Donald Trump’s Hundredth Smoking Gun

President credibly accused of rape

Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee released a 52-page report (PDF) titled “We Have Certain Things in Common, Jeffrey: The Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ’s Desperate Efforts to Cover It Up.”

Within the report are new details of a well-corroborated story from a woman from Switzerland targeted by Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at an event in 1993, who says that after Trump and then Epstein spoke to her, she went to meet with Trump and that he forcibly raped her, “tearing her dress and causing bleeding and bruising on multiple parts of her body.”

It’s beyond exasperating to have to point to a smoking gun in the President’s hand, yell that the President is holding a smoking gun, and in response be told, “sorry, but the President is also holding ninety-nine other smoking guns.” Trump’s criminal abusiveness and the public’s ineffective response to it are Exhibit A in the case that there are deep problems with American democracy that must be dealt with. Beating Republicans at the polls in 2026 and 2028 is merely the beginning of what needs to happen.

Yesterday, a federal judge also found the firing of New York federal prosecutor Maurene Comey unlawful. As Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger report in the CNBC article “Trump DOJ unlawfully fired Epstein prosecutor Maurene Comey, judge rules”:

“A federal judge ruled Monday that the Department of Justice’s firing last year of New York federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was unlawful.

“Judge Jesse Furman, in his ruling, also granted Maurene Comey retroactive reinstatement and back pay as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from her termination on July 16, 2025, through Dec. 20, 2025, when the judge inferred she accepted another job. …

“Before her termination, Comey was involved in a series of high-profile federal prosecutions, including ones against the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs.”

Comey’s father, unfortunately, continues to face fresh harassment from the administration.

We will win this unfree and unfair election

Liberal Currents contributor Nicholas Grossman’s thread here is good stage-setting for the situation we now face:

“The US is not about to have a free and fair election. The state has put its thumb on the scale to favor the ruling party in multiple ways. It's a mostly free, somewhat unfair election. But still one where the ruling party can be overwhelmed by numbers. Hence the term ‘competitive authoritarianism.’

“Hungary's recent election was less free and more unfair than the upcoming US midterms, and pro-democracy forces still won. Similar point about Serbia's election this weekend. In normal democracy terms, America is in bad shape. But in consolidated authoritarianism terms, we're looking pretty good.

“Trump and Co. will try to steal the midterms. They're already trying. Gerrymandering, bad faith lawsuits, voter intimidation, and a whole lot of lies. But they don't have a genius secret plan. They're already doing whatever they can think of. And it's beatable. Shouldn't have to, but here we are.”

“Free and fair” is always a relative designation, not an absolute one. America has had voter suppression and countermajoritarian institutions for a very long time now. Our elections were far from perfectly free and fair before Trump came along.

But there is no comparison to the conditions under which the current midterms are being conducted. One item not in Grossman’s incomplete list is media censorship. ABC’s legal filing in early September is a good example of where we are: on the one hand, ABC self-censored in response to an aggressively partisan FCC under chair Brendan Carr. On the other hand, we are aware of this, because ABC told us so, while filing suit against Carr in a court system that has shown itself very willing to push back on such abuses.

Nevertheless, self-censorship did occur. The Trump administration has used the FCC, the FTC’s power over mergers, and private lawsuits, among other tools, to turn the screws on big media companies. It has also aided regime allies like the Ellisons, at Paramount, now Skydance, in their quest to consolidate more and more big media properties under one corporate umbrella. And yet unfavorable coverage of the administration continues to be put out by these outlets, and the broader public sphere contains many, many independent sources critical of the regime whose cumulative audiences are considerable.

Similarly, the Trump administration has launched attack after attack on our election system, but so far has not, as Grossman correctly points out, made it anywhere near as bad as other authoritarians who came into office with greater popularity and operated within political institutions that were simpler and more centralized to begin with.

