WHAT IS SHE TRYING TO HIDE? Nation’s Least Transparent Sec of State Jocelyn Benson Desperately Tries to Shut Down MI Clerk’s Effort to Preserve Poll Book Data After Election

WHAT IS SHE TRYING TO HIDE? Nation’s Least Transparent Sec of State Jocelyn Benson Desperately Tries to Shut Down MI Clerk’s Effort to Preserve Poll Book Data After Election

WHAT IS SHE TRYING TO HIDE? Nation’s Least Transparent Sec of State Jocelyn Benson Desperately Tries to Shut Down MI Clerk’s Effort to Preserve Poll Book Data After Election
October 30, 2026

With an election weeks away, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office is desperately trying to stop Bridgewater Township Clerk Michelle McQueer from keeping the last remaining copy of an August electronic poll book in Michigan.

McQueer sued after the state refused to tell her which law to follow: Michigan’s rule that forces clerks to delete the files seven days after certification, or the federal statute that requires those records to be preserved for 22 months.

McQueer first asked Benson’s office for guidance in October of last year. She waited. She asked again. She received no answer. In August, she sued and won a temporary restraining order protecting her August 4 electronic poll book file. She is the only Michigan clerk known to still possess one. The Court of Claims has already denied the state’s motion to dismiss.
The Republican National Committee and Michigan Republican Party later joined as intervening plaintiffs. Every other clerk’s August file is already gone.

A new affidavit from the Secretary’s own office has complicated the effort to force the deletion. Rachel Clone, a data manager in the Bureau of Elections, stated under oath that the actual list of voters each precinct used on Election Day is never uploaded to the state’s main database because it would be “duplicative.” After the election, the state updates its file; the original list poll workers saw is gone and can only be reconstructed later from a change log. McQueer’s reply argues that a record that must be rebuilt after the fact has not been retained. A receipt that something was uploaded is not the same as preserving the original.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a rare Statement of Interest in the case, telling the Court of Claims that electronic poll book data—including all metadata—are federal election records the Secretary of State must preserve. DOJ’s statement relied on the Secretary’s earlier position. Attorney Kevin Kijewski, who represents McQueer, said the new affidavit means “the facts the government was asked to assume aren’t the facts anymore. The judge has the affidavit. He’ll decide.” DOJ also indicated that if all poll book data had been uploaded and preserved, it would not prioritize prosecuting clerks who followed the deletion rule—the condition Kijewski says the Clone affidavit now calls into question.

Michigan Secretary of State and Democrat candidate for Governor, Jocelyn Benson

Michigan Rule R 168.48 requires clerks to delete the software and associated files within seven days after certification. Federal law (52 U.S.C. § 20701) requires election officers to retain and preserve those records for 22 months; willful destruction is a federal crime. Kijewski said clerks raised the problem and no one would resolve it. “Michelle was willing to stand up for the rule of law. Her state told her to erase the election files seven days after certification. Federal law told her to keep them for twenty-two months. She asked the Secretary of State to resolve it. She waited eight months. She asked again. Nothing. People have been prosecuted over election data, so this wasn’t an academic question for her. She just wanted to follow the law, both laws, and nobody would tell her how.”

McQueer’s attorney Kevin Kijewski shared this update on X only hours ago:

UPDATE: THREE DAYS AGO A JUDGE ORDERED EVERY MICHIGAN CLERK TO KEEP THE NOVEMBER 3 POLL BOOKS. DO NOT DELETE.

YESTERDAY MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE JOCELYN BENSON ASKED THE COURT OF APPEALS TO UNDO THE JUDGE’S TRO IN AN “EMERGENCY APPLICATION.”

TODAY WE ANSWERED: NOT SO FAST. Read it all for yourself below.

Our answer, in one sentence: Benson’s emergency application to appeal “asks leave to destroy the evidence while the court decides whether destroying it is lawful.”

Benson never even asked the trial judge to pause the order first. The reason? It “would not be expedient.”

Guess what? Michigan’s court rules say you can’t ask the Court of Appeals for a stay unless the trial court decided one first.

