emptywheel

During an interview with Roop Raj on a local Fox affiliate in Detroit, Michigan Trump made several misleading and false statements about the auto industry and U.S. manufacturing. I've included a brief fact check.

The original affidavit charging Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides relied on undisclosed hearsay and made some inaccurate claims about the Hunter Biden investigation. So FBI rolled out a new charge--obstruction!!--to try to clean that up. emptywheel.net/2026/10/27/f...

FBI Agent Byron Militello Gets Cold Feet on His Hearsay Witness in the Floris Case emptywheel.net/2026/10/27/f...

Note, the MOST IMPORTANT change is that they swapped FBI agents (and added critical elements that were missing from the original affidavit). This is clean up, the obstruction charge is likely only the excuse to do that.

Trump’s presidency is a wealth transfer from the bottom to the top

Our election research team put out an article today explaining how the prediction markets (e.g. Kalshi, Polymarket) — and social media posts featuring visualizations from those platforms — may feed election rumors & conspiracy theories around the U.S. midterms: uwcip.substack.com/p/what-to-kn...

In the Floris case, DOJ filed what they call a "notice of superseding complaint," adding one obstruction charge, for which it adds speculation for proof of motive. But the new "complaint" is not signed: it may be a ploy to avoid today's preliminary hearing or to DQ Zia Faruqui.

Real screencaps from Don Jr's "hunting trip" in Mongolia with his new Kremlin handler, Umar Kremlev. Taxpayers paid $18,715 to put up his Secret Service details for 14 days, but if they were in hotel rooms, I guess they didn't get to hunt? www.ft.com/content/f41f...

Here's the schedule for briefing in Trump's attempt to steal Mary Petola's win. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The HJC Report on Epstein has me genuinely wondering why Trump didn't just fuck or even rape Melania like he did everyone else Epstein and Zampolli dealt him. democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

Every single one of these prior declinations was done under Trump. Every single one of these new charges involves a promotion of the person who indicted. He also has nominated two of the EDNC players to be judges.

My contribution to Cheesecake Factory discourse: Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang members assaulted a mixed-race family. I identified one of them because he worked at a Cheesecake Factory and their Instagram page posted pictures of him. He has a back tattoo with SS bolts and phrase "Aryan Soldier"

Depending on how you count, the charges Trump has filed against Comey have been declined 5X: Lying abt leaking to Richman: Declined in 2019, EDVA declined, then Halligan charged 8647: USSS declined to charge, then charged in EDNC Yahoo: declined by John Durham 2017, then again by Barr in 2020

NEW: Transgender Texas Student Union has retained counsel in response to the Travis County filing related to the fake transgender mailers. It's Chris Hilton, who previously worked for Ken Paxton at the Texas Attorney General's office and left temporarily to defend Paxton in his impeachment trial.

One thing people are missing from the new Jim Comey charges. They came 2 days after Aakash Singh was promoted to PADAG. Comey has been arguing that Trump keeps hiring people for the primary purpose to prosecute him, and this is consistent with that. emptywheel.net/2026/10/26/t...

Big Angie Angie.  8 days to go, and Absent Ashley keeps going further into hiding.  Y’all know what to do. Let’s send Moody home.  Vote on or before Nov. 3 for ANGIE NIXON: Angie4Us.com/early

Trent McCotter and Aakash Singh's Star Chamber emptywheel.net/2026/10/26/t...

NEW: At least 18 voting centers in Alaska Native communities have not opened despite early voting having already started in the state last week. “There is no legal excuse for the failure to open these sites,” one state senator wrote to the Alaska elections chief.

Ireland has some responsibility on this. One of the greatest contributions we could be making to collective EU & global democracy & security (far more useful then disastrous attempts to remove the triple lock) would be having the courage to step up to our role as digital regulator in a serious way.

Administration has a real data manipulation problem: - DHS exaggerates immigrants who’ve left US - Patel's FBI pads crime stats - IRS hides tax cut data until after midterms - Census excludes immigrants www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

This dumbass is whining at @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and @schumer.senate.gov who've BOTH pushed Epstein issues.

Shorter 174 judges to 8th Circuit chief judge: Say, have you noticed that DOJ keeps making frivolous complaints about judges? www.democracydefendersfund.org/news/174-bip...

HEADS-UP, IRELAND. Another ICE flight headed your way. Based on info from human source, I expect this ICE flight — and/or another one tomorrow — to be unlawfully refouling Ukrainians through Poland.

People in rich countries are unhappy. In the US they're truly miserable. Sentiment fell more in the US since 2019 than any other country. US sentiment at the 0th percentile of pre-COVID history, others generally around 25th percentile. And our economy doing better than most!

Apparently there's an Attorney-Client dispute in SPLC. Reminder that DOJ has violated Jim Comey's Attorney-Client privilege twice, that we know of, and I suspect, a third time. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

For some reason DOJ is asking for a protective order regarding polygraphs in the Brian Cole case (the accused pipe bomber). It may have to do with his attempt to graymail DOJ over the Shauni Kerkhoff part of the investigation. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

This could be the best chance to take out Stephen Miller since SPLC reported on his emails.

Sorry: This should say FL. As he describes, Florida changed its law to make it harder to get mail-in ballots. But that may be hurting GOP more than Dems.

Michael McDonald, who does some of the best turnout analyses, shows that Dem and (especially) nonaffiliated voter turnout is up over 2022, while the GOP is down. michaelmcdonald.substack.com/p/florida-ea...

“And in the process, John Roberts rubberstamped such corrupt use of DOJ to steal an election, giving the President absolutely immunity for making demands for sham investigations, which the Chief Justice deemed to fit within a President’s official duties.

So far no sign of a response from Trump on Truth Social. Should be epic when it happens. 😜

Reup: The non-answers Todd Blanche gave to Dana Bash and Margaret Brennan yesterday make total sense when you see how much he is pursuing the plot Jeffrey Clark planned on pursuing if HE had been made AG. Clark's plan anticipated political violence. emptywheel.net/2026/10/26/t...

Google was really trying to hide its water use figures, to the degree that it got the council to try to keep its water use figures secret. The community finally got the actual numbers and found out Google was using 29 percent of the water in the community. www.wired.com/story/what-t...

The new HJC Report on Epstein describes the uncertainties around Paolo Zampoli's role in introducing Melania to Trump. democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

Proof Obama knows what he's talking about wrt Cheesecake Factory.

Behold, my son the disco ball 🎃

Some ground rules that have helped us: - Go outside your bubble, try new social media channels - Don’t underestimate the power of WhatsApp (although less so in the U.S.) - Post on the Instagram grid, not just stories - Watch every Instagram video until the end before sharing - IGNORE THEM

Senior House Democrats tell TNR’s Greg Sargent they’re discussing a dramatic step, should they win the majority. trib.al/3zG6UZz

Note: In 2016 Trump won with the help of coordinated messaging amplified by bots. He still relies on that coordinated messaging, tho the Epstein schism undermined that some. But this SEEMS to say you don't stay off Xitter and Facebook--you coordinate to game it.