Supreme Court Kills Ghislaine Maxwell’s Desperate Appeal

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, who was hoping the court would reverse her convictions for her role in helping the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein abuse young girls.

Maxwell’s convictions and 20-year criminal sentence remain in place, after the Supreme Court declined certiorari, meaning fewer than four of the nine justices voted for the Supreme Court to review her case. The decision came with no dissent or explanation.

Maxwell and her legal team had argued that she should have been protected from federal prosecution because a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Florida shielded his “potential co-conspirators” from charges.

“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” said Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus. “But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”

In July, Markus requested that Maxwell receive clemency from President Donald Trump.

This story has been updated.

A South Carolina Judge who recently ruled against the Trump administration had her house go up in a massive cloud of flames on Sunday. 

Judge Diane Goodstein’s home can be seen in a video engulfed in a gargantuan cloud of smoke and fire. Three people were injured, including Goodstein’s son as well her husband, former state Senator Arnold Goodstein, who had to jump out of the window while fleeing to safety. The judge herself was not in the home at the time of the incident. Authorities have yet to determine what the cause of the fire was, and there is currently no evidence of foul play. 

However, the timing of this accident is rather peculiar. Goodstein recently blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to access South Carolina’s voter registration database in their effort to exert greater control over elections. Goodstein’s decision was later overturned, and she was called out directly on X by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.   

Goodstein also received death threats for weeks before the fire, according to Time magazine. And just days ago, Trump adviser Stephen Miller wrote that there is “a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country” that is “shielded by far-left Democrat judges.” 

Even as police continue to investigate, it’s hard to ignore that this judge’s home burned down in the midst of an executive effort to publicly shame and isolate judges the administration disagrees with. Many judges have made it clear that they feel a ruling against Trump, no matter how principled, makes them a target.     

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is decrying the notion that the president sending troops into American cities is subject to judicial review.

Over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut temporarily blocked the administration from deploying National Guard troops to Oregon.

The Trump-appointed judge—whom the president has mistakenly referred to as a man—first blocked the deployment of Oregon’s National Guard, before blocking that of all states’ National Guards for two weeks. Oregon, Immergut said, would “suffer an injury to its sovereignty” once “the federalized National Guard deploys to Portland.”

An enraged Miller took to X just after midnight on Monday to post a screed against the ruling.

The president, Miller claimed, has “undisputed authority” to “deploy troops, stationed in any state, to defend a federal facility” from what he called “domestic terrorism or violent assault.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Miller added, is facing a “violent armed resistance designed to incapacitate the essential operations of the duly-elected federal government, by force.”

“A district court judge has no conceivable authority, whatsoever, to restrict the President and Commander-in-Chief from dispatching members of the U.S. military to defend federal lives and property,” Miller wrote, calling the ruling an “egregious and thunderous” violation of “constitutional order” and an attempt to “nullify the 2024 election by fiat.”

The statement was consistent with Miller’s habit of referring to political activity he doesn’t like in hysterical terms, perhaps to establish a pretext to crack down on Republicans’ political opponents.

Notably, the federal judge that drew Miller’s ire dismantled his and the Trump administration’s alarmist descriptions of Portland as a war-torn hellscape.

While the president has said Portland is so “war-ravaged” as to require the National Guard, Immergut said this was “simply untethered to the facts.” Protests at an ICE building in Portland—which Miller said are akin to “violent armed resistance”—have actually been “small and uneventful” on the whole, the judge noted, and nothing that “the regular forces” such as Federal Protective Services can’t handle.

A progressive member of the Chicago City Council was detained Friday after pressing federal agents about the due process rights of a detainee being held in a hospital within her ward.

Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes told reporters she had gone to Humboldt Park Hospital upon hearing that a roughly 37-year-old man—who was being chased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an operation in the neighborhood—had fallen, broken his leg, and was taken to the hospital by the agents.