It’s like math. You can’t skip steps.

So she’s ALSO asking the Court of Appeals to waive the rule for no good reason.

What the Judge’s TRO costs the Department: ONE memo telling clerks not to delete.
What clerks face without the Judge’s TRO: a federal law that punishes willfully failing to keep election records with up to a YEAR in federal prison.

“The Department’s harm is a memorandum. The clerks’ harm is a statute with a jail term.”

Benson asked for a ruling by November 10. Stay tuned.

HEY BENSON, LEAVE THE CLERKS’ FLASH DRIVES ALONE.

McQueer’s attorney Kevin Kijewski also added that the case is small on paper—one clerk, one township, one flash drive in a locked cabinet—but the principle is not. “The record of how a federal election was run shouldn’t be destroyed a week after it’s certified, by anyone, in any party. Every clerk in this state has already deleted theirs for August. Bridgewater’s is the only copy left.”

Statements of Interest from the Justice Department in pure state-court cases are uncommon, and it is rarer still for DOJ to appear at the trial-court level. Kijewski said neither side invited or opposed the filing: “This is a clerk asking a judge a simple question. When a state rule says delete, and a federal law says keep, which one does she follow? Anyone who wants to help the court answer that is welcome.”

The Court of Claims now has the Clone affidavit, McQueer’s reply, and the federal Statement of Interest. Bridgewater’s file remains under court order while Benson’s office desperately presses for its destruction before the election. The question McQueer first posed nearly a year ago remains unanswered: when a state rule says delete, and federal law says keep, which does a Michigan clerk follow?

The post WHAT IS SHE TRYING TO HIDE? Nation’s Least Transparent Sec of State Jocelyn Benson Desperately Tries to Shut Down MI Clerk’s Effort to Preserve Poll Book Data After Election appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Author: Patty McMurray

Meet the Two Transgender Lawmakers Targeting Flávio Bolsonaro

Meet the Two Transgender Lawmakers Targeting Flávio Bolsonaro

Meet the Two Transgender Lawmakers Targeting Flávio Bolsonaro
October 30, 2026

Photo credits: Erika Hilton: Zeca Ribeiro/Câmara dos Deputados, CC BY 3.0. Duda Salabert: photo courtesy of Câmara dos Deputados.

After Flávio Bolsonaro lost the Oct. 25 presidential runoff, transgender federal deputy Erika Hilton petitioned Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Oct. 26 to seize his passports, including his diplomatic passport. He also asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office to urgently consider restrictions on him.

Fellow transgender deputy Duda Salabert separately requested the seizure of his passport. That day, Moraes approved a Federal Police request to seize Flávio’s passports as part of a money laundering investigation involving him and lawyer Willer Tomaz.

Flávio, who has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged, did not surrender his passports. He left Brazil on Oct. 27 and arrived in Miami the following day after the State Department granted visas to him and his family.

Following reports of his departure, Hilton asked the court to freeze his and his wife Fernanda Bolsonaro’s assets and bank accounts, calling him a “traitor to the homeland.” As of Oct. 28, the court had not ruled on that request.

The petitions followed a history of conflict between the two deputies and the Bolsonaro family. Hilton and Salabert belong to the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), an ally of President Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party (PT). Lula, who won a historic fourth presidential term, has PSOL members in his cabinet: Guilherme Boulos serves as Secretary-General of the Presidency, and Sonia Guajajara heads the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.

Hilton campaigned for Lula across Brazil’s Northeast before the runoff, telling a Fortaleza rally on Oct. 19 that Brazil did not want four more years of a Bolsonaro government. He has also said he may join the PT in 2027. Flávio’s platform proposed restricting transgender athletes from women’s competitions.

Hilton had sought similar measures against Flávio’s brother Eduardo in July 2025, when he asked Moraes to freeze Eduardo’s bank accounts and assets. Hilton accused Eduardo of working with the Trump administration on its 50% tariff on Brazilian goods. Eduardo replied on X, “I didn’t know João had asked to block my assets. João, hey, soccer on Saturday!” using a male name to refer to Hilton.

