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MAGA exodus support group soars as Trump devotees walk away: 'One lie too many'

The Epstein files.

Tariffs.

Deaths at the hands of federal immigration enforcement agents.

Skyrocketing gas prices.

The slashing of federal jobs.

A “war of choice in Iran.”

Former loyal supporters of President Donald Trump and adherents to his Make America Great Again movement recently chose to hang up their red hats for these exact reasons, said Rich Logis, whose Leaving MAGA nonprofit and support community is growing, bringing in “record-high” fundraising and seeing “more who are having doubts than ever before.”

“Right now, in MAGA, one of the reasons I think there are more people who are having doubts and are confused and are questioning their belief system is because the president has very clearly not kept a lot of his promises,” Logis told Raw Story.

“There's still a lot of fealty to Trump within the MAGA community, but I think most people in MAGA have a red line, and when that line of demarcation is reached, when there's one lie too many, when there's one betrayal too many, it makes them start to wonder if Trump is lying about one issue, is he lying about other issues?”

“One Betrayal Too Many: Why I Left MAGA” is the title of Logis’s new memoir that details his journey from a MAGA podcaster, fundraiser and pundit to the founder of the nonprofit who was featured at the 2024 Democratic National Convention voicing his support of Trump’s opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Rich Logis Rich Logis promoting his book (provided photo)

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Il), who became a vocal critic of Trump and also endorsed Harris at the DNC, wrote the foreword to the book.

At the convention, Logis shared the message that “Trump's toxic superpower is lying,” which Logis said holds true today.

After Trump campaigned on lowering costs, gas prices now average more than $4 per gallon and are expected to stay high into 2027. Americans are lamenting an affordability crisis, with as many as seven in 10 blaming Trump’s tariffs policies for high prices in a recent poll.

Trump pledged to not fight "endless wars” but since taking office has engaged in military conflicts across the world — from Venezuela to Iran.

“Many in MAGA, deep down, know that Trump is a dishonest person, and I think deep down, they know that something is amiss in the country,” Logis said.

“Many in MAGA are looking around, and they might be telling themselves that everything is OK, but I think that that's more of a denial response.”

'Long haul'

Logis wrote the book to “humanize the odyssey and the journey that I went on, and show people in MAGA that it is, in fact, possible to leave and that we don't have to keep living this life based on lies and falsehoods and conspiracy theories.”

Leaving MAGA’s most recent outreach effort is in the form of billboards. The group is investing about $20,000 to display signs targeted at those facing doubts about MAGA with messages such as:

“Find your new community”

“You are not alone.”

“Welcome home.”

Leaving MAGA billboard Billboard image from Leaving MAGA

The first billboard will go up in Austin on April 15. Others will appear in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Des Moines, Iowa; and Palm Beach, Florida, the setting of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home where Democrats sent the president a “powerful message” when the state-level House seat in the district flipped blue last month.

“Our visibility and our footprint continues to grow, and we are committed for the long haul in doing this,” Logis said.

After Leaving MAGA became a tax-exempt nonprofit in August 2024, it reported raising about $34,000 that year.

Last year, the group raised about $110,000 and has brought in $100,000 year-to-date for 2026, Logis said.

‘Addicted to rage’

In his book, Logis shared stories of his time in MAGA, from attending a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago to writing call scripts for the Trump campaign and reveling in compliments for his work writing for and speaking on pro-MAGA media platforms.

“It was intoxicating to be in a community of like-minded people where in that community you feel very seen and heard,” Logis said.

“MAGA was exhilarating and enthralling, until it wasn't, and when I left, I came to realize that I had essentially been addicted to rage.”

Logis compared his journey out of MAGA to pulling “a brick out of the wall,” with the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead, being the "final straw.”

“You pull enough bricks out, and then eventually the wall falls down and collapses,” he said.

Rich Logis at the 2024 Democratic National Convention Video of Rich Logis at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (C-SPAN)

Leaving MAGA has collected more than two dozen testimonials from others who have stopped supporting Trump — some of whom were featured in the book.

Members of the Leaving MAGA community include people who have embraced Christian nationalism, became swept up in conspiracies, lost friends and marriages and committed crimes in Trump’s name.

But Logis said there are so many more who have "quietly left" with "a lot of quiet quitting happening.”

“There are many in the MAGA community who are privately having doubts, and they're wondering if this is a movement that they can continue to support,” he said.

Some MAGA community members are experiencing “cognitive dissonance” when their beliefs conflict with the “rhetoric of the president,” Logis said.

While Logis said MAGA will continue even after Trump leaves office, the MAGA movement continues to weaken and presents an opportunity to reach people before they gravitate toward “the next iteration of right-wing politics.”

After spending years supporting Trump, Logis has come to view MAGA as “an extremist group because adherents are encouraged to dehumanize, vilify and demonize those with whom we disagree.”

Each day Logis now posts on social media “‘today's a stellar day to leave MAGA’ because it is possible to walk away from the extremism and walk away from an identity that's shaped by lies.”

Ruby red seat primed to flip as fed-up Republican ditches MAGA — and GOP distracted: Dem

After former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene turned on MAGA Republicans and President Donald Trump, resigning from her seat in Georgia’s 14th congressional district, a Democrat captured the most votes in a special election to replace her — fueling hopes of a long-shot blue flip in the solidly red district.

Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general and cattle farmer, earned more than 43,000 votes, but it wasn’t enough to win the seat with a majority of the vote on March 10.

Still, Harris told Raw Story in the days prior to his runoff race on April 7 that he was “feeling real good” about his chances to win Greene’s former seat, particularly as the district’s MAGA base is “not as strong as it used to be."

Shawn Harris Shawn Harris on his cattle farm in Rockmart, Ga. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)

Harris, who took 37.3 percent of the vote last month, faces Republican Clay Fuller, a district attorney and Air Force veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump as an “America First Patriot,” who received 34.9 percent of the vote in a crowded Republican field that grew to more than 20 candidates at one point.

“With Marjorie Taylor Greene coming out there basically every day and saying that everything about MAGA was a lie, or everything that Donald Trump told you what he was going to do was a lie, and then Clay is, in turn, anything that President Trump said he's doing, Clay says, ‘Yes, I agree with it,’ including this war of choice [in Iran], including putting ICE everywhere, those things are the reason why people are actually saying 'I'm voting for Shawn,'” Harris said.

During a visit to the district from Trump in February, Fuller called himself a “MAGA warrior.”

Fuller declined an interview with Raw Story.

'Sold his soul'

While MAGA is “the loudest part of the party, and it's Donald Trump's base,” the 14th congressional district saw little benefit from Greene while she was loudly backing Trump during her five years in Congress, Harris said.

“Too many times under Marjorie Taylor Greene, she voted with the party and left northwest Georgia out to dry … we didn't actually get any benefits for anything that Marjorie was doing, and if we send Clay, we're going to get even worse.”

If elected to Congress, Harris said he “will be a person with a backbone that will fight for Northwest Georgia” and “nobody can buy me.”

Harris’ fundraising receipts totaled $6.4 million, dwarfing the $1.2 million raised by Fuller as of March 18, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Harris emphasized receiving small dollar donations averaging around $25 and said he’s “not taking any money from any organizations that when I get there, they're going to be telling me how to vote.”

Harris also said he wouldn’t just vote along party lines if elected to Congress.

“If President Trump and his administration is doing something right, and it makes sense for Northwest Georgia, I'm going to support it 100 percent — that's what leaders do, and that's what I want to do as a representative for all of northwest Georgia,” Harris said.

“However, if President Trump’s leadership, his team, in itself, is not doing something that's benefiting northwest Georgia, I will be in a position to push back, and the reason why I've been in a position to push back is because, yes, I'm a Democrat, but I'm not tied to the party.

“Clay has sold his soul to President Trump. That means Clay's vote is already in the bag.”

Blue wave

Another reason why Harris hopes he can defy the odds and win the seat in the runoff is because Republican candidates in the district are still competing against Fuller in a primary election on May 19 for the November general election, distracting them from this race and making them less likely to endorse him, he said.

The runoff race is to immediately fill the vacancy left in Congress after Greene resigned in January.

“The Republicans are not collapsing around Clay,” Harris said.

Clay Fuller Republican Clay Fuller speaks at an event in Lookout Mountain, Georgia on March 10. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Harris previously cut into Republican domination in the district when he ran against Greene in 2024, capturing nearly 135,000 votes and more than 35 percent of ballots cast.

Prior to that, Democrat Marcus Flowers cut Greene’s share of votes by nearly 10 percent, capturing more than 88,000 of his own in 2022, when she previously won with 75 percent of the vote in her first election in 2020.

Democrats are hoping to overtake Republicans’ slim majority in the House and even possibly flip the Senate, despite massive amounts of dark money funneling into Senate Republican races, Raw Story exclusively reported.

The Democratic party is also looking to state-level races as a bellwether for a blue wave as Democrats have flipped at least 30 seats, including the state House seat where Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, is located.

'Left behind'

Harris said he’s been able to appeal to voters across party lines because of economic issues under the Trump administration, such record-high gas-prices, reaching over $4 on average for the first time since 2022.

“It’s killing us to go to the gas pump or to the diesel pump, especially our farmers, because right now diesel prices are high and fertilizer prices are high,” Harris said.

“As a farmer, I can feel it myself, just like all the rest of them.”

If elected to Congress, Harris said one of his top priorities would be helping pass the Farm Bill as the farmers in his district are “tired of all of these subsidies,” which end up being passed through to farmers to pay the vendors they owe.

“We're in a situation where farmers need help today, and the administration is just moving too slow to actually help us,” Harris said.

Some former Republican farmers have broken with Trump over his fluctuating tariffs, which led to higher prices on essentials like lumber, fertilizer and farming equipment.

Harris said he’s working to earn the votes of Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike — even distributing "Republicans for Shawn" signs.

If he wins, Harris said, “Democrats would be happy, but at the end of the day, I'm not doing this for Democrats. I'm not doing this for independents, and I'm not doing this for Republicans”.

“I'm doing this for the hardworking people here in northwest Georgia. Period … Because too many times northwest Georgia has been left behind.”