The agents, whom she identified as ICE, were not letting the man speak with lawyers, Fuentes said. A video of the incident, which begins amid a back-and-forth between the elected official and two agents, was shared on Fuentes’s Facebook page.

The footage begins with Fuentes stressing that the detained man has constitutional rights, to which one agent replied, “No. No.” The alderperson asked whether the agents had a signed judicial warrant for him.

“You need to leave,” the agent answered, threatening to arrest her. The other agent, a masked man, told Fuentes, “You are going to be placed under arrest—”

Before he could finish, his partner violently yanked Fuentes’s arm with both hands, turned her around, and placed her in handcuffs. A woman behind the camera can be heard saying, “This is an alderperson who is being [placed] under arrest!”

While being handcuffed, Fuentes inquired repeatedly about a warrant for the injured man, and seemingly told the men the handcuffs were hurting her. She emphasized that she had not touched the agents, and the man who handcuffed her said she was “under arrest for impeding.”

“That man has constitutional rights,” Fuentes repeated, before the masked agent brought her to the exit door. “I did not touch you. It is a public space. I am not trespassing. I am asking you: Do you have a signed judicial warrant?”

The masked agent eventually replied that he did not need a warrant.

At a press conference, Fuentes said she was ultimately brought outside, where Border Patrol agents were going to put her into a vehicle. However, she was released from her handcuffs, she said, upon asking, “What law did I break, outside of exercising my constitutional right to ask if they had a signed judicial warrant?”

According to Block Club Chicago, a local news site, Fuentes was told she would be arrested if she reentered the building.

Fuentes told the press that this is “not the first incident” of its kind, but “common practice,” as “ICE has been taking individuals into hospital rooms, into emergency rooms, because people are harmed while ICE is trying to detain people in the city of Chicago.”

“What ICE is doing is exercising violence,” she said, “physical violence on the people of Chicago.”

Republican Senator Roger Marshall humiliated himself Friday as his baseless claims that Americans blamed Democrats for the government shutdown crumbled around him.

The Kansas Republican became tongue-tied during an interview on CNN when anchor Brianna Keilar noted a recent poll from The Washington Post that found that roughly 47 percent of U.S. adults held President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress accountable for shuttering the federal government, while only 30 percent blamed Democrats. Another 23 percent said they weren’t sure who to blame.

“Oh, I think that’s a very false scenario right there. I think everybody realizes this is a Schumer shutdown, that this is a politically driven shutdown, driven by AOC and the Squad and the Liberal-Marxist portion of the Democrat Party,” Marshall said. “I think that’s truly, truly what’s going on here, and then none of their arguments make sense why they’re trying to shut it down. It just doesn’t make any sense to anybody.

“So I would just discount that poll altogether, and that’s not what I’m hearing from back home,” he said.

“Why do you discount that?” asked Keilar.

“Well, I just think that there are so much other polls that say just the opposite. I think that the arguments out there—” Marshall said.

“Which one?” Keilar interjected, prompting the senator to provide any information to back up his claim.

“I don’t have them at my fingertips right now. I can tell you that that’s a very biased poll. I’m absolutely convinced—” Marshall continued.

“Why is it biased, can you explain?” Keilar pressed.

“I don’t even know which, which—who is it from? I don’t even know,” Marshall stumbled.

“The Washington Post. I mean if it’s biased, you should know which one it is. It’s the Washington Post poll,” Keilar told the Republican, who was certain the poll was fake but not sure what poll they were even talking about.

“Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t think you can take a snapshot like that,” Marshall said, before launching back into the exact talking points he had already rattled off.

Earlier this week, Marshall feebly attempted to defend Trump’s racist memes about House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, likening the commander in chief to a little boy playing with a dog.

Donald Trump might be getting his face put on a coin while he’s still president.

On Friday, U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, who heads the mint, confirmed the government’s draft plans of a $1 coin with Trump’s face on it to commemorate America’s 250th birthday.

