Six days ago, Donald Trump said he would accept the midterm results. On Monday morning, he decided he wouldn’t. The Republican president went on Truth Social, asked whether anybody really believes the election was honest, and ended with a line that says the quiet part out loud: “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!”

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The Post

Trump posted at 10:07 a.m. Monday. He asked how the polls could be so wrong. He claimed some early voting “dumps” were so large that Republicans could not win no matter how many people showed up.

Then he blamed the machines. He offered no evidence. He named no state, no county, no machine. He did not elaborate when the post went up, and election officials nationwide have described this year’s voting as largely routine.

Later that day, reporters asked him directly if the midterms were rigged. He did not say yes. He complained that the early vote numbers were terrible for Republicans, then changed the subject.

“Absolutely Willing”

On election night, as the blue wave rolled in, Trump called The New York Times. Asked if he would accept the results, he said “I am absolutely willing to accept those results.” He said he looked forward to working with Democrats.

He went further on a call with Fox News. “Congratulations to the Democrats,” he said, adding that they fought hard. On 60 Minutes Sunday night, he blamed the losses on the Iran war, high gas prices and weak Republican candidates.

Not one word about machines. Not one word about dumps. That story only showed up after the blame game stopped working.

What the “Dumps” Really Were

Trump’s “dumps” are not a conspiracy. In several Senate races that were supposed to be close, Democrats had enough votes to win before polls even opened on Election Day because so many voters turned out early.

Early votes get counted in big batches. When a lot of people vote early and most of them vote one way, the batch is big and lopsided. That is not fraud. That is what losing badly looks like.

Nevada’s Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar put it plainly to NBC: “The systems worked.” He called the vote a massive rebuke of Trump’s leadership.

The Polls Weren’t Wrong

Trump asked how the polls could be so wrong. They weren’t. Most polls predicted a big Democratic night, including in Texas, where they showed Democrat James Talarico beating Republican Ken Paxton for Senate.

Nate Silver gave Democrats a 96% chance of winning the House and an 80% chance of taking the Senate. Democrats won both.

The polls called it. The voters delivered it. The only thing that missed was the Republican Party.

Even His Own Side Said Stop

This time the pushback came from the right too. Megyn Kelly reposted Trump’s claim with two words: “Just stop.” Alyssa Farah Griffin, who worked in Trump’s first White House, mocked the post too.

CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed at Texas. Republicans run that state top to bottom, and Republicans still lost there. So who rigged it? Abbott? Paxton?

Asked about the post, a White House official told NBC that Trump had always said he would respect the results if the elections were honest. In other words, the escape hatch was built in from the start.

The Same Old Playbook

Trump has run this play before. He claimed fraud after losing the 2016 Iowa caucuses. He claimed fraud after winning in 2016 despite losing the popular vote by almost 3 million. He claimed fraud in 2020, and it ended with a mob in the Capitol.

The shift this time came right after he replaced chief of staff Susie Wiles with MAGA favorite Stephen Miller on Saturday. Before the election, his Justice Department had already sent legal letters to Democratic-led states raising the specter of noncitizen voting and fraud.

There is still no evidence of widespread problems. There were a handful of localized machine issues, handled with backup plans. That’s it.

The Bottom Line

Republicans lost the House and the Senate because voters rejected them. Trump admitted as much on election night and again on 60 Minutes. Now, with nobody left to blame, he’s back to blaming the machines and telling America exactly what he thinks of them: the machine matters more than the voter. Voters disagreed. Loudly.

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Sources: NBC News (Dareh Gregorian, Jane Lytvynenko, David Ingram), The New York Times via Bangkok Post, Democracy Docket, Poynter (Tom Jones), TheWrap (Alex Welch), Common Dreams, and Trump’s Truth Social post.

Donald Trump was asked a simple question on 60 Minutes: could he forgive his enemies if that was the price of getting into heaven? He said no. Then he said it again, in front of the whole country. “I do hate some of my enemies and I always will,” the Republican president told CBS.

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The Question

Ross Douthat sat down with Trump at the White House on Friday. It was his first sit-down interview since Republicans lost the House and the Senate on Tuesday. Near the end, Douthat asked Trump what he thinks happens to him when he dies.

Trump said he is a religious person, so in theory he goes to heaven. Asked if he actually expects to get there, he told Douthat he hopes so and does not want to go to hell.

So Douthat made it concrete. Imagine all you had to do to enter paradise was feel love and forgiveness for James Comey, Nancy Pelosi, and everyone else you have said you hate. Could you do it?

“The Answer Is No”

Trump did not hesitate for long. He admitted the easy answer would be to say yes. But he called his enemies extremely dishonest, very bad people, and said pretending to forgive them would not be real.

Douthat asked if that was a no. Trump said it was. Douthat pushed again: even before the judgment throne of God? Trump confirmed it. Before the judgment, still no.

Douthat reminded him he has lived one of the most charmed lives in American history. Trump said he knew the easy answer was just to say yes. Then he gave the honest one instead: he probably cannot forgive them, because he hates some of his enemies and always will.

He Said It at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial Too

This was not a slip. Douthat built the question around a moment from September 2025. At Charlie Kirk’s memorial in Arizona, his widow Erika Kirk publicly forgave the man accused of killing her husband.

Minutes later, Trump took the same stage and went the other way. He said Kirk did not hate his opponents, but that he disagreed. “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them,” Trump told the crowd.

His press secretary Karoline Leavitt spent the next day trying to explain it away. More than a year later, with time to think it over and a national TV audience watching, Trump gave the exact same answer.

A Week After a Historic Republican Wipeout

The timing makes it worse for the Republican Party. Trump sat for the interview three days after Republicans lost not just Congress, but statewide offices in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina that Democrats had not won in decades.

Trump blamed the loss on candidates who were not him, on the war, on gas prices, and on public anger at Israel. He insisted things would have gone differently if he had been on the ballot.

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote that this was the moment a politician would normally show a softer side. Trump could not manage it. “For Donald Trump, the grievance always comes first,” Kinzinger wrote.

“You Should’ve Had Stock”

Grievance was not the only thing on display. Douthat raised a Forbes estimate that Trump’s net worth has gone up by $3 billion since he returned to office. Trump’s first response was that everyone’s net worth went up.

Douthat pointed out his did not. Trump shot back that the host should have owned stock.

Douthat then pressed him on World Liberty Financial, the family crypto company Trump co-owns, which is partly owned by investors connected to the government of the United Arab Emirates. Trump claimed he knows nothing about it, said a son watches over his money, and refused to commit to divesting. He argued every president going back to George Washington has had conflicts of interest.

Trump’s Side

Trump framed his answer as honesty. In the interview, he said his enemies put him through years of what he called weaponization, pointing to his indictments and his two impeachments.

He also said he loves the country far more than he can love people like Comey and Pelosi.

The Bottom Line

The Republican president was handed the easiest question of his career and the easiest answer in the world. Say you would try to forgive. Instead, a week after voters threw his party out of power, Donald Trump looked into a camera and promised to hate his enemies forever, heaven or not. That is not a man reflecting on defeat. That is a man telling you exactly who he is.

Sources: CBS News 60 Minutes interview transcript (correspondent Ross Douthat; produced by Andy Court and Graham Messick), AL.com, The Daily Beast (Erkki Forster), New York Post, and Adam Kinzinger’s newsletter.

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A private prison company offered to sell an empty Minnesota prison to the state for $75 million. The state said no. One year later, the Trump administration paid $495.6 million for the same building. Now that company is begging ICE to buy more before Democrats take control of Congress.

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A $420 Million Markup

In August, the Department of Homeland Security bought the vacant Prairie Correctional Facility in tiny Appleton, Minnesota from CoreCivic. The price in the federal purchase agreement: $495,639,588.

KARE 11 investigative reporter A.J. Lagoe found that CoreCivic had offered the exact same prison to Minnesota’s Department of Corrections in May 2025. That offer was $75 million, and it even included the upgrades needed to reopen it. Snopes independently checked the records and rated the story true.

That gap is more than $420 million in taxpayer money. Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said he was stunned. “It’s beyond comprehension,” he told KARE 11.

The Company Was Trying to Dump It

CoreCivic was not holding out for top dollar. In a May 7, 2025 email obtained through a public records request, a CoreCivic executive offered the prison for “$75M inclusive of the upgrades CoreCivic has identified” to reactivate it.

Minnesota passed. Officials cited the cost, the remote location nearly three hours from the Twin Cities, and the challenge of staffing a facility that needs roughly 500 workers.

ICE had no such concerns. On top of the purchase price, CoreCivic got a five-year contract to run the place. The company expects it to bring in about $75 million a year once it is fully running. That is the original asking price, every single year.

Four Prisons, $2.2 Billion

Appleton was not a one-off. This summer, CoreCivic sold four detention centers to the Trump administration for a combined $2.2 billion. Most of them were buildings ICE was already using.

San Diego’s Otay Mesa Detention Center went for $739.2 million. Local reporting found that was more than four times its reported book value. The Leavenworth, Kansas facility sold for $238.4 million.

CoreCivic’s own filings tell the story. The sales produced a gain of about $1.8 billion, and quarterly net income hit $1.34 billion, up from $26.3 million a year earlier. The CEO called the sales “cash generating events”. The company is using the windfall to pay down debt and buy back its own stock.