Facing credible threats, Harris has continued wearing a bulletproof vest at advertised public appearances, he told Raw Story, but that hasn't deterred him from engaging with the community, especially as the race will come down to turnout during a short voting period around the Good Friday and Easter holidays.

"We're not going to let those threats cause us not to continue to running this campaign," Harris said.

"Something I always tell my supporters is, courage is contagious, and when they see me out and about, I hope that motivates them to continue to go out and knock on doors, call people, because this race is going to come down to strictly turnout."

Devout MAGA Navy veteran dumps Trump — and sees 'pain points' convincing others to flee

As disabled U.S. Navy veteran Steven Francisci built his mental health advocacy community, he connected with veterans who, like him, started questioning their support of President Donald Trump.

Since Trump returned to the White House, some MAGA supporters have found “vulnerable pain points” that are tipping them away from backing the president, Francisci told Raw Story. Whether it's the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, federal immigration enforcement agents’ aggressive and fatal tactics or the country's intensifying conflict with Iran as 2,500 Marines head to the region and senior military officials consider sending in airborne Army troops.

Breaking with Trump increasingly happens when “people start to really feel the effects of what this administration is doing, including the rising gas prices right now that are happening before our eyes, and the tariffs and the cost that we're bearing because of these insane, ridiculous approaches to trying to raise money in this country,” Francisci, a 50-year-old mental health influencer from Chesapeake, Virginia, said.

Francisci’s own transformation from a MAGA-hat-wearing Trump supporter to a member of his local Democratic committee was part of a “deconstruction journey” that took place over years of trauma-informed therapy starting in 2022.

He is now a part of Leaving MAGA, an online community and nonprofit for former Trump supporters who found themselves embracing Christian nationalism, lost in conspiracies, losing friends and committing crimes in Trump’s name.

“That version of me that I lived for so long was crumbling before my eyes, and then I had to also deconstruct my politics,” Francisci said.

“I was starting to understand why I was so attracted to Trump because I was previously highly narcissistic, and I previously thought that being that alpha male, masculine guy is what we needed for the country.”

Steven Francisci Steven Francisci (provided photo)

While his third marriage “literally was falling apart,” Francisci said he began to focus on his mental health and reevaluate his religious beliefs having become “really, really deep into evangelical Christianity, really supportive of Trump.”

“It's very important to understand religion and how it ties into politics today,” he said.

While less supportive than they were a year ago, white evangelicals remain among Trump’s strongest supporters, with 69 percent approving of how Trump has handled his presidency, according to a February report from Pew Research.

Francisci said his break from MAGA and evangelical Christianity was “more of a slow, gradual process and a slow awakening.”

But, by the time of the 2024 presidential election, he said, “there's no way in good conscience that I can vote for Trump a third time, and so I didn't.”

“I voted for Kamala Harris … it just helped me to continue to move in the path of the person I want to be today.”

‘Damaging’

Francisci wasn’t interested in politics when he joined the U.S. Navy shortly after his 18th birthday and spent about seven years in the military.

Not long after he left the Navy, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened. Growing up in New York City, he had family there he couldn’t reach for a time to let him know they were safe.

“Everything was just bananas, and it was incredibly terrifying,” Francisci said.

“After that, I really started to watch Fox News. It became really a main source of my media diet, and I also noticed that I started to become, I would probably say, Islamophobic.”

Francisci said he saw himself continue to “gravitate more and more right-leaning.”

Fast forward to the time Trump first ran for president in the 2016 election, Francisci said he “had a ton of anger and rage, and then I continued to watch Fox News.”

At the time, Francisci said he had a “close call with suicide” that brought him to a Veterans Affairs hospital. He experienced marriage troubles and was still recovering from a nearly fatal motorcycle crash the year before that left him with a traumatic brain injury and every bone in his face broken.

Politics “became way more emotional to me than thoughtful,” he said.

“I just started to listen and believe everything you heard on Fox News, and I didn't really realize how damaging that was at the time.”

By the end of Trump’s first term when he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, Francisci said he was confused by the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 but felt “that's what we need to do if this election was stolen … we need to take back our country.”

‘Move the dial’

It wasn’t until he began his trauma-informed therapy work in 2022 that everything changed. He started a mental health advocacy social media platform called Healing Roots On Up and became a court-appointed special advocate working with abused and neglected children.

Francisci recently applied to a masters in counseling program to become a trauma-informed therapist and was appointed to the Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Healthcare Board of Directors. He self-published a book in January, “From A**Hole To Alright: A Life Rewritten Through Self-Reflection, Therapy, and Conscious Change.”

Steven Francisci Steven Francisci at Chesapeake City Hall (provided photo)

With other former Trump supporters, Francisci has identified a common experience of “a lack of empathy and compassion, a lack of being in touch with their emotions.”

Francisci said it’s important for him to share his “growth and journey” with others and has been particularly upset by the “lack of kindness and the cruelty” exercised by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

For instance, ICE has detained a breastfeeding mother, proposed a plan to deport unaccompanied immigrant children, physically assaulted bystanders and deported young adults with pending immigration cases, just in cases reported by Raw Story.

“I think we are starting to move the dial on helping people become more aware of what's happening and what Trump is doing,” Francisci said.

Battle in Mar-a-Lago's backyard threatens brutal wake-up call for Trump

Mar-a-Lago — President Donald Trump’s luxury “winter White House” private club and residence — sits in a narrowly drawn Florida state house district hugging the Palm Beach coast.

That strip represents one of the target districts where Democrats are hoping to send their latest message to Republicans and Trump, who faces a tanked approval rating, through a small business owner they hope can flip the seat in Florida House District 87.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) boasts 28 state-level flips so far – and none for Republicans — since Trump was elected.

“This is a stark reminder that Democrats are not just winning in blue states or even in competitive districts. We are winning in red communities, and we're putting up a fight right in the president's backyard,” Heather Williams, DLCC president, told Raw Story.

“There's some groundswell opportunity there. This is also in the kind of district that we've been winning. We have been marching into Republican territory. We've been flipping seats, and we're leaving no stone unturned when it comes to that.”

The March 24 special election squares off Democrat Emily Gregory, a public health expert and Fit4Mom Palm Beach owner, against Jon Maples, a financial adviser and former All-American college athlete endorsed by Trump.

Emily Gregory Emily Gregory (Photo courtesy of Emily Gregory for Florida)

“When people are given the option of a very extreme, far right-wing option or a pragmatic Democrat, I think they will choose the pragmatic Democrat,” Gregory told Raw Story.

“When we will win, it will send an incredibly powerful message to Democrats statewide and nationally.”

Maples and the Republican State Leadership Committee did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

'Outcry and outrage'

After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Mike Caruso, the incumbent Republican state representative for the district, to serve as Palm Beach County Clerk in August 2025, he failed to call a special election for months until after Gregory filed a lawsuit alleging the governor did not follow state law.

Without representation for an entire legislative session, “people are really understandably outraged,” Gregory said.

Gregory said she’s campaigning on “pragmatic solutions” to address the affordability crisis and state housing issues.

When she knocks on doors, Gregory said voters talk about skyrocketing property insurance rates, access to affordable health care and funding public schools.

“More recently, we've really been hearing this outcry and outrage at democracy in peril,” Gregory said.

Residents in the district are concerned about the Trump administration’s aggressive handling of immigration enforcement that left protesters dead when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent thousands of federal agents to Minnesota.

“No one is okay with armed thugs being out in the streets, shooting American citizens,” Gregory said.

“No one is okay with the unregulated militia that is ICE.”

Emily Gregory Emily Gregory (Photo courtesy of Emily Gregory for Florida)

State legislators are in charge of the drawing of congressional maps, and at least one-third of states have proposed redrawing maps since Republicans started a mid-decade gerrymandering war at the urging of Trump.

The winner of the Florida House District 87 race will participate in Florida’s April special session on congressional redistricting, said Gregory, who is against mid-decade redistricting.

“There's a lot to be fearful of in this power grab,” Gregory said.

“We have to maintain our civic duty and our decade pattern, and I think trying to do it halfway through the decade just shows how desperate the current administration is, and the implications of losing those congressional seats would be profound.”

Democrats hope their successes at the state-level are a bellwether for the November midterm elections when they look to take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives and even possibly the U.S. Senate.

The major super PAC for Senate Republicans skyrocketed their dark money contributions in order to protect their GOP majority, Raw Story first reported.

“If I were Republicans, I'd be deeply concerned about this. They benefited from this kind of environment in 2010, and we're knocking on the same door, only in the opposite direction this time, where we've got this incredible opportunity and we are ready to show up and meet the needs of voters across the country,” Williams said.

“Regardless of what the national narrative is like, Democrats can win elections, and we can win elections when we meet voters where they are and with a D behind our name.

“I think that's incredibly important as we think about officially now, transitioning into primary season, and how we think about winning up and down the ballot.”

GOP NY gov pick runs from link to J6ers and Trump ‘secretary of retribution’

The Republican candidate for governor of New York was scheduled to speak at an event headlined by far-right extremists and rioters convicted over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a Raw Story investigation.

Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive running against incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, was featured on promotional materials for a January event associated with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser.

The Stay Awake America event took place at the Trump-themed America First Warehouse in Ronkonkoma on Long Island from Jan. 10-11, though ultimately Blakeman did not attend, said Teresa Helfrich, director of operations for the America First Warehouse.

“He didn't end up showing up,” Helfrich said.

“Apparently, he was really busy, but unfortunately, he did not come, and people were a bit disappointed, but we tried our best.”

Helfrich said she was under the impression Blakeman was unable to attend because he was preparing for his inauguration the following day, for his second term as county executive.

In a statement to Raw Story, Blakeman attempted to distance himself from the event.

“Kathy Hochul told 5.4 million Republicans to leave New York,” Blakeman said through a campaign spokesperson, referring to 2022 remarks in which the governor named GOP figures including Trump, rather than every Republican in the state.

“Now she’s inventing distractions about events I never attended and people I’ve never spoken to because she can’t defend her tax hikes and soaring utility bills. She’s so bothered by her record she’s becoming delusional. I’m trying to make New York affordable.”

A poster for the event circulated by the America First Warehouse and Stay Awake America organizer prominently featured Blakeman as a speaker.

Flynn shared an X post promoting the event, which referenced Blakeman.

