Good morning, A federal judge just did something powerful people spent eight years trying to stop: she ordered the release of the full case files from Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell. Tens of thousands of pages, sworn depositions, and evidence that’s been sealed since before some of you were reading the news at all, are now on track to become public, and we’ll be tracking every page as it drops.
That’s just today’s biggest story. We’ve also got Republicans quietly panicking over a six-month war in Iran that’s polling at 30% approval, Trump posting a map claiming a foreign shipping strait as “New US Territory,” his own defense secretary laying groundwork for a 2028 run, and an exclusive on a man who woke up in an ICE-guarded hospital bed with a brain bleed and no memory of how he got there.
None of this waits for cable news to catch up, it’s already happening in the reporting we send out. If you’re not a subscriber yet, this is the moment to become one: you’ll get the full story before it hits anywhere else, straight to your inbox, no digging through social media to piece it together.
Here’s the news:
Republicans are growing increasingly anxious about how Trump’s nearly six-month war with Iran will affect their midterm chances, with polls showing broad unpopularity, including a Reuters/Ipsos survey finding just 3 in 10 voters approve of his handling of the conflict, yet vulnerable GOP lawmakers are largely standing by him rather than breaking publicly. Republican strategist Barrett Marson captured the bind, saying “there is one person in this country who doesn’t care about gas prices, just one, and unfortunately that one person kind of controls our fate,” while Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia warned colleagues that voters are “hurting” and the party needs to be “more in tune with them.”
Trump himself has offered little help, saying he’ll “never apologize” for striking Iran and downplaying gas price concerns, even as he questions the need to campaign since he’s not on the ballot, though he has authorized millions from his personal PAC to aid endangered candidates. Democrats are seizing on the opening, with Sen. Jon Ossoff blasting Trump as disengaged and attack ads like one from VoteVets targeting Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan over $9-per-gallon gas tied to his votes against limiting Trump’s war powers, a charge his campaign defended as necessary to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Only a handful of House Republicans, including Reps. Tom Barrett and Brian Fitzpatrick, have broken ranks to vote for curbing Trump’s war authority, while most in the party, echoed by NRCC and countered by DCCC statements, remain locked in a fight over whether the war will cost or help the GOP in November.
Epstein News:
A federal court in Manhattan last week ordered the release of the voluminous case files from Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 civil defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, a landmark victory that caps eight years of litigation by the Miami Herald and its parent company, McClatchy. Judge Loretta Preska rejected Maxwell’s final arguments to keep the files sealed, ruling that last year’s passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act superseded earlier grand jury arguments Maxwell had relied on. Giuffre originally sued Maxwell in 2015 after Maxwell publicly called her a liar for accusing Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell, and other powerful men of sexual abuse, and the case generated tens of thousands of pages of discovery, including depositions from Giuffre, Maxwell, and dozens of others. The lawsuit settled in early 2017 for roughly $3 to 5 million before going to trial, and the presiding judge, the now-deceased Robert Sweet, had issued a blanket seal on nearly all the material without the document-by-document legal justification normally required for sealing.
Reporter Julie K. Brown explains that she had been told the sealed discovery contained damning evidence against Epstein, Maxwell, and other men, prompting her to push the Miami Herald’s lawyers to file a motion to intervene and unseal the files. An appeals court ultimately sided with the Herald, and on August 9, 2019, thousands of pages were made public, including sworn statements from Giuffre alleging she was trafficked to Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew, former Senator George Mitchell, former Governor Bill Richardson, hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, hotel magnate Tom Pritzker, and the late scientist Marvin Minsky, all of whom denied involvement. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell the very next morning. Brown frames the newly ordered unsealing as the culmination of that long fight, expected to surface further material from the case that has remained hidden since the original 2017 settlement.
Iran:
President Trump posted a map on Truth Social Tuesday morning showing the strait of Hormuz circled and labeled “New US Territory,” following comments he made Friday at a Long Island police academy speech claiming that once Iran is “defeated,” he’ll declare the strait American territory. He argued this was already effectively the case, saying “We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to.” The strait carries roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil and runs through the territorial waters of both Oman and Iran, though it is classified as international waters under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which guarantees free navigation for foreign commercial and military vessels.
The US has never ratified that convention, with Senate Republicans historically blocking it over concerns about legal liability and eroded sovereignty, though Washington has customarily treated it as binding customary international law anyway. Trump has separately threatened to bomb Oman, a longstanding US ally, if it interferes with negotiations to end the Iran war. Legally, Trump cannot unilaterally seize the strait through executive action, since Article IV, Section 3 of the US Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the exclusive power to acquire and govern new US territories.
Trump Deletes Critical Datasets:
Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration has deleted at least 28 federal datasets and altered another 338, according to a new online tracker from dataindex.us, a group of data policy experts and researchers formed to monitor changes to government data. The affected records span more than 60 federal agencies and cover topics including law enforcement misconduct, child abuse surveys, and real-time air pollution readings from US embassies abroad. Denice Ross, a co-founder of the group and former US chief data scientist under the Biden administration, warned that the country is losing information needed “to make decisions that will save lives and benefit American communities.” Health datasets have been hit hardest, accounting for roughly 40% of all terminated or altered collections tracked so far.
