November, 04 2018, 11:00pm EDT
Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of DC Circuit Decision Upholding Net Neutrality Rules
Today, the United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the telecommunications industry seeking to vacate the D.C. Circuit's 2016 decision to uphold the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules. The Supreme Court also declined to remove the precedential value of the D.C. Circuit's 2016 opinion. The FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai repealed its 2015 net neutrality rules but monopoly cable and telephone companies also wanted the 2016 D.C. Circuit decision upholding the rules wiped from the record.
WASHINGTON
Today, the United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the telecommunications industry seeking to vacate the D.C. Circuit's 2016 decision to uphold the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules. The Supreme Court also declined to remove the precedential value of the D.C. Circuit's 2016 opinion. The FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai repealed its 2015 net neutrality rules but monopoly cable and telephone companies also wanted the 2016 D.C. Circuit decision upholding the rules wiped from the record.
Statement of Michael Copps, Former FCC Commissioner and Common Cause Special Adviser
"The Supreme Court made the right decision in declining to hear the challenge against the 2016 DC Circuit Court ruling that upheld strong FCC net neutrality rules. The D.C. Circuit Court found that the FCC was well within its authority to adopt net neutrality rules that prevented Internet service companies from blocking, throttling, or otherwise degrading traffic. The Supreme Court's rejection of this appeal ensures the D.C. Circuit's decision remains in the record as binding precedent for the FCC's authority to adopt strong net neutrality rules.
"The Supreme Court's decision is push-back against FCC Chairman Pai's effort to get rid of net neutrality. Although his majority at the Commission has repealed the net neutrality rules, today's decision should weaken those who are contesting the now-binding 2016 DC Circuit Court's decision upholding the rules. Proponents of Pai's repeal - monopoly phone and cable companies - are on shakier grounds than they thought as they try to dismantle an open internet."
To view this statement online, click here.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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‘Doomsday’ Was No Joke: DOJ Considering Scenarios In Which It Would Intervene in Midterms
"Nobody knows what the president might do if the midterms don’t go his way."
Oct 27, 2026
When US Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week that the Department of Justice may seek to block states from certifying elections if a "doomsday" scenario occurred, he wasn't simply speaking hypothetically.
Three administration officials have told investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein that the DOJ has several "contingency plans" that may result in unprecedented efforts at federal interference, many of which President Donald Trump and other administration officials have hinted at in the press.
The plans include extreme scenarios like a foreign cyberattack, according to a report from Klippenstein on Monday. They also include scenarios that the administration has claimed are already underway, such as “questions about qualified voters” and “voter confusion.”
The DOJ has already acted on such claims in three states.
At Trump's direction, the DOJ has demanded that Alaska suspend the certification of its Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, arguing that the presence of another person with the same name on the ballot was part of a ploy to “confuse” voters.
Earlier this month, the department sued California to keep officials from tallying ballots cast by people it flagged as potentially ineligible using an error-prone federal database. Its list contained around 20,000 names.
Two judges expressed concerns that the list could disenfranchise lawful voters. When Los Angeles County officials reviewed a sample of 200 records, they found that the list included US-born people, people with inactive or canceled registrations, and people with no voting history.
On Monday, the DOJ demanded that Washington state set aside ballots from over 400 people on similar grounds.
Officials told Klippenstein that other potential "doomsday" scenarios are being discussed as possible catalysts for federal intervention, including "disruptions at the polls" and "irregularities with the count."
After suggesting the midterms should be outright "canceled," Trump has suggested that Republicans should "nationalize" elections despite the plain language of the US Constitution, which makes them the domain of states, subject to congressional regulation.
During a TV interview in February, he suggested that plans were in the works to "put in federal controls as opposed to state controls" if states could not conduct elections "honestly."
Following that interview, officials said that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi met with Trump and several governors in the White House State Dining Room to discuss potential election doomsday scenarios. Bondi then reportedly spoke with senior department officials about what situations might justify action.
While the president and DOJ cannot unilaterally block states from certifying elections, the department can bring lawsuits and seek emergency court orders under the Voting Rights Act if the attorney general has “reasonable grounds” to conclude that there has been intimidation, threats, or coercion against voters or that someone has knowingly provided false registration information or conspired to encourage false registration.
Trump has still not accepted his 2020 presidential election defeat and continues to sow doubts about it six years later. In 2020, he attempted to overturn the outcome by spreading claims that the election was marred by systemic “irregularities” and fraud, which his own advisers informed him were baseless.
Unlike previous attorneys general who declined to lend legitimacy to Trump’s claims, Blanche has repeatedly said he agrees with Trump’s sentiment that the 2020 election was “rigged.” When asked to provide specific evidence last month that mail-in voting produces large amounts of fraud, he said it was simply “common sense.”