Hilton then sued Eduardo for transphobia in a São Paulo civil court, seeking R$20,000 (about $3,900) in damages, removal of the post and a ban on similar posts. The case remains pending after a judge granted Eduardo’s request to postpone the hearing until after the election.

Hilton, a 33-year-old deputy from São Paulo and former sex worker, according to the Washington Blade, was re-elected on Oct. 4 with nearly 1.6 million votes, the most ever received by a woman in a Chamber of Deputies election.

He co-authored the constitutional amendment, enacted by Congress on Oct. 16, that replaces Brazil’s six-day workweek with a five-day week and gradually reduces maximum weekly hours from 44 to 40. He has advocated going further, proposing a four-day, 36-hour week.

Hilton also introduced a bill granting amnesty to anyone charged with or convicted of abortion since 1940. He has sought to remove language from an abortion bill that would criminalize the procedure in rape cases. He chairs the Chamber’s Women’s Committee, a position that a PoderData poll found 74% disapproved of his holding the position.

Salabert, a former literature teacher from Minas Gerais who describes himself as vegan in his electoral filing, was re-elected on Oct. 4 with 229,535 votes. He left PSOL in 2019, calling the party structurally transphobic, and announced his return on March 31, 2026, after several years in the Democratic Labor Party (PDT).

He has said he entered politics in response to what he called the “coup” against Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s successor from the Workers’ Party. Brazil’s Senate voted 61–20 to remove Rousseff from office in August 2016 for breaking budget laws.

Salabert, who was born male, identifies as a woman and a lesbian, and is married to Raísa Novaes, a biological woman. Their biological child, Sol, was born in June 2019. Salabert stopped hormone treatment so Novaes could become pregnant. The couple chose a gender-neutral name so their child would not need to change it if it turned out to be transgender.

On January 8, 2023, a week after Lula’s inauguration, supporters of Jair Bolsonaro who rejected his election defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in Brasília. In March 2025, as Bolsonaro’s allies sought amnesty for the rioters, Salabert introduced Bill 1335/2025 to prohibit amnesty for anyone investigated or convicted of crimes against the democratic rule of law.

That month, he also asked the Prosecutor-General to seek Bolsonaro’s arrest over a rally speech in Copacabana and to seek restrictions barring him from social media and public events.

Salabert has also pursued legal action over statements about his gender. In a 2020 interview, Nikolas Ferreira, now a federal deputy for Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL), said he would not recognize him as a woman and questioned whether his documents identified him as male or female, saying “it’s biology.”

Salabert sued, and a Minas Gerais court ordered Ferreira to pay R$80,000 in damages, later reduced to R$30,000 (about $5,900). Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice upheld the judgment in June 2025, making it final.

Commenting on Ferreira’s case in an August 2024 video, influencer Bianca Barreto called Salabert “a guy who says he is a trans woman, but is married to a woman and has a son or daughter.” In August 2026, Salvador’s 9th Criminal Court sentenced Barreto to two years in prison under a semi-open regime, which permits daytime release for work, and ordered her to pay R$20,000 (about $3,900) in moral damages. The case concerned her use of male pronouns and statements about Salabert’s gender.

Salabert’s Bill 4101/2024 would give people who legally change their sex from female to male one year to register for military service without a late-registration fine. Brazilian men must register in the year they turn 18, though registration does not necessarily lead to service. The bill argues that those legally classified as female at 18 should not face penalties for failing to register then.

Hilton’s companion bill, which would eliminate the fine for “transmasculine people,” was merged into Salabert’s proposal. On October 28, 2026, the Chamber’s Human Rights Committee approved the combined version by voice vote, adding confidentiality protections.

Hilton and Salabert submitted a bill on April 30, 2026, drafted by the National LGBTQIA+ Council, to establish “LGBTQIA+ Citizenship Houses” nationwide for victims of anti-LGBT discrimination and violence. It would also create policy agencies at all three levels of government and a national monitoring system. Hilton said the aim was to make the programs permanent state policy.

