Saturday, September 26, 2026

The Crooked Court rescues Chump again

The Supreme Court, that crooked court, gave Chump a gift today.  Zachary B. Wolf (CNN) reports:

Election Day is fast approaching, but the Supreme Court is still weighing in on the rules — most recently on Friday when it allowed states to use a Trump administration-backed tool to ferret out noncitizen voting there’s little evidence occurs in a widespread way.

Nobody wants noncitizens voting illegally, but the move by justices less than two months from Election Day raises the real concern that legal citizen voters could find themselves unable to cast ballots.

Supreme Court justices have already been faced with multiple questions about the coming election.

They gutted the Voting Rights Act, supercharging a race to redraw congressional maps this year and into the future.

 

PBS' NEWSHOUR addressed the Supreme Court's latest gift to Chump: 


Amna Nawaz:

The Supreme Court revived a controversial voter citizenship database today just two months ahead of the midterm elections.

Geoff Bennett:

In the ruling, the court sided with the Trump administration as it looks to use the Department of Homeland Security's so-called SAVE database to review state voter rolls for potential noncitizens.

Joining us now is Jessica Huseman, editor in chief of Votebeat, which has been covering this issue.

Jessica, it's always great to speak with you.

So walk us through exactly what the Supreme Court did today. What can the Trump administration and states do today that they couldn't do yesterday?

Jessica Huseman, Editorial Director, Votebeat:

That's a really complicated question to answer because of the timing of the November election.

So the Supreme Court stayed a lower courts of June ruling that blocked the 2025 modifications of the SAVE database that allowed states to use them to mass-check people for citizenship status on their voter rolls. And so states can begin to do that.

The problem for the Trump administration is that we are in a 90-day period required by the NVRA, which is a federal voting law, that prevents people from being removed from the rolls ahead of a federal election. So while this is really going to be a sea change for election administrators going forward, I don't think voters will see any real effect right now for this election, given that -- given that parameter.

Geoff Bennett:

And this database, this SAVE database, it wasn't originally designed to police voter rolls. How has the Trump administration transformed it? And why has this become a central part of its election strategy?

Jessica Huseman:

Right, absolutely. I think that people are really confused about what the SAVE database is, what's in it, what it was created for.

And really this is a database to track noncitizens or to sort of have an accounting of noncitizens in the country that DHS knows about, right? And that's a pretty clear distinction between I think what people think that it is, which is a magical database with every noncitizen who happens to be in the country living on it, right?

That is not the list that exists. And even the list that they're using have significant problems. We are seeing pretty bad mismatch problems. We saw that repeatedly in Texas, for example. So it's not a perfect database. And Trump has allowed states to use this to batch search people who are on the voter rolls.

Previously, states could only search one person at a time. Now they can use it much more broadly. And the database is tied into several other databases that DHS maintains. So, theoretically, it's a much more powerful tool than it used to be. The problem is that it's still returning a lot of errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, on that point, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, she warned in her dissent that states might cancel the voter registrations of at least some recently naturalized citizens. So how does an eligible voter get wrongly flagged by this system? And has that actually happened before?

Jessica Huseman:

It has happened and it's happened frequently. We've reported about it in Texas. So I think that people assume that government databases all talk to each other and they automatically track you through your citizenship process. It does not, right?

This is a database that is largely maintained by human beings who have to enter the information into the database on time and when required of them and as you expect them to. And we know from history that that doesn't often happen.

I think that it's important for people to know that this isn't the last check, right? If your county chooses to use this process, if your state chooses to use this process, your county election administrator is still the one that is ultimately responsible. for removing you from the rolls.

And Votebeat knows from our reporting that these county clerks tend to be much more careful with these matches than the federal government or even many state governments are. And they are doing those second-level checks to make sure that people who are flagged are not unnecessarily removed in most cases.

It's not about addressing non-citizens voting, that's not really an issue.  It's about trying to strip voters from the rolls. 

See, people keep acting like the Crooked Court has learned but instead they're just posing and playing.  They're doing his bidding. 


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS): 

Friday, September 25, 2026.  Chump's swirling in the toilet along with his low approval rating, Bank of America warns more inflation for groceries may be coming in the next six months, Markwayne Mullin needs to get his department in order, and much more. 




As Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes Chump's poll numbers are, like him, in the toilet.



Food-at-home prices were unchanged in August from July but remained 2.2% higher than a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But:

Overall food prices increased 2.7%. 
Electricity prices were up 3.8%
Utility-piped natural gas rose 4.4%
Gasoline climbed 27.4% from a year earlier.
Those pressures are showing up in consumer behavior.

Seventy-five percent of Americans surveyed by Algolia said they were stressed about their grocery bills, up from 73% a year earlier.

Forty-two percent said they had switched to private-label products to save money, while 36% replaced their favorite brands with cheaper alternatives. 

Another 41% cut back on premium meat or seafood, and 39% bought fewer nonessential foods such as snacks and treats.

Now, shoppers may have another reason to watch supermarket prices closely.

Bank of America estimates that food-at-home inflation could accelerate to between 7% and 8% over the next six months as higher fuel, wage, and commodity costs work their way through the food supply chain.

That would represent a sharp increase from today’s 2.2% rate.

Repeating: Bank of America estimates that food-at-home inflation could accelerate to between 7% and 8% over the next six months.  And Chump famously loved "I love inflation" back on -- Americans?  They really don't love inflation.  And as it continues, they hate it.  As there's a possibility that it could increase even more over the next six months?  Chump will go down as the worst president ever and the most hated. 
 
He brought it all on himself.  He was handed a recovering economy.  In his first four year term, Chump presided over 8% inflation.  Then came the pandemic and Joe Biden was elected.  Joe got the economy under control.  We were the envy of the world as 2024 drew to a close for our economic recovery.  Then Chump came in with his tariffs.  Tariffs are a tax.  A tax on the one purchasing.  Chump wanted to lie about this.  It's a basic, it's a fundamental.  Lawrence O'Donnell and Stephanie Ruhle explained this over and over on what is now MS NOW ahead of the election and after.  But Chump's an idiot.  The tariffs immediately screwed up the economy.  His war on immigrants screwed up the economy as well. Some don't understand that.  Eateries targeted for their customer base are impacted.  Any place that deals in customer service was impacted because some employees did not want to go to work because it wasn't safe for them.  The housing industry? Construction sites depend upon workers.  Texas isn't the only state that workers weren't showing in because they were worried they'd be hauled off.  Immigrants make up as much as 35% of housing construction workers in the US.  Chump's programs have resulted in increases in the prices of homes.  In addition, his war on immigrants has given the US a black eye on the global stage and people aren't coming to the US as part of the tourism industry in the numbers that they were before Chump got back in office.  Las Vegas, for example, saw a 7.5% drop in tourism.  Tourism is airlines, it's rent a cars, it's restaurants, it's hotels and motels, it's gift shops.  It is huge and some cities economies depend a great deal upon tourism -- foreign travelers coming to the US.  Chump's war on immigrants is ugly and vile and people don't want to deal with it so they're choosing to go places other than the US.  And then there's the third big factor in Chump's destruction of the economy: His war of choice with Iran.   


Chump will be remembered for destroying this economy.  

As a result of all of this, Chump's polling is in the toilet.  And now Congressional Republicans running for re-election are very scared.  








We don’t know what’s going to happen in the midterms. But we know for a fact that today you can watch the hilarity of the collapse of so many of Trump’s plans and cheap, or corrupt, midterms gambits. Even the inside D.C. sheets can sense the energy. Here’s a piece — Trump officials weigh rolling back beef import plan as GOP midterm panic spreads. A picture of an angst-ridden, wayward Trump adorns the article. This is the plan Trump rolled out last month to institute a 90-day import bonanza of foreign beef that was apparently some kind of sweetheart deal with a Brazilian beef lord named Joesley Batista. The Wall Street Journal has a good story on that part of the tale. Here’s a New York Times op-ed questioning the safety of what was first called Trump’s mystery meat. In any case, the point was to engineer an extremely short-lived drop in the price of hamburgers. But it drove beef producers — an extremely GOP constituency — crazy since, of course, the whole point was to lower the price of the product ahead of the midterms. Now they’re getting so desperate at the White House they’re apparently considering scrapping the whole plan, with, I guess, a sort of mass deportation of beef.
[. . .]
Meanwhile, you’ve got Trump making headlines about compiling new lists of Washington buildings and institutions to rename after himself, including Ford’s Theater, which may have a more ambiguous meaning than he realizes. At a basic level he can’t help broadcasting what people may not care about that much in itself — his silly schlock building projects and renaming efforts — but which tells them at high volume that doing the actual job of president or caring about top public concerns is the furthest thing from his mind.

Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes a post-midterm phase that would be highly uncomfortable for Chump:

If Republicans suffer massive losses in the midterms, which are just six weeks away, Donald Trump may find himself outside his party looking in.

According to former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), GOP lawmakers are getting tired of election losses during his second term and a midterm blow-out could be the last straw.
The former New Jersey governor told Politico Playbook that Trump-skeptical Republicans are already looking past Nov. 3. Calling in from New Hampshire, Christie warned that "for the first time in 15 years, we could be in a position to lose a majority of the governorships" — a stark reversal from when he chaired the Republican Governors Association and the party controlled 31 of 50 statehouses.
"I think there's a scenario where Republicans wake up in the week or two after Election Day and say, 'We're just tired of losing,'" Christie told Playbook.

This as Benjamin S. Weiss (HUFFINGTON POST) reports on another poll finding Chump has run off young male voters:

Republicans have all but erased their gains among young men from the 2024 election, according to a new poll released by a GOP-aligned firm.

The data, published by Cygnal and unveiled at the Symposium on Young American Men in Washington, showed Democratic candidates with a commanding lead over Republicans among young men ages 18-30 who are highly likely to vote in the midterm elections.

“Not great news for Republicans,” Cygnal principal and pollster Alex Tarascio said during the event.

According to the Cygnal survey of 800 young men, respondents who said they were determined to vote in the midterms preferred Democratic candidates around 57% of the time — a striking 17-point lead over Republicans. Notably, that margin reversed among men surveyed who said they were unlikely to turn out in November, with roughly 39% of respondents saying they’d back a Republican candidate.


Dan Froomkin (SALON) offers some advice for what could happen after the midterms:

Imagine, instead, a Democratic leadership with a to-do list in one hand — starting with a compelling affordability agenda — and a how-to list in the other hand, something like this:

No more cowering from veto threats. Democrats should dare Trump to veto popular legislation and make him own the consequences if he does.
Demand major concessions from Trump in return for passing a new debt limit and a defense spending bill, and shut down the government if necessary.
Drive a wedge between Republican legislators and their increasingly unpopular and irrational leader.
No more protecting “centrist” Democrats from tough votes.
Tell the lobbyists to take a hike.
Impeach Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought for violating congressional spending directives.
Order the Capitol Police to arrest and jail administration officials if they refuse to honor congressional subpoenas.

Democrats in leadership and on the campaign trail talk a lot about their lofty legislative goals. But some of those goals are unattainable as long as Trump has the veto — and even more so if Republicans keep the Senate. Democrats need to be thinking and talking about what they can practically achieve — and how. And they need to have a battle plan so they can hit the ground running in January.
I raised questions about how they could do that in a Sept. 2 op-ed for MS NOW. As part of my hunt for answers, I turned to some wise left-leaning Washington veterans for their thoughts.

“This is going to be really tricky business,” Norman Ornstein, the longtime congressional analyst, told me.

“It would require a wholesale change in the DNA of House and Senate Democrats,” said Jim Manley, a political strategist who spent more than 20 years working in the Senate, including six years as spokesman for then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Triumphant congressional Democrats “are going to be feeling feisty, they’re going to feel vindicated, and they’re going to feel like fighting like hell,” said Robert Kuttner, who co-founded the Economic Policy Institute and the American Prospect.

“If they aren’t assertive,” Ornstein warned, “they may not hold their majority for very long.” 

Each of these experts, with decades of experience between them, all agreed that whether Democrats control one of both chambers, they need to pass lots of popular bills and make it painful for Trump and Republicans to oppose them. If the legislation becomes law, it’s a huge victory. If it’s blocked, the public will know who to blame. 




Turning to immigration, Richard Luscombe (GUARDIAN) reports that Sunday saw another death:

Leading Democrats and immigration advocates in Michigan are demanding transparency from federal authorities after a man died in a fiery car crash as he attempted to avoid agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Mario David Coronado Juarez, a Guatemalan national, was killed on Sunday in Grand Rapids when his vehicle struck a tree at high speed and burst into flames shortly after the ICE officers tried to conduct a traffic stop.

Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic Michigan governor, said she had ordered a review of the Grand Rapids incident.

Joseph Trigg, chief of the Grand Rapids police department, asked the Michigan state police (MSP) to join the investigation, noting in a statement that his own traffic detectives had been “limited in their ability” to obtain information from federal agencies.

That death took place Sunday -- the same day that saw ICE in Austin shoot Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez and that left a man in Evanston, Illinois -- a US citizen -- battered and laying in the street.  On the attack in Evanston, Nicolai Haugsted (DAGENS) reports:

Video from the confrontation shows the man on the ground repeatedly insisting that he is an American citizen before the agents eventually release him and drive away. Local police are investigating.
[. . .]
“I’m a f—ing US citizen,” the man can be heard shouting while being restrained.

Moments later, the agents release him. Video then shows them getting into their vehicles and leaving while the man remains face down on the street and bystanders gather around him.

Witness Miguel Angel Olivares told NBC Chicago that the amount of force immediately concerned him.

“They were using very rough force on him, and it looked like they really did hurt him. I did want to go over there and tell them to leave him alone, but at the same time, me being Hispanic, I was kind scared that they don’t know I’m a U.S. citizen,” Olivares said.
[. . .]

Officers found the man on the ground with several people helping him and requested an ambulance after he complained of injuries to his head, neck and teeth.

Police later visited him at a local hospital and photographed his injuries as part of their investigation.

[. . .]

John Sandweg, who served as acting director of ICE and previously held senior positions at DHS during the Obama administration, told CNN that unanswered questions remain about exactly why agents approached the encounter so aggressively.

“Who was the individual they were targeting? Who was the guy they mistook here? Is this someone with a violent criminal history? Why did we have such an aggressive response from the officers?” Sandweg said.

Regardless of those answers, Sandweg argued that the footage raised broader concerns about the use of force.

“This is part of what we’ve seen across the board, where we’ve seen this erosion of accountability, where there’s a rush to defend these agents,” he said.

“And again, case after case after case where we’ve seen a very aggressive tone taken by the officers. It doesn’t always appear justified.”

A US citizen that ICE mistakes -- their mistake -- for someone they're supposed to be rounding up is attacked by ICE and then ICE leaves.  The man's laying in the street.  And ICE leaves.  Even though they've attacked him.  They don't call for medical assistance.  They just run off like the cowards that they truly are.  

The Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin declared yesterday, "DHS is calling on these sanctuary politicians to stop attacking federal law enforcement, stop putting the needs of illegal aliens ahead of the safety of American citizens, and to start working with us to make America safe again." When will Markwayne call on ICE to stop attacking US citizens?  They left one bloodied in Evensville, laying in the street, after they attacked him.  In fact, one of the ICE agents still had blood on his fist when local police caught up with him.  

ICE is not working to make America safe again.  It is working to destroy and harm.  That's the reality that Markwayne doesn't want to face.  ICE is the problem.  And if you can't see that when they're terrorizing US citizens, you're not going to see it when they're terrorizing immigrants.  ICE has shot and killed US citizens -- Renee Nicole Gold and Alex Pretti.  That's not the distant past.  That's the start of this calendar year. 

Chump has othered the immigrant and that's all it takes for some Americans to not care about immigrants.  But even if you set aside that awful treatment, you are still left with ICE attacking and killing -- terror tactics -- US citizens.  Markwayne would be more effective as the Secretary of Homeland Security if he sought punishment for ICE agents whose actions require it.  And there is talk of a class action suit against Homeland Security for their failure to maintain hiring standards and for putting agents out on the streets -- armed -- when they haven't even done background checks on them.  Markwayne's got a lot of problems but sanctuary cities aren't one of them. 



In other news, a Republican senator scooches away from Chump.  Billal Rahman (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Republican Senator Roger Marshall has voiced concerns with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in southwest Kansas, calling on federal agents to coordinate more closely with local law enforcement as immigration raids unfold across the region.

“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement. Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe,” Marshall wrote in a post on X.