Trump has voted by mail numerous times, and mail-in ballots have been used for elections in several states for years, including the conservative state of Utah.
Asked by CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday whether Trump was "laying the groundwork" to try to overturn the election again, as he did in 2020, Blanche was defiant.
"Oh stop it!" he scoffed. "You've got to stop it with that! You're not being a real person... We're not laying any groundwork for the president to do that. So the premise of your question is not true."
Breaking with previous norms of DOJ independence from the White House, Blanche declared last week, “I work for President Trump,” suggesting that he will dutifully assist any attempts by the president to undermine the results.
The question is how far he may be willing to go: “Nobody knows what the president might do if the midterms don’t go his way, what Trump might say or what he might provoke,” one senior intelligence official who served in the first Trump White House told Klippenstein.
One government lawyer told Klippenstein that while there is no law allowing the federal government to suspend elections simply by alleging fraud, that doesn’t mean the administration won’t seek to find a legal justification:
“Could Trump sign a classified emergency order raising the specter of national security to justify intervention?” the intelligence official asks. “Could Doomsday involve some continuity of government argument? You just never know with Donald Trump.”
"If all else fails,” he says, the president could put “pressure on officials, undertake unsupported litigation, or even issue unlawful executive orders." This, he says, could cause enough disruption to provoke a January 6-style riot.
Meanwhile, the government lawyer says the lack of clear legal authority hasn’t stopped the planning.
“Justice Department and White House lawyers are grappling with these very scenarios… [including] what it can do if the law is no guide,” he says.
With the midterms just a week away and Republicans projected to do poorly, Trump has a veritable army of influencers online prepared to sow doubt about the election result.
A Washington Post analysis on Tuesday found nearly 600 high-profile right-wing social media accounts, podcasts, and other media sources that have published content questioning the integrity of the election and telling Trump supporters to expect cheating. Many of their claims echo those made by the administration about the prevalence of noncitizen voting, which is exceedingly rare.
Democrats on the congressional intelligence committees have said they are prepared for Trump to claim that classified intelligence shows that foreign powers tampered with vote totals or otherwise intervened to help his rivals.
"This administration has a record of using weaponized intelligence to make the case for election interference, and now its officials are grasping at straws to satisfy the president's desire to interfere with the elections," Alexandra Chandler, the director of impact programs at Free and Fair Elections, told Common Dreams. "None of this is new."
If Trump makes such a claim, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that Trump’s CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton have agreed to review any of the underlying intelligence with him and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Himes told reporters, "We’re making the presumption that the president will not accept the results,” adding that they expect him to "pull out all the stops."
Voting rights groups have also said they are ready for whatever Trump throws their way.
"States and local election officials run our elections, not the federal government," Tianna Mays, legal director at the Democracy Defenders Fund, told Common Dreams. "Trump administration officials cannot claim powers they do not have under the Constitution, and we will fight them in court if they try."
“The pro-democracy coalition is prepared for whatever scenario comes,” Chandler said. “We will defend the integrity of this election.”
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Election-Denying Trump Judges Preside Over Nearly Every Battleground Midterm Race: Analysis
"We must vote in numbers so overwhelming that no Trump judge could deny the truth."
Oct 27, 2026
If the Trump administration decides to challenge the outcome of any of the dozens of battleground contests in next week's midterms, there's a significant chance that one of the president's handpicked, election-denying judges will oversee the case.
That's according to a report published Tuesday by the advocacy group Demand Justice, which found that 53 of 60 battleground races for US House and Senate that will be held on November 3 "are in districts or states presided over by at least one Trump-appointed federal judge who, under oath, refused to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election."
“If these judges couldn’t tell the truth about 2020, we can’t count on them to do so in 2026," said Josh Orton, president of Demand Justice. "We must vote in numbers so overwhelming that no Trump judge could deny the truth."
The report defines battleground races as Senate and House contests that analysts currently rate as either a toss up, lean Republican, or lean Democratic.
Demand Justice emphasizes that federal courts "look very different" today than they did in 2020, when the judiciary "halted Trump’s attempt to challenge the 2020 election results."
"Since then, Trump appointed Emil Bove and Jennifer Mascott to the Third Circuit, Rebecca Taibleson to the Seventh, Michael Martin to the Eastern District of Michigan, and Eric Tung to the Ninth Circuit, which hears appeals from Arizona," the report notes, pointing to courts that previously weighed 2020-related cases.
During their confirmation hearings, each of those Trump-picked judges—along with dozens of others—refused to explicitly say that Trump lost the 2020 election. As Demand Justice observed in an earlier report, Trump's judicial picks used virtually identical phrasing to evade senators' questions about the 2020 election results, saying that former President Joe Biden "was certified as the winner."
