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TDFP News Roundup – 10/27/26

Writer: Yossi Schmidt
Yossi Schmidt
21 hours ago
7 min read

Today’s 20 stories from The Digital Free Press, led by a TDFP exclusive on Turkey’s CHP registering a new U.S. office as a foreign agent, an FBI raid on a Beverly Hills mansion in the Eric Swalwell investigation, the Justice Department’s demand that Washington state set aside more than 400 ballots, and today’s federal hearing on 20,000 California mail ballots.



Part 1: Top 10 Stories


1. TDFP Exclusive: Turkey’s CHP, now led by court-reinstated Kilicdaroglu, registers a new U.S. office as a foreign agent

A newly formed Washington company, CHP USA Representative Office LLC, registered with the Justice Department on Oct. 20 as a foreign agent of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act filings reviewed by The Digital Free Press. The filing says the office plans grassroots outreach among Turkish citizens in the United States, including political outreach during Turkish elections, and has received no money from the party. The CHP contact it names is the deputy chair for overseas organization under Kemal Kilicdaroglu, whom a Turkish court reinstated as leader in May before the party split.


2. FBI raids Beverly Hills mansion in Eric Swalwell investigation

The FBI on Tuesday morning raided a Beverly Hills mansion as part of the investigation into former Rep. Eric Swalwell, the New York Post reported. The raid is believed to have targeted the home of billionaire Stephen Cloobeck, a former Swalwell backer, and a senior law enforcement official told the Post it was connected to a sex worker. Swalwell, who faces multiple sexual misconduct allegations, has denied wrongdoing; he left the California governor’s race and resigned from Congress after the allegations surfaced.


3. DOJ asks Washington state to set aside ballots from 400-plus alleged noncitizen registrants

The Trump administration on Monday asked Washington state to set aside any ballots from more than 400 people it alleges registered to vote without U.S. citizenship, the Associated Press reported, less than two weeks after a similar demand in California. In a letter to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the Justice Department said it had identified 1,500 votes cast by those people in prior elections. Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd called the 405 voters identified so far “the tip of the iceberg.”


4. Federal judge hears DOJ bid today to set aside mail ballots of 20,000 Californians it calls ‘likely noncitizens’

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in Los Angeles hears arguments Tuesday at 1 p.m. Pacific on the Justice Department’s request to temporarily set aside the vote-by-mail ballots of more than 20,000 Californians that federal agencies flagged as “likely noncitizens,” The Digital Free Press reported. California says the label rests on unreliable data. Carter wrote that the court “will rule promptly” after the argument, one week before Election Day.


5. Melania Trump-brokered ceasefire takes effect in Russian-occupied Oleshky

A ceasefire that first lady Melania Trump brokered in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky took effect early Tuesday, according to Moscow and Kyiv, the Washington Examiner reported. She said last week that the pause would let humanitarian aid in and create a safe passage for trapped civilians to leave on Friday. The small town near Crimea sits on the front line, and some starving residents have resorted to eating weeds, the Examiner reported.


6. DHS suspends visa-free travel for Chinese nationals to the Northern Mariana Islands

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is suspending a Biden-era program that let prescreened Chinese nationals visit the Northern Mariana Islands for up to 14 days without a visa, Fox News reported. A DHS notice cited concerns that the program could facilitate birth tourism, espionage and illegal onward travel to nearby Guam. More than 3,000 Chinese nationals used the program in fiscal 2025, according to DHS.

Source: Fox News


7. Houthis claim drone strikes on Saudi oil pumping stations and a missile at Riyadh’s airport

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Monday claimed drone attacks on pumping stations along Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline and a ballistic missile attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Breitbart News reported. The airport had just resumed limited operations after an earlier Houthi missile attack. There was no immediate confirmation of damage from Saudi oil company Aramco, the report said.


8. Judge extends block on Trump’s East Potomac golf course overhaul; Trump vows to fight

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes on Monday barred the administration from removing or harming more trees at Washington’s East Potomac Golf Links and required 10 days’ notice before any “irreparable modification,” the New York Post reported. In a 70-page ruling, Reyes wrote that the case forces the court to reconcile Trump’s assertions with sworn testimony from government employees. Trump called the notice requirement an “unconstitutional request” and vowed to challenge the ruling.


9. Ex-FBI officials charged in Hunter Biden laptop case due in court

Two former FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about their roles in investigations involving Hunter Biden, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, are due in court Tuesday in Washington, the Associated Press reported. The case accuses them of falsely playing down what they knew about the laptop the Justice Department says Hunter Biden abandoned at a repair shop in 2019. Their lawyers call the case baseless and politically motivated and are expected to challenge it at a preliminary hearing.