“I’m closely following what’s happening in SW Kansas and have been in direct contact with Secretary Mullin and local law enforcement as ICE executes warrants in order to keep Kansans safe.”
0
It comes after local officials reported increased ICE activity in communities including Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal.

Officials in those cities said they were not notified in advance of the federal enforcement operations and learned of them only after agents became visible in their communities. In a joint statement, the cities said leaders “understand the concern and uncertainty this situation has created within our communities,” which “are built on trust, communication, and transparency.”

As the midterms approach, the senator hurries to put some distance between himself and Chump.  It also comes as ICE is seen wasting huge amounts of tax dollars.  Ryan J. Foley (INDEPENDENT) reports: 

 
ICE and other federal agencies have squandered tens of millions of dollars pursuing ill-conceived plans to rapidly expand detention capacity, with ongoing mismanagement likely to drive costs even higher, congressional investigators warned on Thursday.

A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office documented costly problems across several initiatives launched after President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025 and ordered the mass arrest and deportation of people who are in the country illegally.

Key examples of misspending include nearly $3 million spent to erect tents at Guantanamo Bay that were never used, $20 million to maintain purchased warehouses that are now being sold without ever housing a detainee, and excessive rates paid to hold detainees at a deficient and now-closed Florida lockup.


Here's another thing Markwayne can add to his to-do list: Come up with a budget plan.  Foley notes Congress has given ICE  "an unprecedented $45 billion to expand detention capacity last year as part of the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill, but the agency still lacks a comprehensive strategic plan for how to spend it wisely, the report warned."   

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has some work to do as well.  A lot.  And to his long list that he's ignoring, he can add emotional well being of the troops.  Filip Timotija (THE HILL) reports: 

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told a Senate Democrat this week that eight sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a lengthy deployment that included military operations against Iran. 

Cao disclosed the figure, which includes crew on the USS Abraham Lincoln and sailors from its carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, in a four-page letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), which was obtained by The Hill on Wednesday. 

A carrier strike group is a formation typically made up of an aircraft carrier, cruiser, destroyers or frigates and a carrier wing with dozens of aircraft. Sometimes the groups can include submarines. 




Eight sailors attempted suicide?  While serving.  That means there's a problem.  The USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN was a set of its own problems -- a tour that lasted way too long, lack of water and other things on the ship, food rationing, etc.  Hegseth needs to address all of those issues -- especially since reports first came out in April about what was going on onboard the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN and Hegseth dismissed those reports as false back in April.  But he also needs to so some sort of study to determine whether these eight attempts -- and I'm sure many more considered suicide onboard the vessel -- all stem from the failures to adequately stock the ship and the excessive time at sea?  There may be other issues and a study could determine that.  I know Hegseth won't implement one because he doesn't care about the well being of the troops.  







As Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes in the video above, early this morning the court released a verdict.  Erik Wemple (NEW YORK TIMES) explains:

A federal judge on Thursday said that President Trump’s order barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House was likely unconstitutional and ordered the administration to restore access to the three news outlets.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court in Washington granted a 14-day restraining order and told the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the press credentials held by employees of the three outlets.

The news organizations were likely to succeed in their claim that the White House had violated their constitutional due process rights by revoking their press credentials without advance notice or an opportunity to respond, Judge Kelly wrote in the order issued in the early hours of Thursday.

He also rejected, for now, the administration’s argument that revoking the outlets’ press credentials was necessary to protect national security.



In the ruling issued early Thursday, Kelly found the revocation of reporters’ press badges was done without “constitutionally adequate due process.”

The ruling - which comes just hours before Trump is set to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping - means journalists should now be able to return to work at the White House complex.     Some CNN staff, however, were unable to gain access to the White House early Thursday morning. CNN reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist were denied access to the White House grounds in the 6:00 a.m. hour. There was no reason provided for the refusal and CNN will continue to try to gain access as regular business hours start.

One CNN producer was able to enter the White House using their pass after 6:00 a.m. It was not immediately clear why the person had been able to access the building.     

In a normal world, that would be it.  The judge ruled.  The White House complies.  But, no, not in Chump world.  So yesterday started with a temporary ruling saying MS NOW, POLITIO and CNN could not be barred from the White House.  That ruling came down shortly after midnight.  Thursday morning reporters from the three outlets were still struggling to get in.  Then they were finally allowed in and by that evening there was another hiccup.