A major driver of the health data changes is Trump’s executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which has led multiple CDC surveys to strip out questions about respondents’ gender identity. Affected surveys include the National HIV Surveillance System, the National Violent Death Reporting System, the Diabetes Prevention Recognition Program, and the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, among others. At least four health datasets have stopped updating entirely, including Samhsa’s Drug Abuse Warning Network, which doctors and researchers relied on to track drug-related ER visits and spot emerging overdose trends in near real time. Public health expert Thomas Babor said halting such surveys “is like we’re erasing our institutional memory for public health,” making it harder to learn from past epidemics.
Beyond health, the USDA discontinued its twice-annual survey of farm employers that helped set minimum pay rates for H-2A visa workers, and the National Center for Education Statistics dropped a survey on teacher and principal pay and working conditions. Dataindex.us co-founder Christopher Dick said the tracker was created because agencies aren’t required to notify the public when datasets are terminated, making it hard to distinguish permanent deletions from routine updates. The group compiled its list through research, crowdsourced tips from government employees and data users, social media monitoring, and regulatory notices. Ross acknowledged the tracker is likely an undercount and is asking people who rely on obscure datasets to flag changes the group may have missed.
Pete Hegseth Considers Presidential Run:
Officials close to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth believe he is quietly positioning himself for a 2028 presidential run, citing his recent campaign stops in Iowa, South Carolina, and Kentucky as evidence, an unusual move for a sitting defense secretary. The Pentagon maintains the Iowa trip was made “in his personal capacity,” though he traveled on military aircraft. The speculation comes as Trump has spent the year weighing potential successors, publicly pitting JD Vance against Marco Rubio while also floating a third-term run of his own. A Cabinet official campaigning in a battleground state is exactly the kind of move likely to draw Trump’s attention and irritation.
Any bid would force Hegseth to contend with a lengthy list of self-inflicted controversies, including the “Signalgate” leak of sensitive military details, purges of military leadership, and past allegations of assault, sexism, and extremist ties. He would also have to answer for his enthusiastic support of Trump’s deeply unpopular war with Iran, which polls at just 28% approval and has included a strike that killed 165 civilians, as well as his past struggles with alcohol. Compounding matters, reports have surfaced of dire conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including moldy showers and rationed meals, which Hegseth has dismissed as misrepresented. On top of all that, he would likely face off against Vance, who has the backing of some of MAGA’s wealthiest donors, in any 2028 primary.
Exclusive ICE Reporting
On the morning of August 11, Jose Mejia Hernandez was walking to work when a truck sped up and two men jumped out and ran toward him. Frightened and unsure who they were, he fled and says he was struck by what he believes was a stun gun or Taser. He has no memory of what happened next, including how he was injured or transported, and woke up hours later in a hospital with serious facial injuries consistent with blunt force trauma. According to his attorney, he was later found to have suffered a brain bleed and brain swelling, though he says he was never given a full explanation of his diagnosis or how he was hurt.
Throughout his hospitalization, two ICE agents reportedly stayed at his bedside at all times, and he was never given a private moment with his own doctors. When he asked the agents what happened to him, they claimed not to know, and he says hospital staff seemed hesitant to speak openly in front of them, communicating more with ICE than with him directly. A nurse eventually told him quietly in Spanish about the brain bleed and swelling. Meanwhile, his wife and stepchild had no idea where he was for roughly three days, as neither DHS nor the hospital notified his family that he had been detained, injured, or hospitalized.
Upon discharge, Mejia Hernandez says he didn’t even realize he was being released. He was driven from the hospital, given food, told to contact his family, and then taken to an ICE office where he was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor and handed a Notice to Appear. By Friday, feeling significantly worse, he returned to the hospital and was again diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and brain bleed, staying two more days, though his lawyer says doctors couldn’t complete necessary imaging because of the ankle monitor. At a later ISAP appointment, still dizzy and in pain and needing an MRI, ICE reportedly refused to remove the monitor unless he could provide a specific MRI appointment time, forcing him to shuttle between the hospital and immigration offices while suffering from a brain injury. His attorney is now demanding a full accounting of the incident and the preservation of all related records.
Election Day:
Florida and Alaska are holding primaries Tuesday that will help shape control of Congress this fall, with a GOP-led redistricting effort in Florida creating unusual matchups. Longtime Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is white, is running for a new seat in the historically Black 20th congressional district after her old seat was redrawn to favor Republicans, drawing criticism from activists worried about diminished Black representation following a Supreme Court ruling that weakened a landmark civil rights law. She faces several Black candidates, including rapper Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell and former Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who resigned from Congress in April amid criminal charges over allegedly stealing $5 million in disaster relief funds. Separately, moderate Democrats Alex Vindman and David Jolly are heavily favored to win their party’s Senate and governor nominations in Florida, with analysts noting the progressive lane that succeeded in states like Minnesota and Michigan has little traction in the now reliably red state.