Also featured were Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers militia leader whose 18-year sentence for sedition was commuted by President Trump; Treniss Jewell Evans III, who pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; and Ivan Raiklin, a Flynn associate who campaigns to punish Trump’s enemies.

The event was advertised as a tribute to Tina Peters, a Colorado county clerk sentenced to nine years in prison for her role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. Trump is pressuring Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to grant Peters clemency.

Blakeman did recently speak at the Queens Village Republican Club’s Lincoln Dinner, on March 1. That event honored John Eastman, a now-disbarred attorney who advised Trump and played a central role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, Politico reported.

Lara Logan, a journalist who has spread far-right conspiracy theories, accepted an award and spoke at that event.

In a statement, Blakeman denied knowing “who John Eastman is or what he stands for.”

Jacob Neiheisel, an associate professor of political science at the University of Buffalo, told Raw Story “association means a lot in politics,” and candidates make calculations about the costs and benefits of being linked with individuals or groups.

“You can distance yourself quite a bit. Trump's been effective at it,” Neiheisel said.

“It works for Trump. It can work for other people.”

Amy Young, director and organizer of Stay Awake America, did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Threat of Islam’

Blakeman’s biography appears on the Stay Awake America website’s “past and present speaker list.”

The January event at which he was advertised to speak promised more than 17 “nationally known expert speakers in health, civics, faith, education, threat of Islam in America and child sex trafficking.”

Being associated with far-right figures doesn’t help Blakeman’s chances of winning in the blue state, Neiheisel said, adding that Republican gubernatorial candidates in New York “have to at least outwardly appear centrist to the bulk of voters, but that's not where the energy in the party is. The energy is typically on the far right.”

But such associations do “make you viable for other positions elsewhere, and put you on the radar of other people in the party, particularly if MAGA is able to continue beyond Trump,” Neiheisel said.

“I think that this also might be a play [by Blakeman] to stay relevant and stay in some of those circles even after he loses.”

Trump endorsed Blakeman in December after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), dropped out of the Republican primary.

Larry Levy, a former political journalist and associate vice president and executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said “at some point, Blakeman will have to pivot to the middle — there just aren’t enough Republican voters in the state for him to win without a goodly number of moderate independents and soft Democrats — and Gen. Flynn certainly wouldn’t help him build bridges to them."

Flynn was briefly national security adviser to Trump in his first term before being fired for lying about contacts with Russian officials.

The Stay Awake America Tour is inspired and endorsed by Flynn and grew out of an earlier roadshow, the ReAwaken America Tour, that prominently featured his work as a far-right campaigner and promoted conspiracy theories and Christian nationalism.

On a recent podcast, Young said the tour came about as a result of a conversation between Flynn and Caspar McCloud, an English musician who performs at the events, about the need to mobilize support for Trump.

‘Secretary of Retribution’

Rhodes, whose name was originally listed at the bottom of the January event poster but whose photo is the first featured for a Stay Awake America event on March 20, founded the Oath Keepers, an anti-government group that recruited military veterans and retired law enforcement during the Obama administration.

The Oath Keepers, alongside the Proud Boys, provided the engine for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Rhodes was freed from prison after Trump’s second inauguration but did not receive a pardon.

Raiklin, then an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, promoted the so-called “Pence Card” argument, holding that Vice President Mike Pence possessed the authority to set aside the results of the 2020 election.

The expectation that Pence would comply inflamed Trump’s supporters and helped fuel the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, when the former vice president refused to bend to pressure.

As Trump mounted his 2024 election bid, Raiklin launched a campaign as self-appointed “secretary of retribution,” featuring veiled threats of violence against perceived enemies.

Ivan Raiklin Retired Lt. Col. Ivan Raiklin and self-styled "secretary of retribution" Ivan Raiklin at the Republican National Convention (Jordan Green/Raw Story)

Evans pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol and drinking Fireball whisky in a congressional conference room.

During the 2024 campaign, he joined Raiklin for a press conference, calling for “live-streamed swatting raids” against Trump’s enemies.

Raiklin met with law enforcement officials in Texas to detail his plans for recruiting sheriffs to arrest Trump’s enemies, Raw Story reported.

As Nassau county executive, Blakeman has hired armed citizens as special deputy sheriffs — what critics have called an unlawful personal militia, the New York Times reported.

In January, Rhodes and Raiklin held a press conference at the White House calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop Democrats winning the 2026 midterm elections and retaking Congress.

Raiklin has worked closely with Flynn, serving on the board of America’s Future, an organization led by Flynn and his sister. Raiklin took part in a 2024 tour to promote a documentary about Flynn.

Trump supporters storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Helfrich told Raw Story the America First Warehouse supports those who participated in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and she said she believes “the real insurrection happened on November 3 of 2020 when the deep state and the powers that be tried to overthrow a US presidential election.”

“We are 100 percent behind our fellow Patriot brothers and sisters who took a First Amendment stand that day to let Congress know that they didn't want a stolen election to be certified,” she said.

“We are extremely supportive advocates of the J6 community, and we do not see them as felons. We see them as politically persecuted patriots.”

Conspiracy theories

Stay Awake America’s “sizzle reel” to promote upcoming events features Cathy O’Brien, a conspiracy theorist who claims to be the victim of government mind control, and Judy Mikovits, a controversial virologist who equates vaccination with "extermination and sterilization.”

Mikovits was billed on the event where Blakeman was scheduled to appear.

Flynn appeared in the promotional video encouraging people to participate in the Stay Awake America movement.

Helfrich told Raw Story, “We love the people at the Stay Awake American tour,” and the warehouse has “the same mission.”

“The reason why we love their work is because we do believe that there's a lot that America is facing right now,” Helfrich said.

“Obviously, all of us are big President Trump supporters, and we love what he's doing, but he's only in office for another three years, and we do believe, a lot of us, that the country needs to stay awake and keep fighting beyond this term.”

Young’s X posts promoting the Stay Awake America tour frequently include the phrase “blitz 2026 midterms.”

Young frequently reshares posts from X accounts that promote the QAnon conspiracy theory, including one that in January revived the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely claimed that Democrats ran a child sex trafficking operation in the basement of a DC pizzeria.

Young shares QAnon beliefs with staff at the America First Warehouse, the Trump-themed event space in Ronkonkoma.

Speaking in January on the podcast she co-hosts at the America First Warehouse, Helfrich said she decided to go to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 after a friend admonished her: “Where we go one, we go all.” Helfrich said she and her co-host, “Angie the Patriette,” have that QAnon slogan “tattooed on our bodies.”

Young has also re-shared posts on X that promote election denialism, celebrate Russian President Vladimir Putin, and push Islamophobia and antisemitism.

One post from QAnon promoter Liz Crokin that Young re-shared less than a week before the Ronkonkoma event insinuates that illegal tunnels discovered underneath the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn link Jews to child exploitation.

The tunnels were reportedly built by a radical offshoot of the Hasidic Jewish movement seeking to expand the site. There is no evidence of human trafficking at the site.

Exclusive: Republicans get staggering boost from mystery donors as 'arms race' heats up

The main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans saw a “huge spike” in dark money contributions in 2025, a sign of the massive arsenal the GOP is building to protect its hold on Congress in November’s midterm elections, according to a new report from political reform group Issue One first reported by Raw Story.

As Democrats aim to capitalize on the growing unpopularity of President Donald Trump and his Republican party and regain control of Congress, the Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund skyrocketed dark money contributions by 581 percent in 2025 compared to 2023.

Michael Beckel, money in politics reform director at Issue One, said: “When you see an infusion of money like this, that usually means that these big money groups want to make sure that they have all of the resources they can muster to defend seats, to defend candidates, to defend their majority.”

At the same time, Senate Democrats saw a drop in dark money donations, Issue One said.

‘Arms race’

Dark money is money donated to political groups without disclosure of the source, as enabled by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a controversial Supreme Court decision from 2010.

According to Issue One's analysis of campaign finance reports, in 2025 the Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund super PAC brought in $35 million from its affiliated dark money group, One Nation, representing $1 out of every $3 raised.

In 2023, that number was $5.18 million, Beckel said.

Dark money graphic Four major super PACs increased 2025 dark money contributions by 65 percent, according to a new report. Graphic: Issue One)

This indicates “just a surge of dark money coming into the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans at a time when, clearly, there's a lot of political winds blowing that say Democrats have a fighting chance to win the U.S. House of Representatives and maybe even pick up seats in the Senate,” Beckel said.

The four main super PACs focused on electing Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate raised a combined $71 million from dark money sources in 2025: up 65 percent on the same point in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles, Issue One said.

“Both sides see this as an arms race where they don't want to put down any weapon, and when you see just huge sums of money coming in to influence elections from unknown donors, that raises serious questions about who's trying to buy access and influence in Washington,” Beckel said.

Republican and Democratic super PACs focused on the House maintained steady growth in dark money contributions, while the Senate Majority PAC, benefitting Democrats, received fewer dark money contributions in 2025, according to the report.

For every $4 raised for the Republican-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund, nearly $1 came from dark money group American Action Network, which totaled $17 million in 2025, according to Issue One.

On the Democratic side, about $1 of every $6 raised by the House Majority PAC and about $1 out of every $7 raised for Senate Majority PAC came from dark money group Majority Forward, totaling $11 million and $8 million in 2025.

“We continue to see this escalating arms race, and it's deeply concerning when you've got so much money from unknown donors coming in on both sides of the aisle,” Beckel said.

All four super PACs did not respond to Raw Story’s interview requests or declined to comment.

‘Massive war chest’

Beckel said he anticipates seeing significant amounts of dark money continuing to flow into these super PACs, especially around Senate races.

“There's going to be a huge battle over control of not just the House but the Senate, and wealthy donors who are evading the spotlight are helping Senate Republicans raise a massive war chest through their super PAC to defend those seats,” Beckel said.

Dark money graphic. Super PACs received massive dark money contributions ahead of 2024 election. Graphic: Issue One.

Among Senate seats not up for re-election this year, Democrats hold 34 and Republicans 31.

Two Democratic seats, held by Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia and in Michigan by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, and two Republican seats, held by Sen. Susan Collins in Maine and the North Carolina seat held by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, are true toss-ups, according to the Cook Political Report.