“Looking forward to sharing more soon, once the obstructionist shutdown of the United States government is over,” he added.

The mock-up shared by MAGA commentator Steve Guest features Trump’s side profile on one side of the coin and, on the other, the caption “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” alongside an image of Trump raising his fist, mimicking the iconic photo of him after surviving an assassination attempt last year.

“Despite the radical left’s forced shutdown of our government, the facts are clear: Under the historic leadership of President Donald J. Trump, our nation is entering its 250th anniversary stronger, more prosperous, and better than ever before,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. “While a final $1 dollar [sic] coin design has not yet been selected to commemorate the United States’ semiquincentennial, this first draft reflects well the enduring spirit of our country and democracy, even in the face of immense obstacles.”

Trump, who is fond of depicting himself on massive posters and merchandise, will likely be delighted.

“Oh, I’m not sure he’s seen it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said when asked what Trump thought about the announcement. “But I’m sure he’ll love it.”

President Trump on Friday issued a self-congratulatory social media post, announcing the restoration of counterterrorism funds to New York—which his administration cut in the first place.

The Department of Homeland Security last Saturday moved to slash $100 million in federal homeland security funding, on top of an $87 million reduction announced in August, to New York. Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, described the move as dangerous and apparently “politically motivated.”

In a lawsuit filed Monday, New York—and a coalition of other states being defunded—sought to claw back funding, which they said was cut in retaliation for their refusal to cooperate with Trump’s deportation program. On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the DHS cuts.

On Friday, Trump announced that New York’s funds would be restored in a vainglorious Truth Social post. “I am pleased to advise that I reversed the cuts made to Homeland Security and Counterterrorism for New York City and State,” he wrote. “It was my Honor to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT.”

According to The New York Times, the president had no idea the funds were being cut until Hochul called him to object on Sunday. While he may have intervened to reinstate them, the funds were seemingly only being withdrawn in the first place pursuant to his day-one executive order directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions … do not receive access to Federal funds.”

Republicans are scrambling to downplay just how much enjoyment President Donald Trump is evidently extracting from preparations to fire federal workers by the thousands amid the government shutdown.

Speaking at a press conference Friday about Trump’s plans to make massive cuts to essential programs amid the government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted that the president was “trolling” Democrats. But at the same time, Johnson claimed that Trump and White House Budget Director Russell Vought took “no pleasure” in making the cuts.

“Now, are they taking great pleasure in that? No. Is [Trump] trolling the Democrats? Yes. I mean, yes! Because that’s what President Trump does, and people are having fun with this,” Johnson said, likely referring to the trough of (often racist) AI slop the president has offered up to mock Democrats in the wake of the government shutdown.

Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram pressed the speaker on his claim. “Square something for me. How can you say, ‘They take no pleasure in this,’ and then the next minute say, ‘Oh, they’re just having fun and trolling people?’” he asked.

“So, the effects are very serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all these different areas. But what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, is to point out the absurdity of the Democrats’ position,” Johnson said. “And they’re using memes and all the, you know, tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining. But at the end of the day the decisions are hard ones, and I tell you they’re not taking any pleasure in that.”

Earlier this week, Johnson admitted that Trump’s posting was “not [his] style,” and seemed to agree with a Democratic colleague that the president had become “unhinged.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also struggled Friday to downplay how much fun Trump was having in the supposedly uncomfortable positions Democrats had put him in. “Democrats have given this administration an unenviable choice to have to take a look at the balance sheet and identify where these cuts and layoffs can be made,” Leavitt said.

ABC’s Mary Bruce hit back at Leavitt’s claim, pointing out that the president had described the shutdown as an “unprecedented opportunity” to lay off additional federal workers, and gleefully posted a pathetic parody video to Truth Social comparing Vought to the Grim Reaper.

“So which is this,” Bruce asked. “Is this an opportunity to fire more workers, or an unfortunate consequence?”

