Monday, October 26, 2026 Today, Trump and his Justice Department sued Alaska to block certification of the election if republican Dan Sullivan loses; the Trump administration is trying to sell Alaskan oil permits to Russia as part of Ukraine peace talks; Republican activist Scott Presler committed voter fraud in Pennsylvania; the 9th Circuit heard oral arguments Sunday over the Justice Department’s bid to interfere in California midterm elections; more than one million Lula supporters hit the streets as Brazil heads to the polls; Trump is pushing to evict the press from the White House and turn the press room into a swimming pool; a federal appeals court on Friday ruled 2-1 that President Trump’s National Guard deployment to the Los Angeles area last year was unlawful; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Today, Trump and his Justice Department sued Alaska to block certification of the election if republican Dan Sullivan loses; the Trump administration is trying to sell Alaskan oil permits to Russia as part of Ukraine peace talks; Republican activist Scott Presler committed voter fraud in Pennsylvania; the 9th Circuit heard oral arguments Sunday over the Justice Department’s bid to interfere in California midterm elections; more than one million Lula supporters hit the streets as Brazil heads to the polls; Trump is pushing to evict the press from the White House and turn the press room into a swimming pool; a federal appeals court on Friday ruled 2-1 that President Trump’s National Guard deployment to the Los Angeles area last year was unlawful; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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msw media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Monday, October 26, 2026. Today, Donald Trump and his Justice Department sued Alaska to block certification of the election if Republican Dan Sullivan loses. The Trump administration is trying to sell Alaskan oil permits to Russia as part of a Ukraine peace deal. Republican activist Scott Pressler committed voter fraud in Pennsylvania. The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments Sunday over the Justice Department's bid to interfere in California midterm elections. More than 1 million Lula supporters hit the streets as Brazil heads to the polls. Donald Trump is pushing to evict the press from the House and turned the press room into a swimming pool. And a federal appeals court on Friday ruled 2 to 1 that Trump's national Guard deployment to Los Angeles last year was unlawful. I'm Alison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Happy Monday, my friend.
And to you. How was your weekend?
it was good. I actually only had, one show to write and record on Saturday, so I had a pretty nice day, a quote, unquote, day off on Saturday. Thank you for asking.
You had a very light weekend. I was in Chicago, raised a bunch of money for the Human Rights Campaign and had a blast on stage with the actors from Chicago Fire. There's three of the actors. If anyone watches that show. They were just absolutely delightful. I had to auction off a couple things they were involved with, so they joined me on the stage. But I'll get some of those pictures up in my Patreon, and if you're not part of my Patreon, I would love for you to be part of my Patreon. You can go to danagoldberg.com, hit Patreon and just join. Join one of the bases, be a dissenter, join the dugout. Love to have you.
Amazing. Later in the show, I'm going to be talking with Gillian Brickell. She's correspondent for the American Prospect. She covers ICE flights and third country removals. And, she broke a story this past weekend that appears ICE lied yet again to the court about. You, know they've been ordered to return someone from Equatorial Guinea. They said that the flight was canceled or whatever. And, one of the flight trackers in the resistance saw that the flight actually landed there. And so she noticed the court.
Few good men, right?
I. Hell, yeah, I ordered the code red. It's just, man, the ongoing lies that this administration tells to the court, we are dead in the middle of a constitutional crisis. There's also a new episode of Unjustified that's out with me and Andy McCabe. And a new episode of the Breakdown on the Midas Touch Network. I'll put that up over@muellers.com for you to peruse. It's, myself and Michael Popo from Legal af, and we talk about all of the election inter interference and malfeasance along with that hearing that, I listened to today in the Ninth Circuit about California. It is eight days until the end of midterms, and we'll have some early voting coverage over on the Beans Talk today. Yeah, we're in the final countdown.
And I voted today in California.
Hell, yeah.
Stuck it right in a Dropbox. That's what I did, everyone. I stuck it right in a Dropbox. All right, we got good news from the weekend. A federal appeals court on Friday ruled 2 to 1 that President Trump's National Guard deployment to Los Angeles area last year, that was unlawful. The U.S. court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected Trump's assertion that violent demonstrations in the city protesting his immigration crackdown justified him wresting control of the troops from Governor Gavin Newsom. It means Friday's decision will now bind future 9th Circuit panels if Trump tries to deploy the National Guard again in California. Which is sort of lovely.
Yep, sort of lovely. And that'll last as long as, he takes an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on the shadow docket, and we'll see what happens then.
Yeah, no kidding.
And Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Alaska, and her family were in a car accident this weekend when a driver ran into their vehicle on the way to an event. Minor injuries. Everyone apparently is okay. Don't have much more information at this time, but she will be taking a few days off campaigning, which means the right wing will be putting her in a mental institution in Ohio any moment, I'm sure. Right. So, cue those conspiracy theories. Any moment. But I'm, you know, thinking about her and her family, hoping they all recover swiftly and, can get back to campaigning, get back to the trail.
