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The same Republicans who once called for their colleague, Congressman Max Miller of Ohio, to resign from Congress over damning domestic violence allegations are now spending millions of dollars to keep him in office. A CBS News insider is now warning Americans that new owner David Ellison’s pledge to protect the network’s editorial independence is a lie. Two Democratic members of the Senate want to know the whereabouts of a giant diamond-encrusted ring gifted to Donald Trump just weeks before he issued tariff relief for European diamonds. And a new report reveals that an attorney who previously pleaded guilty to hacking state election websites has been working as a Department of Justice election monitor in a key swing state.
Before we go further, independent journalism needs your help. Today, the son of a billionaire Trump donor officially took control of CNN’s parent company. That’s one more newsroom that’s about to become a MAGA propaganda mill. Independent media is rapidly becoming the only reliable source of information today. And because we have no billionaire owner or corporate parent, we rely entirely on support from readers like you to keep doing this work.
This summer, Republican Congressman Max Miller of Ohio was on the ropes. His ex-wife, Emily Moreno, accused him in court filings and police reports of horrific abuse including allegedly pouring boiling water on her and holding a gun to her head. She also alleges their daughter’s collarbone was broken while she was in the congressman’s care. But now the GOP is apparently pulling out all the stops to help him win in November.
Emily Moreno is the daughter of Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, who said in August that his former son-in-law is a danger to his daughter and should no longer be in office. Both of Ohio’s senators urged Miller to resign. The Wall Street Journal reported that even Donald Trump privately told his inner circle the same thing. Meanwhile, Miller is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee is investigating, though he continues to deny all of the allegations.
Now, with less than a month before Americans vote in the midterms, the GOP appears to have decided that Miller’s allegations matter less than having a reliable Republican vote in the House of Representatives. The Congressional Leadership Fund, which is aligned with House Speaker Mike Johnson, has committed roughly $5 million toward ad buys targeting voters in Miller’s Cleveland-area district. The National Republican Congressional Committee is also spending big money on Miller’s behalf. Miller himself said Trump called him in September and predicted he would win reelection.
The math may have something to do with Republicans’ change of heart. Trump won Miller’s district by a double-digit margin in 2024, but key election forecasters say the race is now a toss-up between the incumbent Republican and Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter, an ironworker and former Oak Park city council member running with the endorsement of independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Miller stands out, as both Democrat Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Tony Gonzales of California both dropped out of their respective races this year when facing serious allegations. However, Miller stayed in, and his party is now going all-out to keep him where he is. Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House and can’t afford to lose any incumbents if they hope to hold onto the gavel after November 3.
Poindexter is promising that Miller will lose the race specifically because of character issues. One of his latest campaign ads features a sheriff reading Emily Moreno’s allegations out loud.
After the Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal to stop the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, Skydance CEO David Ellison — the son of billionaire Trump donor Larry Ellison — began his tenure as the new head of CNN’s parent company by holding a town hall moderated by CNN host Anderson Cooper.
When Cooper asked Ellison if he would pledge in front of the company to not interfere with CNN’s editorial process, Ellison assured those present that the network would remain fully independent. But one person at CBS News told Zeteo media reporter Justin Baragona that Ellison’s words were “lies, all lies.”
Both Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz have said they plan to cut roughly $6 billion in costs over the next three years. Cooper asked Ellison if that meant CNN employees could expect mass layoffs in the future. However, the newly minted CEO said those cost savings wouldn’t come at the cost of staff. But anyone who’s seen what Ellison did to CBS News knows that it’s likely only a matter of time before a wave of experienced journalists and producers will be sent packing.
Cooper’s role as town hall moderator reportedly had some spectators scratching their heads. A separate CBS source told Baragona that Cooper was being made to “dance like a monkey,” though an unnamed CNN employee said that Cooper asked legitimately tough questions that should signal to the company’s leadership that the network’s workforce expects to be left alone. Ultimately, CNN’s journalists are about to find out whether their new billionaire owner can be taken at his word.
In June, the group that represnets Belgium’s diamond industry gave the U.S. ambassador to Belgium a gaudy 18-karat gold ring encrusted with 321 diamonds and 75 gemstones meant for Donald Trump. The ring is worth an estimated $30,000. Just a few weeks later, the. Trump White House announced that European diamonds would be exempt from his tariffs.
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut now want to know the whereabouts of that ring. In a joint letter sent to the director of presidential gifts, the head of the General Services Administration and the national archivist, both senators pointed out there’s been absolutely no public reports on where the ring ended up.
The group maintains the ring was a gift to the American people, rather than to Trump personally, and insists there was no connection between the gift and the tariff announcement. That distinction is important, because under federal law, a president can keep personal gifts, while gifts to the U.S. government have to be cataloged and sent to the appropriate agency. The White House claimed in July that the ring hadn’t actually been presented to Trump.
Warren and Blumenthal are concerned about a possible quid pro quo at play. And since we’re talking about the same president who accepted a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, they aren’t exactly wrong to suspect something may be afoot.
In 2016, Florida authorities arrested an attorney named David Michael Levin on three felony counts of unauthorized access of a computer system. Investigators said he used a hacking maneuver known as an SQL injection attack to steal usernames and passwords from the Lee County Supervisor of Elections website. At that point, he then used those stolen credentials to log into restricted areas as a website administrator. Those charges were ultimately reduced to two misdemeanors. Levin served 20 days in jail and shrugged it off as a “silly political stunt.”
Now, according to government records obtained by the group Democracy Forward and reviewed by Democracy Docket, Levin was working as an election monitor with the Department of Justice during Arizona’s July primary in Maricopa County. A Civil Rights Division attorney said Levin was one of a dozen “Department of Justice observers,” and the convicted hacker was credentialed by county officials. Democracy Docket had previously spotted him on video outside of a polling place in Minneapolis during Minnesota’s primary.
The team of DOJ lawyers in Maricopa County also included Christopher Gardner, who worked with pro-Trump lawyers in the wake of the 2020 election. Gardner also helped provide legal advice to Georgia’s slate of Republican alternate electors as part of the Trump team’s effort to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the Peach State.
Levin and Gardner being on the DOJ payroll matters, because according to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department will be sending an army of approximately 1,000 people to monitor polling places on November 3. For context, that’s larger than the entire Civil Rights Division.
Election monitors have typically been in place in order to protect people’s right to vote. But having a convicted election hacker and an advisor to the illegal fake electors scheme serve as election monitors in states Trump lost in 2020 suggests the administration may be using DOJ staff for a completely different purpose.
Independent media is under attack on all fronts. Not only are billionaire families like the Ellisons gobbling up newsrooms one by one, but MAGA tech oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are using their algorithms to prevent stories like these from reaching our followers.
I’m British Chris, with Raw America. Once again, click the ❤️ and hit restack so we can break through and make sure these stories reach the most people. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent media.