“Look, the president likes to have a little fun every now and then, and I think both things can be true at the same time,” Leavitt replied. “The Democrats have given the administration this opportunity, and we don’t like laying people off, nobody takes joy in that around here. And if you think that, then I think that’s very sad, you view the White House and our staff as wanting to put people out of work. Nobody wants to do that, but sometimes in government you have to make tough decisions.”

Of course, the Democrats aren’t forcing Trump to lay off federal workers. In fact, during the last shutdown in 2018, under Trump’s first administration, he did not make sweeping cuts to the federal workforce.

This time around, he’s using funding to essential programs and agencies as a political lever to intimidate Democratic lawmakers, while manifesting Vought’s dreams of downsizing the government. It’s worth noting that Trump’s not the only one having fun: the Republican Party has made it clear they are fully on board with the racist memes.

MAGA influencer and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec—who helped spread election fraud rumors in Pennsylvania in 2024—has been voting in Pennsylvania for nearly a decade while living in Maryland.

Slate has reported that Posobiec, also of “Pizzagate” fame, voted in Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2024. But when Posobiec resigned from his Navy Intelligence job and “remained” in Maryland in 2017, the same year his political influencing really started to take off, he continued to vote in Pennsylvania via absentee ballots and later in person. Posobiec used his parents’ Pennsylvania home address to vote in the crucial swing state in 2018, 2022, and 2024, all while evidence strongly suggests he lived in Maryland that entire period.

A 2017 divorce complaint from Posobiec’s ex-wife lists a Maryland apartment as his full-time address. Since then, he and his new wife have shared photos of a suburban home in Maryland, which he listed as his address on over a dozen political campaign contributions last year.

“SECURED THE BAG. Just stopped by the county voting board and did the deed—easy and even open on Sunday! Vote Early, Pennsylvania!” Posobiec posted last year.

The overcompensating didn’t stop there.

“Thousands of fraudulent registrations have already been reported in multiple counties across PA and we all saw Josh Shapiro sit silent as officers blocked people from early voting yesterday,” Posobiec wrote that same year.

While Posobiec is yet to be charged with a crime, these findings are yet another addition to the now long history of MAGA hypocrisy. Calling for witch hunts over fake voter fraud while potentially committing real voter fraud encapsulates the movement’s unseriousness.

Just before 8 a.m. on Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was spotted with a film crew on the roof of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, where protesters on the street below were met with aggressive force throughout the morning.

The facility has become a flash point due to its use in the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz in Illinois.

“They’re committing crimes against humanity there,” Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic U.S. House candidate in Illinois told The New Republic last month, after she was thrown forcefully to the ground by an ICE agent at a protest outside the facility. In recent weeks, many Illinoisans protesting at the center have been tackled, dragged away, tear-gassed, and otherwise menaced by masked federal agents clad in tactical gear.

Social media footage from Friday shows heavily militarized federal law enforcement—including officers with numerous agencies, an armored vehicle, and snipers stationed on the roof—as well as violent skirmishes in which protesters were hauled off, with more than a dozen reported arrests.

Local and state law enforcement were also present, drawing criticism, though the police say they were “not assisting ICE with any detention operations,” per CBS News.

As protesters gathered below early Friday morning, Noem was videoed on the roof of the facility by an ABC7 Chicago helicopter. The homeland security secretary, whose staged photo ops have earned her such monikers as “Cosplay Kristi” and “ICE Barbie,” was surrounded by cameras and a production crew.

Joining Noem for the photo op was Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino, who eventually joined the scrum below, as journalist Taha Syed recorded him shouting at a protester before piling on top of him.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker decried Noem’s presence at the facility in a thread on X. “Federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem have spent weeks snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens,” he wrote.

“Secretary Noem should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability,” Pritzker said, calling on her to hold a press conference. “Illinois is not a photo opportunity or warzone,” he added, “it’s a sovereign state where our people deserve rights, respect, and answers.”