Good morning. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
House Democrats released a 50-page report connecting Trump to 11 sexual assaults tied to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump is offering $1 million to anyone who reports voter fraud before the midterms. The Justice Department has charged former FBI Director James Comey for the third time since Trump took office. And a Libertarian state Senate candidate in North Carolina was arrested after a standoff with police that lasted several hours.
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House Judiciary Committee Democrats released a 50-page report Monday that included testimony from 11 women who say Trump raped or sexually assaulted them in connection to Jeffrey Epstein. The report also for the first time includes the allegation that Trump raped a Swiss model named Beatrice Keul in the Plaza Hotel in 1993.
The report identifies patterns of behavior shared by Trump and Epstein, including promises of university admissions used to control victims and follow-up contact made months after alleged assaults. Five of the women described Trump and Epstein as competitive in their pursuits, with Epstein reportedly punishing victims when Trump initiated sexual contact with them.
Keul told investigators her passport was taken when she entered the pageant and Trump offered to help her get a visa and get into New York University. Epstein then came up to her, said he was Trump’s best friend and promised to arrange a trip to Mar-a-Lago for a party.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s ranking member, accused the DOJ of a cover-up, saying, “These women have spoken to investigators and, in some cases, testified under oath, yet Trump’s Justice Department has shut down investigations, deliberately withheld evidence and, through Todd Blanche, prevented Ghislaine Maxwell from discussing a survivor whose account implicated Trump.”
This is what happens when DOGE fires all the people who investigate elections.
Trump said he would give $1 million to anyone who can report voter fraud in previous elections or the 2026 midterms if the report leads to a conviction. The announcement came on social media eight days before Election Day.
“Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud!” Trump wrote. He did not say where the money would come from, or how claims would be verified.
Since returning to office, Trump has hired about a dozen election deniers to look for evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, including “Stop the Steal” attorney Kurt Olsen, who resigned in September after coming up empty. Every investigator and contractor hired by the administration for the effort has also failed to uncover findings of widespread fraud.
After the 2020 election, an Associated Press review of six swing states found only 475 possible fraud cases among more than 25 million ballots cast. A separate report from the Center for Election Innovation and Research in 2025 found that no state had identified any coordinated effort to get noncitizens to vote in the 2024 election.
If at first you don’t convict, indict, indict again.
Federal prosecutors have charged former FBI Director James Comey with transmitting national defense information, marking the third federal case brought against him since Trump’s second term began. The charges were filed under seal Oct. 5 and are based on a 2016 New York Times article about Yahoo’s role in government email surveillance.
Prosecutors said Comey directed staff to correct inaccuracies in a Reuters story by talking to Times reporter Charlie Savage, and that the conversation amounted to an unlawful transfer of classified information. Comey has denied the charges, calling them an abuse of the Justice Department.
His attorneys have moved to dismiss the charges, arguing the government filed them on the last day of the statute of limitations without going before a grand jury. That filing alone would not be enough to try Comey unless he waived his right to an indictment, which would be unusual.
The first case against Comey was dismissed when a judge found that the indictment had never been presented to the grand jury. The unsealing of the latest charges came the same day a federal judge ruled that Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, had been wrongfully fired from the Justice Department and ordered her reinstated.
The Libertarian Party finally made the news.
The Libertarian Party’s candidate for a North Carolina state Senate district, Jonathan D. Miller, was arrested Monday after an hours-long standoff with police. The incident began after Miller posted messages on social media Sunday night that referenced suicidal thoughts and apparent confrontations with law enforcement.
Police did a welfare check at Miller’s home Monday morning and when an officer saw a holstered revolver on Miller’s hip, the officer drew his weapon and told Miller to keep his hands away from it. Miller refused the order and ran into some nearby woods, where police chased him for hours before arresting him.
Miller phoned local station WRAL several times during the standoff, telling a reporter at one point that police had been chasing him all morning and “they’re not very good at it.” The police chief in Cary later thanked WRAL for taking the calls, saying officers were able to listen in and use what they heard to help defuse the situation without violence.
Our editor, Ryan Rose, lives in the neighboring town, and has a close friend who works at WRAL. Her exclusive bit of information for you all is that when Miller first called the station, he opened by telling them he was going to be their biggest story of the day.
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Massie Will Reintroduce Impeachment Articles Against Pete Hegseth After Midterms. Rep. Thomas Massie announced Monday that he will be refiling articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when Congress returns from recess. His original resolution, introduced in September, had eight articles alleging violations of the War Powers Resolution and other laws, but House Speaker Mike Johnson sent representatives home early to block the vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has confirmed that Democrats will seek Hegseth’s removal if they win the majority, and Senate Democrats have also indicated that their cooperation on key defense legislation could be contingent on his removal.
** Allegheny County Passes First County-Level Paid Parental Leave Policy in the Nation.** On Tuesday, the Allegheny County Council voted 11-4 to approve 12 weeks of paid parental leave for workers in the county, the first paid leave policy at the county level in the United States. The policy applies to all businesses with 15 or more employees and to both birthing and non-birthing parents. The campaign was launched on Mother’s Day by nurses at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, who put out a community survey while forming their union and received an overwhelming number of responses calling for paid parental leave. The United States remains the only industrialized nation without a federal paid leave policy.
** New York Archdiocese Agrees to $800 Million Settlement for Sexual Abuse Survivors.** The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to pay $800 million to settle claims of about 1,300 people who say they were sexually abused by clergy and lay workers. Jeff Anderson, whose firm represents more than 250 of the plaintiffs, said all sides have agreed to the settlement and signed paperwork is pending. The settlement is one of the largest in the history of the Catholic Church, second only to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ $880 million payout to survivors of abuse in 2024. The New York archdiocese said in December 2025 that it was entering mediation and would dismiss staff and sell properties in Manhattan to help raise $300 million of the total.
** Neil Young Sues Trump for $10 Million Over Unauthorized Use of His Music.** Neil Young is suing the Trump 47 Committee for copyright infringement after his song “Rockin’ in the Free World” was allegedly played without a license at a midterm campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio on October 12. Young is seeking $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. The conflict between Young and Trump goes back to 2015, when Trump used the song to launch his first presidential campaign and Young publicly objected. Young sued the 2020 campaign over the same issue and that case was settled after the campaign agreed not to use the song again without permission. In his latest filing, Young contends the song’s lyrics about poverty, addiction, and social decay make it a particularly bad fit for a Trump rally soundtrack.