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Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
André Ory, aory@fenton.com (347) 741-1503
Following the insurrection by armed white vigilantes against the U.S. Capitol on Treason Day (January 6th, 2020) encouraged by Donald Trump as a way to stop the certification of the results of the presidential election, more than 110 civil rights, racial justice, labor, and grassroots groups issued the following statement:
"January 6th, 2020 should forever be remembered as Treason Day. A day when a sitting president who has done everything in his power to overturn his loss unleashed an angry mob of armed white vigilantes inside of our Capitol, threatening our government, including the very Republican leaders complicit in this attack."
"Trump may have lost access to his social media accounts, but still retains the full powers of the presidency. He is dangerous and must be removed from office today through the 25th amendment or impeachment.
"His Republican co-conspirators, from Senators and House Members to state legislators, who fed, fueled and fomented these attacks on our democracy must also be removed or resign. All those who participated in this insurrection, especially those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, must be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law once Donald Trump is removed"
"On January 20, our democracy will prevail. But only thanks to the organizers, activists, and election officials in communities across this country who protected the results. We have just faced one of the greatest threats to our democracy ever. To meet the moment, President-elect Biden must make reforming our political system from the ground up a top priority on Day One."
SIGNATORIES:
Bend the Arc Jewish Action
Care in Action
Center for Popular Democracy
Faith in Public Life Action Fund
Frontline
MomsRising
MoveOn
National Domestic Workers Alliance
National Women's Law Center
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Protect Democracy
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Supermajority
Women's March
#VOTEPROCHOICE
ACCE Action
ACRONYM
Action Together Network
AFSCME Council 65
Alliance for Quality Education
Alliance for Youth Action
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Angel Guardian
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Audacity Group SE
Avaaz.org
Battle Born Progress - Nevada
Bay Rising Action
Bend the Arc Jewish Action: Pittsburgh
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action--San Luis Obispo, California
Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC)
Black Phoenix Votes
Bold ReThink
Boulder Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Broward for Progress
Cause Campaign Partners
Center for Coalfield Justice
Change Media Group
Choose Democracy
Citizen Acivist
Cobalt
Common Defense
Community Catalyst
Conscious Resources
Convey Communications
Daily Kos
DemCast USA
Demo Crew
Democracy Fund Voice
Diversity Matters
Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)
Endangered Species Coalition
Faith Commons
Faithful America
Fix Democracy First
Florida For All
Friends of the Earth Action
Fuerte Arts Movement
Georgia Alliance for Social Justice
Granite State Progress
Green Advocacy Project
Greenpeace US
Grove Action Fund
HUB for Progress
IfNotNow Movement
Indivisible Alaska Statewide
Indivisible CA-33
Indivisible Chicago Alliance
Indivisible Petaluma
Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice (ICPJ)
Leadership Now Project
Liberation Ventures
Local Progress
Mainers for Accountable Leadership
Maryville Huddle, Women's March Coalition East Tennessee
Movement Voter Project
MPower Change Action
Never Again Action
New Georgia Project Action Fund
New Mexico Caregivers Coalition
Next Up & Next Up Action Fund
Oregon (WI) Area Progressives
PA Spotlight
Padres & Jovenes Unidos Action Fund
People's Action
Philadelphia City Council
PL+US (Paid Leave for the U.S.)
Progress Virginia
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
ProgressNow Colorado
Protect Our Election
Seed the Vote
SEIU Minnesota State Council
SEIU WI State Council
SolidarityINFOService
State Innovation Exchange (SiX)
SURJ SF
Swing Left/Sister District Marin
The Bully Project
The More Stable Union Newsletter
The Workers Circle
Truman National Security Project
UltraViolet
United Working Families
VOICE Buffalo
Win Without War
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
Young Invincibles
"They tried to have me charged with a crime—all because of something I said that they didn’t like," said Sen. Mark Kelly. "That’s not the way things work in America."
A federal grand jury on Tuesday declined to go along with an effort by the Trump Justice Department to indict Democratic lawmakers involved in a November video reminding members of the US military of their duty to refuse illegal orders, a message that came as President Donald Trump deployed troops to major American cities.