All right. I hope so, too.
We have tons of news to get to today, so let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, first up, from Reuters, the Trump administration has sued Alaska to preemptively block the state from certifying the results of its U.S. senate race if the Republican loses. Saying that voters could be confused because there's two Republicans named Dan Sullivan. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in federal court in Anchorage on Thursday, and it signals the willingness of Trump's administration to contest the results of the November 3rd midterm elections that will decide control of the Congress, where his fellow Republicans narrowly control both chambers. The suit, which names the state and local election officials as defendants, takes issue with the presence of another contender in the race, another Republican named dan J. Sullivan, Jr. Alleging he's running, quote, with the intention of misleading supporters of Senator Sullivan into voting for him. Donald Trump has admitted ordering the DOJ to file the suit. And of course, that doesn't matter because they're both immune from criminal investigation over this, thanks to the Supreme Court. Yet another reason to add four seats to the bench in 2029. That's not from Reuters, that's from me. The democracy docket reports that Mary Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Party are fighting the Department of Justice's dubious lawsuit. Alaskans for Mary and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The DSCC filed a motion to intervene in the case overnight. That's over the weekend. Calling the Trump administration's attempt at interference an extraordinary assault on democracy and insulting to the people of Alaska. Basically, you're too dumb to read Alaska.
Yep.
To be fair, Dana, incumbent has a B in it, and a lot of people don't know that.
I would be, I would be shocked if Trump could actually spell incumbent.
Yeah, quote. In an unprecedented preemptive strike on democratic elections, the Department of Justice, acting on the president's personal orders, demands that this court enjoin the certification of the ongoing U. S. Senate election, but only if the president's preferred candidate lose. That's what the group wrote. They went on, to say, Alaskans apparently must elect either Dan S. Sullivan or the president will not let them elect anyone at all. But the federal government has no power to impose that Hobson's choice on the people of this state. That's what they added, using a term that describes a situation that provides only illusion of choice. The Alaska Supreme Court already litigated this issue. They ruled this summer that the second Dan Sullivan can remain on the ballot, something that Peltola's campaign and the DSCC noted in their motion to intervene. And I'll just reiterate here. The ballot says by the senator's name, Dan Sullivan, current senator, incumbent. Yeah. And so they're just basically saying, Alaskans are too stupid to know what incumbent means.
Unbelievable. This one's from the Times. An American energy company intends to buy Russian technology and use it to access a massive supply of natural gas in Alaska, liquefy it and export it to allies abroad. The Kremlin and the United States were interested in the idea? President Vladimir Putin discussed the plan last month with Trump's peace envoys. Steve Witkoff, who said, you know, Putin was a humanitarian and Jared, I steal, ah, all the money. Kushner, people familiar with the negotiations, said, speaking of course on the condition of anonymity because they're not allowed to discuss sensitive diplomacy. It is one of a series of energy deals the White House officials believe could help smooth relations with Moscow and eventually pave the way to end the war in Ukraine. Right.
I'm sorry. How does giving them billions of dollars in oil permits to drill in Alaska help end the war in Ukraine?
It does not.
Okay.
Yeah. It turns out that the company was not an all American affair. The multi billion dollar project has received secret funding from the same powerful Russian company, and that was to provide the technology. Joel Riddle, who was chief executive of the company, it's called Polar LNG until he resigned in September, said he had been misled about the sources of the startup funding, which ostensibly came from a company in the United Arab Emirates. Instead, Mr. Riddle said he learned that it was the professor in the library. No, sorry, everybody. He learned that the true source of at least some of Polar LNG's money was Novatech, a Russian energy giant under partial US sanctions. We've talked about Novatech a lot.
M. So, I mean, for them to say for this government to use a sanctioned, partially sanctioned Russian oil company to strike some sort of a deal, like, there's no deal to end the war in Ukraine. This isn't a peace negotiation. This is them getting rich. That's all this is.
Yeah, absolutely.
All, right, next up from the Times, the Department of justice sent letters Friday to local election officials across California, every precinct, as a matter of fact, that they help identify potential non citizens on their voter rolls and set aside their ballots, segregate them, sequester them. The letter sent to every county in the state, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, also said local officials would, quote, risk significant federal scrutiny if they failed to comply with the Justice Department's demands. Dispatched a week and a half before the midterm elections. The threat arrived as the Trump administration had begun a blitz of initiatives aimed at unearthing evidence, and I'm putting evidence in heavy air quotes here, of non citizen voting or stalling election processes in states where it has dubiously claimed that large numbers of non citizens were registered to vote or were regularly voting. Last week, the Trump administration sued California, as we know, a heavily Democratic state, seeking to temporarily preempt the counting of more than 20,000 mail ballots sent to people it says might be registered to vote as non citizens for the November 3rd election, even though they were not U.S. citizens. A, federal judge scheduled a hearing next week in the district court on the lawsuit, but the Justice Department Friday filed papers urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to decide this weekend. Now, they held a hearing, the 9th Circuit on Sunday as we record this. I listened to the entire thing. you can read my play by play of that entire thing. It's a thread that I did over on Blue sky at Mueller, she wrote. And you can hear what Mike Popak and I had to say about it on this weekend's episode, Sunday's episode of the Breakdown over on Midas Touch. But two judges, a Trump appointee and a Biden appointee, Bennett and Sanchez, respectively, weren't buying that the appellate court even has jurisdiction, because the lower court didn't even get a chance to have their hearing before the DOJ just flew past him to the 9th Circuit. Now, the third judge, a Trump appointee, was kind of a douchebag, but he also might rule with these other two. But I think at least they'll dismiss it two to one and leave it for the lower court judge, Judge Carter, to continue his work on this matter.