CNN and MS NOW said their journalists were denied access to Chinese President Xi Jinping's state dinner arrival on Thursday amid the ongoing dispute between the Trump administration and three news organizations.

CNN reported that the White House approved credentials for an audio technician and photojournalist to cover President Xi's arrival, but excluded a reporter and producer. MS NOW said White House reporter Laura Barrón-López was turned away from the arrival ceremony. The organization said it had requested credentials for the event, but had not received a response.

According to the Associated Press, the four other broadcast networks that are part of the so-called "video pool" also declined to air coverage of President Xi's arrival in a show of support for CNN, meaning there was no live broadcast by a major U.S. network.


On the banning itself, NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED addressed that yesterday:


SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Now, part of the Trump administration's argument for banning these new outlets is that their coverage posed a threat to national security. In a letter to Politico, the White House pointed to a story Politico published in June about the U.S. nearing a deal to end the war in Iran. It specifically raised concerns about a quote from an anonymous official, but it turns out the source was reportedly Vice President JD Vance. Oliver Darcy is a media reporter who first broke the story last night. He's the founder of Status, an outlet that covers the media. Welcome.

OLIVER DARCY: Hey. Thanks for having me.

DETROW: So the interesting thing here is the details are not that the vice president was, you know, anonymously tipping off reporters on a burner phone, but I think that makes what happened here even more glaring. Walk us through what happened with the initial reports and Vance's involvement.

DARCY: Yes, this was a sanctioned briefing by the White House. So the White House often holds what are called background briefings. And basically, it means that they'll make a senior official in the administration available to a large group of reporters who listen on a call and they can report what the official says. They're just told that they can only refer to this person anonymously by usually a, you know, description like a senior administration official, as was the case with this June 2026 report that Politico published. What's - you know, this is very common. Republicans and Democrats have been doing this for a long time. It's very common in Washington to be participating in these background briefings.

What's uncommon is a White House, obviously, that attacks and demonizes the press for using anonymous sourcing while often providing that anonymous sourcing in sanctioned calls like the one that JD Vance participated in about the Iran war.

DETROW: Right.

DARCY: And obviously, what's even more abnormal here is then accusing that outlet of endangering national security or spreading falsehoods for participating in a call they were invited to by the White House and following the ground rules of anonymously identifying the official versus just saying JD Vance said this on a call.

DETROW: Right, because even though the quotes are anonymous, this is about as sanctioned as information from a White House can get - these phone calls, these background briefings, like the one in question here. How are news outlets responding to this, the way that the White House has been portraying this, again, official White House call?

DARCY: I mean, I think - I mean, most news outlets, to be clear, actually can't even respond to this because they were part of this background briefing call, which kind of makes this interesting. You haven't seen this broadly reported because most outlets - CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post - they agreed to the rules of this call, which meant that they cannot identify JD Vance as the source of the information. They all published stories about what was said on this background briefing call.

So actually, you're seeing kind of a muted response from a lot of other outlets, which could definitely - they definitely know that JD Vance is the source. They were on this call. We were not on the call, which is why we can identify him, because we never agreed to these rules.

I think in the journalism community, it looks really bad for JD Vance. I mean, this is very embarrassing for the White House. They invited Politico to this call. Politico followed all the rules and reported what JD Vance told reporters on this call. And then the White House, a couple months later, uses that against Politico and accuses them of violating national security or endangering national security. I've been reporting on media for over a decade. I have never seen anything like this. I've always thought it was strange the White House, under Trump, who bashes anonymous sources, holds these background briefing calls, where he - where they require people to anonymously identify officials. I've always thought that was weird and reporters should push back.


 Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


Senators continue to express “concerns about the judgment of the DOJ, and the extent to which the DOJ is willing and able to prosecute white collar criminals under President Trump.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Attorney General Todd Blanche for answers following new revelations that came to light in the criminal case against billionaire Gautam Adani. In particular, new court filings confirmed that after Adani hired President Trump’s personal lawyer, Mr. Adani attorneys conveyed an offer to invest $10 billion in the United States “as part of any resolution of” his criminal matter, after which Adani’s criminal charges were dismissed.  

Senators Warren and Blumenthal initially opened an investigation of this matter in June 2026.