The failed attempt to indict the six Democratic lawmakers was led by Trump loyalist Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host who is now serving as US attorney for the District of Columbia. The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors "sought to persuade the grand jurors that the lawmakers had violated a statute that forbids interfering with the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the US armed forces."
Trump, who has repeatedly weaponized the Justice Department against his political opponents, erupted in response to the 90-second video, accusing the Democratic lawmakers behind it of "seditious behavior, punishable by death."
The lawmakers who appeared in the video were Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan as well as Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire. The Democrats learned they were under investigation last month when they received inquiries from Pirro's office.
Lawmakers and legal observers said it was deeply alarming that the DOJ even tried to secure the indictment.
"What an ugly assault on the First Amendment and on Congress," said legal scholar Ryan Goodman. "Thankfully, thwarted."
Kelly, a retired Navy captain who is facing Pentagon attempts to censure him and cut his military benefits, said the effort to indict him and his fellow Democratic lawmakers was "an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies."
"It wasn’t enough for Pete Hegseth to censure me and threaten to demote me, now it appears they tried to have me charged with a crime—all because of something I said that they didn’t like," Kelly wrote on social media. "That’s not the way things work in America."
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r
— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025
Slotkin, a former CIA officer who organized the November video, said Pirro pursued the indictment "at the direction of President Trump, who said repeatedly that I should be investigated, arrested, and hanged for sedition."
"Today, it was a grand jury of anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law and determined this case should not proceed. Hopefully, this ends this politicized investigation for good," the senator said. "But today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the administration. It was another sad day for our country."
"Because whether or not Pirro succeeded is not the point. It’s that President Trump continues to weaponize our justice system against his perceived enemies," Slotkin added. "No matter what President Trump and Pirro continue to do with this case, tonight we can score one for the Constitution, our freedom of speech, and the rule of law."
Sen. Ron Wyden called the tax giveaway "indefensible at a time when so many Americans are getting battered by inflation and barely staying afloat."
Nearly all US Senate Republicans on Tuesday voted to block a resolution that would have reversed a Trump administration regulatory change set to give some of the country's richest companies a $10.3 billion tax break.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution was spearheaded by Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Angus King (I-Maine). The vote on whether to advance it was 47-51. The only Republican to vote in favor was the other Mainer, Susan Collins, who just confirmed she is running for another term, despite two strong Democratic challengers.
In a statement after the vote, Wyden tied the target of his resolution—an Internal Revenue Service guidance undermining the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT)—to the sweeping budget package that GOP lawmakers passed and President Donald Trump signed last summer, which also featured significant tax breaks for the rich.
"The ink is barely dry on the megabill Trump and Republicans passed to give $1 trillion in new tax breaks to giant corporations, and now his Treasury Department is throwing another $10 billion handout to the most profitable corporations in America," Wyden said.
"The pattern we're seeing is that the Trump administration gives big corporations and ultrawealthy donors whatever tax benefits they want the second they walk through the door at the Treasury Department, but that doesn't mean the Senate has to allow this giveaway to happen," he stressed. "Stuffing $10 billion into the coffers of corporations that are already raking in enormous profits is indefensible at a time when so many Americans are getting battered by inflation and barely staying afloat."
King similarly declared that "it's downright unfair to give billions in tax relief to America's most successful corporations when Maine people are struggling to afford their prescription drugs, childcare, and groceries." He described their resolution as "a commonsense step toward a fairer tax policy that prioritizes people over profits and levels the playing field."
Although the defeat was predictable, economic justice advocates lambasted Senate Republicans for killing the resolution.
Americans for Tax Fairness executive director David Kass said in a statement that "after passing historic tax giveaways for billionaires and big business through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), blowing up the deficit, and cutting billions from critical healthcare and nutrition programs to pay for it, Trump and his GOP allies in the Senate are taking every opportunity to ensure economic elites can avoid paying their fair share."