Salabert also co-authored a bill establishing a 12-to-30-year prison sentence for killing a lesbian because of her sexual orientation, which a Chamber committee approved this week. Other proposals would require restaurants in government agencies to serve vegan meals and ban the sale of glue rat traps nationwide.

Flávio remains in Miami with his family. During the campaign, Hilton sought to suspend “Tropa do Flávio”, a pro-Flávio WhatsApp channel he accused of spreading false content.

PT deputies Lindbergh Farias and Rogério Correia, joined by deputy-elect Ana Elisa Santos, have asked Moraes to order Flávio’s preventive arrest and request an Interpol red notice.

Flávio’s Senate term ends early next year. Hilton and Salabert will then begin their new terms in a Chamber where his Liberal Party won the largest bloc of seats.

The post Meet the Two Transgender Lawmakers Targeting Flávio Bolsonaro appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Author: Antonio Graceffo

Adam Carolla: Have You Noticed How Quickly the Story About the Guy Who Stopped the School Shooting in Oregon Disappeared From the Media? (VIDEO)

Adam Carolla: Have You Noticed How Quickly the Story About the Guy Who Stopped the School Shooting in Oregon Disappeared From the Media? (VIDEO)

Adam Carolla: Have You Noticed How Quickly the Story About the Guy Who Stopped the School Shooting in Oregon Disappeared From the Media? (VIDEO)
October 30, 2026

Screenshot of a Twitter/X video.

Just last week, a good guy with a gun—a father—stopped a shooting at an elementary school. It was a horrible situation, and he ended it.

Have you noticed that the story has already completely disappeared from the media? Why do you suppose that is?

Adam Carolla thinks he knows why. It’s because nothing about the story fits the media’s preferred narrative. They don’t like stories about good guys with guns.

Transcript via the Vigilant Fox:

Adam Carolla says it took 10 DAYS before he heard about the concealed carry dad who ran into his daughters’ elementary school and took down the shooter.

He thought about it, and he knows exactly why it didn’t get more airtime.

“IT F*CKS UP EVERY THEME THEY HAVE ABOUT GUN OWNERSHIP.”

CAROLLA: “That was the first time I’ve ever seen a picture of this guy [Kaylub Giamanco], heard him talk.”

“He says, ‘I didn’t save enough kids, and I’m sorry to the parents of the kids who I couldn’t save.’ And now he can’t sleep at night because he can still hear the screams of the children begging for their lives.”

This man should be a household name. A national hero.

But as Carolla explains, his story wrecks the picture of gun owners the media wants in your head.

“The theme of the dad who wanted to protect his kids … and put an end to this school shooter is NOT a theme they like.”

“MSNBC, CNN, LA Times, THEY HATE THIS STORY.”

Daniel Penny, meanwhile?

Watch the video below:

Carolla is right about all of this.

The media only focuses on stories like this if they can use it to advance the progressive agenda.

The post Adam Carolla: Have You Noticed How Quickly the Story About the Guy Who Stopped the School Shooting in Oregon Disappeared From the Media? (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Author: Mike LaChance

JUST IN: Ninth Circuit Court Rejects Trump DOJ’s Last-Minute Bid to Force California to Remove 20,000 Ballots Mailed to Non-Citizens

JUST IN: Ninth Circuit Court Rejects Trump DOJ’s Last-Minute Bid to Force California to Remove 20,000 Ballots Mailed to Non-Citizens

JUST IN: Ninth Circuit Court Rejects Trump DOJ’s Last-Minute Bid to Force California to Remove 20,000 Ballots Mailed to Non-Citizens
October 30, 2026

Image shows a collection of "Fraud Alert" signs alongside a voting sign with an American flag, highlighting election integrity and voting awareness.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected the Trump DOJ’s last-minute bid to force California to remove 20,000 ballots mailed to non-citizens.

The DOJ immediately appealed after US District Court Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, denied the Justice Department’s request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on Wednesday night.

The Justice Department recently sued California and Los Angeles County over 20,000 suspected non-citizens registered to vote who have already been mailed ballots.

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said that voter rolls were compared to USCIS immigration, Social Security and passport records.