The report comes amid mounting concerns that the Trump administration could try to intervene in the midterms if the outcome is unfavorable to Trump and his Republican Party, which is seeking to maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
Demand Justice cited as an alarming example the Justice Department's lawsuit aiming at blocking certification of Alaska's US Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. Trump told reporters late last week that he ordered the DOJ to file the lawsuit, which Democratic nominee Mary Peltola is seeking to dismiss before Election Day.
“Trump's attempt to interfere in Alaska’s Senate race is a wake-up call," said Orton. "His administration will not accept election results unless the Republicans win."
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Trump DOJ Brings 'Tired, Desperate' Attempt to Find Noncitizen Voting to Washington State
"The timing of this request—one week before the general election—is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results," said Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.
Oct 27, 2026
As a federal appeals court on Monday refused to order California officials to set aside 20,000 mail-in ballots that the Trump administration claimed were cast by noncitizens, the US Department of Justice was already pushing a similar effort in Washington state—the latest of what one advocate called "tired, desperate attempts by a cornered and losing side" to cast doubt on the validity of the November 3 midterm elections.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs received a letter Monday from acting US Attorney Charles Neil Floyd, who demanded that the state set aside any ballots cast by 405 people whom the DOJ claims are illegally registered to vote despite not being US citizens.
Floyd said the voters have cast 1,500 ballots in past elections, and complained that the Democratic-led state's refusal to turn over unredacted voter rolls to the DOJ earlier this year made his search for noncitizen voters more time-consuming.
The Trump administration has filed lawsuits against more than 20 states for refusing to hand over voter data on millions of people, and the DOJ has resorted to using commercially available information and comparing it with federal records in an effort to track down people it says have voted illegally despite being noncitizens.
The right-wing Heritage Foundation was able to uncover just 23 instances of noncitizen voting between 2003-22, and election officials in found that in 42 jurisdictions, .0001% of 23.5 million votes were cast by suspected noncitizens in 2016.
Those statistics are in line with the results of the DOJ's efforts thus far. In California, federal officials announced they had identified 28 immigrants who were suspected of voting before they became naturalized citizens. The group represented about .0001% of registered voters in California.
In Nevada in September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed authorities had found 16,000 noncitizens on the state's voter rolls. DHS ultimately sent the state a list of just 185 people who it said were illegally registered to vote, but state officials found that all 185 voters were citizens.
Despite the administration's track record, Floyd insisted that this time would be different, asserting in a news conference that the 405 people identified by the DOJ in Washington were "only the tip of the iceberg."
“Because of limitations the state has placed on our investigation, we’ve only been able to uncover a fraction of the total number,” he said. "We will continue to investigate and identify those who are committing crimes by voting illegally.”
A spokesperson for Hobbs' office told NBC News that the secretary of state is reviewing the list, but Hobbs stressed that he "will only respond to requests that follow due process."
"We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously," said Hobbs. "We saw what happened in California and don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed. The timing of this request—one week before the general election—is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results.”
The search for illegally registered voters in Washington comes days after the DOJ filed a lawsuit in Alaska seeking to block the certification of the state's US Senate election results if Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) narrowly loses to his Democratic challenger, former Rep. Mary Peltola.
The DOJ argued that voters may be confused by their ballots, on which Sullivan and Peltola are listed along with other candidates—one of whom is a retired teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr. Critics have noted that the sitting senator is clearly marked as the incumbent.
The latest polling average in the key race, which could determine control of the Senate, shows Peltola leading Sullivan by about two points.
On Sunday in an interview with CNN, Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the DOJ's push to stop the automatic certification of the Alaska election results, saying that President Donald Trump "is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape, or form" and becoming angry when anchor Dana Bash asked whether the refusal to accept the election results could lay the groundwork for violence, as in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Last week Blanche told reporters that the DOJ could become involved in the election certification process in a "doomsday" scenario.
"Trump’s DOJ has been trying to figure out how to rob Americans of their votes in the midterms since February," said journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez Tuesday. "I hope states are ready to fight and resist the administration. These freaks aren’t just going to let Americans vote their way out of this if they think they can do something about it."
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'A Crime of Extreme Inequality': Richest 0.1% Generate More Carbon Pollution Than Half of Humanity
“The ultra-rich are setting the planet on fire and then charging the rest of us for the extinguishers."
Oct 27, 2026
The richest 0.1% of humanity generates more planet-heating carbon pollution than nearly half of the global population combined, according to an Oxfam analysis released late Monday as world leaders prepared to gather in Türkiye next month for the United Nations climate summit.
The new analysis provides an updated look at global elites' outsized contribution to a climate crisis that disproportionately impacts the poorest segments of the global population through increasingly devastating heatwaves, droughts, flooding, and other extreme weather, causing death, destruction, and mass displacement worldwide.