Good.
So they didn't even have standing to jurisdiction to be at the appellate court. And what was funny was that California brought up like, even if he had ruled in the lower court on a temporary restraining order, you still can't appeal, right? A temporary restraining order until it's a preliminary injunction. The government had a really hard time in the hearing today. And, maybe by the time you listen to this, we'll have a ruling.
Awesome. All right, this one's from the Times. In late August, during one of Caroline Levitt's final meetings with President Trump in the Oval Office, he pitched her an idea in front of several senior aides. He told her to move reporters out of the James S. Brady press brief briefing room, which would effectively remove news organizations from the White House. It would be, he told her, her last legacy. But the proposal never moved forward while she was there anyway. And the President had put the request to her several times over the months. According to three people with knowledge of the discussions. Ms. Levitt officially stepped down as White House Press Secretary on August 27th. Donald, has told aides he would prefer to bring back the indoor pool that President Franklin D. Roosevelt added in 1933 as therapy for his polio afflicted legs. Remember, everyone, President Richard Nixon later covered it over to make room for news media journalists who are credentialed to cover the White House. They work out of a small office space connected to the press briefing room. While moving the media out of the White House may be a relatively small debate, considering Donald's attacks on journalists more broadly, it would be highly symbolic. The proximity of the media to the seat of US Executive power has long been an acknowledgment of the importance of a free press in a constitutional democracy. Democracy. And he wants to get rid of it and make an indoor swimming pool.
Of course. I mean that's, you know, I mean, indicative of his treatment of the press and absolutely make a pool out of it. All right. From the Guardian, more than 1 million supporters of Brazil's left wing president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, that's we call him Lula, streamed onto Rio's most famous beach, over a million people for a giant protest they hope will propel Lula toward a historic election. Fight back against his far right rival, Flavio Bolsonaro. Nearly 159 million Brazilians will vote in the election runoff on Sunday with the pair tied in the polls after Bolsonaro won the first round by 47 to 45. On Saturday under fierce sun, red clad crowds packed the 2.5 mile Copacabana beach in an attempt to help Lula clinch a democratic and unprecedented comeback. Never since the return of democracy to Brazil in the 1980s has the first round loser managed to bounce back. Now I do have the latest numbers as we record this Sunday afternoon, Bolsonaro leads Lula. Bolsonaro right now has 50.2% of the vote after 40% of the votes have been counted. So Bolsonaro has 50.2, Lula has 49.8. So they are 0.4 points apart with only 40% of the ballots counted. We will keep you posted on how that ends up on Tomorrow's now in a related story, Dana, this is interesting. Serbia's strongman leader, Aleksandr Vukic, or Vucik, I'm not sure how to say, Vukic maybe has actually conceded defeat to a student led movement. And this is a seismic political shift in that country. So congrats to Serbia on their election results.
Hopefully we'll be saying the same to us in 10 days. All right.
Netanyahu.
I know, right? It's all happening at once. God willing, man and God is willing and nobody, if that's what you believe, willing. All right. This next one is from Bulwark, one of the most high profile grassroots organizers in the Republican Party purchased a home in Beaver County, Pennsylvania in April of 2024. The former still making stronghold just north of Pittsburgh was a logical place for Scott Pressler to put down roots. His get out the vote efforts have been heavily focused on Pennsylvania, which was destined to be one of the key swing states that cycle. And it seems well Pressler cast his own ballot using that address during the 2024 cycle. So did three other people outside the Pressler family. A review of the voter registration record shows that GOP operatives from states across the country use Pressler's home address to cast ballots in Pennsylvania during the 2024 election. They include a consultant who voted in Florida in both 2020 and April 2025, along with a right wing social media personality from Oklahoma. Pressler has been a leading proponent, of course, of the Republican Party's claim that Democrats have illegally registered voters. Yep. He even has attacked a homeless shelter in Pennsylvania for allegedly having 500 people registered to vote from there, even though it has 100 bed capacity. Imagine being confused by something this obvious. By the way, that the homeless are also allowed to vote. Everyone. That's what Daniel Pearson, a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial writer, tweeted, which is this classic. Now, legal experts say that Pressler's use of his home as base for out of state voters to cast Pennsylvania ballots raises questions about whether he committed the same acts of which he has accused others. And I would bet he has.