On Wednesday evening, as expected, Judge Carter denied the Justice Department’s request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO).

The Judge said that the Department of Justice can prosecute the individuals.

“There is a clear remedy available. The United States can prosecute individuals according to Section 611, as it has historically and recently done. California also has established procedures to cancel the voter registrations of any individuals proven ineligible,” the judge wrote.

On Friday, in a 2-1 vote, a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Justice Department’s request to block 20,000 ballots from being counted.

The three judges included: Majority: Mark Bennett (Trump) Gabriel Sanchez (Biden) – Dissent: Patrick Bumatay (Trump).

“Major concerns remain that granting the United States’s requested relief might result in immense hardship to Defendants and harm the public interest by risking the disenfranchisement of eligible voters and putting the entire tabulation process in jeopardy,” the majority wrote.

Judge Bumatay blasted California, the Clinton Judge who denied the DOJ’s TRO and his fellow judges on the Ninth Circuit Court in a scathing dissent.

“In this case, the federal government believes that 20,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in California. Both state and federal law prohibit aliens from voting in our elections. Yet according to the federal government, those aliens received mail-in ballots for the upcoming election. If California receives these suspect ballots, mixes them with legitimate ballots, and then processes them, the potentially illegal votes will be counted toward the election of our representatives—threatening to dilute the vote of eligible citizens,” Bumatay wrote.

“The federal government proposes a modest remedy—stopping California from mixing the ballots of citizens and suspected noncitizens. This solution would not cancel any vote but would allow time to verify the eligibility of suspected noncitizens. The district court, and now our court, denies this reasonable request,” Bumatay wrote.

The post JUST IN: Ninth Circuit Court Rejects Trump DOJ’s Last-Minute Bid to Force California to Remove 20,000 Ballots Mailed to Non-Citizens appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Author: Cristina Laila

Dirty Leftist Donald Tusk Is Running a Coup in Conservative Poland! – Tusk Says “Restoring Rule of Law is Our Duty… This Is a Difficult Process” – WOW!

Dirty Leftist Donald Tusk Is Running a Coup in Conservative Poland! – Tusk Says “Restoring Rule of Law is Our Duty… This Is a Difficult Process” – WOW!

Dirty Leftist Donald Tusk Is Running a Coup in Conservative Poland! – Tusk Says “Restoring Rule of Law is Our Duty… This Is a Difficult Process” – WOW!
October 30, 2026

Police outside of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw. – via Joey Mannarino

Leftist-globalist Polish Prime Minister has just SEIZED the courts of Poland in an attempted COUP of the country.

Tusk waited until right-wing President, Karol Nawrocki, had left the country.

Nawrocki turned his plane around over Spain and is now RUSHING BACK to Poland.

Tusk is attempting a coup in Poland!

Jack Posobiec, who has deep Polish roots, is all over the developments.

Vice President of the Constitutional Tribunal released this statement to the world. (in English)

Via Balazs Orban:

Liberal authoritarianism in action: An attempted JUDICIAL COUP is unfolding in Poland!

Police have been deployed to the grounds of Warsaw’s Constitutional Tribunal, while attempts are underway to suspend its president and vice-president through a highly disputed process. According to reports, Prime Minister Donald Tusk personally ordered the police operation.

The constitutional crisis is so severe that President Karol Nawrocki interrupted his official trip to Senegal and ordered his plane to turn around over Spain to return to Poland.

In Warsaw, police are deployed around independent constitutional institutions. In Budapest, lawfully elected heads of constitutional institutions are removed from office, opposition politicians are barred from running for re-election, and people are imprisoned on political grounds.

This is arbitrary rule. When those in power see constitutional safeguards not as rules to respect, but as obstacles to eliminate.

Daniel Foubert has this.

Leftist Donald Tusk released a statement saying he is restoring the rule of law… Up is down. Left is right. Black is white…

Jack Posobiec released this on the coup.

The post Dirty Leftist Donald Tusk Is Running a Coup in Conservative Poland! – Tusk Says “Restoring Rule of Law is Our Duty… This Is a Difficult Process” – WOW! appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Author: Jim Hoft