“Move Quickly” Before Democrats Arrive

Two days after Democrats won back Congress, CoreCivic’s new CEO Lucibeth Mayberry got questions from nervous investors on Thursday’s earnings call. Would the Republican gravy train keep running?

Her answer was blunt. “We would urge the ICE administration to move quickly,” she said, adding that there was no reason to wait. Rival Geo Group expects to sell four more centers to DHS by the end of the year.

The rush makes sense. Mayberry pointed out that Congress gave DHS billions for immigration detention, available through fiscal year 2029, and said the company sees no reason DHS would stop spending until the money is gone. Starting in January, Republicans will no longer control who asks questions about it.

“A Waste of Our Time”

The Trump administration says it has declared war on fraud and waste. So KARE 11 asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about the $420 million overpayment at an Oct. 30 press event.

Bessent said he didn’t know anything about it. Then he called the question “a waste of our time” and said the administration was there to prosecute criminal fraud.

This came weeks after the Government Accountability Office warned that ICE has wasted taxpayer money on failed detention projects, including $1.07 billion on 11 warehouses it later walked away from. The GAO also said ICE has not assessed whether it can afford to own these facilities long term.

Donors, Questions and a Coming Reckoning

KARE 11 found federal records showing CoreCivic gave $500,000 to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee. Individuals tied to the company gave $223,223 to the Republican National Committee in 2024, according to OpenSecrets data cited by Snopes.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has called on Congress to investigate why Trump paid almost half a billion dollars to a Trump donor. Rep. Pramila Jayapal says the private prison CEOs can expect to be called to testify. Rep. Rosa DeLauro wants to claw back the billions Republicans handed ICE.

The other side: DHS says the price was set through the standard federal appraisal process using replacement cost, and that the $75 million figure was a preliminary, non-binding number. CoreCivic says any allegation of fraud or corruption is categorically false and defamatory. No charges have been filed, and no evidence has surfaced disputing the company’s denial.

The Bottom Line

The Republican administration that lectures Minnesota about fraud paid $420 million more than the asking price for an empty prison, handed the seller a $75 million-a-year contract on top, and called questions about it a waste of time. The company that cashed in is now racing to sell more before anyone with subpoena power shows up. Democrats should make sure they get there first.

Sources: KARE 11 (A.J. Lagoe; Jeremiah Jacobsen), Snopes (Rae Deng), The Independent, The Washington Sun (Jackie Llanos), Project Salt Box (Michael Wriston), CoreCivic filings and statements.

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Pete Hegseth is fighting for his job. And he’s using your money to do it. The Pentagon confirmed that Defense Department staff recorded and produced Hegseth’s self-promoting video attacking Democrats, a Republican congressman and everyone else calling for him to go. Government watchdogs say it probably violated federal law.

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Pentagon Staff Made It, On Your Dime

The video dropped Thursday, two days after Republicans got crushed in the midterms. Hegseth stands outside the Pentagon and goes after Joe Biden and the members of Congress, from both parties, who want him resigned or fired. He defends the deeply unpopular Iran war and heaps praise on Donald Trump.

Hegseth’s office admitted Friday that the video was recorded and produced by Defense Department staff. It refused to answer questions about what it cost, or whether anyone checked it against federal legal and ethics rules.

He did not hold back. “They attack me, they attack us, because we are effective,” Hegseth told the camera. Translation: the Republican defense secretary turned the Pentagon’s media shop into his personal campaign studio.

Watchdogs: This Probably Broke the Law

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says the video hits three laws at once. CREW president Donald Sherman called the pro-Trump remarks a clear violation of the ban on spending federal money on propaganda. He said the repeated pitches for funding bills break the anti-lobbying statute, and the attacks on Democrats are a potential Hatch Act violation.

Common Cause agreed. Its Abigail Bellows said using social media to go after Democrats is a violation of the law, whether or not Hegseth is “re-auditioning” for his job.

The Hatch Act bars federal employees, Cabinet secretaries included, from activity aimed at the success or failure of a political party while on duty or inside a federal building. Hegseth filmed it at the Pentagon. With Pentagon staff.

Even Republicans Are Balking

This isn’t just Democrats complaining. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who cast a deciding vote to confirm Hegseth, had a blunt warning: “Cabinet secretaries shouldn’t be wasting taxpayer dollars on campaign-style videos.”

Tillis pointed to Kristi Noem, Trump’s former homeland security secretary, who ran a $200 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign shortly before Trump replaced her. Even Republican Rep. James Comer, one of Trump’s fiercest defenders, declined to back Hegseth on Friday and said lawmakers have a lot of questions about him.

House Armed Services ranking member Adam Smith summed it up: “I think there are enough Republicans who want him gone.”

A Pattern of Partisan Propaganda

This is not the first time. In May, the Pentagon posted a video on Hegseth’s official X account showing a comic-book Biden smashing an ice cream cone into his own face while Hegseth trashed his record on the military.

And it runs straight to the top. Trump himself was sued before Election Day for diverting more than $20 million in taxpayer money into an ad campaign bragging about his own accomplishments. After Thursday’s video, Pentagon political appointees pushed out matching “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.” graphics, and the official White House account posted its own video praising Hegseth.

Who Will Enforce It? Nobody.

Here’s the catch. Hatch Act cases go to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Trump fired that independent agency’s head early in his second term. Watchdog groups say enforcement is unlikely.

Joe Spielberger of the Project on Government Oversight added that the special counsel usually avoids going after Cabinet-level officials at all. So Republicans gutted the referee, and now the players write their own rules.

The Impeachment Clock Is Ticking

Hegseth called Republican Rep. Thomas Massie “disgruntled” and his impeachment articles a “sham.” Massie, who has opposed the Iran war, says he will reintroduce them Monday or Tuesday and believes support has grown since the election.

Under House rules, the chamber must take up the articles within two days. Fox News’ Chad Pergram reports that the odds of the House actually impeaching Hegseth are increasingly high, as more Republicans look to distance themselves from Trump and the war that cost them Congress.

The Pentagon’s side: spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth is “100% committed” to leading the department through Trump’s term, dismissing the push as a sham witch hunt from Democrats. Trump says Hegseth is doing a great job. No investigation has been opened and no finding has been made on the video.

The Bottom Line

Republicans lost Congress over an unpopular war. Instead of answering for it, the Republican defense secretary drafted Pentagon staff, on the public payroll, to film a campaign ad for himself. Then he refused to say what it cost. That’s not defending the republic. That’s billing it.

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Sources: The Washington Post (Tara Copp, with Noah Robertson), CBC News, Quartz, The Daily Signal (Virginia Grace McKinnon), Fox News (Chad Pergram), Conservative Daily News citing the Associated Press.

Republicans just got wiped out across the country. So Donald Trump has a new idea for the one Senate seat he might still save: take other people’s votes and give them to his guy. In a Truth Social post, Trump demanded that ballots cast for two other candidates in Alaska be handed to trailing Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, and the election declared over. That is not how voting works anywhere in America.

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The Post

On Thursday, Trump wrote that the votes for the “Fake Dan Sullivan,” plus a second candidate he called a slug the Democrats put on the ballot, should be handed straight to the real Sullivan. Then he declared the race over. “There is no other fair solution!”

There is another fair solution. It’s called counting the ballots. Alaska is still doing exactly that, and the count isn’t done.

The Republican president wasn’t asking for a recount or an audit. He was asking election officials to ignore what thousands of Alaskans actually marked on their ballots.

The Count

Democrat Mary Peltola leads Sullivan by just 637 first-choice votes, 102,962 to 102,325, in the latest preliminary results. Tens of thousands of early, absentee and rural ballots are still waiting to be counted.

Rural precincts have strongly favored Peltola, who is Yup’ik from Western Alaska. A New York Times analysis of the state’s ranked choice data found she is likely to keep her lead.

Peltola’s campaign says the outstanding ballots will extend her margin. Sullivan’s campaign claims its own math shows him winning, but that analysis left out more than 10,000 rural votes.

The “Slug”

The “slug” Trump was talking about is Gerald Heikes, a perennial candidate from Palmer. He is running in third with 4,846 votes. He is also a Republican.

The New York Times reported Heikes agreed to run after a visit from a Midwest political operative. Heikes himself wasn’t thrilled to learn the president called him a slug. He told the Anchorage Daily News Trump “obviously has been an ignorant fool on this.”

The “Fake Dan Sullivan” is Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg, in fourth with 3,600 votes. A state judge put him back on the ballot after Republican-run election officials tried to remove him.

What Alaska Law Says

Alaska uses ranked-choice voting. If nobody tops 50 percent, the last-place candidate is eliminated and those ballots go to each voter’s next choice. That repeats until someone wins. Tabulation starts Nov. 18.

So Heikes and the other Sullivan’s voters already have a say in who wins. Their second choices will count. Trump wants to skip that and award every one of those ballots to Sullivan, no matter who those voters ranked next.

University of Washington law professor Jeff Feldman, who has litigated extensively in Alaska, told Newsweek there is no legal mechanism to do that. “Alaska law is crystal clear,” he said.

He Already Tried This in Court

This isn’t just a rant. Before Election Day, Trump’s Justice Department filed an unusual preemptive lawsuit asking that Alaska not certify the result if Sullivan lost by fewer votes than the other Sullivan received.

A federal judge in Alaska threw the case out. DOJ appealed, but the Ninth Circuit’s schedule doesn’t even take the state’s arguments until Jan. 11, long after the Nov. 25 certification and the Jan. 3 swearing-in.

Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, one of several people who got a DOJ target letter this week according to the AP, put it bluntly: Trump is now demanding on social media what his DOJ already lost in court.

What They Say

Sullivan and Trump call the second Dan Sullivan part of a Democratic plot. Sullivan’s campaign calls it the “biggest election cheating scandal in the history of Alaska.” Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a criminal investigation after a New York Times report that operatives aligned with Peltola helped recruit spoiler candidates.

No one has been charged. Legal experts cited by the Anchorage Daily News say the reported conduct doesn’t appear unlawful, and officials haven’t said what law was broken.

Peltola denies any role. “I am not interested in tricking voters,” she said in October.

The Bottom Line

Voters just handed Republicans a historic beating, and Trump’s answer is to hand himself the votes. Ballots belong to the people who cast them, not to the president’s favorite senator. Count every vote in Alaska, and let the result stand, whoever wins.

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Sources: Anchorage Daily News (Alex DeMarban), Alaska’s News Source (KTUU), Newsweek (Steve Mollman), Axios, FactCheck.org (Robert Farley).

Donald Trump Jr. swore the Russian oligarch who bankrolled his wedding was just a friend. Now two sources say that oligarch, a Putin favorite, told them the two sat down in Kazakhstan this year for business meetings. Kazakhstan is the same country where the Trump sons hold a stake in a mining venture backed by up to $1.6 billion in US government financing. The Republican first family’s Russia problem is back.

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The Kazakhstan Meetings

The oligarch is Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association. Two people who know him independently told Important Stories that Kremlev said he and Don Jr. met in Kazakhstan to discuss business deals earlier this year.

Kremlev called them “business meetings,” according to the sources. Both spoke anonymously for their safety. They did not say what deals were on the table.

Don Jr. has never hidden the friendship. In 2025 he stood on stage with Kremlev at a boxing association meeting in Istanbul and called him a leader and a friend.

The Wedding Bill

In September, ProPublica revealed that Kremlev secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Don Jr.’s May wedding weekend in the Bahamas. He rented out a private island that goes for about $100,000 a night, for multiple nights. He covered the fireworks show. His team helped plan the party.

The money came through a Dubai entity tied to his boxing association, which Russian state energy giant Gazprom has financed.

After the story broke, Don Jr. and his wife thanked “our dear friend” Umar on Instagram for hosting two nights of festivities. At the time, his spokesperson told ProPublica Kremlev was not a business partner.

Putin’s Guy

Kremlev is not some random rich fan. In April, Vladimir Putin personally awarded him the Order of Friendship, a high state honor. Days before Don Jr.’s wedding, he traveled to China in Putin’s delegation, according to Chinese state media.

Ukraine has sanctioned Kremlev personally, citing his closeness to Putin and Russian security services. He does not appear on public US sanctions lists. A former boxing association board member told ProPublica, “Umar is guided by Putin.”

The OCCRP sources say he rides in official Rosgvardia vehicles with armed guards. That level of protection is reserved for top officials and people Putin designates.

The Rap Sheet

The independent Russian outlet Proekt reported in 2024 that Kremlev owes his business empire to a powerful friend: Alexei Rubezhnoi, the head of Putin’s personal security service.

Proekt also reported that Kremlev, born Umar Lutfulloyev in Tajikistan, was convicted of extortion in 2004 and battery in 2007 before changing his name in 2010. OCCRP says leaked law enforcement databases confirm this. His press office told ProPublica his legal record is completely clean.

After Rubezhnoi took over Russia’s boxing federation in 2017, Kremlev rose fast. He bought the country’s largest car dealership from the state, and a company he co-owned became Russia’s exclusive payments platform for sports betting by Putin’s designation.

The Kazakhstan Money

Here’s why the location matters. The Financial Times reported that Don Jr. and Eric Trump took a stake in a construction company called Skyline Builders in 2025. Skyline then bought 20 percent of Kaz Resources, a company built to mine one of the world’s largest tungsten deposits in central Kazakhstan.

Six days later, the US and Kazakh governments announced a deal giving a company in that investment group access to the deposits. Two federal agencies, the Export-Import Bank and the Development Finance Corporation, then signaled up to $1.6 billion in financing for the project.

So the president’s sons have money riding on Kazakhstan, backed by US taxpayer financing. And a Putin-decorated oligarch reportedly went there to talk deals with one of them.

What They Say

A spokesperson for Don Jr. told Important Stories the two are personal friends who have never done any business deals together and have no plans to.

Kremlev did not respond to questions. An assistant said she could not comment.

The Bottom Line

The son of a Republican president let a Putin ally pay for his wedding, called him a friend, and now reportedly met him in the one country where the Trump sons are cashing in on a $1.6 billion government-backed mining deal. Don Jr. says it’s all friendship. After Trump Tower 2016, nobody should take a Trump’s word on Russian “friends” again.

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Sources: OCCRP and Important Stories; ProPublica (Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski); Financial Times via bne IntelliNews; USA Today; France 24.

Voters just delivered a crushing verdict on Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Democrats flipped at least seven Republican Senate seats and took back both chambers of Congress. Republicans lost in Texas, Kansas, Ohio and South Carolina, states Trump won easily two years ago. And in Mississippi, a Republican senator is clinging to her seat by a few dozen votes.

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A Senate Map Republicans Thought Was Safe

Democrats flipped Republican Senate seats in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. They also held Georgia and Michigan. That handed Democrats control of the Senate in January.

Kansas had not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century. Adam Hamilton just did it. In Maine, five-term Republican Susan Collins conceded to Democrat Troy Jackson. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown came back to beat Republican Jon Husted.

Texas Turns Blue

Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued Republican attorney general, lost the Texas Senate race to Democrat James Talarico. Talarico won by about 12 points with nearly all the vote counted, ending a 38-year Democratic losing streak in statewide races.

It got worse for Texas Republicans. Democrat Gina Hinojosa ousted Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had been seen as the heavy favorite. Republicans had redrawn Texas House maps to grab five new seats. Instead, they may end up losing one.

The House Is Gone, and So Is the Speaker

Democrats flipped more than two dozen House seats, some in districts Trump won by double digits. They are projected to hold 245 seats to Republicans’ 166. Embattled Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio lost his seat.

By Wednesday morning, the Republican leader was gone too. Speaker Mike Johnson told staff he will not run to lead House Republicans in the next Congress. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are already fighting over what is left.

Mississippi: 43 Votes

The most stunning race may still be going. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom leads Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 43 votes out of more than 925,000. About 44,000 votes are left to count, and counties have five business days to count absentee and affidavit ballots.

Trump won Mississippi by 20 points. The state has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. Colom is a 43-year-old district attorney who ran on cost of living and health care. Colom told supporters the results are “all trending in our direction.”

Republicans Panicked in Mississippi

Hyde-Smith brushed off the warning signs. Two weeks out, her campaign called a tightening race a “last-ditch effort” by Washington insiders. Then Republicans rushed in. Trump announced a Mississippi rally for her eight days before the election, and the Senate Leadership Fund spent more than $1 million to save her.

Hyde-Smith has not conceded. On election night she told supporters she was in “a very good lead” and would remain their senator. The race has no runoff. Whoever has the most votes wins.

Trump Blames Everyone but Himself

Trump headlined 30 rallies and told voters to act like he was on the ballot. When his hand-picked candidate in South Carolina, Darline Graham, lost, he reacted mid-interview: “Wow, that’s amazing.”

Then he blamed his absence from the ballot. He told The New York Times he regrets nothing and called his two years back in office the most successful in history.

The Bottom Line

Trump said this election was about him, and voters believed him. They tore through Texas, Kansas and South Carolina, and they have Mississippi on a knife’s edge. The Republican Party just found out what America thinks of MAGA, and it is not close.

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Sources: The Guardian; BBC (Anthony Zurcher); NBC News (Scott Wong, Julie Tsirkin, Sahil Kapur, Kyle Stewart); CBS News; Fox News; WDAM (Brooke Parker); WLOX; The Mississippi Independent; NewsNation; The Daily Beast, citing The New York Times; AP.

Trump’s biggest backers handed him about $1.7 billion. A new report says they have gotten, or will get, about $183 billion in return. That’s contracts, tax breaks, tariff exemptions and dropped enforcement cases from a Republican administration that keeps rewarding the people who pay. Voters head to the polls today.

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The Money In

The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, identified more than 75 people and companies that gave money to Trump, his family, his businesses, his political machine or his vanity projects since 2023.

The total is about $1.7 billion. That includes $686.8 million for his political operations, $466 million for his presidential library (counting Qatar’s 747 jet), about $55 million for his inauguration, and $148 million for the White House ballroom.

On top of that, more than $360 million went straight to the Trump family or their businesses. The authors stopped counting on Sept. 30.

The Money Out

Here’s what that money bought. CAP puts the benefits at about $183 billion, and calls that conservative. Some of it is still rolling in and will keep coming over the next decade.

It doesn’t even count future profits from gutted environmental rules, weaker securities laws and looser antitrust enforcement.

Even if you strip out the two biggest outliers, the total still tops $117 billion. CAP’s vice president of research put it bluntly: policymaking now runs “for and by the highest bidder.”

Elon’s $14 Billion Return

No one paid in like Elon Musk. He and his companies put about $394.9 million into MAGA causes, nearly all of it through his pro-Trump America PAC.