Oxfam estimates that a person in the richest 0.1% "has contributed nearly 400 times more to today’s extreme heatwaves than someone in the poorest 50%." The 8 million richest people in the world combined produce "over three times more carbon pollution than the entire population of Sub-Saharan Africa"—around 1.3 billion people.
"The climate crisis is often described as a shared human challenge. It is not," said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International's executive director. "Those who have done the least to cause it are losing their homes, their harvests and, increasingly, their lives. Meanwhile, the super-rich can buy their way out of danger—by retreating to high-tech underground survival bunkers, hiring private firefighting crews, and securing private insurance—and are actively profiting from the consequences of their pollution. This is not a tragedy of shared fate; it is a crime of extreme inequality."
Oxfam's report notes that the same investors and firms profiting massively from the fossil fuel companies driving the climate crisis are also benefiting from disaster preparedness and recovery. The analysis places those investors in what it calls a "Destroy and Rebuild" index.
"Six major asset managers (including Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street) make up more than one-quarter of all the Destroy and Rebuild corporations," the report states. "BlackRock and Vanguard are invested in 92% of the corporations in the index: The pair’s total investments in these corporations are more than $1 trillion."
“The ultra-rich are setting the planet on fire and then charging the rest of us for the extinguishers," said Behar. "They profit from the pollution. They profit from the disaster. And they profit again from the clean-up.”
"While ordinary people are forced to grapple with the consequences of emergencies they bear little responsibility in fueling, billionaires are busy outrunning the reality they and their private jets created."
In the United States—where the country's billionaire president has taken a sledgehammer to domestic and international efforts to combat the climate crisis—a person in the richest 0.1% emits 48 times as much carbon dioxide as the average American.
"The country’s richest 0.1% (333,271 people) emit 108 times more CO2 per person than the poorest half of the population (166.6 million people)," Oxfam's analysis shows. "In just under four months (118.3 days), someone in the richest 0.1% emits more CO2 than someone in the poorest half of the U.S. has emitted over the last 30 years."
Rachel Carle, senior advisor on climate justice at Oxfam America, said in a statement that the global climate emergency is "an inequality crisis at its core."
"While ordinary people are forced to grapple with the consequences of emergencies they bear little responsibility in fueling, billionaires are busy outrunning the reality they and their private jets created," said Carle. "Mark Zuckerberg can hunker down in his Hawaiian bunker at the first sign of chaos, but the rest of us don’t have that luxury. Addressing this glaring inequality is the first step to mitigating climate disaster, and that starts with making ultra-rich polluters pay their fair share."
In view of its findings, Oxfam urged governments to use the upcoming COP31 summit in Türkiye to:
- Make rich polluters pay to significantly and rapidly curb their carbon emissions, including through permanent wealth and income taxes, a permanent tax on fossil fuel corporations, and punitive taxes on high-emitting luxury items like private jets;
- Substantially increase climate finance for the Global South, prioritizing public, grant-based finance rather than loans that deepen debt. The amount for adaptation should be tripled by 2035;
- Radically reduce inequality within and between countries, including through climate-resilient public infrastructure and public services; and
- End profiteering from climate disasters. Governments need to curb corporate power in emergency response, reconstruction, and food systems during disasters.
"Another future remains possible," Oxfam's report concludes. "Creating a more equal world would enable emissions to fall rapidly, food systems to become fairer and more resilient, and the creation of public systems to protect people from crisis and adapt to the effects of climate change. Achieving that future will require bold political choices to curb excessive wealth and corporate power while investing in the resilience, rights, and livelihoods of the majority. Climate justice and equality must now become the foundation of climate action."
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Former Top GOP Strategist Says It's 'Unimaginable' That US Won't Have Medicare for All Within 20 Years
"This is just a matter of how long are we going to delay this?”
Oct 26, 2026
A prominent former Republican political strategist said Monday that he believes it's just a matter of time before the United States adopts a Medicare for All universal healthcare system, citing the popularity of the program for older Americans across the political spectrum.
"Close your eyes and think about what will America be like in 20 years," Stuart Stevens—a senior strategist for Mitt Romney's failed 2012 presidential campaign—said during an MS NOW panel discussion hosted by Katy Tur. "It is unimaginable we will not have a national health plan."
"We're already the only Western country that doesn't," Stevens noted. "And this is just a matter of how long are we going to delay this?"
" Medicare is wildly popular," he said. "So you can see what the appeal of Medicare for All is."
"Why shouldn't everybody have Medicare?" Stevens asked. "I mean, it's the wealthiest country in the history of the world."
Stevens noted that the prospect of universal healthcare is "getting a tremendous response," even "from people who aren't exactly on the far left."
"So I think this is an issue that's changing," he added.