We have written more than once about how, when it comes to directly attacking elections, the administration faces a shortage of personnel relative to the vast size and population of the country if it wishes to impact the outcome in its favor. Right now, it appears that they are concentrated on California and Alaska in particular, with some action in Washington state as well. As John Light reports for Talking Points Memo: 

“The Department of Justice sued Alaska on Friday, demanding that the state delay certification until an investigation can ‘determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan’—a Republican on the ballot with the same name as the incumbent GOP senator—‘were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan.’ Trump said he asked the DOJ to initiate the suit. Experts see the case as weak.

“In California, the DOJ demanded that Los Angeles—and then every other county in the state—segregate ballots from a list of names it provided, claiming those people were noncitizens likely to cast ballots.”

Meanwhile, DHS did not wait for this to play out through the courts, and instead was going door to door in California looking for victims (excuse me, I mean “noncitizen voters”). Thankfully, this has been paused for now by a federal judge, but some communities have already been terrorized by this action.

The California lawsuit is specious but it really is hard to overstate how absurd the Alaska one is. Devlin Barrett and Kellen Browning report in the New York Times:

“The Trump administration has asked a federal court to block certification of the Senate election in Alaska if the Republican incumbent narrowly loses, a highly unusual move that signaled an effort to potentially intervene in the outcome. …

“The Justice Department, in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Alaska on Thursday, argued that confusion over a candidate on the ballot with a name very similar to that of the incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan, could taint the election result.

“Polls show that the senator is in a close race against Mary Peltola, a Democrat. However, the four-person ballot also includes Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., and does not list any party registration. The senator’s line on the state ballot describes him as the incumbent.”

The election hasn’t even happened yet and they’re already trying to challenge the results.

Take heart: they are losing, and they know it. By how much, no one can say. But these tactics reek of desperation. Take heart, go vote, and encourage your neighbors to do the same.

Meanwhile, Greg Sargent at the New Republic reports that Democrats are already thinking about how to wield the power of Congress:

“Senior House Democrats tell me they’re discussing a dramatic step, should they win the majority: wielding the power of the purse against the illicit persecution of Trump critics. This could entail targeted efforts to defund investigations and prosecutions ordered up baselessly by Trump. Democrats also plan to extensively deploy subpoena power against officials at many levels to expose the corrupt processes by which Trump orders underlings to carry out these directives—including the investigation and expected prosecution of Omar. …

“Representative Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who will chair the Judiciary Committee in a Democratic majority, adds that his committee will confer with Democratic appropriators to develop a kind of joint defunding strategy against corrupt prosecutions.”

The pardon power must be reckoned with

Jasmine Wright and Jeff Stein report at the Washington Sun:

“White House attorneys are evaluating whether to issue mass pardons to junior staffers, as Trump allies press the administration to protect lower-ranked officials from prosecution and other legal challenges, according to two sources familiar with the conversations.

“While President Donald Trump has publicly discussed issuing pardons for top aides and issued pardons for billionaires and major donors, questions have mounted about the potential legal jeopardy facing thousands of employees who have implemented the White House’s agenda.”

Court reform is table stakes. We need justices that will read the pardon clause very narrowly and allow us to prosecute the lawbreakers of the Trump administration.

Chart of the day

Is that good?

While Trump and MAGA have doubled down on defending Vivek Ramaswamy’s absolutely despicable campaign ad, the political situation in Ohio itself is not looking as favorable to the GOP candidate for governor.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the state’s biggest newspaper per Kyle Griffin, has now decided to make an endorsement in the race, where it previously had not. In the words of their editorial board:

“Vivek Ramaswamy, seeking the highest office in this state, has produced a campaign advertisement that weaponizes the sexual abuse his opponent, Amy Acton, suffered as a child. People across the political spectrum have rightly condemned it.

“But condemnation has to mean something. Our politics have been debased for a decade, but this we will not accept. A candidate who uses childhood sexual abuse as a weapon against the person who endured it has crossed a line that Ohioans should defend, whatever their party.

“We are better than this. We have a responsibility to show it.

“Today, we endorse Democrat Amy Acton for governor.”

