Judge KILLS Trump's Epstein lawsuit — for good

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles on Saturday tossed Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and the Murdochs. He dismissed it with prejudice, which means Trump can’t file it again.

The suit was over the Journal’s July 2025 story about a birthday letter bearing Trump’s name, in a leather-bound album Ghislaine Maxwell put together for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. The typewritten letter was framed by a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman.

Trump denied writing it and sued the next day.

Gayles already threw the case out once, in April, and let Trump try again. To win, Trump had to show the Journal acted with “actual malice.”

“As with his first attempt, he has failed,” Gayles wrote.

He called Trump’s allegations “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant.”

Trump’s answer was to promise more of the same. He said he “will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly.”

“The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist,” he wrote.

He has lost this case twice now. He’d like to try for three.

Scott Bessent went to St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Friday to announce a federal fraud crackdown, with coordinated searches and a $25 million whistleblower program.

JD Vance was supposed to be there too. He canceled without giving a reason, which left officials standing in front of a banner reading “The Vice President’s Fraud Task Force.”

Then a reporter asked about a prison.

In August, the Department of Homeland Security paid $495 million for a shuttered prison in Appleton, Minnesota, owned by private prison company CoreCivic. Last year, CoreCivic had offered the same prison to the state for $75 million.

KARE 11 called it the largest real estate purchase in Minnesota history, for a 34-year-old prison that had sat empty for 16 years.

“Uh, yeah, I don’t know anything about that, what we are here to do is prosecute criminal fraud and any question like that that deflects away from it I think is a waste of our time, thanks,” Bessent said.

CoreCivic gave $500,000 to the Trump-Vance inauguration.

Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell had a different reaction. “It’s unexplainable!” he told KARE 11.

“I still can’t figure it out.”

The fraud task force found $420 million. It just didn’t want to talk about it.

Two days out, Abdul El-Sayed is taking hits from Republican Mike Rogers and from inside his own party. On Saturday, he made time for both.

A reporter started a question by mentioning they’d just come from a Rogers event.

“He had an event? Did people come?” El-Sayed asked. The reporter said they were there.

Meanwhile, his fight with Rep. Haley Stevens, whom he beat in the August primary, is out in the open. On Friday, Stevens said her support depended on El-Sayed condemning an ad his campaign didn’t make.

Meanwhile, his fight with Rep. Haley Stevens, who he beat in the August primary, is out in the open. On Friday, Stevens said her support depended on El-Sayed condemning an ad his campaign didn’t make.

The ad, from Cenk Uygur’s Rebellion PAC, asks, “Why does Mike Rogers care so much about what Israelis want, and so little about what you want?” El-Sayed’s campaign had already said it wasn’t theirs.

“A disclaimer is not condemnation,” Stevens said. Nancy Pelosi piled on in a podcast interview, calling his comments about Israel “wrong.” Her spokesperson later said she’s urging people to support him.

Stevens had agreed to join El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn at a unity event today. Now El-Sayed’s campaign has asked her to stay home, NBC News reports. Rep. Debbie Dingell says that call was hers. “I am the one that said this isn’t working,” she told CNN.

El-Sayed was done with the topic. “You guys love to play the condemn game. I’ve already been clear that that ad was not made by me, and I do not agree with the contents of that ad,” he told reporters.

“Please ask me questions that are relevant to the voters of the state of Michigan.”

He led Rogers 49% to 42% in CNN’s poll this week. Rogers is the opponent. Some Democrats are still acting like it’s August.

The Trump administration has told Gulf allies to prepare for a short, intense round of strikes on Iran that could come as soon as Nov. 4, the day after the midterms, three senior Gulf Arab officials told MS NOW.

The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. and Israeli forces are preparing potential strikes. Insiders say Trump hasn’t decided, but is leaning toward hitting Iranian infrastructure and nuclear sites.

He isn’t exactly hiding it. “We may do another little Epic Fury,” Trump said, using the Pentagon’s name for February’s opening strikes. He also said the war “is going to be over very soon.”

The White House said it doesn’t “comment on sensitive military plans that may or may not exist.”

Only 33% of Americans approve of how he’s handling the war, according to Pew.

Even Joe Rogan, who endorsed him in 2024, sees it coming. “A lot of people are worried that after the midterms, so when the midterms are over, that’s when they’re going to start doing more in Iran,” Rogan said on his show.

“The thing that disappoints everybody who supported Trump before he got into office was one of his big things that everybody agreed with was no more war.”

So the plan is to wait until after you vote.

Four days before the midterms, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson barred the Trump administration from making any more threats against election officials.

She found that DOJ and DHS officials likely broke Voting Rights Act protections against intimidating election workers, and went beyond their constitutional authority over elections, with a written threat they sent this week. An election workers’ union brought the case.

“In the lead-up to the election, high-ranking DOJ and DHS officials have engaged in a campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election,” Thompson wrote.

Her order bars officials from threatening legal action against election workers who count disputed ballots, and from demanding that ballots from registered voters go uncounted because the administration disputes them.

The Justice Department called it “a two-track system of justice” and says it’s weighing its options.

If anyone tries to intimidate you at the polls, the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline is 866-OUR-VOTE.

The people counting your vote are protected. Now go give them something to count.

With two days to go, Ken Paxton has canceled three stops on his Texas Senate bus tour: a rally in El Paso, a meet-and-greet in Texarkana and an appearance in Tyler. His campaign blamed “logistics.”

The crowds have been thin. At Mama’s Kitchen in Odessa on Wednesday, exactly one person applauded.

“Thank you. Thank you for that one clap,” Paxton said.

James Talarico had a theory about the cancellations. “No one’s going to Ken Paxton’s rallies, so he’s canceling them and hoping Elon Musk will buy this seat for him,” he said.

“His only volunteers are AI robots. His only donor is Elon Musk. And his only rally attendees are reporters forced to cover an empty room.”

Talarico just got some help of his own. Michael Bloomberg gave $2.5 million to Talarico, part of $36 million he sent Democrats this week.

Paxton’s last stop, a Monday event at the Alamo, is still on. We hope somebody claps.