Responding to Stevens comments, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Common Dreams that Medicare for All will ultimately happen in the United States "because it is not just a moral imperative but makes economic sense," as study after study have shown.
"It's what will truly reduce the cost of our system," Khanna said.
A KFF survey released earlier this month found that 66% of Americans favor Medicare for All, the highest level of support since the organization began tracking the proposal. Support included 84% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and 34% of Republicans—up from just 21% of Republicans in 2020.
A separate Axios-Ipsos poll, also published this month, found that 43% of Americans supported the proposal, compared with just 24% opposed, while 21% of Republicans backed it.
Multiple studies have shown that Medicare for All would save lives—and money. Most recently, researchers at Yale University estimated that implementing such a system would save over 114,000 lives annually while reducing healthcare expenditures by more than $1 billion per year.
Stevens' comments came as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)—a possible 2028 presidential candidate—said his party needs to pursue Medicare for All if it succeeds in winning control of the Senate next week.
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Trump DOJ Charges Ex-FBI Chief James Comey a Third Time
"It would almost be funny if it weren't such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice—one that we cannot become numb to," said James Comey.
Oct 26, 2026
President Donald Trump's administration has charged former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey a third time, according to documents unsealed on Monday—the same day a US judge ruled that the administration unlawfully fired Comey's prosecutor daughter, who worked on the sex crimes case against the president's dead ex-friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Comey, a former Republican fired during Trump's first term, and various critics have condemned all of the cases against him and others who publicly call out the administration as weaponization of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) against the president's political enemies. The latest case relates to a New York Times article from over a decade ago, when he was still FBI chief.
The case, in which he's accused of unlawfully disclosing classified information, "has played out under seal since October 5. Comey's defense attorneys filed a motion 10 days ago to dismiss the charges against him. He has not been indicted in the case," NBC News reported. "The charges that were filed are a criminal information—essentially a charge filed by prosecutors—and not a grand jury indictment."
Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor and CNN's senior legal analyst, was among the experts who highlighted that "this is a bizarre, and likely improper, use of a criminal 'information' to end-run the statute of limitations."
"Typically an information must be agreed to by a defendant—and Comey did not consent here," Honig explained. "It therefore likely cannot extend the statute of limitations, which would have expired on October 5, 2026."
The DOJ Rapid Response account on X said that "the department filed a waiverless criminal information to toll the statute of limitations as it relates to allegations concerning former FBI Director Comey. Filing a criminal information to toll the statute of limitations is a widely recognized practice in federal court and has been approved by multiple circuit courts of appeals. This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further."
Comey's attorney, Pat Fitzgerald, said that he "steadfastly maintains his innocence" and noted some details from all cases: "In September 2025, the Department of Justice used a person who was not actually a United States attorney to seek an indictment that was not actually shown to the grand jury. And it charged Mr. Comey with crimes that he did not commit. That case was promptly and properly dismissed. In April 2026, the Department of Justice filed charges in the Eastern District of North Carolina concerning Mr. Comey's posting of a photograph of seashells spelling '8647.' We will not comment beyond our filings in that case."
"This most recent case involves an October 5, 2016 New York Times article that two different teams of prosecutors investigated during the first Trump administration," Fitzgerald continued. "Both times the government determined that no charges should be brought against anyone. Now, 10 years after the article was published, the government filed an 'information' against Mr. Comey that was not approved by a judge nor issued by a grand jury. It purports to charge Mr. Comey with crimes that he did not commit. We are gratified that United States District Judge Trevor McFadden has ordered this matter unsealed. Mr. Comey will fight these charges vigorously and in the open."
Comey also directly declared his innocence and vowed to fight back in a video he posted on Substack, saying that "it would almost be funny if it weren't such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice—one that we cannot become numb to."
Yet another case in DC by James Comey
Read on SubstackThe documents were unsealed shortly after US District Judge Jesse M. Furman—appointed to the Southern District of New York by former President Barack Obama—sided with Maurene Comey, concluding that the DOJ "violated the separation of powers, federal administrative law and Ms. Comey’s due process rights when it fired her in July 2025," as the Times detailed Monday.
A spokesperson for the DOJ—which is now led by Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as the president's personal lawyer—said that "the department disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course."
Sharing news of that ruling on X, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) predicted, "This will drive 'Ranting Man' Trump even crazier!!"
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175 House Democrats Decry Omar Raid as Dangerous 'Attempt to Influence an Election'
"This weaponization of law enforcement to harass a sitting member of Congress 22 days before an election is unprecedented and unacceptable."
Oct 26, 2026
While Congresswoman Ilhan Omar calls out the "fascist" Trump administration's recent raid on her home in fundraising emails as she seeks reelection in a solidly Democratic Minnesota district, over three-quarters of the progressive's fellow Democrats in the US House of Representatives came together on Monday to condemn the "weaponization of federal law enforcement against her."