CAP credits Musk-linked companies with more than $14 billion in benefits. One example: the Justice Department dropped a discrimination lawsuit against SpaceX, which has also picked up new government contracts.

Count Musk’s companies, and the dropped enforcement cases alone are worth nearly $3 billion in penalties these donors may have avoided.

Ballroom Buddies

Apple gave $25 million toward Trump’s ballroom, and then-CEO Tim Cook put $1 million into the inauguration. After Cook met with Trump, the administration exempted Chinese electronic components from tariffs. CAP says that saved Apple about $21 billion.

Palantir and its executives gave $12 million to Trump causes, including the ballroom. The Army then rolled dozens of Palantir contracts into one deal worth up to $10 billion over a decade.

Lockheed Martin gave $16 million, including $5 million from its Sikorsky unit for a new White House helipad. It has since landed $44.8 billion in new or expanded contracts.

Oil, Menthols and Nursing Homes

Eleven fossil fuel players gave about $65 million. CAP says Trump’s policies, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are worth $31.2 billion to them. Some of their people also got jobs regulating their own industry.

Reynolds American, maker of Newport, gave $20.5 million to Trump entities. The day after Trump returned to office, his administration withdrew the FDA’s proposed menthol cigarette ban. That protects about $6 billion in revenue.

Two medical and nursing home donors gave nearly $18 million. Rolled-back and delayed rules could save the nursing home industry up to $55.1 billion over the next decade.

What They Say

CAP doesn’t claim to prove a criminal quid pro quo. Its researchers say they are documenting the money, the timing and the benefits, and following the data.

The Army told the Daily Beast its contracts follow federal procurement law and are handled by independent contracting officers. The White House, Apple, SpaceX, Tesla, Palantir, Lockheed Martin and British American Tobacco were contacted, and none of their responses were reported.

The Bottom Line

Trump’s donors put in $1.7 billion and walked away with about $183 billion. That’s roughly a hundred dollars back for every dollar given. Republicans built a government where the biggest checks get the best deals. Today, voters get to decide whether that’s worth keeping.

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Sources: Center for American Progress (Devon Ombres, Ryan Koronowski, Will Ragland, Jackie Lewis); The Daily Beast (Harry Thompson).

One of Republican Mike Collins’ hand-picked campaign leaders has been charged with child molestation. Police say Andre Stafford pulled up next to a girl walking to her school bus and exposed himself. Collins’ campaign had promoted him as a face of its grassroots army. The election is tomorrow.

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What Police Say Happened

On the morning of Oct. 15, a girl was walking to her bus stop in Smyrna, in Cobb County. According to the arrest warrant, a driver pulled up beside her, told her she was pretty and exposed himself before driving off. The Daily Beast reports the girl is under 16.

A Flock license plate camera caught a gray 2024 Kia Forte entering the area minutes earlier. Stafford is the registered owner. The girl then picked him out of a photo lineup.

Stafford is charged with felony child molestation and public indecency. A Cobb County judge initially denied him bond, ruling that he posed a danger to the community. He was later released.

Collins’ “Convoy Captain”

Stafford wasn’t some random face in a crowd. The Collins campaign listed him as its “convoy captain” for Cobb County, the same county where the alleged crime took place.

Convoy captains are the volunteer leaders Collins is counting on to beat Sen. Jon Ossoff. The campaign’s own X account featured Stafford saying only Collins could send Ossoff packing, and bragged about having 800+ captains in all 159 counties.

Stafford, 26, is also a Republican candidate himself, running for Georgia House District 42. In a post he has since deleted, he thanked Collins for endorsing him.

Not the First Time

This is not the first scandal in the program. In October, the Daily Beast found that another Collins convoy captain, Brett Benny Langham, pleaded guilty in 2014 to felony cruelty to children and sexual battery. The case involved his stepdaughter, who was under 16.

The same reporting tied at least two other Collins captains to American Patriots USA, a far-right group founded by a former Klan leader. One of them denied being racist and said the group was never a hate group.

So this is three scandals in one program, all from a Republican who has run as tough on crime.

Ossoff: Shut It Down

Ossoff has been calling on Collins for weeks to disband his “convoy captains program”, citing its reported links to the Klan and to people with criminal histories involving children.

The program kept going. At a stop in Savannah a week later, Ossoff repeated the demand while those 800-plus volunteers were still knocking on Georgia doors.

Stafford’s own opponent, Democratic state Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, said every student deserves to be safe at the bus stop in their own neighborhood.

The MAGA Photo Album

Stafford got around in Georgia Republican circles. He was photographed with a string of GOP officials, including lieutenant governor candidate Greg Dolezal, Rep. Barry Loudermilk and state Rep. Houston Gaines, who is running for Collins’ House seat.

The Daily Beast also found photos of him with Rick Jackson, the Trump-endorsed billionaire running for governor. Dolezal had publicly cheered Stafford’s run for office before the arrest.

The Gaines and Jackson campaigns say they have no ties to Stafford and that their candidates take photos with lots of people at events.

What They Say

Stafford denies everything. Asked if he would quit his race, he told FOX 5: “I have no reason to drop out, I am innocent.” He has not been convicted of anything.

The Collins campaign now says Stafford “volunteered on many campaigns across the state this year, including ours.” The campaign also called the charges sickening and said that if they’re true, Stafford belongs on a list and behind bars.

The Bottom Line

Mike Collins built a Republican army of 800 convoy captains and put them on Georgia’s doorsteps. One is now charged with exposing himself to a schoolgirl. Another pleaded guilty to crimes against his own stepdaughter. Ossoff told Collins to shut the program down. It kept knocking on doors anyway. Tomorrow, Georgia gets the final say.

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Sources: The Daily Beast (Laura Esposito); FOX 5 Atlanta; Atlanta News First; WJCL; Jon Ossoff.

The Trump administration went after $1.25 billion that Congress set aside for disaster relief and peacekeeping. It tried to steer that money to the Board of Peace, a body Donald Trump created and can chair until he decides to quit. A new Senate report says nobody set up the basic rules for tracking where the money goes. And officials couldn’t say whether any of it could end up paying Trump himself.

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The $1.25 Billion Shuffle

On Oct. 29, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report on the administration’s effort to redirect $1.25 billion in humanitarian and peacekeeping aid toward the Board of Peace.

Look at where that money came from. In March, State Department officials pulled $1 billion from international disaster assistance, $200 million from peacekeeping and $50 million from international organizations, according to a person familiar with the funding.

That’s money Congress approved for earthquakes, famines and peacekeepers. The Trump administration wanted it for a board run by Trump.

A Board Built Around One Man

Under the Board’s own charter, Donald J. Trump serves as its chairman. The charter sets no end date. A U.S. official told ABC News that Trump can keep the chairmanship until he resigns, even after he leaves the White House.

The chairman has broad power. He alone can create or dissolve the Board’s subsidiary bodies. Countries that hand over more than $1 billion in cash in the first year get to skip the normal three-year membership limit.

Then Trump signed an executive order granting the Board legal immunities that normally go to international organizations. Under federal law, that status can shield an organization from lawsuits and searches.

No Rules, No Answers

The report says that Trump, while chairing the Board, did not set up any of the financial monitoring and staff-vetting procedures normally required before U.S. money goes to an international organization.

It gets worse. According to the report, administration officials could not say whether U.S. funds could be used to personally pay Trump, either now or after his presidency.

Shaheen raised the same alarm back in June. She wrote that State officials couldn’t answer basic questions in a briefing, including who works for the Board and how U.S. money would be monitored. The new report says officials still couldn’t answer them.

Where Is the Money?

Trump has promised the Board $10 billion of American money. Nobody outside it can say how much has actually arrived.

The Board has no public budget and no public staff count. In September, Board officials said they had called in just $280 million of the roughly $18 billion pledged by the U.S. and other countries. They said the slow pace was deliberate.

In June, it was reported that some foreign contributions were going into a JPMorgan account instead of a planned World Bank fund. Meanwhile, Gaza is still waiting for rebuilding to start.

Part of a Pattern

The Board of Peace isn’t the only case in the report. It also says the administration tried to shift or withhold nearly $400 million that Congress designated for Ukraine and Europe.

It says close to $1 billion in refugee aid was moved to the Department of Homeland Security for deportations. In total, Senate Democrats put the cost of Trump’s foreign policy waste at as much as $22 billion.

Over the same period, the report says Trump’s family made about $260 million from selling a stake in World Liberty Financial. Shaheen summed it up: “The presidency is a public trust, not a private business opportunity.”

What They Say

The report comes from the committee’s Democratic minority staff. It is not an audit, and it lands days before Tuesday’s midterms. In March, the State Department said it had nothing to announce about the transfer, and the White House did not comment. No public response to the new report has been found.

Trump defends the Board. At the United Nations in September, he said its money goes “right to the source” for people in Gaza. The Board’s top official said it doesn’t want money sitting idle before projects are ready.

All 10 senators who signed the report are Democrats. Not one Republican on the committee put their name on it.

The Bottom Line

Congress set this money aside for disaster victims and peacekeepers. The Trump administration tried to hand it to a board that Trump chairs with no end date and that has no public budget. Nobody has set up rules to track the money, and officials couldn’t say whether it could end up paying him. Republicans who run the Senate didn’t sign on to demanding answers. On Tuesday, voters can.

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Sources: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats (Sen. Jeanne Shaheen); Semafor (Eleanor Mueller); JNS (Mike Wagenheim); MS NOW (Julia Jester); ABC News; Washington Signal; Board of Peace charter; Federal Register.