Democrats’ narrow path to regain the Senate majority would require picking up seats in Alaska, North Carolina, Ohio and Maine, according to Cook.

During the 2023-24 election cycle, the four super PACs raised about $1 of every $5 from dark money groups. Dark money accounted for 21 percent of contributions to both parties’ Senate-focused PACs for the 2024 election, according to Issue One.

Issue One supports the DISCLOSE Act, legislation focused on increasing transparency and curbing the influence of dark money, which House and Senate Democrats reintroduced on Wednesday.

But with such a deeply divided Congress, Beckel said Issue One is focused on state-level reforms to reel in unlimited spending on elections by corporations and outside groups enabled by Citizens United.

“The warning here is that money from anonymous sources continues to play a major role in our elections, and I think voters all across the political spectrum are … deeply concerned and fed up about the amount of dark money that they're seeing in elections,” Beckel said.

'MAGA lost its luster': MTG’s old seat may flip as Trump and GOP 'made a lot of enemies'

When Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress in January, as many as 22 candidates lined up to vie for her U.S. House seat in Georgia’s 14th District.

The vast majority were Republican. As of Monday, 12 remained in the March 10 special election race, giving Democrats hope that a split Republican vote might mean the seat can actually be flipped — despite its solid red rating and Greene’s definitive victories since 2020, when the high-profile, hard-right, conspiracy-theory-espousing politician was first elected.

Raw Story spoke with the three Democrats competing for the seat. With poor Republican polling under President Donald Trump and recent wins for Democrats in other red states, they presented different paths to victory.

Shawn Harris, a retired brigadier general and cattle producer, lost to Greene in 2024 and declared his 2026 candidacy prior to Greene’s surprise resignation announcement in November.

A Democratic win “is 100 percent realistic because this race here is completely switched,” Harris told Raw Story.

“Gotta keep in mind, whoever wins this race has never served in Congress before. Period.

“So now it goes back to people are actually looking at our résumés and looking at our background. They [are] looking at what we did before, and if I put my background up against anybody … people understand that, ‘Hey, this is the right guy.’”

Shawn Harris Shawn Harris on his cattle farm in Rockmart, Ga. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)

Democrats have been chipping away at Greene’s domination in GA-14 since 2020, when she won with 75 percent of the vote.

In 2022, after two years of Greene’s far-right antics on Capitol Hill, Democrat Marcus Flowers cut her share of votes by nearly 10 percent, capturing more than 88,000 of his own.

While Greene won about 64 percent of the vote against Harris in 2024, nearly 135,000 voters, a record, picked the Democrat.

“We're taking everything that we learned from the last race and brought it to this race,” Harris said.

“I just want to make sure that everybody in northwest Georgia understands that Shawn Harris is going to go to Washington, D.C., and the people that I'm working for, the hardworking people here in northwest Georgia … I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican, my focus is you.”

Harris is far-and-away the biggest fundraiser in the race, having raised more than $2.2 million through the end of 2025, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

He has brought in more than $2.4 million in 2026, Renee Schaeffer, his campaign manager, told Raw Story.

The next closest fundraiser is Republican Clay Fuller, endorsed by President Trump, who raised more than $786,000 as of Feb. 18, according to FEC filings.

‘Anything can happen’

Clarence Blalock, a Democratic consultant running for Georgia commissioner of labor, faced Harris in a runoff in the 2024 primary.

Withdrawing his 2026 candidacy, Blalock endorsed Harris.

“Shawn has a chance to clear,” Blalock told Raw Story.

“At some point all that spending matters. He's going to be able to reach more people, reach low propensity voters.

“If he can resonate with some Republicans, or just basically get out every Democrat — because it's a special election, because it's going to be low turnout — if you turn out a higher percentage of your people, you can close that gap.”

Clarence Blalock Clarence Blalock in front of a restaurant in Rockmart, Ga. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)

That happened in Georgia last year when Democrat Eric Gisler flipped a state House seat in a special election.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) counts Gisler’s victory in a Trump 12-point advantage seat as one of its biggest wins among the 26 seats the party has flipped since Trump’s re-election, said Sam Paisley, a spokesperson for the DLCC.

In Texas in February, Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a Republican state Senate district that favored Trump by 17 points — the DLCC’s first flip of 2026, a startling success that made national headlines.

“There actually probably are enough votes to win in these types of things, and in these specials, there's always a high level of chaoticness where anything can happen, too,” Blalock said.

In another state-level race, Blalock worked with Peter Hubbard, one of two Democrats to upset incumbent Republicans to win seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, the first non-federal statewide wins for Democrats in Georgia in 19 years.

Even Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) celebrated the victories, calling them “a rejection of Trump-era policies.”

Towards the end of her time in Congress, Greene did the same — turning particularly fiercely against Trump over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Now, Democrats in GA-14 are hopeful that frustration with Trump and his party, particularly around hardline federal immigration enforcement and the Epstein files, will result in more switched votes.

“MAGA’s lost a lot of luster,” Blalock said.

“Who wants to be associated with pedophilia? I don't. I just think people are getting tired of it.”

Harris said 5 percent of GA-14 voters who backed Trump in 2024 also voted for him.

He is distributing “Republicans for Shawn” signs and said he expects many more to back him this time.

“We're very confident that we're going to be able to get our Democrats out, the independents out and those Republicans that feel that the Republican Party has left them,” Harris said.

“They [are] still Republicans, but the current Republican Party has left them with MAGA, and they're going to come out and vote for me.”

‘Times change’

Harris said he has resonated with some conservatives who consider themselves Ronald Reagan or Bush-era Republicans, focused on the economy.

Another Democratic candidate, patent lawyer Jonathan Hobbs, said the working-class district leaned Democratic in the 1970s and 1980s, so voters fed up with the GOP could flip back.

Jonathan Hobbs Jonathan Hobbs (provided photo)

“History tells us the future,” Hobbs said.

“Times change, and Trump [and] Republicans have made a lot of enemies … Everything changes, and especially with the handling of the immigration issue, where people are getting shot, that's not good. This is totally mishandled.”

Jim Davis, an author and political scientist who worked on Ross Perot’s independent 1992 presidential campaign, is also running as a Democrat — and is less confident of success.

Jim Davis Jim Davis (provided photo)

He created a computer model that showed a path to victory if only two Democrats were in the race and Republicans split their votes.

But Davis said Democrats were “very, very unfriendly toward my candidacy,” and with three candidates, “I don't think there's as much hope for any of us as there once was.”

While all three Democrats agreed affordability is one of the largest issues in GA-14, Davis said Democrats have lacked “winning issues” and clear messaging about “What do you stand for?”

“Welfare is very hard for people to accept down here in our district, because their backs are already to the wall,” he said. “They feel like they don't want to contribute to anybody else.

“They're hard people because they've had a hard time, and until Democrats get something in front of that, they're not going anywhere. They've lost all the people. They've lost their voting base.”

To win, Democrats need to demonstrate their stances in a concrete way, such as proposing subsidized daycare, Davis said.

“You've got to do something to break out,” he said.

'It's chaos — we are in limbo': Supreme Court rebuke can’t stop Trump hurting heartland

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs policy brought Ohio farmer Chris Gibbs into the national spotlight in Trump's first term, when he sent a message asking Trump to consider how his global trade war hurt American agriculture.

After Trump returned to the White House last year and enacted a stream of even more aggressive — if fluctuating — tariffs on global trade, Gibbs felt the need to speak out again.

“It’s such a déjà vu moment,” Gibbs said, “because we're right back in the same situation, right back there, right now, the same doggone thing as 2018.”

Gibbs was then a Republican but told Raw Story he came out “swinging pretty hard” in Trump’s first term when retaliatory tariffs caused the value of his soybeans to plummet 20 percent overnight.

“The party didn't want to stand behind that. They wanted to stand behind the president. I said, ‘No, I gotta protect my business,’ so I ended up leaving the party,” Gibbs said.

Chris Gibbs Chris Gibbs (provided photo)

Last Friday, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision striking down Trump’s attempt to justify his tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump proceeded to announce a new global tariff of 10 percent, then 15 percent, under different legislation.

After blasting the Supreme Court justices who ruled against him in virulent terms, Trump seems certain to focus on the issue again in his State of the Union address, to Congress at the Capitol on Tuesday night.

Gibbs said: “The one thing I agree with Trump, and that is the Supreme Court got it all wrong, and what I mean by that is it should have been 9-0, not 6-3 because the president … never had that authority, and why there were still three Supreme Court justices that couldn't see that is disconcerting to me.”

‘I’m not going back’

Now chair of the Ohio Democratic Party Rural Caucus, Gibbs is continuing to speak out against tariffs, featuring in a new $5 million ad campaign from the Small Businesses Against Tariffs, a project from Defending Democracy Together Institute, an advocacy group formed by anti-Trump conservatives.

“I'm justified,” Gibbs said. “I'm not going back. I am where I'm going to be. I'm in the Democratic Party. I can make a difference here.

“I'm a Democrat because I want to be part of a party that looks for solutions for people, not retribution or revenge against individuals. It's just that simple.”

Gibbs has farmed in Maplewood, Ohio, for nearly 50 years, growing soybeans, corn and wheat and raising cattle. He said tariffs raise the prices of steel, lumber, machinery and other materials used on his farm.

Uncertainty fostered by Trump’s tariffs also strains relations with overseas trading partners, which in turn hurts the grains and agriculture industry in the U.S., Gibbs said.

“We’re on the verge of not becoming the first choice for agricultural supplies. We're now in an agricultural deficit, a trade deficit, which is very odd,” he said.

“The whole time that I've been in farming we were always proud of the trade surplus that agriculture had, and now we’ve moved that back to a trade deficit, so when we have adverse relationships with trading partners, that's how that backs up to me.”

Undeterred by the Supreme Court’s decision, on Monday, Trump said countries who “play games” over U.S. trade deals will face even higher tariffs under different laws.

“This has thrown the whole supply chain, trading sector, trading partners into absolute chaos,” Gibbs said.

Small businesses especially suffer under “ad hoc” and “unpredictable” trade policies, he added.

For the past four years, Gibbs said, his farm’s cost of production has been higher than his income.