As part of what the White House and US Department of Justice (DOJ) have confirmed is an ongoing criminal investigation, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents executed a search warrant on Omar's Washington, DC home on October 12, and "were seen carrying out boxes of documents from the home, and reportedly obtained her DNA, personal phone, and passport," notes House Democrats' letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
President Donald Trump has a long history of attacking the Somali-American lawmaker with "baseless lies and smear campaigns," and during this probe, Mullin, Vice President JD Vance, and White House adviser Stephen Miller and his wife, Katie Miller, have piled on. The letter calls the warrant "a dramatic escalation of an almost decade-long campaign of attacks on Congresswoman Omar."
The persecution of @repilhan.bsky.social just days before an election is vile and politically-motivated.I'm leading 175 House Democrats in denouncing this. When we retake power, we have to seriously look at how we can stop these abuses of power — starting with the power of the purse.
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— Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (@jayapal.house.gov) October 26, 2026 at 4:12 PM
"This weaponization of law enforcement to harass a sitting member of Congress 22 days before an election is unprecedented and unacceptable," argued the Democrats, led by Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Yvette Clarke (NY), Robert Garcia (Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), and Bennie Thompson (Miss.), who are all congressional committee ranking members or caucus chiefs.
The four-term congresswoman is running again in Minnesota's 5th District, which earlier this year was targeted in Trump's Operation Metro Surge. That was part of his mass detention and deportation agenda, which has involved sending armed immigration agents into various communities, where they have killed, injured, and violated the rights of US citizens and noncitizens alike.
Early voting began in Minnesota just days after the raid. The members of Congress wrote that "news of the search warrant, whether properly predicated or not, could affect voters' decisions, which is exactly why federal law enforcement should not engage in such conduct when voters are casting their ballots. This type of interference strips Minnesotans of their right to a free and fair election guaranteed to them under the Constitution."
"Your actions are clearly driven by a pre-determined political outcome rather than an objective pursuit of justice," the lawmakers told Blanche and Mullin. "Your probe into the congresswoman reportedly concerns her late father's filing of immigration paperwork after she fled Somalia's civil war at age 8, making her a US citizen at age 17. This does not justify a pre-dawn raid on her home for paperwork her father filed when she was a minor."
Citing previous cases in which Trump's second administration "has prioritized retribution over its responsibility to apply the laws without fear or favor," the lawmakers added that "your unprecedented attempt to influence an election through federal law enforcement will also fail but the attempt itself is incompatible with our democracy."
We stand with @repilhan.bsky.social against Trump's baseless attacks and the continuing weaponization of the federal government.
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— The Progressive Caucus (@usprogressives.bsky.social) October 26, 2026 at 3:16 PM
"Political disagreements never justify intimidation, and no president should use the power of the federal government to threaten, silence, or intimidate political opponents," the Democrat stressed. "You have already disgraced the offices you hold, and we demand you refrain from taking any further actions that could affect the outcome of the upcoming election."
Democrats are aiming to reclaim majorities in both chambers of Congress in the November 3 elections—and if they do, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who could become the next speaker, made clear last month that party members "are preparing a vast oversight agenda" and "we haven't ruled anything out," including impeachment.
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UN Report Details Israeli Crimes Against Humanity in Palestine, Including Extermination, Rape, and Torture
The UN-mandated commission of inquiry found that Israel's genocidal acts are ultimately aimed at "blocking any viable attempts to realize Palestinians’ right to self-determination."
Oct 26, 2026
A United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry on Monday issued a report detailing Israeli crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories, while also affirming that Israel's genocide continues in Gaza, despite a nominal yearlong ceasefire.
"Israel has committed war crimes and the crimes against humanity of extermination, persecution, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, intentionally targeting Palestinian civilians as it continues to commit genocide in Gaza," the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a summary of the 19-page report.
"In Gaza... Israeli authorities and forces continue to commit genocidal acts even after the so-called ceasefire agreement, with the intent to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part," OHCHR saids of the report, which was authored by the UN-mandated Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
"Israeli forces have also deliberately killed and inflicted serious bodily and mental harm against children in the West Bank—as they have in Gaza—committing age-based persecution against Palestinian children," the report found. More than 21,500 Palestinian children, including over 1,000 infants, have been killed in Gaza over the past three years.
The commission documented cases of rape and sexual assault of Palestinians, including at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in Israel, where, according to the report, a prisoner "was raped with a stick and forced to insert it into his mouth until he vomited."
Previous reporting, including by The New York Times, detailed sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, including one man who died after allegedly being sodomized by an electric baton.
The commission's report also affirmed that Israeli forces sexually abused Global Sumud Flotilla activists who were seized upon the high seas and abducted to Israel, including one male activist who was raped with a metal detector.