It also raises questions about whether he broke the fucking law. And it raises qu. Like, bro. Yeah, see, have you seen Scott Presser? He's a long haired dude that hangs out with Trump and Junior and Barron and all those guys and goes door to door, ballot harvesting, which is legal. It's illegal. It's legal there in Pennsylvania to collect people's ballots to make sure they vote. But that he actually committed. We found some voter fraud, everybody. We found voter fraud. It's Scott Pressler in Pennsylvania.
Yes, we did.
Every single time we find voter fraud turns out to be Republicans. Very weird.
Imagine that.
M. Who could have seen it coming?
Me.
All right, everybody, I've got an interview with Gillian, Brickell from the American Prospect after this. About an ICE agent lying to a judge's face in a document under penalty of perjury about a man who was supposed to be returned to the United States from Equatorial Guinea. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody. One of the best things I've ever done for myself was upgrading my mattress to Helix. I've had it for several years now, as you know, and it still surprises me how much better my sleep has been since switching over to my Helix midnight. My old mattress left me restless and sore. I'd wake up tired even when I had spent all night in bed. With Helix, though, I fall asleep more easily, I wake up less, and I'm not constantly tossing or turning or trying to get comfortable. Even my Apple watch agrees. All the data shows how much better my nights have become. It tracks all the information I need to prove is real and not something that is just in my head. And Helix helps take the guesswork out of mattress shopping with their two minute Sleep Quiz. It matches you with a mattress based on your personal sleep preferences and they even deliver directly to your door with free shipping across the United States. And if buying a mattress online makes you nervous, the Happy with Helix guarantee includes a 365 night sleep trial with seamless returns and exchanges. And to top it off, Helix is the most awarded mattress brand out there and it has been tested by experts like both Forbes and Wired. Helix has made my nights comfortable again and now I'm getting the sleep I've always wanted and the sleep I deserve. It used to feel impossible, but Helix has really helped me find good sleep again. So head to helixsleep.comdailybeans for 20% off site wide that's helixsleep.com dailybeans for 20% off site wide. This is the fall savings event. Helixsleep.com dailybeans you'll be glad you did. Hey everybody, it is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and before you decide that sounds like its own problem for IT departments, remember this Americans lost over $3.5 billion to scammers last year. It's why you have to take personal cybersecurity seriously. Plenty of scams begin with access and information that ordinary people should have been protecting. Now, our sponsor, JoinDeleteMe.com wants us to share three quick habits with you. First, first, inspect the sender's domain when an unexpected email looks legitimate. Fake domains can get you to click malicious links, download malware from a PDF, or give away password information. Next, ignore spam calls. Answering can actually show scammers your number is active and get it on more lists so block the caller or silence unknown numbers. And third, Google yourself so you know what personal details are out there for anyone to find. So thanks to Delete me for sponsoring today's episode. DeleteMe monitors data broker sites and they remove your information and they keep checking again throughout the year to keep it down off the Internet. Now, as you know, my online presence makes privacy important for me and my business breaches can expose names, addresses, phone numbers, last four digits of Social Security numbers, masked bank account details. And data brokers can scoop all that information up and sell it to the highest bidder. But Delete me helps remove it and keep it off the Internet to reduce the amount left available online for someone else to misuse it it. So take control of your data and keep your private life private. By signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for listeners, you get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.comDailyBeans and use promo code DailyBeans at checkout. Again, the only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com DailyBeans and then enter code DAILY BEANS at checkout one more time. That's JoinDeleteMe.com DailyBeANS code Daily BEANS. Hey everybody, welcome back. We have an extraordinary story. An ICE officer appears to have. Oh, no. Falsely claimed, lied to the court in a sworn court filing that the United States government was unable to return an Arizona man to the United States this week because a US Flight scheduled to arrive in Equatorial guinea to pick him up on Friday had been canceled. But in reality, the flight landed in Equatorial guinea on Friday, remaining for a couple of hours before taking off again without Hamed Soliman. So joining us today is the reporter who broke this story in the American Prospect, Gillian Brickell. Gillian, welcome to the Daily Beans.
Thank you for having me.
I'm so, disturbed, yet not surprised that we yet again have the federal government lying to the court when they are ordered to return people to the United States. Can you tell us a little bit bit about why Ahmed, Solomon was ordered returned to the United States?
