Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
One of Trump’s own judges just delivered another blow to his administration’s voter data crusade, marking his 16th straight court loss on the issue. Epstein survivors say acting Attorney General Todd Blanche turned what was supposed to be a meeting about accountability into what one attendee called a performance. ICE is under new scrutiny after new information shows the agency hired a man with a documented history of violence and serious mental health struggles who later killed a man in Maine. And Citizens Bank is cutting ties with two private prison companies profiting off ICE detention, after months of public pressure.
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Trump’s Own Appointed Judge Hands Him Humiliating Loss
Back in January, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice was popping champagne after a federal judge in Connecticut ordered the state to respond to the government’s lawsuit over its voter rolls. The DOJ treated that procedural step like a major legal victory. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon even bragged about it online.
But in the end, all that order did was tell Connecticut’s Secretary of State to explain why she shouldn’t have to hand over the state’s voter database.
Now the actual ruling is in, and it’s a disaster for the DOJ. U.S. District Judge Kari Dooley, who Trump himself appointed back in 2018, denied the Justice Department’s demand outright. She’s now the 16th judge in a row to rule against the administration’s push to collect sensitive voter data from states. These lists include information like names, dates of birth, home addresses and Social Security numbers. Precisely zero judges have actually sided with Trump on this.
Dooley found that Connecticut’s voter registration list doesn’t fall under the law the DOJ was using to justify its demand, which is Civil Rights Act provision from 1960. That law, Title III, covers records the state receives and has to preserve. The voter roll isn’t that. Judge Dooley pointed out in her ruling that the voter list is a living document that election officials constantly update.
What makes this even more embarrassing is who’s been delivering these losses. Dooley is now the seventh of Trump’s judicial appointees to reject the DOJ’s effort to seize voter rolls. The other nine judges include three George W. Bush appointees, meaning two-thirds of the judges who have ruled against the DOJ were put on the bench by Republican presidents. This means Trump can’t point partisan judges blocking him out of spite. The DOJ is now officially 0 and 16 at the district court level when it comes to seizing statewide voter databases, and 0 and 1 on appeal. If Trump put up these numbers as a head coach, he’d be fired.
Epstein Survivors Outraged by Todd Blanche’s 5-word Excuse
Survivors of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein say they were just totally let down by the man who wants to be the nation’s top law enforcement official.
During his confirmation hearing this week, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — who was previously Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer — got an unexpected ultimatum from Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Tillis said he’d only support Blanche if the would-be attorney general agreed to sit down with Epstein survivors before the Judiciary Committee voted to pass him on the full Senate. That meeting happened took place that same afternoon at DOJ headquarters.
According to people in the room, Blanche began by telling survivors he wasn’t going to commit to anything, and he didn’t expect to commit to anything either. When Sky Roberts, brother of late survivor Virginia Giuffre, asked what Blanche needed to open a new investigation, Blanche said he needed testimony and evidence.
Survivors were stunned by that response, given that they’ve provided sworn testimony for decades. Giuffre herself left behind multiple depositions and FBI interview memos. When Roberts asked about investigating Prince Andrew (whom Giuffre had accused in her book of assaulting her) Blanche said he couldn’t pursue that because the prince “won’t cooperate” and “Virginia [Giuffre] is not here.” One attendee pushed back by pointing out that prosecutors often build evidence-based cases without a defendant’s cooperation on a regular basis.
Blanche also reportedly said there was “very little corroboration” against Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Epstein’s chief co-conspirator. But that claim also fell apart immediately, as Annie Farmer, who was one of four women who testified against Maxwell at her 2021 trial, was present in the room. Farmer later said Blanche wouldn’t commit to looking into why her sister’s 1996 report about Epstein never went anywhere, and would only say “I’m just the attorney general.”
By the end of the meeting, Epstein survivor Dani Bensky reportedly broke down in tears. One attendee told MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig that Blanche was stone-faced the entire time. The DOJ called the meeting productive. But the representative for the Epstein survivors present said it was little more than a performance.
ICE Under Fire For Hiring Man with Violent Past and Mental Health Issues Who Later Killed a Man
In Maine, an ICE agent’s recent fatal shooting of a Colombian father is raising new questions about whether the Trump administration is even vetting people before handing them badges and guns.
On Monday, Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by 37 year-old ICE agent David Brouillette in Biddeford. Independent Senator Angus King says Durán Guerrero wasn’t subject to any arrest warrant, and officers on scene weren’t wearing body cameras. Durán Guerrero also had a Social Security number and was legally authorized to work in the United States.
