🚨 Did Donald Trump Nearly Get Hakeem Jeffries Killed?

Peter Rothpletz on the planned assassination of the top House Democrat, Graham Platner's latest crisis, JD Vance's disturbing remarks in Israel, and Cameroon’s presidential election.

💣 On this day in 2018, a pipe bomb was mailed to George Soros’s home, and in the days that followed, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and CNN’s offices in New York received similar packages from a diehard Trump supporter and Fox News fan. But hey – it’s only left-wing political violence that’s the problem, right?

Good morning! Peter here with the most important news you’ll get all day: I have settled on my Halloween costume. I’ll be dressing as “PokémonGo to the polls,” which is to say I’ve bought an Ash Ketchum outfit on Amazon and I’ll be carrying around a reel of “I voted” stickers. I hope all you New Yorkers (and folks in states with off-year gubernatorial elections) feel seen.

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ a pardoned Capitol rioter is charged with threatening to assassinate Hakeem Jefferies, Graham Platner reckons with the fallout from a Nazi tattoo, yet another Trump administration Signal gaffe, and an update regarding our dear friend with the ‘Nazi streak,’ Paul Ingrassia.

Currently, anyone can read ‘First Draft,’ but it won’t always be free. Subscribe today to ensure you always get ‘First Draft’ in your inbox, and if you’re already a subscriber, you can always support our journalism even further with a donation.

‘I Will Kill Him’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a press conference at the Capitol on June 11, 2025. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

On Jan. 6, 2021, a rabid, frothing horde of Pillsbury Dough fascists tore through the halls of Congress seeking to install their orange God King as Commander in Chief by any means necessary.

On Jan. 20, 2025, during the first day of his second presidential term, said orange God King awarded blanket clemency to nearly 1,600 people charged or convicted in connection with the Capitol insurrection.

Yesterday, one of the men Trump freed from accountability was arrested for allegedly plotting to murder the House minority leader.

A story in three parts.

“I will kill him for the future,” 34-year-old Christopher Moynihan stated via text, according to New York court records. “Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” he went on.

“Even if I am hated he must be eliminated.”

Moynihan, you’ll be oh-so gobsmacked to learn, was sentenced to 21 months in prison in February 2023 for his actions on Jan. 6.

Prosecutors asserted Moynihan was one of the very first individuals to enter the Capitol grounds during the insurrection. They presented a recording of him saying, “And we’re f---ing in! “F---, yeah. Every single one of you is a patriot! Remember that. Restore this republic. Down with communism. Down with communism. Down with Biden. We will restore our republic.”

Yes, Joe Biden, the notorious, radical communist who spoke at the funeral of *checks notes* Strom Thurmond.

Mind you, Moynihan is far from the first Jan6er recipient of a Trump pardon to re-engage in criminal activity, as the New York Times pointed out on Tuesday.

Brent Holdridge, a California man who received a 60-day jail sentence for a 1/6 misdemeanor, was rearrested in May for alleged industrial copper thefts.

Zachary Alam, described by a federal judge as “by far the loudest, the most combative and the most violent of the rioters” and sentenced to eight years, was charged in May with breaking into a house near Richmond, Virginia.

Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, was detained in February on assault charges after a scuffle with a protester during a news conference outside the Capitol.

And tragically, Matthew W. Huttle, an Indiana man who served six months for his 1/6 involvement, was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy in January after resisting arrest during a traffic stop.

Donald Trump put all of these people – and many, many more like them – back onto the streets with full knowledge they were deranged, violent cultists.

He didn’t care, just as he didn’t care when many of those same people were hunting his prior vice president.

This alleged attempted assassination of Hakeem Jeffries was effectively facilitated by Donald Trump.

He knew there was a high likelihood of things like this happening when he granted those pardons on his first day in office. “Fuck it. Release ‘em all,” the president told his aides.

If the roles were reversed, if Joe Biden had pardoned a man who went on to be arrested for plotting the assassination of Speaker Mike Johnson, it would lead every Fox News show for weeks on end. Republicans would be screaming incessantly about “left-wing political violence!” – as they are right now.

Yet the story of this Trump supporter, this pardoned insurrectionist, who allegedly planned to “eliminate” the top Democrat in the House, is not leading the news on CNN or MSNBC. And it appeared in the print edition of the New York Times yesterday on… *checks notes*… page A16.

Our legacy media gives Trump a pass. Again.

🗞️ What You Need to Know

• New Trump cash grab: The sitting US president wants the Justice Department to pay him roughly $230 million in compensation because he is still mad about the federal investigations into him, according to the New York Times.

• Russia talks fall through: The White House said Trump has no plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine, despite the president’s suggestion the week prior.

• Arizona AG forces Mike Johnson’s hand: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit against the US House, as Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to swear in Democrat Adelita Grijalva during the government shutdown. She won her seat in a special election nearly a month ago!

• Republican redistricting continues: North Carolina will likely be the next state to gerrymander its district maps in favor of Republicans, with the state house expected to enact the new map as soon as Wednesday.

• First Amendment under assault: One case in Texas could challenge the federal government’s relentless attacks on the First Amendment, after the federal government revoked the DACA status of pro-Palestine activist Jacob “Yaa’kub” Ira Vijandre over his social media posts.