Well, the technical reason why he was ordered back into the United States was because when he was loaded onto the plane that that expelled him to Equatorial guinea, he expressed a fear of being expelled there. He was only told he was going to Equatorial guinea on the tarmac as he's being forced onto this aircraft. He asked for a credible fear interview, which is his right, and that was refused to him. So, you know, there's this class action case for all of the third country nationals who have been expelled to countries that they've never been to, called DVD versus dhs. Now that is, arguing based on a couple of very specific statutes, but this case is completely separate from that. And, and they were arguing that he should be returned because his due process rights under the fifth Amendment were denied to him. And the judge who was a Trump appointee, agreed.
Right. So this Trump appointed judge ordered this man returned to the United States.
Yes.
And now we had ICE saying that they did have ah, like a flight that was going around to certain places and that they'd be able to pick them up, but then told the court that it was canceled, as I said in the beginning. And then you found out that the plane went there anyway. It was not canceled. Can you tell us how you learned that the flight landed in Equatorial Guinea?
Yeah, so let me just back up a little bit. The order to return him was made on October 6th and the judge ordered DHS and DOJ to file regular reports with specific information about the progress that they were making, the steps that they were taking to return him. Every one of those filings has been bs, you know, has had limited information, has not answered any of the judge's questions. And they even blew through a couple of deadlines that for when they were supposed to file reports. So the judge had said, fine, you have to give me a report every single day. And it has to come from someone with personal knowledge. And so they, you know, started getting these sort of, slightly more informative but, but still not very good daily reports from an ICE agent. And so I had noticed that since this October 6th order that actually four ICE aircraft had flown right by Equatorial Guinea a total of eight times. And any one of those planes I felt could have been used to retrieve him. You know, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was brought back on an ICE aircraft that had just finished a deportation. And so I had informed the lawyers and the court about this. And while those documents were still fresh in the court, I obtained additional documents saying there's actually about to be another ICE flight that is going to land, that is scheduled to land in Equatorial Guinea. So I immediately told Ahmed's lawyers, I wrote a story, they attached the story to their filings and you know, at the 5pm report that the ICE agent had to file that day, they said to the judge, and I want to get the words exactly right, the judge said, you know, please explain why he can't go on that flight. And the ICE agent in a sworn statement said exactly this. On October 22, 2026, ERO Headquarters, ERO is a division of ICE, advised that the anticipated third country removal mission to Equatorial guinea had been canceled. Therefore, that mission is not available as a means to transport petitioner to the United States and So I think the attorneys were disappointed. It clearly had been canceled just to prevent Ahmed from getting on the plane. but I also felt. And they felt, well, this actually shows their power that ICE is canceling flights to, you know, prevent bringing Ahmed back. And, you know, this isn't gonna fly. Now, the next day, now, I knew that this. The documents I obtained from an anonymous source said that the full flight was supposed to land in Equatorial guinea and expel 25 detainees, then land in Burundi and expel 30 detainees, and then land in the Central African Republic and expel 100 detainees, which would have made it the largest, third country removal to Africa to date.
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're expelling 25 detainees in Equatorial guinea, you've got a seat for Ahmed.
Yeah, I mean, this is a 767, so this is a large aircraft. There's about 300 seats. Yeah. So the next morning, I was working on a story, updating that, you know, apparently the stop had been canceled. And I could see that the plane was going to fly right by Equatorial Guinea. And, like the other planes, I was just expecting to watch it fly right by and estimate how close it was and put that in the story. So I was sort of keeping track of it, and then all of a sudden, our mutual friend jj, who is, you know, an amazing ICE flight tracker and, you know, anonymous activist, he. He and I are, you know, texting constantly throughout the day. He texted me, and he said, oh, my God, it's descending into Malabo, which is, you know, the. The city in Equatorial guinea where these planes land. And I, you know, could not believe it. I checked. I saw he was right. I immediately sent this information to the attorneys, and, you know, they had an emergency filing where they asked the judge to make, the plane stay on the ground until their client was put on board. Unfortunately, the judge did not respond before the plane took off again. It took off two and a half hours later, and, yeah, continued on to Burundi and the Central African Republic. Now, the judge eventually did respond pretty angrily and asked ICE again to file a report. And it had to be someone with personal knowledge, because to date, they have not filed a report with someone who is personally working on Ahmed's return, you know, answering specific questions, essentially, why did this plane land in Equatorial Guinea? Why did you say that it was canceled? why wasn't Ahmed put on board? You know, at that point, he was thinking that the plane was still on the ground. So he said, So he was saying why isn't Ahmed being put on board? Board? And, you know, in the daily 5pm Report, this is Friday at 5pm Arizona, time ICE answered, essentially saying, oh, well, we didn't say that the flight was cancelled. We said that the third country removal mission was cancelled and therefore it was not available to pick up Ahmed. And what they claimed then, and what I have. Have confirmed with people with knowledge, is that two equado Guineans were expelled, you know, people who are from Equatorial guinea were deported. But that the third country removal mission that, you