In Alaska’s Senate primary, incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan faces a same-named challenger, Daniel J Sullivan Jr, a retired teacher whom Republicans allege is a sham candidate meant to sow confusion on Democrats’ behalf, a claim he denies. Former Representative Mary Peltola, the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, is also running and would become the first Alaska Native senator if elected in November. Trump posted on Truth Social urging Alaskans to “VOTE FOR THE REAL DAN SULLIVAN” and warning against an “imposter” and “Fraudsters,” while separately confirming he voted by mail in Florida’s Republican primary, notably his third mail-in ballot despite years of attacking mail voting and signing an executive order in March restricting its use ahead of the midterms.
In a separate election integrity controversy, Shasta County, California, a conservative area that has become a hub of election denialism, plans to hire Tina Peters, the Colorado election denier recently released from prison, as an elections consultant, according to the county’s top election official, Clint Curtis. Peters, still on parole, would reportedly not have direct access to the county’s voting system, though her exact responsibilities remain unclear, and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said the state is investigating the hiring. Shasta previously drew national attention in 2023 for an unsuccessful effort to ditch Dominion voting machines in favor of a costly hand-count system, backed at the time by prominent election fraud promoter Mike Lindell.
Other News:
Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico hired Jacob Smith, a five-year staffer for Republican Sen. John Cornyn, as his campaign’s deputy policy director, an unusually rare cross-party move for a Senate campaign. Smith said he’s proud to leave partisan politics behind to back Talarico, while blasting GOP nominee Ken Paxton as “the most corrupt, self-dealing politician in Texas” and urging fellow Republicans to vote him out. The hire comes after Cornyn lost the GOP primary runoff to Paxton, whose legacy of a fraud indictment, impeachment, and extramarital affair has worried Republicans that his seat could be vulnerable. Polls show the race in a dead heat, with Talarico drawing support from independents and some disaffected Republicans unwilling to back Paxton, even as operatives doubt many will cross over fully. Talarico has also raised over $70 million, more than any other nonincumbent candidate this cycle and well ahead of Paxton.
The Walt Disney Company, ABC, and several of its stations sued the FCC on Tuesday to block an early broadcast license renewal process they say amounts to retaliation by the Trump administration for ABC's programming. The FCC had ordered Disney's eight owned-and-operated stations in April to file renewals years ahead of schedule with only 30 days to prepare, a move that came amid probes into "The View" and Disney's diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, as well as after Trump publicly attacked ABC over Jimmy Kimmel's comments about Charlie Kirk's killer and suggested broadcast licenses should be "terminated." The lawsuit, filed in DC district court, explicitly cites Trump's social media posts and argues the administration "waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts," asking the court for an immediate halt and a temporary restraining order. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has defended the actions as being about operating in "the public interest," telling broadcasters unhappy with the rules they could instead "become a cable channel" or "stream online."
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung renewed his push to reclaim wartime operational control (Opcon) of the country’s military from the US and accelerate its nuclear-powered submarine program after Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” this week’s joint drills, citing a friendly relationship with Kim Jong-un. Lee argued that a strong alliance and independent defense capability are mutually reinforcing, and his office called for Seoul to proceed smoothly with the planned transfer of wartime authority, a goal delayed for over two decades since the US assumed it during the 1953 Korean War armistice. The curtailed Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which were expected to involve about 18,000 South Korean troops plus US and UN Command forces, had also been meant to help certify South Korea’s readiness to take over that command and to incorporate lessons on North Korean drone tactics learned from Pyongyang’s troop deployments to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Russia’s embassy in London warned Britain will face “consequences” over reports that Ukraine used British-made drones in its deepening “deep strike” campaign against Russian territory, accusing the UK of deliberately escalating the conflict. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham responded that the UK will continue to “support Ukraine 100%” against what he called Putin’s illegal war, saying Britain has never been a “fair-weather friend.” The Ministry of Defence echoed that stance, stating Russia “should be in no doubt about the resolve of this government.” Ukraine has ramped up long-range strikes using homegrown weapons like the Flamingo cruise missile and FP-1 drone, launching three times as many such attacks in July as in January, hitting refineries, warehouses, and military sites up to 1,500 miles inside Russia. The exchange comes as both sides’ air defenses grow increasingly stretched, with strikes killing seven in Russia and five in Ukraine overnight, plus 10 more killed in a Russian missile strike on Kharkiv oblast on Tuesday.
More than half of US states have joined a landmark federal trial against Meta that began Tuesday in Oakland, California, accusing the company of deliberately designing addictive features on Instagram and Facebook that harmed young users. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Meta “designed a dangerous product for young users, knew it to be dangerous, and then lied to children, families and the community about how dangerous it was,” and the trial is expected to hear testimony from Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, and whistleblower Arturo Béjar over six to eight weeks. The 233-page suit alleges Meta collected data on children under 13 without parental consent and built manipulative features like infinite scroll, constant notifications, and “likes” to maximize time spent on its apps, with damages potentially reaching $200 billion. Meta denies the allegations, calling the states’ claims “unsubstantiated” and their financial demands “vastly disproportionate.”
See you soon.
— Aaron
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