The report comes as Israeli forces intensify a military lockdown and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, including expulsions and home demolitions in Hebron, following the killing of two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers by Palestinians resisting the nearly half-century occupation, and ahead of Tuesday's Israeli elections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—is trying to shore up support for his far-right coalition ahead of the elections. Netanyahu and other senior officials, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have vowed to annex parts or all of the West Bank and to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
Netanyahu and members of his Cabinet have also said that Israel is planning to launch the biggest military operation in the West Bank since it was captured and occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War. Both the occupation and colonization of the West Bank are illegal under international law.
More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. Roughly 1.9 million others have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times. Israel's conduct in Gaza is the subject of a genocide case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. A ruling is not expected until at least 2029.
The new report shows how the scale of deadly violence has increased dramatically in the West Bank. Six Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes there between 2008 and October 6, 2023, compared with 254 killed in aerial bombardments between October 7, 2023 and September 30, 2026.
OCHCR has documented 1,143 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and October 9, 2026. At least 250 of those killed were children.
“The intentional killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians and destruction of homes in the West Bank combined with Israel’s persistent denial of responsibility form part of a broader strategy to exterminate and displace Palestinians and impose conditions of life that are unliveable,” Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the commission of inquiry, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, Israel’s expansion of territorial control in Gaza continues to result in the killing and harming of Palestinian civilians."
The commission also faulted the Palestinian Authority for targeting Palestinians for voicing dissent to its policies and actions and for its failure "to conduct effective and impartial investigations into incidents of killings and to ensure effective remedy, including financial compensation to victims and their family members."
The report found that Israel's actions ultimately are designed to thwart any possibility of an independent Palestinian state.
“Seizing maximum land while minimizing the Palestinian population in relation to size, autonomy, and viability stems from Israel’s colonizing policies and is rooted in historical practices and patterns of action, resulting in the excessive and discriminatory application of lethal force, displacing, injuring, and killing Palestinians over generations,” said Muralidhar.
“Attempting to equate Palestinian statehood with a threat to the existence of Israel is blocking any viable attempts to realize Palestinians’ right to self-determination," he added.
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Israel Bars International Delegation From West Bank Amid Attacks on Palestinian Olive Harvesters
"It is clear that Israel is trying to erase Palestinian life in the West Bank and Gaza with minimum fuss and attention—cutting off support and solidarity from the outside world."
Oct 26, 2026
Amid international outcry over escalating settler terrorism against Palestinian farmers, the Israeli government on Monday blocked a group of European legislators seeking to observe the olive harvest in the occupied West Bank.
The group denied entry to the West Bank from Jordan included British Labour Member of Parliament Clive Lewis, Scottish National Party MP Lara Bird, Scottish Green lawmaker Kate Nevens, former Labour MP Sam Tarry, and Spanish Sen. Josu Estarrona Elizondo of EH Bildu, along with other international activists.
The lawmakers were set to join Palestinian olive harvesters on October 31 at the Qamar al-Balad Farm in the village of Farkha in the central West Bank. Earlier this month, Israeli settlers attacked the farm and attempted to burn its poultry shed before being repelled by local residents.
“I came to stand alongside Palestinians being attacked for harvesting olives on their own land. Instead, we were turned away at the border with no reason given,” Bird said. “More than ever, Palestinians are being subject to terror and violence by the [Israel Defense Forces] and illegal settlers. Increased blockades, demolitions, and unthinkable violence have become the norm for Palestinians in the West Bank.”
The United Nations has documented at least 272 attacks since September 1, eclipsing the full-season totals for 2024 and 2025, including assaults by armed Israeli settlers against farmers, journalists, and European diplomats. Last week, Israeli authorities detained around 80 volunteers accompanying Palestinian farmers, including US House candidate Brad Lander, a Jewish New York Democrat.
“For more than eight hours, we were held, interrogated, and made to feel as though we had done something wrong simply by attempting to enter,” Lewis said. “The simple truth is we had done nothing wrong. We went to show our support for the Palestinian people and highlight the terrible injustice and violence being perpetrated against them. We want to ensure that people back home do not look away from the reality of what is happening.”
The Israeli government has promised to crack down on violence by settlers, but the military has often aided them. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz has pursued removal orders against activists seeking to protect Palestinian olive harvesters.
“We are dismayed that Israel has barred our entry to Palestine,” said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, which participated in the delegation. “But this is clearly part of a much wider campaign in which Israel is increasingly stopping politicians, observers, and even aid workers from entering the West Bank to witness or provide support to Palestinians.”
In retaliation for a UK policy cutting off trade with the settlements, which are considered illegal under international law, Israel placed 11 members of the UK Parliament on a “ban” list—including Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP Diane Abbott, and Green MP Carla Denyer.