10. TDFP Exclusive: Drone maker Draganfly hires former House Armed Services staff director to lobby on Pentagon drone buys

Draganfly, a Canadian-founded drone maker expanding its U.S. defense business, has hired The VM Group to lobby on the “Acquisition of UAS systems at DOW,” according to an Oct. 24 federal lobbying registration reviewed by The Digital Free Press. The firm’s two lobbyists are Christopher Vieson, a former staff director of the House Armed Services Committee, and Phil MacNaughton, who spent 17 years on the committee staff. The filing names no foreign entity with an ownership stake in the client.


Part 2: 10 More Stories, Only on TDFP


11. 13 charged in alleged pipeline of stolen cars to Mexican cartels

Federal prosecutors in West Texas have charged 13 people in an alleged scheme that moved cars and trucks stolen from private owners and rental companies through El Paso into Mexico for cartels’ daily operations, Fox News reported. Investigators recovered 29 vehicles worth an estimated $1.14 million, including armored SUVs and an armored pickup, in the probe dubbed Operation Southbound Takedown, prosecutors said. “These are not isolated property crimes,” said HSI El Paso special agent in charge Ryan G. McRae.

Source: Fox News


12. Armed N.C. Libertarian state Senate nominee live-posts police manhunt before arrest

Cary, North Carolina, police arrested Jonathan D. Miller, the Libertarian nominee for the state’s 16th Senate District, on Monday afternoon after an hours-long manhunt that he narrated on X, The Daily Wire reported. Police said a welfare check after Miller posted a suicidal threat escalated when he grabbed a revolver and fled. “I’ve got six shots and the high ground,” he posted during the pursuit.


13. Trump and Rubio to show off tanker of Venezuelan crude in Texas

President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio plan Tuesday to visit a newly arrived tanker of Venezuelan crude bound for Texas refineries at Port Arthur, according to a congressional aide and two U.S. officials, the Associated Press reported. Trump is also holding campaign rallies in Corpus Christi and Lubbock. The AP said it would be Rubio’s first time on the road with Trump this campaign and that it is highly unusual for the top diplomat to take part in political travel.


14. Neil Young sues Trump campaign for $10 million over rally song

Neil Young has sued President Trump’s campaign committee for $10 million, alleging it played “Rockin’ in the Free World” at a recent rally in Youngstown, Ohio, despite an earlier settlement barring unauthorized use, the Washington Examiner reported. The copyright infringement suit says the campaign used the 1989 song without a license or Young’s permission.


15. Woman in U.S. illegally pleads guilty to faking her ‘kidnapping’ by federal agents

A Mexican national living in South Los Angeles pleaded guilty to staging a fake 2025 kidnapping in which she claimed federal agents had abducted her, federal officials announced Monday, Fox News reported. Prosecutors in the Central District of California said Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderón, 43, fabricated her disappearance to stir media outrage and build a lawsuit against Border Patrol, then hid in Bakersfield.

Source: Fox News


16. Egypt’s parliament authorizes Sisi to send troops to defend Saudi Arabia from the Houthis

Egyptian lawmakers voted Monday to let President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi take “all necessary measures” to defend Saudi Arabia against Yemen’s Houthis, the Daily Caller reported, citing Reuters. At least two-thirds of the chamber backed the measure in a closed session. Riyadh has made no formal request for troops, and Egypt would send forces only at the kingdom’s request, a lawmaker told Reuters.

Source: Daily Caller


17. Unregistered group’s mailers hit GOP incumbents from the right; Republicans call it a Democratic scheme

A new group called the American Forge Coalition has mailed voters in battleground House races accusing Republicans including Reps. Mike Lawler, Brian Fitzpatrick and Derrick Van Orden of not being conservative enough, Fox News Digital reported. A Lawler campaign spokesman called it “a shady Democrat dark money scheme” using a front group not registered with the FEC to suppress GOP turnout.

Source: Fox News


18. Elvis Presley catalog owners sue Anthropic over 274 songs

The owners of Elvis Presley’s music catalog have sued AI company Anthropic, accusing it of using 274 of his songs, including “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Don’t Be Cruel,” to train its Claude AI without permission, Breitbart News reported, citing Billboard. The plaintiffs include a unit of Authentic Brands Group.


19. Outside groups pour late money into Lawler-Conley race in New York’s 17th District

Outside groups on both sides reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in new spending in the final stretch of the race between Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democrat Cait Conley, according to 24-hour FEC reports reviewed by The Digital Free Press. Safety & Affordability PAC reported $912,500 in TV and connected-TV ads opposing Conley and the same amount supporting Lawler, while Care in Action PAC reported a $200,000 phone bank supporting Conley. The election is Nov. 3.


20. Two Britons charged over alleged sabotage attempt at RAF Fairford

Two 24-year-old British nationals from London were charged Tuesday under the U.K.’s National Security Act in connection with an alleged attempted sabotage incident last month at RAF Fairford, the Washington Examiner reported. Mohmed Abdulkarim was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service, and Nouman Essghir was charged with a national security offense, the report said.


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