Today
AIPAC SPENT $30 MILLION TO STOP HIM AND LOST, A JUDGE “RELUCTANTLY” DISMISSED THE LAST JAN. 6 CASE AND CALLED IT “UNEARNED GRACE,” THE NATIONAL GUARD WILL STAY IN D.C. UNTIL 2029 AT $1.4 BILLION — AND A WOMAN SAYS SHE MISCARRIED WHILE ICE HELD HER HUSBAND IN SOLITARY

AIPAC spent more than $30 million to stop him. Outside groups poured in over $50 million total. It was the most expensive Democratic Senate primary in American history. And Abdul El-Sayed won anyway.

El-Sayed, a public health doctor and the son of Egyptian immigrants, beat Congresswoman Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic primary on Tuesday night… 48.5 percent to 47.5 percent. The AP called the race Wednesday morning. If he wins in November against Republican Mike Rogers, he would become the first Muslim senator in U.S. history.

AIPAC’s super PAC backed Stevens with more than $30 million in ads that never once mentioned Israel. They attacked El-Sayed on health care, on taxes, on his record. His team was outspent by a margin that would have ended most campaigns. He won because Bernie Sanders, AOC, and the United Auto Workers stood behind him… and because Michigan voters did not buy ads funded by a lobby they could not see.

El-Sayed ran on Medicare for All, campaign finance reform, and ending military aid to Israel. Stevens ran on the Democratic establishment’s track record. The lobby spent $30 million. The voters spent $0. The voters won.

AIPAC said Wednesday it is “determined to ensure that voters reject Dr. El-Sayed” in November. The fight is not over. But the first round went to the people who showed up… not the money that showed up for them.

$30 MILLION FROM AIPAC. $50 MILLION TOTAL. MOST EXPENSIVE DEM PRIMARY EVER. HE WON ANYWAY.

BREAKING

A Judge “Reluctantly” Dismissed the Last Jan. 6 Case — Then Wrote That It “Denigrates the Work of Prosecutors” and Gives the Oath Keepers “Unearned Grace”

On Tuesday, Judge Amit Mehta dismissed the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and seven other members. It was the last Jan. 6 case. “That book is now closed,” Mehta wrote. Then he spent 15 pages saying why it should not have been.

Mehta said the DOJ did not argue the charges were wrong. It did not say the evidence was weak. It did not claim the trial was unfair. “The government does not maintain that dismissal is in the public interest,” Mehta wrote. He called the decision “unearned grace” and said it “denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions.”

Rhodes had been sentenced to 18 years for plotting to block the transfer of power after Trump lost in 2020. Juries found him guilty of seditious conspiracy… a charge so rare it had not been used in decades. Trump commuted his sentence on day one. Now the DOJ asked the court to erase the conviction entirely. “The court cannot write a different ending,” Mehta wrote.

More than 1,500 people were charged for Jan. 6. All have now been pardoned, commuted, or dismissed. The man who plotted to stop the peaceful transfer of power walks free with a clean record. The judge who sent him to prison wrote 15 pages to make sure the country knew he disagreed. That is the only record left.

EXPOSED

The National Guard Will Stay in Washington, D.C., Until 2029 — 4,600 Troops, $1.4 Billion, and the Pentagon Says It Continues “Until Terminated by the President”

The Pentagon told Congress this week that the National Guard will remain in Washington, D.C., through January 2029 at a cost of $1.4 billion. The estimate came from the DOD comptroller’s office in response to questions from Senator Elizabeth Warren. There are now 4,600 Guard troops in the capital.

Trump sent troops to D.C. in August 2025 to fight what he called a crime problem. Local officials and studies say crime was already falling before the Guard arrived. The first five months cost $185 million for about 2,000 troops. Now there are more than twice as many… and the bill has grown to $1.4 billion through the end of Trump’s term.

Warren said: “While American families are getting flattened by skyrocketing costs, Donald Trump is spending $1.4 billion to keep troops on the streets in Washington for years on end. The National Guard are not pawns and taxpayer dollars are not a piggy bank for Trump’s political stunts.”

The Pentagon said the deployment continues “until terminated by the President.” No end date. No success metric. No vote from Congress. Armed troops have been on the streets of the American capital for a year. And the machine says they stay until the man who sent them says stop.

“This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of January 6. That book is now closed.”

— Judge Amit Mehta, in his order dismissing the Oath Keepers case

DEVELOPING

“This Is an ICE Murder, Too” — Gabriela Soto Says She Miscarried While Her Husband Was Held in Solitary Confinement by ICE

Gabriela Soto told Democracy Now this week that she lost her pregnancy while her husband was locked in solitary confinement by ICE. “This is an ICE murder, too,” she said. Her husband had been detained during a routine check-in. He was placed in solitary. She was left alone, pregnant, with no way to reach him.

Soto said the stress of the detention, the silence, and the fear of deportation broke her body. She miscarried. She blames ICE. “They took everything from us,” she said. “My husband. My baby. Our future.”

Her story comes in the same week that a third person died at Delaney Hall, one of the most deadly ICE jails in the country. It comes in the same week that The Guardian revealed ICE force-fed hunger strikers for months. And it comes in the same week that the government dismissed every Jan. 6 case while keeping her husband in a cell.

The insurrectionists walk free. The man who showed up for a check-in sits in solitary. And the woman who lost her baby because of it went on national television to make sure someone heard.

 Connecting the Dots 

▸ The Bigger Picture

Four stories from one week. A lobby spent $30 million to stop a candidate who opposes military aid to Israel… and the voters of Michigan said no. A judge dismissed the last Jan. 6 case, called it “unearned grace,” and wrote 15 pages to explain why he had no choice. The National Guard will stay in the capital until 2029 at a cost of $1.4 billion with no end date, no metric, and no vote. And a woman who lost her pregnancy while ICE held her husband in solitary went on television to say what the government will not.

The press covers each on its own page. An “election result.” A “court order.” A “defense budget.” A “personal story.” But the thread is the same in every one.

The machine decides who is punished and who walks free. An insurrectionist who plotted to overthrow the government gets a clean record. A man who showed up for a check-in gets solitary. A lobby spends $30 million to buy a Senate seat and loses. A governor puts 4,600 armed troops on the streets of the capital with no vote and no end date. The rules are not applied equally. They are applied by power. And this week, the cracks showed… because one Senate race in Michigan proved the money does not always win.

When $30 million loses to the people who showed up… the machine is not as sealed as it wants you to think. That’s the Seventh Floor.

They rely on the shadows.
It’s time to turn on the lights.