American activists who’ve traveled to Israel and the occupied territories to provide support for Palestinians at risk of settler attacks have also had their legal status revoked, including several Jewish Americans—even though Jewish Americans are generally encouraged to migrate to Israel.
The exclusion of international observers comes just before a highly visible national election on Tuesday, in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is at risk of having his government toppled.
Netanyahu has ramped up military assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank in recent days, particularly after an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers Friday in Hebron. In what has been decried by the United Nations human rights office as "collective punishment," nearly 4,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes while houses and businesses have been raided and demolished by the military.
While the surge in settler violence has drawn global condemnation and heightened Israel's pariah status, Netanyahu has praised Israel's "heroic settlers" in the final days of his campaign and vowed to expand settlements.
"It is clear that Israel is trying to erase Palestinian life in the West Bank and Gaza with minimum fuss and attention—cutting off support and solidarity from the outside world," Dearden said. "In this context, it is more essential than ever that the UK and other governments act with extreme urgency and courage to deter Israel’s attacks on Palestinians. This can’t wait.”
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Former Biden Official With AIPAC Ties Tapped for Trump's 'Corrupt, Anti-Palestinian' Board of Peace
"Democrats should firmly oppose it regardless of how many former AIPAC employees the Trump administration sends up to the Hill to sell it," said one policy expert of the Board of Peace.
Oct 26, 2026
As President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, the organization that is tasked with overseeing a peace plan in Gaza, looks to boost its bipartisan appeal ahead of the midterm elections, in which Democrats could take control of one if not both chambers of Congress, the board announced Monday that it had appointed a former Biden administration official to help smooth the effort.
Shelley Greenspan, who served in the State Department and then as the White House liaison to the Jewish community for two years under President Joe Biden, was selected to lead external affairs, including outreach to members of Congress and think tanks in Washington, DC.
Greenspan has previously worked for Amazon in global innovation policy, for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016, and as a legislative manager for the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Her appointment comes just before the US elections, but also legislative elections in Israel, which have held up the peace process as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to take steps on the peace plan before the country goes to the polls Tuesday.
Recent polling has projected that a bloc of opposition parties could win more seats than Netanyahu's far-right nationalist alliance.
Greenspan has promoted Trump's 20-point peace plan as one that could bring "practical results" to Palestinians in Gaza.
In a statement to Axios on Monday, she said that in her last federal government role at the State Department, "I saw how the president's 20-Point Plan can tangibly deliver for the peoples of Gaza and Israel. I look forward to continuing that work with the Board."
But rights groups have warned the Board of Peace has failed to deliver safety to Palestinians. In May, five months after the board was established at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland—where Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented a vision for a "new Gaza" complete with data centers and luxury high-rises—Human Rights Watch found that 865 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces since the October 2025 ceasefire and humanitarian aid was still "far below required levels."
The Board of Peace was given a mandate by the United Nations Security Council to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, with Trump serving as "chairman for life." Last month, it unveiled a $2.45 billion recovery plan, including 66 projects.
But as Eric Reidy wrote at The New Humanitarian last week, the board "has put forward grand visions for redevelopment that are entirely disconnected from Gaza’s past and present as well as preliminary plans for stabilization that lack any viable path for implementation."
Meanwhile, Israel has continued to wage deadly attacks on Palestinians and daily life in the exclave has been "suspended in an intolerable state of limbo," he wrote.
"Trump’s 20-point peace plan says that Israel 'will not occupy or annex Gaza,' but it makes no mention of the West Bank," Reidy added. "The question of Palestinian self-determination is kicked indefinitely down the line to some point in the future when 'the conditions may finally be in place.' There is no mention of Palestinian rights or of justice and restitution, let alone recognition of Israeli crimes. Can there really be a path forward in Gaza that would benefit its people without addressing, or even acknowledging, the underlying causes of their suffering, namely Israel’s colonization and subjugation of Palestinians?"
Meanwhile, allegations of corruption have emerged, with Trump pledging $10 billion in taxpayer funds to the Board of Peace.
Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, urged Democrats in Congress to oppose to board despite its attempt to cast itself as a bipartisan operation by appointing Greenspan.
"There's no 'fixing' the Board of Peace, and it's doing exactly what the world expects of it: serving as a Trump slush fund while validating continued Israeli control of Gaza, at the expense of Palestinian lives and rights," said Duss. "That is its purpose. No one should pretend otherwise."
Greenspan's appointment, said Akbar Shahid Ahmed of The Washington Sun, "underscores continuity in Biden-Trump policy for ongoing Palestinian suffering," and the "reluctance to pressure Israel even for stated US goals" such as an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The Board of Peace, said progressive organizer Melissa Byrne, "is war and subjugation by another name."
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