Brouillette’s ex-wife says she wasn’t surprised he ended up armed and dangerous, given his history. Family members said Brouillette has a long list of psychiatric struggles dating to childhood, along with documented violent behavior, including an incident where he allegedly threw boiling water at his ex-wife while she held their daughter. Brouillette also allegedly threw his own daughter through a wooden table and is accused of saying in a voicemail that he would cut her throat.
Initially, military recruiters turned Brouillette away due to his mental health diagnoses. He went off his medications and enlisted anyway, deploying to Afghanistan for nearly three years. One of his relatives told the Associated Press that the deployment “destroyed him.” After his stint in the military, he cycled through various jobs, working as a corrections officer, a police officer at the local VA, a truck driver and a real estate agent, before eventually ending up at ICE.
When asked about how it vets prospective agents, ICE refused to confirm or deny any details. The White House has also refused to comment. Brouillette’s shooting of Durán Guerrero comes after ICE bragged in December about receiving over 220,000 applications following a hiring push that included $50,000 signing bonuses. Nearly 12,000 people were hired. Though clearly ICE values quantity over quality.
Major Bank Cuts Ties to ICE Contractors After Massive Public Pressure Campaign
This last story also involves ICE, but this time, it’s good news for a change.
Citizens Bank announced it’s winding down its financial relationships with CoreCivic and The GEO Group, two of the largest private prison companies in the country, which both have major contracts to operate ICE detention centers.
The bank didn’t suddenly develop a conscience. This decision happened because Americans across the country organized and made enough noise that Citizens Bank could no longer tune it out. Advocacy groups ran sustained pressure campaigns explicitly targeting the bank, and city councils in Montclair and Jersey City, New Jersey, both voted to pull their municipal accounts out of Citizens if the bank didn’t cut off its relationship with ICE.
Citizens argues its decision was purely business-related, pointing out that the federal government is now looking to buy several facilities directly from these companies, reducing their need for outside financing. Whether that framing is accurate or not is less important than the outcome. One of the main financial pipelines helping to fund immigrant detention just got cut off, all because ordinary people and public officials refused to let them off the hook.
Stand Up and Fight Back Against the Billionaires
These four stories all underscore one major point: American democracy can only survive if powerful people are held accountable. Epstein survivors are still seeking justice after being stonewalled by Trump’s attorney general. ICE is giving badges and guns to people with violent pasts and mental health issues. But Trump’s attempt to steal voter data got halted by one of his own judges, because she placed the law above loyalty, and the American people got a big bank to cut ties with ICE after an intense organizing campaign.
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Here are a few stories you may have missed:
Second Ex-Wife of ICE Agent Responsible for Maine Killing Files for Protective Order. A second former wife of 37 year-old David Brouillette — who was identified by his first ex-wife, Ashley, as the man who killed Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine this week — is now seeking a protective order from a judge, along with sole custody of their 11 year-old daughter. Brouillette married his second wife following his 2010 divorce from Ashley Brouillette, and ended his second marriage in 2019.
Trump-Endorsed Candidate for Minnesota Governor Isn’t Even Registered in the State. This week, President Donald Trump endorsed Mike Lindell in Minnesota’s August 11 Republican gubernatorial primary election. But according to the Minnesota Star-Tribune, Lindell is currently registered to vote in Texas, not Minnesota. Lindell is known as one of the most outspoken 2020 election conspiracy theorists, and continues to argue without evidence that the election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden.
Trump’s Ambassador to Italy Protested by Locals Over $450 Million Yacht Tour. Billionaire Tilman Fertitta, who is President Trump’s ambassador to Italy, recently announced he would be touring 13 coastal Italian cities in his $450 million yacht in celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday. Italians have responded to his yacht tour with widespread protests. Organizer Stella Morion told the Associated Press Fertitta’s tour felt like “the umpteenth slap in the face of a city and all of the people in Venice who struggle to reach the end of the month due to an increase in prices caused by Trump's war.”
DHS Secretary Threatens to Jail Officials for Refusing to Comply with Trump’s Election Demands. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued an ominous threat to Democratic-run states on Friday, saying states had better be prepared to “scrub” their voter rolls if they wanted federal grants for administering elections. Mullin added that any election official who refused to implement the Trump administration’s “security” measures could face “prison time.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed that state leaders “will not be intimidated” and that Senate Democrats would work to make sure election funds would still be available for states regardless of whether they acceded to the White House’s demands.
Trump Suggests New Tariffs for Canada Likely Over Wildfire Smoke. President Trump on Friday refused to rule out hiking tariffs on Canadian imports in response to smoke from Canadian wildfires worsening air quality across the Midwest and East Coast. On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that the U.S. was being “unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney fired back by saying climate change was a serious threat and that the United States needed to step up its own efforts to counter its effects.