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is now being sued by his own former patients. A class action filed Thursday says his OB-GYN practice charged struggling mothers 18% interest on their medical bills. Kansas law caps it at 15%. And it lands days before Kansans decide whether to send him back to the Senate.

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The Lawsuit

The suit was filed in Barton County District Court against Marshall and his former practice, Heartland Regional OBGYN in Great Bend. It accuses them of a “callous and predatory” debt-collection scheme aimed at patients who were often low-income, uninsured or underinsured.

The core claim is simple. Marshall’s practice frequently tacked 18% annual interest onto unpaid bills. Kansas law says 15% is the limit.

The plaintiffs want the case certified as a class action, plus restitution, damages and a jury trial. These are allegations. No court has ruled on them.

Arrested Three Times Over a Baby Delivery Bill

The lead plaintiff is Meischa Zimmerman. She was Marshall’s obstetrics patient in 2009. His practice sued her over a $3,596 bill for delivering her child, plus 18% interest.

According to the filing, collection on that debt led to her arrest on three separate occasions. The New York Times reported that one of those arrests came while she was eight months pregnant, at home with her 2-year-old daughter.

Zimmerman has also appeared in a TV ad for Marshall’s Democratic opponent, the Rev. Adam Hamilton.

700 Patients Sued, 81 Arrested

This didn’t come out of nowhere. In September, the Times revealed that Marshall sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills during his medical career. In 81 cases, patients were arrested after missing court dates.

Some of those bills were as small as $101. Wages and bank accounts were garnished. Many cases dragged on for years as collection attorneys kept renewing them, with interest piling up the whole time.

No Other Doctor Came Close

Marshall’s defense was that this was normal. He called his practices “very common.”

The Kansas City Star checked. It reviewed records for roughly 150 medical practices across Kansas. Marshall’s 18% rate was by far the highest. The Star found no other provider charging a specified rate above 12%.

Marshall’s own former lawyer told the Star it was Marshall’s office that decided how much interest to charge.

What the Suit Claims

The filing lists four causes of action: usury, unjust enrichment from keeping the excess interest, breach of good faith for collecting it without disclosure, and breach of fiduciary duty to his own patients.

It says many patients had no insurance, or plans with deductibles that left them owing big balances. Some had to choose between medical bills and groceries.

To get around the statute of limitations, the suit argues the clock was paused because the practice hid the problem. Patients only learned the rates may have been illegal from news reports this fall, it says.

The Senate Race

Kansas hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1932. Marshall was supposed to cruise. Instead, polls show a toss-up against Hamilton, a Methodist minister from Johnson County.

Earlier this week, 750 Kansas medical professionals signed a letter raising concerns about Marshall’s debt collection. He now sits on the Senate committees that write health care policy, including Finance and HELP.

Marshall’s Response

Marshall declined to comment on the lawsuit and referred questions to his communications team, which did not respond Thursday night. When the Times story broke, he dismissed it as election-year politics, saying it treated a rural doctor keeping the hospital’s lights on as a scandal. His lawyers also sent Hamilton a cease-and-desist letter over an ad about the issue.

The Bottom Line

A Republican senator who writes health care law sued hundreds of his own patients, got dozens of them arrested, and now stands accused of charging mothers interest above the legal limit. He calls it common. The records show no other Kansas practice came close. Kansas voters get the final word on Tuesday.

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Sources: Kansas Reflector (Dale Hogg), via KMUW and The Iola Register; The New York Times, via MS NOW (Steve Benen); The Kansas City Star; KWCH; UPI.

Alina Habba landed a deal worth more than $50 million from the family of a billionaire who wanted a Trump pardon. Weeks after she started, he got it. Now Donald Trump is angry, and not about the pardon. According to The New York Times, he wants some of the money for his presidential library.

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Trump Erupted

Trump erupted last week after learning the size of the contract his former personal lawyer had signed, the Times reported Thursday. He told aides and allies she should donate part of it to his future presidential library or another Trump-related entity.

He also told at least one ally that the family should stop paying out the rest of the contract, and that message reached them. Trump called Habba, who now goes by Alina Habba Mildon, to talk about the deal. The Times says it’s not known whether he asked her for a donation directly or only suggested it to others.

The $50 Million Job

The family belongs to Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan billionaire banker. His daughter, Isabela Herrera, set up a Florida company called Concord Partners in late October 2025. Days later, Habba signed on as its general counsel. The pay was $10 million a year for four years, plus bonuses, for more than $50 million guaranteed.

Concord Partners has no public profile. The Times reported that even some people around the Herrera business empire don’t know what it does. People familiar with the contract told the paper they believed Habba was brought in to help with the pardon push, and they were surprised by the size of the pay.

She Was Still at the Justice Department

When Habba finalized the deal, she was a senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi, overseeing U.S. attorneys. She had a Justice Department office and a U.S. Marshals protective detail left over from her time as Trump’s U.S. attorney in New Jersey.

She left that post in December 2025 after federal judges ruled her appointment was unlawful. Because she was a special government employee, she could legally hold an outside job under conflict-of-interest rules. She says the Justice Department vetted and approved it.

Then Came the Pardon

Herrera Velutini was charged in 2022 in an alleged scheme to bribe Puerto Rico’s governor into firing a regulator who was investigating his bank. In August 2025 he got an unusually lenient plea deal for a single misdemeanor campaign finance charge. Career prosecutors had wanted tougher sentences.

Habba started at Concord Partners on Jan. 1, 2026. Weeks later, Trump gave Herrera Velutini a full and unconditional pardon. He pardoned the former governor and a former FBI agent who’d worked for the banker at the same time, shortly before all three were due to be sentenced.

The Family Kept Paying

Habba wasn’t the family’s only bet. Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC, while her father was seeking a pardon. The Washington Post later revealed she had also pledged $2.5 million to Trump’s White House ballroom, one month after the plea deal.

The banker’s lawyer was Christopher Kise, who had been on Trump’s own personal legal team. Trump called Kise last week too, asking about Habba’s work for the family. Kise declined to comment to the Times.

Pay to Play, Then Pay the Library

This is becoming a pattern. Earlier this month, Republican strategists James Blair and Chris LaCivita were caught taking consulting fees from a pro-Russian government in Bosnia. After Trump publicly distanced himself, they donated the full fees to his presidential library.

Trump said he didn’t explicitly ask them to. He told reporters “they took the money and they gave it to essentially a charity.” He is trying to raise $1 billion for the library, planned for Miami.

What They Say

Habba denies any role in the pardon. On X, she called the suggestion that her job helped secure it “false and defamatory.” The Justice Department said she didn’t speak to anyone about a pardon. A White House official said she had nothing to do with it and that pardons go through a review process.

The White House didn’t respond to the Times about Trump’s calls. Habba didn’t say whether she has given anything to the library, and the Herrera family didn’t comment. No one has been charged with any crime over the deal or the pardon.

The Bottom Line

A billionaire’s family spread money around Trump’s orbit, and the billionaire walked away with a pardon. Trump’s problem isn’t how that looks. His problem is that someone else got paid. When a Republican president thinks he’s owed a cut, the pardon system is no longer justice, it’s a business.

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Sources: The New York Times (Tyler Pager, Oct. 20 report, and Oct. 29 follow-up), via syndicated copies; The Washington Post via Primera Hora; The Hill; Quartz; ABA Journal; Daily Mail.

Republican Sen. Darline Graham tells South Carolina voters that America has to stop leaning on Communist China. Her husband’s job runs through a company whose owners took control of a Chinese weapons maker. That weapons maker listed a state arms trader that the U.S. sanctioned for helping Russia’s war on Ukraine as a partner. After reporters started asking questions, the websites showing those ties went dark.

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Tough on China, Unless It’s Family

Graham was appointed in July to replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, and she is now running for a full term against Democrat Annie Andrews. Her pitch includes a promise to stop depending on Communist China for things America can make ourselves. She said it in an August interview, as The Washington Post reported.

Her husband, Larry Nordone, works for two companies that share an address in Columbia. One is Birchwood Trading, a wholesale gift and home decor business. The other is Cosmox North America, which sells toy guns and imports firearms for retailers. The Post found that Cosmox imports gel blaster toy guns from China.

The Chinese Weapons Maker

Cosmox North America is a subsidiary of New York-based Cosmox Outdoors. In 2021, Cosmox Outdoors merged with Zhongzhou Machinery Works, a Chinese weapons manufacturer known as ZZM. The company told the Post its shareholders gained control of ZZM through a private deal.

Until recently, ZZM’s own website advertised its “military-grade” production. It also named two giant Chinese state arms companies as partners and clients: Norinco and Poly Technologies. Both have been hit with U.S. sanctions.

The Russia Connection

In June 2024, the Treasury Department put Poly Technologies on its sanctions list under its Russia program. Researchers at C4ADS had tracked the company shipping sensitive military technology to Russian defense firms after the invasion of Ukraine.

Norinco is a Chinese military conglomerate with a history of arming Iran going back to the 1980s. The Bush administration sanctioned it in 2003 over missile-related sales to Iran, then lifted those penalties in 2005. Drop Site reports that it remains on a Treasury restricted list.

A Senator Who Champions Ukraine

Lindsey Graham was the Senate’s loudest Republican voice for arming Ukraine. Darline Graham was lead sponsor of a Russia and Iran sanctions bill named for her brother. It became law in September. Trump then signed an executive order that rolled back its provisions.