know, it's not even fair calling a mission the third country. Nationals who were supposed to also be expelled were not. It's unclear to me if they were taken off the plane when it was still in Alexandria, Louisiana, or if they were just shifted to be expelled to Burundi and the Central African Republic. I don't have an answer to that yet. But essentially we are now waiting. The judge's response to this very obvious. I, would say lie, perjury, at the very least. ICE is trying to be cute, you know, saying, oh, well, we just said that it wasn't available because the third country removal mission had been canceled, not the deportation mission. But it doesn't make a difference. Like, I. I have, you know, records of every single ICE flight that has landed in on the African continent for the entire Trump administration. Many of them had both third country nationals and, you know, quote, unquote, regular deportees on board. They're not separate missions. There's not. They're not separate planes. There's no reason why that landing in Malabo could not have been used to, you know, put Ahmed on board and return him to the United States and comply with the judge's orders. And I'll just say one other thing, is that they also said, in this, in this filing that, you know, well, we're working on getting his documents together as well. And, you know, there's a lot of difficulty with that, you know, because he doesn't have documents from Egypt, where he was from. He's lived in Arizona since he was 4. You know, and this is some, you know, very tricky, diplomacy that is required to get a temporary travel document. However, in, you know, in the original filing or in the original response to this petition I've submitted, that they expelled him to Equatorial guinea with no identification whatsoever, which is something that Ahmed told me himself, on September 6th, when we spoke, he said, I came here as a ghost. I was asking to see my ID the whole flight. Where's my id? You Guys can't expel me without identification, without a travel document. Where is it? Where is it? And they were sort of hemming and hawing and say, yeah, yeah, we'll get it to you. Before eventually admitting that they didn't have one. Now in court they said that the pilots manifest with Ahmed's name on was used as his travel document. So why couldn't the pilot's manifest be used as his travel document to return to the United States?
Exactly. You only need a manifest to take people places, but you have to have extensive documentation from when they were four to return them to the United States. Otherwise it's tricky diplomacy. Now let me clarify something about what the DOJ said after the judge asked them all those questions. Is the DOJ contending, you know, with the difference between the mission and the flight? Are they actually saying that before that 767 took off in the United States, they deplaned everyone that was a third country removal and only put people that like regular deportees on that flight that stopped in the three places?
That's what I understand. You know, the documents that I have say that 25 people were originally scheduled to be expelled. A couple hours later they said the third country removal mission had been canceled. so they did a regular deportation and that was two people, two equate nationals. So yeah, I, I don't know what they did.
Why did they make those two subsequent stops?
Well, those were third country nationals. I know that I don't have numbers yet for Burundi, but I know that, the Central African Republic, third country removal was somewhere between 80 and 95 people, mostly Cubans and I think one Nicaraguan and a couple Venezuelans.
Well, so then the third country removal mission wasn't canceled, just canceled for Equatorial Guinea?
Yes.
Oh my.
Correct. It's all a bunch of hair splitting pedantry that I think is there, that I think they're hoping is going to save them from perjury sanction. but you know, basically we're awaiting a response from the judge. You know, I've asked the lawyers all weekend. I think they were hoping that there would be some kind of weekend response from the judge. There hasn't been. the longer it takes, the more I wonder if the judge is preparing something, you know, beefy. a beefy. Thank you, perfect word. A very, a very robust response. You know, I don't think it's likely that he's going to move straight to contempt. But this is the third or fourth time now that they have Filed one of these reports with a person who does not have personal knowledge. So I mean, they're playing in the judge's face, they're mocking him, you know, and with this whole sort of. Well, we didn't say that the plane wasn't gonna land there. It's just absurd. And I don't think it's gonna fly.
Yeah. And there were two other legs of the mission for third country removals, but just the ones for Equatorial guinea were not. And so it's like a 33%, not third country mission, whatever. Like, oh my God.
Right. It's a totally bunk excuse. And like I said, there have been plenty of ice flights to Africa that have both nationals and third country nationals on board. They're not separate things. And in fact, I know from speaking to flight attendants, who have been on some of these flights in the past, that they don't know any different. They don't know who is a national and who is a third country national. In fact, I have told flight attendants who were on some of these flights heights that man that you're describing to me, the reason that he was freaking out was because he wasn't from Ghana. And they didn't know. They have no idea. They're really discouraged from interacting with the passengers at all. It's mostly geo group guards who interact with them. And so, you know, they are, they are as unaware of whether they're on a regular, deportation or a third country national mission as anyone.
Yeah, mission mission. Well, we'll see how the judge takes their parsing of words. and I look forward to your reporting on it. And speaking of that, tell people where they can follow your reporting on this case and other cases and follow you on social media.
Sure. So all of my reporting on ice flights and third country removals is now at the American Prospect. It's a Progressive Nonprofit Magazine. Prospect.org I also am still maintaining my third country removal tracker@gillianbrochel.com and, the only social media I really use is Blue sky. And I'm GillianBrockell.com that's my handle. I'm on Instagram, but I don't really use it that much.