“We don't know where we're at, as a farmer, number one for things that we use that come from overseas, but what about the crops that we want to sell into these other countries based on these handshake deals?” Gibbs said.

“It's chaos, and we are in limbo.”

‘Worst thing you can do’

Even as an established farmer with other sources of income such as a federal retirement account from working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Gibbs said he is struggling to pay his monthly bills.

Thinking about farmers with less cash flow who might need to rely on government assistance “makes me wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat,” he said.

“That's the worst thing you can do for an independent rancher is to put the government in a place where it's their only choice to seek relief is the taxpayer.

“There is nothing more demeaning, nothing more heart-wrenching. I call it the silent killer of the soul. That's what's happened before our eyes, to our nation's farmers.”

'We're worried': Experts fear Supreme Court will follow tariff case with huge Trump gift

If the U.S. Supreme Court issues a decision in a high-profile redistricting case within the next few weeks — likely weakening the Voting Rights Act, as experts anticipate — Republicans are poised to gerrymander as many as eight House seats in their favor ahead of November’s midterms, a nonpartisan political reform group warns in a new report.

Long-term effects could be more drastic, resulting in 15 or more districts gerrymandered to benefit the GOP in 2028, if the Supreme Court weakens Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 in its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, according to Issue One.

The Court heard oral arguments in the case involving racial gerrymandering in Louisiana late last year and could issue a decision anytime between now and June.

The timing of the decision will determine how aggressive redistricting might be, which could “dramatically decrease minority representation” and “spur another gerrymandering war,” Michael McNulty, Issue One policy director and a report co-author, told Raw Story.

McNulty called Louisiana v. Callais “the most important redistricting case” since Rucho v. Common Cause, a 2019 ruling that determined federal courts cannot address alleged cases of partisan gerrymandering, of the sort now pursued by Republican- and Democratic-held states alike.

“We're worried that [the Supreme Court] could eliminate the last meaningful federal check on discriminatory maps,” McNulty said.

“If the Supreme Court does weaken or dismantle Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, it would basically leave … no real federal-level guardrails against diluting racial votes.”

‘The precipice’

Experts have expressed concern for months that the Court will issue a 6-3 conservative majority decision to weaken or even declare unconstitutional Section 2 of the VRA, which prohibits racial discrimination against voters.

In this scenario, conservatives led by Chief Justice John Roberts would affirm a district court ruling that a Louisiana congressional map redrawn in 2024 to create a second Black-majority district is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

That’s despite the fact that the map was redrawn to ensure Black representation after a federal court determined redistricting based on the 2020 census was likely in violation of federal law.

In that map, only one of Louisiana’s six districts represented a majority of Black voters, though one-third of the state’s population is Black.

“I'm concerned based on the oral arguments in that case and the way this Roberts Court has been playing a pretty ruthless game of chess against our voting rights and fair representation, that the Roberts Court is poised to decimate the protections … to prevent the dilution of Black votes and Black and brown voting in America,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of public policy watchdog group True North Research and co-founder of Court Accountability, a nonprofit.

Graves, who last year published the book Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights, said Roberts started his legal career “attacking” Section 2 of the VRA and was questioned during nomination hearings over his “mean-spirited view” of the law.

“John Roberts sits at the precipice of potentially winning what he could not win as a Justice Department lawyer by using the Court to advance his long-standing partisan goal of basically protecting his party at any cost and the cost of our voting rights,” Graves said.

‘Immediate and severe’

The Issue One report argues that consequences would be “immediate and severe” if the Supreme Court hampers or eliminates states’ ability “to use race-conscious remedies to comply with federal voting rights law,” the outcome of siding with the challenger in Louisiana v. Callais.

“Black voters would likely lose a significant amount of representation in Congress,” McNulty said.

“We're very concerned about the impact of any gerrymandering, but this in particular has a double negative impact because it's taking away from representation, and it's specifically from minority representation, if it were to happen.”

If the Court issued such a decision in late February or early March, aggressive redistricting could lead to gerrymandering five to eight House seats to benefit Republicans in the midterms and reduce Black representation in states including Florida, Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee, the report says.

The Court issued another much-anticipated decision on Friday, striking down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs.

An April or May ruling on Louisiana v. Callais would reduce the risk of further gerrymandering before this year’s midterms but two to four seats could still be affected, with Florida the most likely to try to redraw maps, the report says.

Even if the Court waits to rule until June, before it enters its summer recess, it could allow states such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas to redraw maps for 2028 and beyond, resulting in 15 to 18 gerrymandered districts, McNulty said.

“If [the Court] were to gut Section Two, it would essentially allow state legislatures, or those making decisions in each of the states, to dilute the vote of primarily Black voters … such that it would advantage Republicans in all cases,” McNulty said.

“These are not gerrymanders that would favor Democrats because these are red-controlled, GOP-controlled state legislatures that would use every opportunity to essentially … gerrymander based on race, and that would favor the GOP in all cases.”

Mitchell Brown, senior voting rights counsel for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said redistricting can primarily be challenged by alleging intentional discrimination, racial gerrymandering or violations of the VRA.

A Court ruling that weakens the VRA will make it harder to challenge maps that are “unfair and inequitable for Black and brown voters,” he said.

“It’s going to have potentially a huge impact on our ability to bring redistricting cases,” Brown said. “We have to now have smoking gun evidence of you discriminating against Black or brown voters.”

‘Last guardrail’

Issue One fights gerrymandering as “an attack on democracy and an attack on voters and representation,” McNulty said.

The nonpartisan group advocates for reforms including banning mid-decade redistricting, establishing national standards for drawing congressional maps, and requiring states to use independent redistricting commissions.

“Congress needs to step up and take action,” McNulty said.

“We need to stop the madness, and there's zero reason why they should be letting politicians pick their voters anytime, anywhere, and diminishing the voice of voters, as they've done through the decade.”

Graves, who was chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2002-05, said if the Supreme Court weakens Section 2 of the VRA, it would “basically put its fists on the scale in favor of the party that appointed this majority faction,” and would “bleach out the Black representation in Congress.”

“I would consider such a ruling by this court to be an illegitimate dictate from this captured court, the Roberts Court, that is acting in a way that is arrogant and inconsistent with the role of the Supreme Court in trying to displace the proper role of Congress in protecting the voting rights of Americans,” Graves said.

McNulty said the VRA was “the last remaining guardrail” to fight racism in elections.

If the right-wing justices weaken the Voting Rights Act, Graves said, it would show “outrageous hostility” toward Black voters.

Such justices, Graves said, are “not just willing, but eager, to help their party entrench their power to secure basically political minority rule over the rights of majorities in their states and to make Congress whiter and more Republican than is merited by the diversity of American society.”

Trump-backed candidate defended coach accused of making kid exercise without clothes

A Donald Trump-backed Republican candidate for a key Texas U.S. House seat who touts his record locking up child predators served as lead defense counsel for officials including a high school football coach accused of forcing a minor to perform exercises nude, court records show.

Eric Flores was, for about two months, lead counsel for employees of the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District (ECISD), in the Rio Grande Valley region, accused in a civil lawsuit filed in Hidalgo County, Texas, in September of inflicting "trauma, abuse and injustice upon a vulnerable student.”

Now, Flores is one of eight Republicans running in the March 3 primary for Texas’ 34th Congressional District.

Flores announced his run for Congress last July. An Army veteran and partner at O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo, he raised more than $872,000 through December, the third-most of the GOP candidates, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Trump endorsed Flores in December, touting an “America First Patriot” who “knows the wisdom and courage it takes to ensure law and order.”

Republicans are targeting the 34th District, carried by Trump in 2024 but held by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), who won the seat by the slimmest margin in the state, according to the Texas Tribune. Gonzalez faces one challenger in the Democratic primary.

Amid mid-cycle redistricting battles, redrawn Texas maps, permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court, have made the state more favorable to Republicans. The 34th District is primarily Latino but now incorporates part of a whiter Republican-led district, the Tribune reports.

Of the Edinburg district case, Flores told MySanAntonio.com in November: “The District disputes the allegations and stands by the integrity, professionalism, and dedication of its employees.

“Our focus remains on serving our students and families with the highest standards of safety, respect, and excellence in education.”

Flores’s campaign acknowledged Raw Story’s questions but did not provide comment.

‘Emotional distress’

Flores withdrew in November as lead counsel for Robert Vela High School Coach Ernie Alonzo and co-defendants Principal Michele Peña and ECISD Athletic Director Oscar Salinas, according to court filings. The court proceedings are ongoing.

The lawsuit alleges Alonzo ordered a minor student to “perform strenuous physical exercise completely nude” and “threatened and ordered him to remain nude” when he attempted to cover himself with underwear.

The lawsuit accuses Michele Peña and Salinas of knowing of complaints about Alonzo’s alleged “proclivities” and ”illegally cover[ing] up crimes of the politically protected, even if those politically protected are potential pedophile political hires.”

Raul Rocha, the parent of the student named only as N.R., is seeking damages for medical expenses and “emotional distress,” his lawyer, Javier Peña, told Raw Story.

Rocha is seeking between $250,000 and $1 million in damages, according to the lawsuit.

Kevin O’Hanlon, founding partner of O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo, representing both the district and individual defendants, said he took over from Flores as lead counsel because “I've got more experience than him, and he was busy.”

Flores filed the original answer to the suit because “he was available, and I was in a trial,” O’Hanlon said.

Flores’ campaign for Congress “indirectly, I suppose” contributed to the decision to remove him from the case, O’Hanlon told Raw Story.

“We were looking at his caseload in light of his time commitments, not because of the matter involved,” O’Hanlon said.

“It wasn’t about the case. It was just about balancing the case loads amongst the lawyers in the firm.”

Javier Peña told Raw Story Flores’ congressional run has not affected the case, but said: “I was surprised he would get involved in this kind of case. He quickly got out of it, I think, once he saw the facts of the case.”

Peña said he knows Flores through legal battles, both against each other and on the same side.

“I don't know what the reason why Eric got out of it, but whatever the reason was, it was a good choice on his part, or the firm's part,” Peña said.

ECISD spokesperson Lisa Ayala said: “We can't comment on pending litigation, and attorney staffing decisions are made by the firm, not the district.”