🍨 The Scoop

Trump Officials Flip Out Over the ‘Trainwreck’ Trying to Jail MAGA’s Enemies

Zeteo’s Andrew Perez and Swin Suebsaeng are here with their insider scoop in the aftermath of the latest Signal chat gaffe plaguing the Trump administration.

Some high-ranking officials and advisers to Donald Trump are gleefully watching his hand-picked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, screw up and are predicting her future downfall, four sources tell Zeteo.

Multiple Trump appointees and others close to the president say Halligan is behaving in a way that all but guarantees she is one of the first people subpoenaed when Democrats regain control of Congress or the Department of Justice. “This trainwreck is going to be the most subpoenaed person in not too long,” one Trump-aligned federal law enforcement official says.

Halligan’s enemies within the administration were delighted to see a report in Lawfare on Monday detailing how she had texted a journalist to defend one of her overtly political prosecutions – and then tried to convince the journalist not to publish the text messages.

A Trump adviser notes that Halligan’s apparent attempt to improve her media coverage “doesn’t seem to be going well!”

Womp, womp!

Read the full story here.

🧠 Pop Quiz!

What kind of law did Lindsey Halligan practice before becoming Trump’s personal lawyer and then interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia?

Keep your eyes out for the answer below!

🌏 Anywhere But America

• 🇮🇱🇵🇸 ⚖️ The International Court of Justice is set to issue an advisory opinion later today about Israel’s obligations in ensuring aid gets to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

• 🇫🇷 Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy began his five-year prison sentence for a criminal conspiracy over campaign funding, becoming the first ex-French leader in modern history to be imprisoned. (If only, America!)

• 🇨🇲 Provisional results in Cameroon’s presidential election suggest that 92-year-old President Paul Biya will return to office. This comes amidst protests and uproar surrounding election security from the opposition party after challenger Issa Tchiroma declared victory last week.

• 🇨🇴 Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe was acquitted of bribery and witness tampering charges by an appeals court.

• 🇹🇳 Thousands of Tunisians took to the streets to protest the state-run chemical plant in Gabes, which many say is causing a pollution crisis in the city.

🚨 Don’t Miss It!

Mehdi sits down with acclaimed economist and best-selling author Mariana Mazzucato, who says Elon Musk doesn’t say “thank you enough.”

Keep an eye on your inbox later today for the full conversation – and to find out why!

🍺 PLATNER’S PLASTERED DEFENSE

Maine Democratic Senate Candidate Graham Platner. Photo via Graham for Senate

“I am not a secret Nazi.”

That was how Graham Platner, running in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary, addressed allegations that he may be a crypto-fascist after a video revealed a most curious tattoo on his chest.

The ink, a black skull-and-crossbones, closely resembles the SS Totenkopf, or the Nazi “Death’s Head.”

Platner maintains he got the body art while stationed as a Marine in Croatia. One night, he and several servicemembers, he says, got pissed as all hell, wandered into a tattoo parlor, and picked out the most badass option available.

Late yesterday, he vowed to have the symbol removed.

This story has ignited a civil war among the online left, and it comes at a most inopportune time as Democrats are grappling with where to move the Overton Window, how to appeal to male voters, and whether to embrace economic populism.

My take is, dare I say, nuanced. No, I do not think Platner – who, apparently, is also “antifa”! – is a Nazi. I am willing to accept the notion that he was a dude bein’ a bro and drunkenly picked a tat without recognizing its meaning.

But the fact he’s reportedly known its meaning for some time and didn’t… remove it? Concerning…

For now, Bernie Sanders is standing by him.

---

🧠 Trivia answer: Insurance law

💬 Quote Unquote

“Well, Jared’s the investor here.”

Vice President JD Vance, on a visit to Israel, said the quiet part out loud about Jared Kushner’s real role in the Gaza ceasefire deal.

🤯 WTF

Yesterday’s First Draft introduced you to the charming character of one Paul Ingrassia. You’ll recall, he was Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, who revealed to a group chat of fellow Republicans that he felt the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and said he has “a Nazi streak.”

We have a few updates on that story.

Yesterday, NOTUS reported that Ingrassia’s mother showed up unannounced – four separate times – at the offices of lawmakers who were critical of her son. She just stood there and knocked on their doors.

OK!

Later in the evening, Ingrassia announced he is withdrawing from Thursday’s congressional hearing for the Office of Special Counsel job, following multiple GOP senators expressing concern about his conduct.

Could it be time to say “auf Wiedersehen” to Ingrassia?

‘A Greta Thunberg Blog’?

Mehdi launched the inaugural edition of this ‘First Draft’ newsletter with a wild scoop from Swin, detailing Trump’s quest to get Office of Management and Budget director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought laid.

And surprise, surprise, the folks over at the OMB didn’t like it. In a statement to the Daily Beast, a spokesperson characterized the story as “completely false,” adding that it’s “exactly what you’d expect from a deranged hack who couldn’t even hold a job at Rolling Stone and is now writing for a Greta Thunberg blog.”

LOL.

ICYMI From Zeteo

7 Things to Know About Japan’s New Hard-Right, Thatcher-Loving Prime Minister

'It Makes Me Feel Less Safe As a Jewish Person': Zack Polanski on the UK Government's 'Conflation' of Jews with Israelis

Did Muslim Voters Swing the 2024 Election for Trump?

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