Samesies. Thank you so much for joining us today and thank you for breaking this, important story. I look forward to following up on this and I hope everybody follows you on social media and American Prospect to get follow ups on not just this case, but all of the removal cases that you are following. I appreciate your time today.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Allison.
All right, everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Then, good news, everyone. Good news. All right, send it all to us. Flood the zone with sunshine, please. All of your listeners submitted good News. It can be big or little. It can be from yesterday or 40 years ago. It can be a fun story you like to tell your friends, maybe some misheard song lyrics or a shout out to a loved one or yourself, or a non profit you want us to know about, or a small business in your area that could use a boost. Or just write in and say hi. Or send in your good trouble ideas. We have a lot of good trouble ideas. Like the new, like that new fraud.gov, form you can go fill out to flood the zone. and, and just, you know, talk about, hey, talk about how we're selling Alaskan oil drilling permits to a, sanctioned Russian oil company. There's some fraud. Whatever you can do. but send it all to us dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. And all you got to do is submit a photo. It can be your pet. Originally it was pay your pod tax. But if you don't have a pet, send any other photo adoptable pets in your area. We can see if we can find them a home, cute random animals from the Internet, something, you're making or creating. Even if it's just a nice sunset or a funny meme. Whatever it is, send it to us dailymeanspod.com click on Contact. First up is your good trouble. Good trouble today comes from Michael. Pronouns. He and him. Hello, gorgeous goons. With just over a week until midterm voting ends, I just want to say it's all gas, no brakes. Message to the if you can do anything at all to help get out the vote, right now is the time. Suggestion. Contact your local indivisible chapter. They will have plenty that you can do, like joining the bridge protection protesters or the bridge brigadiers, just like me and Gidget the democracy dog shown here. There's also postcard writing, phone banking, text banking, door knocking, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I want my country back from these motherfucking fascists. And if you do too, find the website, send the email and come help save democracy. Thanks for all you're doing. AG and dg, you both fucking sparkle. Hell yeah. excellent submission. I've never been told I sparkle before, although people have questioned my commitment to Sparkle Motion, but that's a totally different pop culture Reference. Look at these beautiful pictures. And look at the gorgeous democracy dogs. Gidget.
So sweet.
Oh, I love it. Thank you so very much, Michael.
All right, next up from Anonymous. Hello, mi amigas de frajoles. I'm studying Spanish on Duolingo. Can you tell?
Excellente.
I have good news today. It it's also self shout out. Now that I am menopausal, I can show off with shameless abandon. My husband and I went to a wedding in Norway last summer.
Summer.
Their Norwegian sweaters were really expensive so I told him I'd knit him one. We picked out a pattern and I ordered the wool. After a number of false starts because my gauge wasn't matching the pattern's gauge, I finally got going in January. Well, I just finished it last weekend. I'm so proud of myself that I finished it before the really cold weather has arrived. I had to take the summer off. And who can tolerate knitting wool during the hot and humid east coast summers? Anywho, it's done. I attached a photo of my happy hubby for my pod pet. Text my two boys who decided to tag team flares of, pancreatitis this summer. They have finally both recovered. The photo shows Grissom, who got it first, comforting his brother during his bout of being sick. Love these two old men. My advice to new pet owners, get the insurance. Thanks for all you do. Ag and DG listen to every day. And I'm so excited to get this blue ape done. This sweater is stunning. Well done.
That is magnificent. The patience to get that.
I know.
Cool pattern at the top like that. This is like. This could be like. You know how they design outfits for Olympians from the country, you know, and they have their special outfit like this could be an Olympic sweater.
100%.
This is amazing. Oh, hi kitties. I'm sorry about your pancreatitis, you little babies. They're very cute. All right, next up, from Ann Pronoun. She and her hello lovely ladies. Congratulations on winning two 2026 Signal Awards. Well deserved. I'm a blue dot. Thank you. By the way, Ann. I'm a blue dot in rural red Minnesota. Though the Twin Cities give our state a blue reputation, most of the land mass in the state is ruby red. And I want to ask my fellow blue dots and perhaps some nature loving red folk to vote blue in the Senate race. Between Peace Pete Stauber and Trina Swanson, the Democrat Pete Stauber, the incumbent Republican from Minnesota's 8th congressional district, introduced House Joint Resolution 140 in January 2026 to overturn a 20 year mining moratorium established by the Biden administration in 2023. The original ban protected 225,504 acres of the Superior National Forest from mining and geothermal leasing, safeguarding the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is the bwcaw, from sulfide or copper mining. The resolution passed the House and the Senate was signed into law by Trump in April, officially lifting the moratorium and allowing mining companies to pursue permits for copper nickel mining near the bwcaw. This resolution sets legal precedents that could affect public land and land protections nationwide. I raise this as a reminder to all like minded conservation and nature advocates in Minnesota's 8th congressional district to stand with me to oust Pete Stauber from Congress. If you vote red, we and our land and wildlife will be dead Beans Beauties thank you for keeping me company on my morning walks. News with swearing makes me smile. For my POD pet tariff, I offer photos of my two Halloween babies, both waiting for me in the stars. Nanook the devil is a blank and Nikki the skeleton is a blank.