‘Temu version of Epstein’s Island’

Before Flores withdrew from the case, he signed a plea to the jurisdiction arguing claims against the defendants were barred by governmental immunity “because all the alleged actions involved professional school employees exercising judgment, were discretionary acts, no defendant used excessive force and there was no negligence resulting in bodily injury.”

O’Hanlon told Raw Story the defendants were “immune — that’s what the statute says.”

“There isn’t any alleged sexual misconduct,” O’Hanlon said.

The plaintiff is “saying it, but there's no indication of it. Had the guys do some coach discipline is what it was. Wasn’t any sexual misconduct here,” O’Hanlon said.

O’Hanlon said the coach did not tell the student to “practice naked” but “told him to do some calisthenics, and he walked off.

“Discipline is in the scope of the employee’s duties of students, especially student athletes … they make all these allegations that will get everybody worked up in the media, but there's immunity here.”

Javier Peña said: “They're trying to defend the sexual assault as discipline, but their own clients have already admitted that's not what it was. This was an assault. There was attempted cover-up.”

Texas law outlines permitted forms of discipline by school employees, including corporal punishment, if a board of trustees for an independent school district adopts a policy allowing it.

Peña said: “Having kids exercise in the nude — shouldn't be surprising to most people — is not within the list of what's allowed by school teachers or coaches.”

Peña said he submitted a motion to disqualify O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo because the firm represents ECISD as well as another district where Alonzo “allegedly engaged in similar activities.”

An amended petition said O’Hanlon’s partner, Benjamin Castillo, as the school’s attorney, met with the minor and his parents and “admitted that the assault occurred.”

“They've already admitted to basically every central element of our cause of action and to the damages,” Javier Peña said.

“They've admitted they made these kids, at least four, if not more, exercise in the nude, straight out of the shower. Coach was watching them, admitted it was outside the course and scope of their employment, admitted the child was harmed, admitted that Coach has never been punished, things like that. It’s insane that these lawyers have allowed that to happen.”

Calling the situation “dirty politics all around,” Peña said: “This is like [the] Temu version of Epstein's Island. They're just covering up and protecting people and all engaged in these shenanigans.”

‘Damage the credibility’

Though Flores only appeared on court filings from September to November, his work on the case “will be a selling point for his opponent,” said Jamie Wright, a Los Angeles-based trial lawyer who has represented school districts.

“It will be a good talking point for the opponent, and then he's just going to have to clean it up and answer it directly,” Wright said.

Wright compared Flores’ situation to that of Rep. Derek Tran (D-CA), a Democrat elected in California's 45th Congressional District in 2024 amid concerns raised about legal clients including a man fired for displaying a noose in his office, Politico reported.

Flores prosecuted cartel-related and human trafficking operations as an assistant U.S. attorney, according to his campaign website.

His campaign Facebook page posted in August that he attended the opening of a forensic exam center for victims of sexual abuse and assault.

“As a prosecutor, I’ve seen how vital this work is, I’ve helped put child predators behind bars, and resources like this make all the difference,” the post said.

“Proud to see our community come together to protect the most vulnerable!”

Adin Lenchner, founder of Carroll Street Campaigns, which works with Democrats, said voters have a right to scrutinize a candidate’s history of representation, as “how you spend your 9 to 5 is fair game.

“What you do with your time, with your energy, with your money, and all your values, is for voters to learn about, to judge and then to decide whether that's the kind of person that we want to lead us in Washington.”

Joe Bonilla, co-founder of creative strategy firm, Relentless Awareness, said “all is fair in politics and love.”

Bonilla, who works mostly for Democrats but also for Republicans and Independents, said the Rocha v. Alonzo case could challenge Flores’ campaign because “especially in Texas — Friday Night Lights and Texas high school football is a huge matter — that could very well certainly impact his chances.”

Mike Hahn, a Republican strategist and former Trump social media director, declined to comment on Flores' campaign.

Flores’ campaign priorities include supporting Trump and law enforcement, along with securing the border.

Lenchner said: “If you see someone who, out of one side of their mouth is saying, ‘I'm tough on crime, and I'm going to stand with the president on our America First agenda for law and order’ — and out of the other side of their mouth seems to be defending behavior that most voters would see as reprehensible, and frankly, in line with this disturbing trend of the Trump administration protecting predators — that's going to make a lot of difference.

“I think [it] will only not just reinforce those cynical feelings about politics generally, but specifically stand to really further damage the credibility and the authenticity of the candidate that's pushing out that kind of message.”

Just last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi sparred with lawmakers during a hearing about the Trump administration’s handling of investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex offender who killed himself in 2019.

Ultimately, “voters have a high BS-o-meter,” and can determine if a candidate’s actions align with their values, Lenchner said.

“Like you're defending in a courtroom, you need to be able to defend for your candidacy why that [case] was important for you to take at that time.”

'All I've been doing is crying': ICE's grip decimates Minneapolis' small businesses

As Minneapolis residents face clashes with federal immigration enforcement agents that have resulted in the killings of two people in the past month, small business owners like Shontay Evans say federal agents’ presence in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul is threatening their financial survival.

Citing declining sales in an atmosphere of fear and distrust, Evans, 41, said she was considering closing Tay’s Secret Garden, a plant nursery she has operated out of her home in St. Paul for seven years.

“Everybody's saving their money because they're scared,” Evans told Raw Story. “It's been pretty rough lately.”

Her experience, and those of other small business owners like her, point to the stress President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown is placing on entrepreneurs in Minneapolis-St. Paul and other urban areas, even as they struggle to cope with a national surge in the cost of living.

‘Stressed’

In Minneapolis on Jan. 7, an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, as she drove her car away from an immigration raid in a residential neighborhood.

On Jan. 24, Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for veterans who was filming a confrontation between protestors and federal agents.

Agents pepper sprayed Pretti before shoving him to the ground and firing at least 10 shots in five seconds.

Such traumatic events, as well as continued confrontations between agents and protestors, have left residents increasingly “stressed,” Evans said.

Amid it all, Evans said she “barely made anything” in sales for January.

As February began, the Department of Homeland Security said it was removing from Minneapolis 700 federal agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.

But 2,000 agents still remain on the ground.

‘Hit me hard’

Following the death of Good, Ronn Easton, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Little Canada, Minnesota, told Raw Story tension in the area was “palpable” — and reminiscent of the period of civil unrest in the Twin Cities that followed the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020.

Evans said such tension has led to public events across Minneapolis-St. Paul being canceled — cutting directly into her revenue.

Shontay Evans selling plants Shontay Evans at a booth selling her plants through Tay's Secret Garden (provided photo)

Evans sells house plants locally, offering delivery and pick-up. She also teaches plant education.

“My business was already struggling, so it really hit me hard,” Evans said.

Ever since Trump returned to the White House last year and began sending the National Guard and federal agents to Democratic cities, people have been scared, Evans said.

Business has been “bad since Trump's been in office,” Evans added, noting that she recorded her worst year of sales in 2025.

Coffee shops, bookstores and bakeries across the Minneapolis area have reported struggling since Trump’s immigration crackdown began, according to Time.

In a survey by tourism group Meet Minneapolis, 90 percent of businesses reported experiencing fear and stress from the presence of immigration agents, negatively affecting their businesses.’

Eighty percent of such businesses reported canceled, postponed or reduced bookings and sales, according to the survey.

‘Not right’

Despite the pressure on her business, Evans said she had been out to join protests at least five times, even in freezing temperatures.

She said she protested the day Pretti was killed and also attended protests at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, which is serving as an ICE command center.

Shontay Evans at a protest Shontay Evans at a protest at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Jan. 21 (provided photo)

A friend gave her money to buy pizza and snacks for fellow protestors, Evans said.

“I was sitting at home watching it on TV, and it was just making me so sad,” Evans said.

“I'm like, ‘I gotta do something.’”

Evans recently spoke out in a video produced by Home of the Brave, a nonprofit highlighting what it calls the “catastrophic harm” to ordinary Americans under Trump’s second administration.

Nonetheless, Evans said she was growing discouraged, as she had seen “selective outrage” expressed by fellow residents while the federal government simply continued its aggression.

“I'm just over it because they [are] still gonna let people do whatever they want to do,” Evans said, of the federal government.

“No one's coming to help us. It's just really sad. All I've been doing is crying a lot lately, really.”

Evans said people should “get up and stand up … it's a humanity thing.”

Choking up, she added: “It’s just not right, what's going on out here.”

Judge whose son was killed: Trump-fueled threats must stop or more will die

While a judicial coalition applauded a federal appeals court decision this week to dismiss a complaint against a judge who stopped the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, the group is continuing to sound the alarm on threats to and attacks on judges they say the president is fueling.

Paul Kiesel, founder of Speak Up for Justice, a nonpartisan group advocating for judicial independence and protection, told Raw Story attacks from President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice, such as those directed at Judge James Boasberg in the District of Columbia, can have life-and-death consequences.

Just last month in Indiana, a superior court judge and his wife were shot at their home, allegedly in an attempt to derail a domestic abuse case involving a motorcycle club member.

Between 2021 and 2024, amid a wave of political violence, serious threats to federal judges more than doubled, Reuters reported.

“It's coming to the very top,” said Kiesel, a trial attorney in California.

“We've never, ever, ever had a president who has directly threatened and encouraged others to, in some ways, go after these judges.”

Trump has posted screeds directed at Boasberg and other judges. Last Memorial Day, he accused judges of being “on a mission to keep murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members and released prisoners from all over the world, in our country, so they can rob, murder and rape again.”

In the Truth Social post, he called out “USA hating judges” and called them “monsters who want our country to go to Hell.”

Trump posted about Boasberg, accusing him of suffering from “Massive Trump Derangement Syndrome,” labeling him a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator,” and calling for his impeachment.

In a recent Senate hearing, Boasberg was one of two judges Republicans said should be impeached and removed.

Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice filed the judicial misconduct complaint against Boasberg, based on comments about the Trump administration allegedly made in a closed-door meeting. The complaint was dismissed, due to insufficient evidence.

Esther Salas, a U.S. district judge in New Jersey, told Raw Story: “To call judges monsters, to accuse judges of being corrupt, without any basis for that wild assertion, to declare war on judges, coming out of the Department of Justice of all places? This is no longer apples to apples. It's just not.”