So the senator selling herself as Putin’s enemy is married to a man who works for a company whose corporate family bragged about partnering with a firm sanctioned for arming Putin. Ryan Grim of Drop Site called the link a sharp contrast with the family’s stand on Ukraine.

The Websites Went Dark

The Post asked ZZM about its defense industry ties. Then ZZM’s and Cosmox Outdoors’ websites came down for “maintenance.” When ZZM’s site returned days later, the military-grade language was gone. So were Norinco and Poly Technologies.

A Cosmox spokesperson told the Post the company has had no commercial dealings with CSGC, NORINCO, or Poly Technologies. She said the old web pages were out of date and that ZZM no longer works with those firms. Graham’s campaign, Cosmox and ZZM did not answer Drop Site’s questions.

Missing From Her Disclosure

Graham’s Senate financial disclosure, filed in August, lists only Birchwood Trading as her husband’s employer. Cosmox isn’t on it. Her spokesman told the SC Daily Gazette that Nordone’s paychecks come only from Birchwood, and that one owner runs both businesses.

Andrews has demanded that Graham recuse herself from China trade and military votes and cut her family’s business ties to China. Graham fired back at their Oct. 11 debate: “You’re sinking pretty low.” She says Cosmox sells children’s toys and that her husband has no ownership or equity stake. Her spokesman told critics most toys come from China anyway.

The Bottom Line

Darline Graham wants South Carolina to believe she is the tough-on-China, stand-with-Ukraine Republican. Her own household tells a different story. Her husband works inside a corporate family that showed off ties to Beijing’s war machine. Her disclosure leaves that job out. And the evidence got scrubbed once reporters called. Voters deserve a senator who can tell the difference between “America First” and “family first.”

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Sources: Drop Site News reporting by Ryan Grim; The Washington Post reporting by Liz Goodwin, Cate Cadell and Aaron Schaffer; SC Daily Gazette.

Donald Trump’s pardons and commutations have wiped out at least $119 million that courts ordered criminals to pay back to their victims. That’s the finding of a new CBS News investigation. Small businesses, retirees and a school pension fund lost out. Many of the people who got off the hook had lawyers, lobbyists or donations tied to Trump.

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The Numbers

CBS reviewed court judgments in more than 160 clemency orders Trump issued from January 2025 through October 2026. It counted only restitution that was still unpaid when he granted clemency. The total came to $119.4 million, and that leaves out the Jan. 6 pardons entirely.

Joe Biden’s clemency orders erased about $14,000 in four years, according to Justice Department records cited by CBS. Trump has erased more than 8,000 times that in less than two. Counting fines, restitution prosecutors had requested, and debts shared with co-defendants, more than $1 billion has been affected.

The Ozy Media Con Man

Carlos Watson built Ozy Media into what looked like a media empire. A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted him of fraud in July 2024, and a judge ordered him to repay investors almost $37 million. Hours before he was due to report to prison in March 2025, Trump commuted his nearly 10-year sentence. The restitution vanished with it.

Investor Thomas Franco put almost $4 million into the company. He told CBS he felt victimized all over again: “authority and accountability are two very different things.” Watson’s clemency case was handled by a lawyer who represented Rudy Giuliani, according to CBS sources.

Small Businesses Got Burned

The single biggest debt erased was almost $49 million owed by Andres and Adriana Camberos. The siblings were convicted in 2024 of a scheme to buy food at deep discounts and resell it in the U.S. They owed 19 companies, from Mars Wrigley to a small veteran-owned business in Virginia. Trump granted both of them clemency in January 2026.

It was Adriana Camberos’ second grant from Trump. He commuted her sentence for an earlier fraud on his last day in office in 2021. Prosecutors say the siblings launched the new scheme within weeks of her release. Their clemency lawyers included a former deputy White House counsel from Trump’s first term.

Friends in High Places

CBS found at least 18 people freed from fines or restitution who had White House ties. Trump allies advocated for them, or they or their families had donated to his reelection. About 70% of his second-term clemency actions skipped the Justice Department’s pardon office entirely.

Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley owed $17 million to community banks they defrauded. Their daughter Savannah spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, then Trump pardoned her parents. Nikola founder Trevor Milton and his wife gave almost $3 million to pro-Trump groups about five months before his pardon. That pardon came two weeks after prosecutors asked for $660.8 million in restitution, so a judge never ruled on it. Milton says the pardon was not tied to his donations.

A Nursing Home Boss Got His Money Back

Some pardoned criminals did even better. Nursing home executive Joseph Schwartz paid nearly $1 million to a lobbying firm tied to right-wing operatives Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl to push for clemency. Trump pardoned him in November 2025, three months into a three-year sentence.

Schwartz had already paid $5 million in restitution to the IRS. After the pardon, a court let him take it back. His company, Skyline Healthcare, collapsed in 2018. A former cook at one of its homes told CBS the company took insurance premiums out of workers’ paychecks and never paid the insurers. She said none of Schwartz’s victims got any restitution.

Retirees Left Holding the Bag

Private equity CEO David Gentile was convicted of a $1.6 billion investment fraud that hit more than 10,000 investors. He served 12 days of a seven-year sentence before Trump freed him and cancelled any duty to repay. Victims included veterans, teachers and nurses. One retiree who voted for Trump three times lost $250,000 he’d saved for his grandchildren.

Federal prosecutors later gathered evidence that Gentile had discussed paying $2.5 million to secure his commutation, as The New York Times first reported. Political appointees at the Justice Department shut that investigation down, according to CBS sources. A retired priest close to Trump denied any money changed hands. No one has been charged.

The White House Response

A White House spokeswoman told CBS that Trump uses his constitutional authority at his discretion and that paying lobbyists for pardons is a waste of money. Officials called several of the cases political prosecutions or unfairly harsh sentences.

Victims can still sue, because clemency doesn’t erase civil liability. But experts told CBS those lawsuits are slow and expensive. Restitution orders let the government garnish wages for 20 years. A pardon from this Republican president ends all of it.

The Bottom Line

Trump sold himself as the law-and-order candidate. Instead, fraudsters with the right lawyers, lobbyists and donations walk free while their victims eat the loss. That’s $119 million taken from small businesses, retirees and workers, and every Republican who defends this pardon racket owns it.

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Sources: CBS News investigation by Gabe Kaminsky, Steve Reilly and Daniel Klaidman.

Donald Trump’s oil and gas stocks are now worth as much as $81.6 million, according to a new report from Democrats on Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. At the end of 2025 they were worth up to about $46 million. His accounts kept buying oil stocks after he launched the war with Iran. Meanwhile, you’re paying more than $4 a gallon.

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The Numbers

The committee’s Democrats went through Trump’s own financial disclosures with the Office of Government Ethics. They put his oil and gas holdings at $22.5 million to $81.6 million as of October 19. At the end of 2025, the range was $12.6 million to roughly $46 million.

The oil stocks he already owned going into 2026 rose 43% in value. Disclosures only report ranges, so the exact dollar figure is unknown. The real totals could be higher. Trump hasn’t reported any trades from September or October yet.

He Bought In After the Bombs Fell

Trump launched the war with Iran on February 28. Between March and the end of August, his accounts bought $4.7 million to $17.5 million in oil and gas stocks. They sold $2 million to $5.4 million over the same stretch.

The timing is hard to miss. More than 94% of his oil and gas purchases this year came after the fighting started. The Republican president started a war that sent oil prices soaring, and his portfolio loaded up on oil.

Bragging About Big Oil’s Windfall

Trump isn’t hiding from it. At a rally in Georgia on Saturday, he boasted that U.S. oil and gas companies are “making hundreds of billions of dollars.” He tied that money directly to what’s happening in the Middle East.

He even told the crowd his advisers had warned him not to talk about how much the industry is making. He said it anyway. A week before the midterms, the Republican in the White House is celebrating oil profits while families pay at the pump.

You’re Paying for It

Before the war, a gallon of regular cost $2.87 nationwide. Now it’s about $4.29, and diesel has jumped from $3.68 to $6.28. Brent crude is hovering above $115 a barrel, up from under $75 the day before the war.

The committee estimates Americans have spent an extra $101.4 billion on gas since February 28. That works out to about $856 per family. That’s money out of your pocket, flowing to the same companies in Trump’s portfolio.

Chevron and Exxon at the Top

His two biggest oil positions are Chevron and ExxonMobil. He owns up to $23.1 million in Chevron and up to $18.4 million in Exxon. Since February 20, Chevron shares are up nearly 25% and Exxon nearly 22%.

These are the same companies Trump called out by name in August for making too much money on fuel. He complained about their profits. His accounts kept holding their stock.

The Exxon Sale Before the Ceasefire

One trade stands out. On April 7, the day Trump declared a ceasefire, his accounts sold $500,000 to $1 million in Exxon stock, according to a disclosure he filed in June. Exxon closed at $163.91 that day.

Trump announced the ceasefire that evening. The next morning, Exxon opened down over 6%. There’s no evidence Trump personally directed that sale. But it shows exactly why a president trading stocks in industries his decisions move is a problem.

The White House Says Hands Off

The White House says Trump’s portfolio is run by independent managers using automated index-tracking accounts. Spokesman Davis Ingle said neither Trump nor his family has any say in what gets bought or sold, and that there are no conflicts of interest.