The devil. Both of them. I can't. Ah, Nanook the devil. that one looks a little harder to me, but is there. There's a Yorkie in there.
I just don't know what it's Maltese maybe because it's got the long white hair.
Yeah, I could see that. Yeah.
And then what about the skeleton that
looks like your bichon frise?
Bijon poo, maybe a bich poo. I don't know what they call them. All right, let's see what we got. A Maltese Yorkie. Look at us. We got it right and straight up. Bichon frise.
You got it.
No poodle needed. These guys are so great. Thank you so much, Ann.
All right, up from Anonymous. No pronouns given. I'm the spouse of an immigrant in Florida. It's been a long two years. I've been trying to find ways to encourage people to vote because I know how many who think their boats don't matter. I work a lot because my whole life could be ripped apart in minutes. So I post on social media and it's sad to see how little engagement my posts get from people I love so much. I found myself getting really sad tonight, but through tears, I look straight at this magnet on the refrigerator that says what's meant to be will always find a way and I just really needed to share. There are such hard days. My husband is so strong and amazing. I couldn't say enough. Good Things about him. We are so blessed. I would love to say more about myself, but I have to be careful. I hope one day I can tell our story. It's a beautiful story. Anyway, attaches my Tara photo of our refrigerator magnets that helps me push through another day with lots of love and hope for a brilliant future. Tell the people you love to vote for the people they love. Unless they're somehow friends with billionaires. Bezos. And that's Bezos meaning kisses, not bezos.
Like bezos.
Yeah.
Oh, look at this. Look at this fridge. There it is. What is meant to be will always find a way. I always think of that. I learned it from Ted Lasso. in the end, everything will be okay. And if everything's not okay, it's not the end.
Yeah, I love that too.
All right. Thank you so much for that Janelle pronoun. She and her hello, beans, queens and teams. A most vociferous congrats on your signal. Awards. Thank you. Thank you. Just a couple slices of good news. A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege and honor of meeting my badass congresswoman Madeline Dean at the, at the Berks Dems fall dinner. What an amazing human being. I also got to meet Chrissy Houlihan from Pennsylvania 6 and the extraordinary Rachel Wallace, who's running against Trump bootlicker Dan Moiser. I'm probably saying that wrong. In the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, women rock. And for the first time since COVID I am not voting in person on election day at my polling place. I requested my ballot last Thursday, received it Monday, and marched my ass to the Dropbox on the first of six days to do so. I was greeted by a very nice sheriff's deputy who made sure I was all squared away. And then away I went to walk the dog. I received confirmation of receipt that very night. Go Dems. As always, thank you for all you do. You're the first human voices I allow in my ears each morning. Well, thank you very much. And Janelle, I've had the honor meeting Madeline Dean. She is a bright light. She's just amazing. So thank you so much.
This is fantastic. All right, from Nicole. No pronouns given. Hello, Beans Queens from northeast Georgia. I work as a cashier at a small grocery store chain. Most of my co workers and regular customers know me for my wild earrings. During early voting, I've been wearing different blue wave earrings every day. It's my quiet way of making a statement to everyone who comes through my line time. I'm doing my part stirring up a little Good trouble. And hopefully giving a subtle reminder to people to get out and vote. I'm sending a picture of my collection of blue wave earrings. They're bigger than they look. And one of my blank. Jadzia. Jadzia. Oh, my God, look at this French bulldog.
Oh my God. That's a Frenchie for sure. And the side saddle. Yeah, the Frenchie side saddle is one of the cutest things you'll ever see
in your whole life. Oh, my God. I know. Look at these. Oh my God, look at these blue wave earrings. These are fantastic.
Oh, wow. They're really, really great. Nicole. Thank you from Northeast Georgia and thanks to everyone for sending in your good news again. Continue to flood the zone with sunshine, please. We need it all. Dailybeanspod.com click on Contact. Head over for some election updates on Beans Talk today. That's our video podcast at the MSW Media Media YouTube channel, also free. And do, you have any final thoughts before we get out of here today, my friend?
Just remember, just try and take some people with you to the polls. Just text a friend and say, hey, what's your voting plan? And if they're like, I didn't really have one. Help them. Help them with a voting plan.
Yeah, I like to text all my friends and make them check in with me periodically and check them all off my list of them telling me that they voted and I'm kind of annoying about it. So, but you know, they know it's for their. It's for our. All our own good.
Exactly.
Thank you all so much for listening. Everybody will be back in your ears tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, take care of your framily, don't vote red or we'll all be dead. Anybody want a peanut? I'm kidding. Vote down ballot all the way. I've been ag. I've been DG and them's m the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Alison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Media Network network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw media.