Such language, particularly from the Trump administration and Republican leaders, is “the kind of stuff that's going to get someone killed,” Salas said.

‘Dangerous, irresponsible rhetoric’

Salas knows how threats to judges can turn deadly.

In July 2020 her son, Daniel Anderl, was fatally shot when a gunman disguised as a deliveryman came to the family’s New Jersey home, seeking Salas.

U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas with her son, Daniel Anderl, who was murdered in 2020 Courtesy Judge Salas

Salas’ husband, Mark Anderl, was seriously wounded.

The gunman, who authorities said also killed California attorney Marc Angelucci before killing himself, was identified as Roy Den Hollander, a lawyer with a history of anti-feminist writings.

Den Hollander reportedly had a target list of female judges, half of whom were Latina and including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, according to PBS.

After her son’s death, Salas said she hesitated to speculate on the role of politics in increased attacks and threats to judges.

But now, Salas told Raw Story, “I don't see any other possible explanation, other than this rhetoric, this dangerous, irresponsible rhetoric that comes from our political leaders from the top down.

“We have seen just a doubling down by this administration, and the attacks are far more than I had ever seen.”

Salas started publicly speaking out against threats to judges last year, after she learned that in at least 20 cases, pizzas were being delivered to judges’ homes in her son’s name, as a form of doxxing.

In July, she first spoke to Raw Story about the issue.

“Clearly that's a form of intimidation at its highest level. ‘You want to end up like Judge Salas? You want to end up like her murdered son, Daniel?’” she said.

‘Serious stuff’

Threats to federal judges spiked in fiscal year 2023, with 630 threats, according to data from the U.S. Marshals Service, which protects the federal judiciary.

By comparison, in fiscal year 2019 the Marshals Service investigated just 179 threats, Reuters reported.

Citing an “alarming rise” in threats, Salas said threats remain an “unaddressed form of intimidation that has yet to be really denounced by the Department of Justice.”

Through Jan. 30, the Marshals Service has conducted 230 investigations for 176 threats to judges in fiscal year 2026.

“We’re under attack,” Salas said. “I feel like we're getting it from every possible angle.”

The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, making it harder to find federal judges’ addresses, passed Congress and was signed by then-President Joe Biden in December 2022.

However, 30,000 state-level judges lack the protections federal judges receive — despite their own exposure to threats and violence.

Speak Up for Justice is advocating for passage of the bipartisan Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, which would monitor threats and provide security for state judges. It passed the Senate in June 2024 but is stalled in the House.

“The work of being a judge has become much more challenging today because of the threats they're facing from so many external sources,” Kiesel said.

Paul Kiesel Attorney and Speak Up for Justice founder Paul Kiesel (provided photo)

While it’s common for people to disagree with a judge’s ruling, appeals courts exist for that reason, Kiesel said, and personal attacks directed at judges set the stage for bad actors to “bring retribution,” thereby raising anxiety.

Salas said: “Judges are fine with people criticizing our opinions, people appealing us.

“But it's this new brand of attack that is so personal that really is having what, I fear, will be an everlasting impact on the justice system, on America's perception of the justice system, and on judges and the threats to judges, not only their security, but our independence moving forward.

“This is pretty serious stuff.”

Alarm over Trump-fueled election threats as 'under siege' officials leave in droves

In the first election Amy Burgans fully oversaw as clerk-treasurer for Douglas County, Nevada, she received a death threat.

It was 2022. Someone returned their mail-in ballot with “crazy talk” written all over it, including the threat to Burgans. That same year, law enforcement got involved over a stalker’s texts.

“It's almost par for the course, which is horrible, but you have to know that those types of things can come in with the heightened political environment that we live in when elections are involved at this point,” Burgans told Raw Story.

Last month, speaking at the Davos World Economic Forum, President Donald Trump said people would be “prosecuted” over the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden and which, in Switzerland, he yet again falsely said was “rigged.”

Just last week, the FBI raided the Fulton County Elections Hub in Georgia, seizing ballots, voter rolls and other 2020 records. It was reported this week that Trump spoke to agents who conducted the raid.

“A raid like we saw in Georgia isn't helping take down the temperature, isn't helping build trust, isn't helping rebuild bridges,” said Michael Beckel, senior research director at nonpartisan reform group Issue One and co-author of a new report, Turning the Tide on Turnover, which reveals how election officials are leaving their jobs in droves.

“It's making people in other jurisdictions worried that they could be next. Election officials are feeling under siege, and actions like that can usher in more harassment, more threats, more stress, more challenges for election officials who are already juggling with so many challenges.”

Published Tuesday, the new report from Issue One reveals that 50 percent of chief local election officials in the western U.S. have left their jobs since November 2020 — the vast majority voluntarily, and increasingly due to threats, intimidation and harassment.

Issue One infographic A new report revealed that 76% of local election officials in the Western U.S. left of personal reasons (Infographic from Issue One)


What’s happening in the 11-state western region is an "illustrative microcosm of the nation as a whole,” Beckel told Raw Story.

‘Unsung heroes’

Burgans, a registered Republican, stepped up in December 2020 when the previous clerk resigned, in part due to “disheartening” community reaction to Trump’s loss to Biden.

Even though Trump won Douglas County, which is 50 percent Republican, Burgans said that as Trump and his allies spread the lie that the election was stolen, the previous clerk was the subject of harassment using internet memes and questions about her ability.

“You've got people in some places who've been doing this for a number of years — in some places a number of decades — who are deciding to hang up their spurs and say, ‘Why do I need this type of stress in my life?’” Beckel said.

“‘Why do I put up with this? I've given a lot of my time. I've given a lot of public service.’”

Carly Koppes, clerk and recorder for Weld County, Colorado since 2014, told Raw Story she got her first threat a couple days after the November 2020 election, when voters said they wanted to come to her office, fueled by election fraud lies from Arizona that were “bleeding over into Colorado.”

“If you stand up and tell the truth, you could be hit with different levels of potential harassment or threats. That has definitely been a challenge,” said Koppes, who has since received an array of email, voicemail and social media threats.

More than 250 chief election officials out of 430 in the western region stepped down between November 2020 and November 2025, according to Issue One.

Among battleground states, Arizona experienced 100 percent turnover of county election officials, Nevada 65 percent.

Beckel said: “They take with them invaluable amounts of expertise, experience and institutional knowledge, and it is incumbent on lawmakers and policy makers to take steps now to work to stem the tide of troubling election official turnover.

“Election officials are the unsung heroes of our democracy, and they need additional support now more than ever.”

Of Colorado’s 64 counties, 44 percent have experienced turnover in the past five years — 66 percent so voluntarily, the report said.

Koppes said the turnover is “alarming.”

Carly Koppes Carly Koppes (provided photo)

“The historical knowledge that we lose and trying to bring people up to speed and trying to train them and get them to feel comfortable in this type of atmosphere is challenging,” Koppes said.

Within two years, Burgans said, she was among the most senior election officials in her state.

“As a new clerk, I was learning things on my own because there was no one to get that information from, or there were very few left to pull from,” Burgans said.

To support officials who face threats, political leaders should focus on “doing more to bring down the rhetoric, bring down the temperature, instead of … sowing confusion or doubt or distrust about our free and fair and safe and secure elections,” Beckel said.

‘Fanning those flames’

Trump’s disproven claims of fraud in the 2020 election have led to massive settlements.

In April 2023, Fox News agreed to settle for $787.5 million a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems around the network’s promotion of lies about the 2020 election.

In December 2023, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of engaging in ballot fraud.

But the issue has not gone away.

Correspondingly, election officials are enhancing safety measures as they face increasing threats, Beckel said, citing measures including changing commutes to work and installing bulletproof glass and panic buttons in elections offices.

Koppes said she takes different routes to work and home every day, shops at different grocery stores and changes in-office hours. She also works with law enforcement to monitor threats.

A 2024 survey by the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, found that about 70 percent of election officials experienced intimidation, 60 percent had been harassed and 30 percent were threatened.

It means officials are entering this year’s midterms “eyes wide open,” bracing for physical threats and cyber attacks, Beckel said.

“Nobody's being Pollyanna-ish about the potential concerns and potential safety issues, potential cyber attacks,” Beckel said.

Burgans said she was now more proactive with election worker training, providing protocols for how to de-escalate verbal threats or how to deal with situations like finding a powdery substance in a ballot.

That’s scared off many election workers, she said.

“We need 100 to 120 election workers every election cycle, and it's hard to get them to do that for $12 an hour if they think their life could be in jeopardy,” Burgans said.

Amy Burgans Amy Burgans (provided photo)

Officials like Burgans, who is up for re-election, must fight a constant stream of misinformation.

Beckel said that becomes all the more challenging as leaders sow doubt in elections.

“Unfortunately, too many voices in the current administration are fanning those flames instead of doing more to reassure people about our safe and secure, free and fair elections in the United States,” Beckel said.

Summary execution: Does this legal theory hold hope of justice for ICE shooting victims?

Lawyers speaking to Raw Story said justice could still prevail in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two people shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis this month, despite the Trump administration’s refusal to cooperate with state investigations.

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer as she drove her car on Jan. 7.

Pretti, also 37 and an intensive care nurse, was killed on Jan. 24, when agents used pepper spray, beat him, shoved him to the ground, disarmed him, then fired at least 10 shots.

“There were alternatives that did not endanger the lives of these protesters,” Todd Howland, professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School, told Raw Story.

“That's one absolute reason why it was outside the scope of [ICE agents’] duty, because they have a duty to protect the lives of the people of the United States.”

Todd Howland Todd Howland (provided photo)

Howland said both Pretti and Good’s deaths should be considered summary executions — a human rights law framework that says a person accused of a crime was killed without a fair trial.

In the immediate aftermath of both shootings, federal officials accused the victims of criminal intent.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist” and accused her of “stalking and impeding” ICE agents.

In the case of Pretti, Noem accused the deceased of attacking officers, while White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Pretti tried to “murder federal agents.”

Even were such accusations true, said Howland, a former United Nations official, ICE clearly “could have taken action through the normal justice procedures.