But Trump told CNBC in July that his son Eric handles his finances. Sen. Maggie Hassan, the committee’s top Democrat, said his actions “raise major concerns about conflicts of interest.” Presidents are allowed to own and trade stocks, and insider trading laws still apply.

The Bottom Line

Trump started a war, gas went past $4, and his oil portfolio swelled to as much as $81.6 million. He brags about Big Oil’s windfall on stage while American families pay $856 more at the pump. Every Republican who stands with him in November is standing with that.

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Sources: CBS News (Kathryn Watson), reporting on the Joint Economic Committee Democrats’ report; EconoTimes.

Elon Musk has now poured more than $735 million into American elections since the summer of 2024. That’s more than George Soros has given to federal elections in his entire life, by our count of the public records. Musk spent years telling his followers that Soros was buying American democracy. Then he went out and outspent him.

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The $735 Million Man

Start with 2024. Musk gave more than $291 million to help elect Donald Trump and other Republicans. That included the million-dollar giveaways his super PAC handed to swing-state voters. He was the biggest donor of that election by a mile.

In May 2025 he promised to pull back, saying “I think I’ve done enough.” He hadn’t. This cycle he has given $446 million to Republican causes, making him the biggest individual political donor in modern American history.

The Man Who Cried Soros

For years, Soros has been Musk’s favorite villain. In 2023 he compared Soros, a survivor of the Nazi occupation of Hungary, to the Marvel villain Magneto. Then he wrote: “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”

After the 2024 election, Musk didn’t drop the obsession. He studied it. The Washington Post reported he was using Soros’s past donations as a road map for his own political targets. The billionaire who spent years crying about one man buying elections decided to become that man, and then some.

Doing the Math

This cycle, Soros’s companies gave $102 million to his super PAC, Democracy PAC. That makes him the top Democratic individual donor of the midterms. Musk has given more than four times as much.

Soros’s biggest year ever was 2022, when OpenSecrets recorded about $179 million from him. Now add up every federal election dollar OpenSecrets has tracked from Soros, his firm and its employees since 1990, plus his nonprofit’s transfers to Democracy PAC in 2020 and 2024, plus this year’s $102 million. It comes to roughly $536 million over 36 years.

Musk beat that in a little over two. One caveat: Soros has also given billions through his Open Society Foundations. But that’s charity money for nonprofits, not checks to campaigns and super PACs. On election money, it isn’t close.

Where the Money Went

In September alone, Musk wrote two checks, $75 million and $83 million, to the main Senate Republican super PAC. Both times, within a day, the same amount moved to a brand-new group with one job: electing Republican Ken Paxton in Texas.

Then, in the first two weeks of October, he gave another $76.8 million to his own America PAC, per its FEC filing. Millions more went to House Republicans, the Republican Governors Association and Republican attorneys general.

And that’s only what we can see. A spokesman for America PAC confirmed that Musk has also given through groups that don’t disclose their donors.

What Musk Gets

The richest man in the world doesn’t spend like this for fun. SpaceX has collected more than $30 billion in federal work since 2008, according to the research firm FedScout. This year alone it’s $6.78 billion, a record.

Musk is also back inside the government. In September, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth named him a co-lead of Project Meridian, a study on the future of warfare. Pentagon officials warned of conflicts of interest. None of this proves a donation bought a decision. But almost no one alive has more riding on which party runs Congress.

Republicans Are Running on One Man’s Wallet

Musk isn’t alone, but he leads the pack. A CNBC analysis found 14 of the 20 biggest donors this cycle give exclusively or nearly exclusively to Republicans. Among the top 10 individual donors, Republican backers account for 86% of the money.

Democrats have big donors too. Mike Bloomberg has put more than $80 million into the midterms in recent months. But nobody on either side comes close to Musk. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico slammed a system that allows “one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.”

Musk’s spokespeople did not respond to Politico’s questions about Democrats’ plans to investigate him. Musk answered on X instead, warning his critics: “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”

The Bottom Line

For years, the Republican base was told George Soros was secretly buying America. Turns out the biggest checkbook in American politics belongs to Elon Musk, and he writes his checks to Republicans. In a little over two years he has outspent Soros’s entire life of election giving, while his companies rake in record federal contracts. On Nov. 3, voters get to decide whether Congress is for sale.

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Sources: The Washington Post; OpenSecrets; FEC filings; CNN; Reuters; FactCheck.org; ABC News; WIRED; CNBC; The Guardian; POLITICO; Forbes (Antonio Pequeño IV).

Billionaire hedge fund boss Ken Griffin just gave Republican Byron Donalds another $5 million. That brings Griffin’s total to $15 million, more than any other donor has given the Republican’s political committee. The check landed as polls show Donalds clinging to a two-point lead over Democrat David Jolly. Election Day is Nov. 3.

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The $5 Million Check

The new money shows up on the committee’s own list of contributions. Kenneth Griffin, listed as “Founder CEO” at Citadel’s Miami address, gave $5 million on Oct. 15. It went to Friends of Byron Donalds, the political committee running alongside the Republican’s campaign.

That same list shows Griffin’s earlier $10 million check on July 17, a month before the Republican primary. Corporate accountability reporter Jason Garcia first flagged the new gift, and the Miami Herald confirmed it.

Why Florida Lets One Man Write $15 Million Checks

Florida limits how much anyone can give straight to a candidate. But political committees like Friends of Byron Donalds can take unlimited donations as long as they disclose them. That is the loophole Griffin is driving a truck through.

The result is a Republican campaign floating on mega-checks. According to an OpenSecrets analysis, Donalds has raised $148.8 million. About $48.4 million of it came from just 17 contributions of more than $1 million each.

A Tightening Race

Griffin’s latest check comes as Donalds’ lead shrinks. A University of North Florida poll taken Oct. 12 to 19 has Donalds at 49% and Jolly at 47%. That is inside the margin of error. In July, the same pollster had Donalds up by five.

Even worse for the Republican, Jolly leads by 16 points among independents, and 11% of registered Republicans say they will vote for him. Florida has not elected a Democratic governor in 32 years. Suddenly the billionaires are nervous.

Griffin Is Buying Up Florida Politics

Griffin moved Citadel’s headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022. Since then he has shattered Florida’s fundraising records. The Miami Herald reports he has put at least $22 million into Florida state elections this year alone.

That includes $3 million for Republican state Senate campaigns, $3 million for Republican state House campaigns and $1 million to Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier’s political committee. One man. One party. Every level of state government.

He’s Not the Only Billionaire

Griffin tops the committee’s donor list, but he has company. Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass has given $7.5 million. Private prison and immigration detention giant GEO Group has given $3.5 million, including $1 million on Oct. 8.

Jason Garcia has reported that these checks “come with strings.” Jolly’s committee has billionaire donors too, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. But OpenSecrets found Donalds still holds a $33.3 million cash edge heading into the final week.

What Donalds Says

Donalds has defended the money. Asked about Griffin’s first $10 million on WJCT’s “First Coast Connect”, he called campaign financing a matter of free speech.

“I’m not bought and paid for by anybody,” Donalds said. He argued that donors like Griffin back him only after vetting his vision for Florida, not to buy policy.

The Bottom Line

When a Republican’s lead starts slipping, the billionaires show up with checkbooks. Ken Griffin has now handed $15 million to Byron Donalds’ operation, more than any other donor, in a race that is suddenly a coin flip. Donalds swears he is not bought. Florida voters get to decide on Nov. 3 whether $15 million from one hedge fund king buys a governor.

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Sources: Friends of Byron Donalds contribution list; Miami Herald; NBC News (Matt Dixon); Jason Garcia, Seeking Rents; OpenSecrets; University of North Florida poll via WLRN and WPBF; WJCT (Anne Schindler) via WUSF.

Republican Sen. Darline Graham has cashed $21,000 in checks from billionaires tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s world. The money came from Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, his wife Christine, and banking mogul Charles Schwab. Federal regulators flagged the checks as possibly over the legal limit. And it all landed weeks before she started running for a full term in South Carolina.

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The Checks

Graham’s own campaign filings with the FEC show the money. Schwab gave $7,000 on July 31. Stephen and Christine Schwarzman gave $7,000 each on Aug. 4. All three gifts were routed through WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform.

That is $21,000 from three of the richest people in America. Graham was appointed to the seat this summer after her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, died. She had barely unpacked before the billionaire money started rolling in.

Schwarzman and the Epstein Club

Schwarzman runs Blackstone, one of the biggest private equity firms on Earth. He was an early member of the Core Club, an exclusive Manhattan club where Epstein was a founding member with deep ties to the owners. Sean Combs, now in prison, was also a member.

Schwarzman’s name shows up 23 times in the Epstein files the Justice Department released, according to reporting cited by American Journal News. To be clear, Schwarzman has not been accused of any crime. Appearing in the files is not proof of wrongdoing. But it is exactly the kind of company a Republican senator should be asked about.

Schwab’s $27.7 Million Wire

Charles Schwab’s company has its own Epstein problem. In the 10 days before Epstein’s 2019 arrest, the brokerage wired about $27.7 million on his behalf to a realtor in Morocco. Epstein was trying to buy a palace in Marrakesh. One transfer went out from an account that did not have enough money in it.

Morocco has no extradition treaty with the United States. The firm did flag the payments to Treasury regulators in July 2019. There is no reporting that Schwab himself handled the account. But his company moved the money, and now his money is moving to a Republican senator.

