The Daily Brief — May 28, 2026
Executive order on voting may go forward, criminal probe into E. Jean Carroll, Trump–IRS case
These are today’s top stories, delivered straight to your inbox. Catch up here on all the news.
Federal Judge Allows Trump Order on Voting to Proceed
A federal judge has declined to block President Trump’s executive order creating a federal voter list and limiting mail-in voting. The decision clears the way for potential changes before this year’s midterm elections.
Trump signed the order on March 31, directing his administration to compile lists of eligible voters in each state for federal elections and imposing new restrictions on mail-in voting. The order also instructs the US Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to voters on each state’s approved list and requires states to preserve election records for five years.
Civil rights groups sued to block the order, arguing that it is unconstitutional because the Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — the power to set election rules. They also warned the order could disenfranchise millions of voters.
US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, rejected their request, agreeing with the administration that it is too early to block the order because it has not yet been implemented.
While the Postal Service may issue rules that directly affect voters, or the government may produce citizenship lists that wrongly leave people out, neither of those things has happened yet, the judge said, and the challengers can return to court if they do. For now, he said, they have not shown enough immediate harm to justify halting the order.
A separate lawsuit challenging the order is pending in federal court in Boston.
35 Former Judges Ask Court to Reopen Trump–IRS Case
Thirty-five former federal judges asked a federal court yesterday to reopen the legal case in which Trump sued the IRS and as a settlement created a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. The judges argue that the way the case ended was improper.
In a filing to US District Judge Kathleen William, the retired judges argued the settlement is a “fraud on the Court” because Trump’s team voluntarily dismissed the suit while the court was still examining whether there was a genuine legal dispute, and without disclosing a settlement that the Justice Department announced hours later. The next day, the Justice Department announced the fund and subsequently released an addendum granting Trump, his family, and his businesses broad immunity from past IRS investigations.
Trump was suing part of the executive branch, the IRS, and he is also the head of the executive branch. In the United States, the parties to a lawsuit must be actual adversaries, meaning that they are on opposite sides of a dispute. The former judges called the lawsuit “collusive” and “feigned,” and said Trump’s team used the case as the legal pretext to move federal money to the president’s allies and shield him and his family from future tax audits.
California to Target DOJ Settlement Payouts
California plans to impose a 100% tax on payouts distributed under the Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion fund for people who claim they were victims of “weaponized” prosecution by the federal government.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the proposal yesterday, which pertains to money received from the “anti-weaponization fund.”
Democratic leaders in New York and New Jersey are pursuing similar measures.
Newsbreak
Amazing News: We Are Mighty is a #1 New York Times bestseller, an Amazon books bestseller, a USA Today bestseller, a Bookshop.org bestseller, and a bestseller at independent bookstores nationwide.
Thank you so much for your support, and for buying this book for your children, grandchildren, libraries, and classrooms!
DOJ Opens Criminal Investigation into E. Jean Carroll
The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Trump of sexual assault and won two civil lawsuits against him.
The inquiry is focused on whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury during a 2022 deposition in which she said she had received no outside funding for her lawsuit. Billionaire Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and a Democratic donor, later was revealed to have helped cover some of her legal fees. In Carroll’s civil case, a federal judge barred jurors from hearing about Hoffman’s contributions, ruling they had no bearing on whether Trump assaulted her. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the verdict.
In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s and for defaming her after he denied the allegation in 2019, and it awarded her $5 million. A second jury awarded her $83.3 million in January 2024 for additional defamatory statements Trump made while in office. Trump has denied the allegations and is appealing.
Reports: US and Iran Reach Peace Deal
The US and Iran negotiators may have reached an agreement to extend the ongoing ceasefire for 60 days and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to US officials. The US and Iran are not holding direct negotiations; Pakistan is mediating the peace talks. Trump is yet to sign off on the understanding, and there is one report of Iran denying such a deal has been reached.
The two sides have reportedly also agreed to discuss the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium — a topic that Trump has insisted must be addressed in any peace deal — during the 60-day window.
Reports of the deal followed an exchange of fire between the US and Iran. Iran launched a ballistic missile at a US military base in Kuwait late yesterday, the US military said. Kuwaiti forces intercepted the missile, and no casualties or damage have been reported. US Central Command called the missile launch a “ceasefire violation.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted a US air base in response to US strikes that happened earlier the same day, when US forces destroyed five Iranian drones that American officials said threatened US troops and commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM said it also struck a drone control site in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas before a sixth drone could be launched.
Delaware Court Upholds Company Voting in Local Elections
A Delaware judge has ruled that a small beach town can continue allowing corporations and other property-owning legal entities to vote in municipal elections.
In Fenwick Island, DL, most of the property owners are nonresidents. As a result, the town’s electorate is far larger than its resident population. Each “artificial entity” that owns property — like a corporation or other company — gets one vote, with one individual designated to cast it on the entity’s behalf.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware had sued the town, arguing the practice violates the Delaware Constitution’s requirement that “all elections” be “free and equal,” because letting companies vote dilutes the votes of human residents in violation of the principle of “one person, one vote.” In its complaint, the ACLU pointed out that more than 200 artificial entities are registered to vote in Fenwick Island — about 12% of the electorate — and that in the 2024 town election, votes cast by entities exceeded the margin between the winner and the next-place candidate.
However, Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz found that the ACLU failed to show that entity owners vote as a bloc to defeat candidates preferred by human residents.
No Criminal Charges Against Venezuelan Acting President
The Trump administration has instructed federal prosecutors in Miami not to pursue criminal investigations into Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez, according to the Associated Press. A Justice Department spokesperson denied the report, saying “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”
But according to documents obtained by AP, Rodríguez has been under investigation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) since at least 2018 over allegations involving drug trafficking, gold smuggling, and money laundering. DEA records showed Rodríguez’s name has surfaced in nearly a dozen DEA investigations, several of them ongoing. In 2022, the agency designated her a “priority target,” a label it reserves for suspects believed to have a “significant impact” on the drug trade. Rodríguez has never been criminally charged in the US, and Venezuelan officials have called the allegations false.
Now the Trump administration is working to develop a warmer relationship with Venezuela. Since US forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January, the administration has cultivated Rodríguez as its preferred partner in stabilizing Venezuela. The country holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and US officials have been working to restore American access to Venezuelan crude and to use Caracas as a partner against drug trafficking in the region.
Rodríguez became Venezuela’s acting president after Maduro and his wife were flown to the US to face US charges including drug trafficking and exporting cocaine to the United States. They have pleaded not guilty.
What is even the process of holding the Justice Department accountable for basically just going after Trump’s adversaries? Impeachment? Congress actually doing something? Feels like every day is another egregious overstep of the Justice Dept with minimal consequences
Corporations voting in elections. I shouldn't be surprised, yet here we are. Insanity reigns.