Republican governor Mike DeWine did not flip his endorsement, but he did publicly call for the ad to be taken down. As Henry J. Gomez reports at NBC News:

“Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday called for Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican he endorsed to succeed him as governor, to stop airing an ad that features the estranged mother of Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Amy Acton.

“‘The ad, on its face, is deeply, deeply troubling,’ DeWine said at a news conference he called to address what has become a boiling controversy in the final days of a hostile race.”

We needn’t applaud DeWine for his frankly chickenshit statement, but both of these are a bellwether of how the ad may have been received by the Ohio voting public.

Around Liberal Currents

This week we will be publishing five essays on the question of what liberalism is. We began yesterday with my contribution, which focused on life under liberalism for ordinary people. So please enjoy the essays this coming week as a little breather from the crushing pressure of the elections and the current crisis.

And here’s what we published in the last few days:

• Help Us Learn, by Adam Gurri: We don't have all the answers. Help us find them.
• Better Win a District: Tennessee's Ninth, by Alan Elrod: Justin Pearson is leading a David-like challenge to Republican rule.
• The Anti-Populism of “Digger,” by Elias Isquith: You don’t have to like Iñárritu’s new film to appreciate its refusal to confuse the punishment of villains with the repair of the world.
• Towards a Third Reconstruction, by Victor Ray: Chapter 17 (pp. 135–139) from The Reconstruction Papers.
• The Lies of Hearts of Iron (Neon Liberalism #96, with Bret Devereaux): Why are we all still obsessed with World War 2?
• Texas Has Always Been Purple (Out of the Jaws #15, with David Griscom): The Texas midterm in historical context.
• What a Future with Fewer Vehicles Will Look Like (Half the Answer #110, with Doug Gordon): We should work toward a world that isn't defined by nigh-compulsory car ownership.
• Editor's Notes: For MAGA, Children Are Property, by Samantha Hancox-Li: These people cannot comprehend the simple truth that their children are independent, autonomous beings, with their own lives and desires.
• Editor's Notes: Liberalism Punches Back, by Adam Gurri: We have an opportunity to build some momentum against the global fascist movement. Bolsonaro was defeated in Brazil, Vučić was defeated in Serbia, Netanyahu may lose today, and our blue wave may turn out to be a blue tsunami in one week.

You can get a free weekly email, sent out on Sunday nights, with links to everything Liberal Currents publishes: sign up here and select the Weekly Roundup newsletter.

Last-ditch October surprises

• “Ken and Angela Paxton Invested $600,000 in a Convicted Fraudster’s Business,” by Alexandra Glorioso, Jeremy Schwartz, Misty Harris and Zach Despart in the Texas Tribune in partnership with ProPublica.
• “How Trump Gave the Worst Polluters a Free Pass,” by Eric Lipton and Maxine Joselow with graphics by Mira Rojanasakul in the New York Times.
• “Trump’s DOJ Told a Judge How to Rule. Then It Pulled Her from Court.” by John Woodrow Cox in the Washington Post.
• “Trump Leans into Islamophobic Rhetoric at Michigan Rally,” by Raquel Coronell Uribe at NBC News.
• “Trump Slams 'Rigged' Brazil Election After Ally Loses,” by Danny Kemp for AFP.
• “Hegseth Barred Trans Troops. Military Boards Are Rejecting Those Orders.” by Dave Philipps in the New York Times.
• “Top GOP Operative Let Out-of-State Voters Vote From His PA Home,” by Brendan Hartnett in the Bulwark.
• “Catholic Bishops Accuse White House of Manipulation Over Prayer Video,” by Jack Jenkins and Aleja Hertzler-McCain in Religious Service News.
• “Rhode Island Is First State to Sue Meta Over Alleged Profits from Scam Ads,” by Christopher Shea in the Rhode Island Current.

Correction (10/27, 11:15 a.m.): This article originally incorrectly stated that the Plain Dealer had retracted an endorsement of Ramaswamy, but it in fact had never endorsed him.