The FEC Flag

On Aug. 17, the Federal Election Commission sent Graham’s campaign a letter flagging “apparent excessive” contributions. All three $7,000 checks were on the list. Individuals can give a candidate $3,500 per election, so each check was double the limit.

Graham’s campaign says it handled it. Its treasurer told the FEC on Sept. 21 that every flagged check was reattributed or redesignated within the legal 60-day window. That is allowed under FEC rules. It does not change who wrote the checks.

Trump’s Pick

Graham is running with the full backing of Donald Trump. She was front and center at his rally in Pendleton, South Carolina, on Oct. 21. Trump’s own past with Epstein is laid out in the Epstein files, along with ties to people in his inner circle.

Democrats are already pouncing. A spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century called Graham’s donations “abhorrent but not surprising in the least.” The group says her loyalty lies with the billionaire class, not South Carolina.

A Race on a Knife’s Edge

Graham faces Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, on Nov. 3. A Trafalgar Group poll taken Oct. 16-18 has Graham at 48.6% to Andrews at 45.6%. That is a three-point race in a state Trump won by 18.

A Democratic-aligned Impact Research poll has Andrews ahead, 45% to 44%. The same poll finds Graham underwater, with 52% of voters viewing her unfavorably. In a race this close, every Republican vulnerability matters.

The Bottom Line

Darline Graham has been a senator for about three months, and she already has billionaires from Epstein’s orbit writing her checks twice the legal limit. Her campaign shuffled the paperwork. The question South Carolina voters should ask is simple: why are these the people paying for her campaign?

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Sources: American Journal News (Jesse Valentine); FEC filings for Darline for Senate; The Wall Street Journal (Rachel Louise Ensign, Joshua Chaffin); Reuters (Naomi Rovnick, Brad Heath, Nivedita Balu); PBS NewsHour; Trafalgar Group; Impact Research; American Bridge 21st Century.

Donald Trump’s State Department has been asking career diplomats up for promotion a question no nonpartisan civil servant should ever hear: who did you vote for? According to six current and former State officials, the agency asked some foreign service officers about their votes in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Officials made clear that only Trump voters would be eligible. Any donation to a Democrat would be disqualifying.

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A Loyalty Test for the Diplomatic Corps

The questions targeted mid-to-upper level foreign service roles, the career diplomats who run embassies and carry out American policy abroad. Three of the six sources had spoken directly with people who were asked.

Candidates were also told their campaign donation histories would be checked. A donation to Democrats would end their shot at promotion. These are not political appointees. They are permanent, career staff who are supposed to serve every president the same way.

Federal Law Bans This

This is not a gray area. Federal law bars personnel actions based on political affiliation across the career civil service. The whole point is to stop a president from turning the government into a reward system for his supporters.

Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service called it an “appalling and flagrant disregard of federal law.” He compared it to the spoils system of the 19th century, when government jobs were handed out as political favors.

The State Department’s Shifting Story

Before and right after the story ran, the State Department declined to address the voting questions at all. A spokesperson instead talked up fidelity, which the department said meant carrying out the president’s foreign policy vision, not partisan behavior.

Seven hours after the story was published and widely shared, the department added a new statement. It rejected what it called the “absurd premise” that anyone was asked about political affiliation, and said the administration rewards merit over seniority. It still did not directly address the officials’ accounts.

Part of a Bigger Purge

This did not come out of nowhere. Last July the department added a fidelity section to foreign service performance reviews, grading employees on how completely they align with current administration goals. In January the diplomats’ union warned that a new evaluation form would undermine merit-based promotions and said it would file an unfair labor practice charge.

The department has shed nearly a quarter of its workforce through layoffs and buyouts. Veteran diplomats have been pushed out of senior jobs. The administration had already tried making federal job applicants write essays about their favorite Trump policies, then replaced those questions under court order.

Former Ambassadors Are Furious

Career diplomats who served Republican and Democratic presidents alike lit up social media. Steven Pifer, a former ambassador to Ukraine, said he spent 27 years carrying out policies of presidents he did and did not vote for, and called the move “outrageous.”

Luis Moreno, a former ambassador to Jamaica who joined under Ronald Reagan, said nobody ever asked how he voted. His verdict: the administration wants political hacks, not professionals. Former Rep. Tom Malinowski, once a diplomat himself, argued the questioning also violates the Hatch Act.

Democrats Are Investigating

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said her committee has been tracking claims that the Trump administration makes political affiliation a factor in hiring. She said these national security jobs should go to people with experience and ability, not political loyalty.

Shaheen said Democrats are working with the House and other committees to investigate. With Republicans running both chambers, they cannot force answers yet. Sen. Andy Kim, a former State Department official, put it bluntly: this move is about serving Trump.

The Bottom Line

America’s diplomats are supposed to represent the whole country, not one man. Asking them who they voted for, and promoting only the right answer, is how you build a foreign service loyal to Trump instead of to the Constitution. Republicans who claim to care about the rule of law should be the first to demand answers.

Sources: The Washington Sun (Eric Katz, Anna Kramer), 2paragraphs (Lucy Strathmore), American Foreign Service Association.

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Three men say the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham paid them for sex while he was in Congress. The most disturbing account comes from a man named Kelvin, who says he was 17 when Graham hired him in Arizona in 2001. He says Graham suspected his age, made him say it out loud, and went ahead anyway. The accounts are in The Lindsey Graham Files, a new documentary from Swamp Watch, and the film’s home is lindseyfiles.com.

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Three Men, 14 Years, One Republican

The 33-minute film centers on three men. Corey says Graham paid him $1,500 for a night at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in November 2015. Jesse says Graham hired him at the Beacon Hotel in 2012. Kelvin’s account goes back to 2001, when Graham was still a Republican congressman.

All three describe secret, paid encounters with cash handed over on the spot. These are allegations. Graham was never charged with a crime, and he died in July, so he cannot respond.

The Arizona Night

Kelvin says Graham contacted him through an escort site and said another client had recommended him. Graham told him he was in town for a buddy’s big event. The film ties that trip to the “Three Amigos” circle of John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Graham, and McCain’s July 4 gatherings near Sedona.

Kelvin says Graham got a good look at him and stopped. He says Graham asked, “You’re 17, aren’t you?” Kelvin insisted he was 18. Graham asked his birth year, did the math, and concluded he was 17. Kelvin says Graham kept going anyway, and he left with $120.

“For the Camera”

Kelvin says Graham made him stand and state his age and escort name out loud. He believes Graham said it was for the camera, then insisted nothing was being recorded.

Kelvin says he spotted a blinking red light to his left, and Graham told him to stop looking at it. If a tape existed, a sitting Republican lawmaker created the one thing that could end his career. Who else knew? Who else had a copy?

The Receipts Line Up

Swamp Watch also released an evidence packet. It cannot prove what happened behind closed doors, but it places each man and Graham in the same city on the same days. On November 9, 2015, Corey’s Lyft receipt shows him riding from the airport to his DC hotel. That day, Graham voted on the Senate floor. Corey’s escort profile advertised “Visiting DC Nov. 9-12.”

Jesse’s train ticket puts him in Washington October 3 to 5, 2012, and campaign records list Graham as an honorary host at a DC fundraiser for Todd Akin on October 3. Jesse’s bus tickets cover January 27 to 31, 2014. Graham sat in an Armed Services hearing on January 28 and voted on the next two days.

For Kelvin, a July 2001 Arizona Republic story names Graham among McCain’s holiday guests near Sedona. Archived 2001 ads listed Kelvin as 18 and 19, though the packet notes those were advertised ages, not verified birth dates.

Paying Them in Private, Voting Against Them in Public

Corey says his father choked him and threw him out of the house for being gay. Eight months later, the film notes, Graham voted to advance a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

In 2022, Graham voted against the Respect for Marriage Act. The film says he voted against federal hate crime protections in 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2009, including the Matthew Shepard Act. South Carolina remains one of only two states with no hate crime law. Asked about the rumors in 2018, Graham said, “I’m not gay.”

A Senator Anyone Could Squeeze

A senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee allegedly paid for secret sex for over a decade. One voice in the film says he believes Trump “had something on Lindsey.” That is opinion, not proof. But it would explain Graham’s turn from Trump critic to Trump’s loudest defender.

One of the men calls it a national security problem: a politician hiding something can be pressured by whoever knows. Corey says Graham told him, “I needed that.” South Carolina voters never got a say in what Graham needed, or who was holding it over him.

Darline Got the Seat, Not the Answers

Graham’s sister Darline was appointed to his seat and is now running to keep it. Asked by a reporter about the escort allegations, she said, “I’m not even gonna entertain that question.” In a debate, asked about Taiwan, she admitted she isn’t informed on national security.

One of the men says there is no way Darline didn’t know. That is his opinion, and she has not responded to it. She is running on her brother’s legacy while refusing to answer a single question about it.

The Bottom Line

Three men. Fourteen years of alleged secret payments. All while Lindsey Graham voted against the very people he was allegedly paying. He can’t answer for it now. Darline Graham can, and she is asking South Carolina for his seat without saying a word. See the film and the receipts at lindseyfiles.com, and follow Swamp Watch’s reporting at swampwatch.co.

Sources: The Lindsey Graham Files (Swamp Watch, 2026) and its evidence packet; U.S. Senate roll call records; The Arizona Republic (Chip Scutari); Roll Call (Kate Ackley).

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