As reported, the new court filings acknowledge… that [Adani] had offered to invest $10 billion in the United States as part of the resolution of his criminal case.”

“The audacity of this statement is astounding,” the senators wrote. “This appears to be an offer of a quid-pro-quo for individual criminal immunity.”

The chain of events was so outside the norm that the overseeing federal judge went out of his way in his order to remark that the DOJ’s decision-making process appeared to be “highly unusual” and that the “irregularities in the decision to dismiss the indictment are concerning.”

New information also indicates that another of the President’s personal lawyers and advisors, Boris Epshteyn, became involved in the case, as well. Mr. Epshteyn reportedly “operat[es] as a connector for clients with business before the Trump Administration” where “[h]e offer[s] to help potential clients solve issues before the administration in exchange for a monthly fee of as much as six figures.”

Given that the new public reports and documents filed with the court provide even more questions about what happened, Senators Warren and Blumenthal are pushing the DOJ to provide the full truth of what happened.

Senator Warren has led the fight to root out corruption and hold the Trump administration accountable:

  • In September 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, pressed James Gadwood, nominee to be Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to make a series of ethics commitments ahead of his September 15 hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. 
  • In August 2026, following a social media post from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to RFK Jr. asking whether he has changed his ethics agreement, and if so, how and when any changes were made. The letter builds on an investigation into whether RFK Jr.’s family may be financially benefitting from a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement he could have influenced as HHS Secretary.
  • In August 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed President Donald Trump on his recent financial disclosures, which reveal 3,555 individual stock trades worth up to half a billion dollars in just the first three months of 2026 and more than 14,000 stock trades worth up to $1.06 billion during Trump’s first year in office. 
  • In August 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and David Gotlib Luxury Cufflinks over the decision to gift President Trump an 18-karat gold, diamond-encrusted ring shortly before the Trump administration announced tariff exemptions on European diamonds. 
  • In June 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Dr. Erich Hernandez-Baquero, a current Raytheon executive nominated for Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, to make a series of ethics commitments, including recusing himself for four years from all matters related to his former employer, committing to not work for a defense contractor for four years after leaving government service, and commit to not lobby the Department of Defense (DoD) for at least four years after leaving his new role.
  • In June 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary; and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, wrote to the Republican Chairs of their respective Committees urging immediate hearings on the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm and its ties to a foreign government that subsequently received advanced U.S. AI chips and a major arms deal.
  • In June 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), along with Representatives Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.), pressed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles following reports that the White House interfered to deliver a lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contract to Vulcan Elements, a key Trump Jr.-linked company.
  • In May 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren pressed the Acting Director-Designate for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), David Venturella, on his decades-long revolving door career between ICE and the private prison industry and his reported use of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel and resources for personal or political favors.
  • In May 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Banning Lobbying And Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act, a bipartisan bill to impose a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress.
  • In February 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), along with Representatives Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) pressed the Inspectors General (IGs) of 16 key agencies to open investigations into senior Trump officials who were recently lobbyists or “shadow lobbyists” and may be using their roles to benefit their former employers and clients.
  • In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on potential conflicts of interest surrounding the awarding of multiple lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and loans to companies associated with President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
  • In December 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) pressed the Trump administration to follow through on promises to limit defense companies’ stock buybacks and incentivize them to increase research and development spending.
  • In December 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called for then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to recuse herself from the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s review of any Warner Bros. merger due to potential conflicts of interest related to her former employer, lobbying firm Ballard Partners.
  • In September 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to Donald Korb, nominee for Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), ahead of Korb’s confirmation hearing, pressing him on his stark conflicts of interest and urging him to make ethics commitments to mitigate these conflicts.
  • In July 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seeking an explanation and further information on his recent decision to start a strategic advisory firm. Austin had publicly promised Senator Warren during his 2021 confirmation process that he would not become a lobbyist after his government service ended.
  • In July 2023, United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Personnel, and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and United States Representatives Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) introduced the Retired Officers Conflict of Interest Act – a bill that would require public reporting on retired service members working on behalf of foreign governments and create civil penalties if they break the law.
  • In December 2020, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) reintroduced the Anti-Corruption & Public Integrity Act to strengthen ethics laws and crack down on government officials’ conflicts of interest across the government.

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