to a top Democrat in Congress and warned him that he could be committing a crime with some of his investigations into Trump.
First, three big court wins this week. Then what I found when I pulled the records myself.
But before we jump in, could you hit the ❤️ like and restack buttons? Today one of our stories shows you how $55.5 million in government awards went to a company linked to Trump’s sons, and how the biggest contract had no bidding process. The Trump regime wants this buried. You can make sure it won’t be.
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The Colorado Judge Who Shut ICE’s Revolving Door
On Monday, Nathan Rasper, who runs ICE in Colorado, told Judge Charlotte Sweeney his officers stopped re-arresting people courts had just set free. He was the one who ordered them to do it in the first place.
Ramon Quintero Alvarez had filed a case to get out of ICE detention in Aurora. On October 27, he told the court, an officer he knew “fist-bumped me and said I was being released.” He was let go. Then he was driven to ICE’s office in Centennial and back, and locked up again. An ICE supervisor testified she got “a direct order” to do it.
Sweeney called it “some weird game of hide-and-seek” and said, “This will stop.” She ordered Alvarez to be released by no later than 2 p.m. and barred ICE from detaining him again. That is, unless they could prove at a hearing he’s dangerous or might go on the run.
The judge also ordered the regime to compile a list of everyone it had done this to. It included 14 people—the regime claims all of them have been released. The ACLU of Colorado said that list was incomplete. On Monday, the regime admitted the number is at least 18.
Trump’s ICE defied Sweeney’s order, and she made them stop. She already called it “contempt of my court order.” Now she should make it official.
The Long Island Judge Who Benched A Trump Prosecutor
On Monday, Judge Sanket Bulsara threw one of Trump’s prosecutors, Thomas Price, off a case on Long Island after finding Price had likely tried to mislead him.
The case challenges ICE arrests without warrants. In May, another judge ordered ICE to get a warrant before making arrests on Long Island. Price sent Bulsara a letter claiming that the order only protected one man. But Price had copied the order’s words into the letter which states it covers arrests “in this judicial district.” That includes everyone on Long Island.
From here on out, a boss in the prosecutors’ office has to sign off on anything the regime files in this case.
Rene Antonio Benitez is one of the people challenging the arrests. On February 26, ICE agents pulled him over while he was driving his daughter to school in Brentwood. When she told them she had to get to class, his court papers say, they answered that they “did not care about that.” Bulsara freed him the next day.
Bulsara called Price’s letter “a deliberate attempt to mislead the Court.” One more like it could cost ICE the whole case.
Delaware Handed Trump His 28th Loss
On Tuesday, Judge Richard Andrews threw out the Trump regime’s lawsuit in their effort to grab Delaware’s voter list. That makes 28 federal courts that have ruled on these suits, and Trump’s lost all 28.
Last year, the DOJ demanded states hand over their full voter rolls. When states refused, Trump’s prosecutors sued them. Andrews wrote: “DOJ is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.” He noted that Delaware already makes voters’ names and addresses public, and that the government “has the tools” to check for people who aren’t allowed to vote.
Bethany Jennings, a Delaware voter, joined the case to fight it. She told public media station WHYY: “I’ve been voting since I was 18. There hasn’t been a need for the Department of Justice to know anything about my voter records for the past 30 years of voting.”
Andrew Bernstein of the ACLU said that even at the hearing, the DOJ was “still maintaining” it could share whatever it collected with Homeland Security, the department that runs ICE. In Rhode Island, DOJ lawyers admitted that was the plan.
Trump tried to turn our voter rolls into a tool for ICE. Twenty-eight courts have now told him no. Harmeet Dhillon, whose division at the DOJ filed these lawsuits, quit just last week.
Robert Garcia Won’t Back Down From Trump’s Lawyer
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, got an ominous threat from the White House this week. In a letter dated November 9, Trump’s top White House lawyer, William Scharf, warned that Democrats using subpoenas to scare Trump’s people “may cross the line into blatant criminality.”
Unfazed, Garcia threw it right back: “It appears Donald Trump has something to hide.” Then he repeated the warning the White House had complained about: “If you have abused the American public, you should lawyer up.”
Garcia wasn’t the only one the Trump regime came after. On Wednesday, Aaron Reitz, Trump’s US attorney in Houston, warned Sen. Richard Blumenthal of “significant legal consequences” if he doesn’t preserve the records of his inquiry into who paid for Trump’s White House ballroom. That night, Blumenthal wrote back: “I will not be intimidated.” Then he told Reitz to preserve his own messages with the White House.
ProPublica showed this week exactly the type of thing Congress should be looking at. In February, an investment fund linked to Trump’s sons put about $30 million into a company called XWELL. Months later, the regime handed XWELL’s testing business nearly $40 million in contracts to screen for Ebola and other diseases. A spokesperson for Trump’s sons told ProPublica they are passive investors who had no involvement in the contracts.
XWELL’s CEO told ProPublica the company won through competitive bidding. So I pulled the CDC contract’s records myself. They say “NOT COMPETED.” Only one offer came in. Then on November 6, the CDC chose to put $16.7 million more into the same contract. That money isn’t in the figure reported this week. It brings the total to $55.5 million.
In January, Democrats take over Congress, and the subpoena power that comes with it. Trump is scared of what they’ll find, and his lawyers just put it in writing.
Republicans run Congress for only 51 more days—and they are scrambling, trying to sneak through whatever they can during the holidays to protect Trump. Our Lame Duck Watch is the largest coalition built to fight back against it.
We will finally have a Congress that can put the Trump regime under oath. And we need to have Senators and Reps walking into those hearings with the receipts already in hand. That’s why we are still investigating. Going through court files, government spending records, and anything else we can find.
We take what we learn and push that out to millions of people every single day. And we amplify the voices of our readers through our pressure campaign on Congress, which has delivered more than 923,000 letters and made countless calls over the last two years alone.
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Onward!
Scott
If you could ask one question to Trump’s White House lawyer under oath, what would it be?
ICE got caught re-arresting people judges had freed. What should happen to the officials who gave that order?
We hit three goals overnight: the Pentagon deals letter passed 3,000, Epstein passed 1,500 and Pardons passed 1,250. Here are today’s. Each letter takes 30 seconds and goes straight to your members of Congress.
Impeach Clarence Thomas (132 from 2,500): https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-clarence-thomas-3/
Impeach John Roberts (104 from 47,500): https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-supreme-court-chief-justice-john-roberts/
Put Trump’s pardons under oath (going for 1,500): https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-put-trumps-pardons-under-oath
Subpoena the Epstein files on day one (going for 2,000): https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-new-congress-subpoena-the-unredacted-epstein-files-on-day-one
Tell me below which ones you sent.
This is what it looks like when the fear stops working. Keep going.