“The fact that then they took further initiative in an aggressive way indicates that they actually weren't, first and foremost, looking for the rights of the individuals, and secondly, there was no absolute necessity, and it was just totally out of proportion in terms of what the officers were doing.”

Minnesota Protocol

Howland pointed to an aptly named United Nations mechanism for investigating summary executions: the Minnesota Protocol, so-called because it was drafted by lawyers in the state, and which is meant to be used to deal with potentially unlawful deaths, such as political or state-involved killings, sometimes involving law enforcement.

Good and Pretti “were looking for and contributing to creating a better world, and so it is so important to keep their vision alive and to utilize the summary execution framework to avoid this happening to anybody else,” Howland said.

A summary execution case in regard to Good’s death might have prevented the Pretti shooting, Howland said, because the protocol emphasizes preventing killings from happening again.

“That's why it's important to look a little bit beyond just the more typical forms of justice to a justice that includes that non-reoccurrence or non-repetition.”

‘A very uphill battle’

Daniel Pi, an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, said the summary execution framework “tends to be relatively toothless in practice” because "international law is very flexibly interpreted.”

But even without cooperation from the U.S. federal government, which holds key evidence in Good’s death, such as the vehicle and testimony of Jonathan Ross, the 10-year ICE veteran accused of killing her, the State of Minnesota “can get to beyond a reasonable doubt using the autopsy report and the video,” Pi said.

Daniel Pi Daniel Pi (provided photo)

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said the state has also been “blocked” in conducting its investigation of the shooting of Pretti.

That makes it “a very uphill battle,” to secure justice, Pi said, though he also said that while the odds of prosecution are low — less than 10 percent — it does remain possible.

Civil damages would be challenging to obtain but possibly easier than criminal charges, Howland said.

Matthew Mangino, a defense attorney and former district attorney in Pennsylvania, said the State of Minnesota could still use video and interviews with witnesses to bring charges against the agents who killed Good and Pretti.

Matthew Matthew Mangino (provided photo)

“You should be able to reconstruct what happened as a state investigator or prosecutor, and pursue your own criminal prosecution if, in fact, you believe a crime has been committed,” Mangino said.

‘Unfathomable’

After the Good shooting, Vice President J.D. Vance, a Yale law grad, falsely claimed that Ross, the shooter, had “absolute immunity.”

In fact, law enforcement and government officials have “qualified immunity” from personal civil liability, if they are found to have acted in good faith and with probable cause, as determined in a landmark 1967 Supreme Court case, Pierson v. Ray.

In order for agents to have immunity from state prosecution, Mangino said, a court would need to rule that the agents are indeed immune from being prosecuted for criminal conduct.

“That result is really unfathomable to me, because what it says then is, ‘Hey, if you're an ICE agent, or you're an FBI agent, or you're a DEA agent, you can shoot and kill people with impunity,’ and I don't think that's the direction that the courts are going to go,” Mangino said.

Mangino said victims’ families could also pursue a federal tort claim, which allows individuals to sue the U.S. government for injury and death due to the negligence of federal employees.

“You're suing the United States government because of their conduct,” Mangino said.

“There's avenues to pursue it. They're not easy, but I don't think it's as easy as saying, ‘Oh, ICE agents have immunity, and you can't sue them and you can't prosecute them.’”

Mangino said the government’s position of not investigating Good’s death was “preposterous,” but noted that political and public pressure led to the government to agreeing to an investigation into the death of Pretti.

“Although the Department of Justice said, ‘We will not bow to political pressure, or we will not bow to public pressure,’ they have, and that's where we are, at least with regard to the second homicide,” Mangino said.

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said President Donald Trump’s claim that he would personally oversee the Pretti investigation was “so wrong on so many levels.”

‘People won’t take it’

ICE has undergone a 120 percent hiring expansion as its budget has ballooned to $85 billion, the largest of any U.S. law enforcement agency.

At least 2,000 ICE officers and 1,000 Customs and Border Patrol agents were on the ground in Minneapolis as of Thursday, PBS reported.

“It's absolute incompetence that you're seeing because of the fact that they're expanding so fast,” Howland said.

The federal government, he added, is “putting politics and some ideology in front of actually protecting the lives of people, and that's unacceptable.”

With the public increasingly putting the blame at the feet of Trump and Noem, Howland said, accountability of a sort will be achieved.

“Even if there's problems with the criminal prosecution, even if there's complications with civil law,” Howland said, “eventually, I think that you'll see both through the ballot box and through a change in public opinion that these types of tactics are totally inappropriate, that they aren't based in law, and that you'll see a change or a shift because the people won't take it.”

Anti-ICE protesters warned of dire long-term effects of this brutal tactic

Following a second fatal shooting by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, public health experts are sounding a stark warning about the immediate and long-term effects of the agency’s use of even non-lethal crowd control weapons like tear gas, pepper bombs and flash-bang grenades.

On Saturday, video evidence showed ICE agents pepper spraying Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old veterans intensive care unit nurse, before wrestling him to the ground, where he was shot. Pretti was declared dead at the scene. Forensic audio analysis revealed at least 10 shots fired in less than five seconds.

“The justification for the use of [crowd control weapons] is that they reduce these kind of violent clashes, escalations, and so should really only be used as kind of a last-ditch measure to prevent violence and death and injuries,” Ryan Marino, an emergency room physician and medical toxicologist in Cleveland told Raw Story.

“The inappropriate use leading up to escalating violence, I'm not surprised to see that is where it has gone, but I think that is the fault of ICE, using these agents inappropriately.”

Earlier this month, ICE fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Nicole Good, in her car. Later, a Venezuelan immigrant, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celia, was shot in the leg while allegedly fleeing a traffic stop by federal agents, according to a press release from the Department of Homeland Security.

Particularly at demonstrations in Minneapolis but also in other U.S. cities, protesters, journalists and bystanders have reported serious injuries resulting from ICE actions involving crowd control weapons.

“I'm very concerned,” Rohini J. Haar, an emergency room physician in Oakland, Calif., and faculty member in the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health, told Raw Story, speaking before Pretti was killed on Saturday morning.

“I think this is reaching public health crisis levels when you [see] so many people injured.”

While commonly used chemical agents and projectiles are referred to as “less-lethal” weapons, “any one of them, if used improperly, could be very lethal, could be very harmful, could cause permanent disability,” Marino said.

Recent high-profile cases of serious injury include a Minneapolis area family whose six-month-old son had to be revived with CPR after an agent rolled a tear gas canister under their car, when they inadvertently got stuck amid a protest.

In cities including Portland, Ore. and Los Angeles, protesters hit with ICE projectiles and canisters have reported blindness and facial injuries.

“Calling [crowd control weapons] ‘less lethal’ is kind of a misnomer,” Haar said.

“The danger and the health risks are really related to how they are used and on whom, and when they're overused or misused, when they target individuals, or when they're used without a need, those harms rapidly escalate.”

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

‘People can die’

Haar, who is also a medical adviser with Physicians for Human Rights, has long researched crowd control weapons and their impact on health and human rights. She co-authored a seminal report, Lethal in Disguise, published in 2016, then updated in 2023.

After much debate, a global group of medical professionals, lawyers and advocates concluded “there is no role for projectiles in crowd control — that they're just not safe,” Haar said.

Crowd control weapons containing any sort of metal, such as beanbag rounds, are considered among the most dangerous, as are weapons that fire multiple projectiles at once, Haar said.

“They're dense, and you can't aim them, so they can hit children, bystanders, the elderly,” Haar said.

Fired at close range, rubber bullets can “hit as hard as live ammunition and cause serious damage,” and the abnormal shape of the bullets makes them “very unpredictable in their pattern, leading to potential injury to bystanders,” Haar said.

Crowd control weapons are intended to “make a space undesirable to be in,” rather than be used as “physical weapons or ballistics, hitting people in their body, and particularly in the head,” Marino said.

Ryan Marino Ryan Marino (provided photo)

ICE has been seen to shoot directly at individuals, particularly in front of its facility in Broadview, Illinois, outside Chicago.

“Even though these are called non-lethal ammunitions … people can die from the effects,” said Marino, who is also an assistant professor in the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

‘Almost militaristic’

Health harms of exposure to crowd control weapons are not just physical. Research into the use of tear gas during 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, revealed concerns about mental health issues following exposure to such chemical agents.

According to research published in the journal Spring Nature, 72 percent of respondents exposed to tear gas in Portland reported new mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“There is a lot of evidence that many people who are exposed to these will have significant psychologic, psychiatric, emotional, mental effects,” Marino said.

“If we're causing trauma and inflicting trauma on people, what are the downstream effects of that? Who's gonna pay for that treatment? Who's gonna help those people?”

Combined use of weapons such as flash-bangs and tear gas can cause “chaos and stress”, Haar said.

“The experience of being … exposed to a lot of these weapons, can feel almost militaristic and really dangerous and scary,” Haar said.

Even watching the news and being aware of the use of these weapons at protests can have a “chilling effect," she said.

“You're afraid of going to a protest now or demonstration, really afraid of exercising your free speech and free assembly rights, and that's its own mental health impact, where you don't feel like going,” Haar said.

Haar is particularly concerned about ICE’s presence at hospitals in Minnesota.

“If there's federal agents in those facilities who are identifying folks … the willingness or the safety and seeking care is going to be limited, and I think that's going to be really dangerous if I see that continue,” Haar said.

“That kind of thing is both a violation of basic medical ethics and neutrality, as well as a concerning safety and public health trend.”

‘Scariest thing’

Marino said the use of crowd control agents brings up “a million concerns,” noting uncertainty around long-term health effects.

Lack of regulation around the concentration and age of substances in canisters, as well the challenge of tracking how many are fired at any given event is also a concern.

“Why are we using these on people when we don't know what the effects are?” Marino said.

“They aren't actually non-lethal, and we don't even really know what is being used on people, which is probably, I guess, the scariest thing to me.”

In an amicus brief in the case L.A. Press Club v. Kristi Noem, challenging use of force by Department of Homeland Security agents in Los Angeles, Physicians for Human Rights argued that ICE has misused crowd control agents.

“These weapons all have serious health risks,” Haar said, “and so they have to be used judiciously, which is not what we're seeing in the news right now.”

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