"This guidance would effectively circumvent Congress and create numerous opportunities for corporate tax evasion while increasing the deficit and national debt, thus creating more imbalance in a tax code that already favors the wealthy and large corporations," Kass said. "Sen. Wyden is right to lead the charge to stop this guidance—average Americans should not be forced to subsidize some of the most profitable companies on Earth."
Like the Senate, the House of Representatives is also narrowly controlled by the GOP. Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, noted in a Tuesday blog post that "even if lawmakers of both parties had sufficient backbone to retake the legislative power that the executive branch has usurped, President Trump would veto such a bill."
"But as a matter of educating lawmakers and the public, the recently rejected measure was a success given that tax legislation (such as this resolution) up for a vote in Congress usually gets an official budget score from Congress' revenue estimators at the Joint Committee on Taxation," he wrote. "And in this case, that reveals that this unilateral corporate tax cut from the Trump administration will cost $10 billion over a decade unless it is reversed."
"The Senate's failure to ratify Wyden's resolution may be only the opening salvo for members of Congress who want to retake the power given them under the Constitution to make tax law," Gardner suggested. "The regulation in question is not the first, and surely not the last, attempt by President Trump to unilaterally cut corporate taxes."
“The reality is that Donald Trump’s FBI scrubbed these files in March, long before Thomas Massie and I passed the Epstein Transparency Act," said the California progressive.
Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna on Tuesday read aloud on the House floor the names of half a dozen men he said are "likely incriminated" in files concerning Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted child sex criminal and former friend of President Donald Trump.
“Yesterday, Congressman [Thomas] Massie [R-Ky.] and I went to the Department of Justice to read the unredacted Epstein files," Khanna (Calif.) said. "We spent about two hours there, and we learned that 70 to 80% of the files are still redacted."
"In fact, there were six wealthy, powerful men that the DOJ hid for no apparent reason,” the congressman continued. “When Congressman Massie and I pointed this out to the DOJ, they acknowledged their mistake, and now they have revealed the identity of these six powerful men."
“These men are: Salvatore Nuara; Zurab Mikeladze; Leonic Leonov; Nicola Caputo; Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of Dubai Ports World; and billionaire businessman Leslie Wexner, who was labeled as a ‘co-conspirator,’ by the FBI.” Khanna said.
“Now my question is: Why did it take Thomas Massie and me going to the Justice Department to get these six men’s identities to become public?" Khanna asked. "And if we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those three million files.”
Last year, Congress passed Khanna and Massie's Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the public release of all relevant documents within 30 days. The legislation also empowered Attorney General Pam Bondi to redact large amounts of information that critics fear could include material that incriminates Trump, who Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Tuesday is mentioned "more than a million times" in the unredacted Epstein files.
Democratic lawmakers and Massie have accused the DOJ of violating the law by incomplete disclosure and blowing the legal deadline for publishing the documents.
Major update: Trump mentioned in the “unredacted” Epstein Files more than one million times.FBI scrubbed files before giving them to the DOJ, so many “unredacted” files remain redacted.Khanna reads the names of six men on the House floorHead of Ohio State gynecology received money from Epstein
[image or embed]
— Aaron Parnas (@aaronparnas.bsky.social) February 10, 2026 at 11:13 AM
“The story gets worse,” Khanna said Tuesday. “The reality is that Donald Trump’s FBI scrubbed these files in March, long before Thomas Massie and I passed the Epstein Transparency Act... That means the survivors’ statement to the FBI naming rich and powerful men who went to Epstein’s island... they’re all hidden.”
None of the six named men had responded to Khanna's action as of late Tuesday afternoon. A legal representative for Wexner previously told the Associated Press that prosecutors had informed the 88-year-old billionaire that he was “neither a co-conspirator nor a target in any respect,” and that he cooperated with investigators.
The names of the six men were entered into the Congressional Record as part of Khanna's remarks. Inclusion in the Epstein files does not by itself prove or even imply any criminal wrongdoing.
“It’s time to begin with accountability for the Epstein class," Khanna said during his remarks Tuesday. "Hold them in front of Congress, those people who visited the island or did business with Epstein after he was a convicted pedophile. Investigate them. Prosecute them. And let us return to democratic accountability in the United States of America."