Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
A woman who told the FBI that Trump sexually assaulted her when she was as young as thirteen is now living off the grid, afraid of retaliation. Trump pulled in at least $2.2 billion in his first year back, including $1.4 billion from the family crypto business. Mike Johnson’s own party sank a Pentagon spending bill because he stapled Trump’s voter-restriction bill to it. And Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General and candidate for U.S. Senate, was filmed boarding a flight to Iceland with his alleged mistress.
Corporate media is running cover. The FCC chair is making sure they know what happens if they don’t. And independent outlets are being bought out one by one. AlterNet America is the people-powered response to the MAGA billionaire takeover of American media. We are reader-funded, editorially independent, and not for sale. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, please upgrade today.
Now, let’s go.
Trump’s Accuser Living Off-the-Grid in Fear of Retaliation
If you want to disappear in America, just file a report with the FBI.
The woman identified in the federal Epstein files as “Jane Doe 4” is now living off the grid and fears retaliation from the Trump administration, according to one of her relatives. She told the FBI in 2019 that Epstein abused her in the 1980s, and that Trump sexually assaulted her when she was between 13 and 15 years old on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
There is no evidence the FBI ever followed up. One of her attorneys, who sat with her through two interviews, said the agents never called back and never handed over the reports that defense counsel normally receives.
In her final interview, she cut off contact with the bureau. She told agents she believed she was being followed.
The White House called her “a sadly disturbed woman.” A federal judge last week ordered the Justice Department to release her interview notes or explain why it can’t.
There are about 2.5 million unreleased government files on Epstein. Some were labeled “duplicative.” That’s a LOT of duplicates.
Trump Made $2.2 Billion His First Year Back in Office
It turns out the most reliable way to get rich in cryptocurrency is to become the person who regulates cryptocurrency.
Trump reaped at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in the White House, according to his mandatory financial disclosure released Tuesday. That is up from a minimum of $622 million his enterprises pulled in for all of 2024.
About $1.4 billion of it came from the family crypto business. This is a man who once slammed crypto as a haven for “drug dealers and scammers.”
The biggest driver was World Liberty Financial, the firm he built with his three sons. Seventy-five percent of each coin sale was routed to a Trump entity, guaranteeing he made money even if the token cratered. It did crater. He still made about $500 million. His $TRUMP memecoin brought in more than $600 million.
In January, days before his inauguration, an investment firm tied to the government of the U.A.E. bought a 49 percent stake in World Liberty. Soon after, the Emiratis struck a deal with the administration to export valuable AI chips, over the objections of some national security officials.
The White House says there are no conflicts of interest. Trump has noted he is exempt from federal conflict of interest laws, which he brings up a lot for someone with nothing to hide.
The reason you’re reading this here and not somewhere bigger is that bigger comes with strings. No corporate owner is telling us to soften the lede. If that matters to you, upgrade your subscription to paid today.
Mike Johnson Tanked His Own Party’s Defense Bill
It takes a rare talent to get Chip Roy, Thomas Massie, and Lauren Boebert to vote the same way as House Democrats. Mike Johnson has that talent.
The House voted 198–224 on Tuesday to reject the rule on the National Defense Authorization Act, in no small part because Trump’s SAVE America Act was bolted onto the Pentagon budget at the last minute. Fourteen Republicans crossed over.
Tim Burchett, Eric Burlison, Eli Crane, Randy Fine, Andy Harris, Anna Paulina Luna, Max Miller, Chip Roy, Keith Self, Victoria Spartz, Mike Turner, Massie, and Boebert all voted no. Majority Leader Steve Scalise flipped his vote too, but only so Republicans could try again later.
The defense package normally passes with minimal partisan drama. This time it stalled, exposing exactly how little support Trump’s voter-restriction bill actually has, no matter how many times the White House insists it must become law.
The SAVE Act would require every voter to present documentary proof of citizenship — a passport or birth certificate — just to register. It’s built on claims of noncitizen voter fraud that don’t hold up statistically, it has already gummed up funding for Homeland Security for months, and Republicans eventually had to drop it just to end the gridlock.
Johnson says the House will spend another day and a half on it and try to vote again by week’s end. Say what you will about Chip Roy — at least he figured out which voters are less likely to have a passport.
Ken Paxton Flew to Iceland With His Alleged Mistress
Ken Paxton believes in the sanctity of marriage so much he’s trying it with two women at once.
The Texas attorney general was caught on video boarding a flight to Reykjavik with his alleged mistress. He and Christian influencer Tracy Duhon, his purported partner of two years, were spotted Saturday at Dulles Airport. He was later filmed rubbing her shoulder on the airport shuttle.
Paxton is still legally married to State Sen. Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce in July 2025 on “biblical grounds” after reports of the relationship with Duhon surfaced. This is the second infidelity allegation against him to hit headlines in two years.
The Texas Democratic Party spokesperson noted that Iceland is one of Europe’s most expensive vacation destinations, and said Paxton was “putting himself first and America last.”
Paxton is running against Democratic State Rep. James Talarico for Texas’ open Senate seat. A University of Texas poll last week showed them virtually tied.
If Talarico wins in November, he would be the first Democrat to hold statewide office in Texas since 1994. Paxton is doing everything he can to help.
No Billionaire, No Problem
The stories you just read are the kind that get softened, delayed, or quietly killed when a billionaire signs the checks and an FCC chair is dangling licenses. An accuser hiding while her alleged assailant runs the country. An attorney general filmed with his mistress mid-campaign. None of it is comfortable for the people who own most of American media.
We don’t have those people. We have no license to protect and no advertiser to keep happy while independent outlets get bought out one by one. What we have is a readership that pays for this work so it stays honest and stays here.
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Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
House Votes to Force Release of Congressional Sexual Harassment Settlement Records. The House overwhelmingly passed a resolution to force the disclosure of records on confidential sexual harassment settlements involving members of Congress, approving it with 420 votes and a single lawmaker voting present: Nancy Mace. GOP Rep. Thomas Massie forced the vote, arguing that documents already turned over weren’t sufficient and that the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights should clarify whether more records exist. Earlier disclosures revealed taxpayers paid over half a million dollars in confidential congressional sexual harassment settlements dating back decades, and from 1996 to 2018 the office approved 349 awards or settlements.
British Government May Block Paramount’s $110 Billion Warner Bros. Takeover. The U.K. government has indicated it is likely to intervene in Paramount Skydance’s proposed $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, citing concerns about media plurality. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy wrote to both companies on Tuesday to inform them she is “minded to intervene,” worried that Channel 5, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, CNN International, Paramount+, TNT Sports, and HBO Max would all fall under a single owner. The deal has already been cleared by the U.S. Justice Department and regulators in China, Australia, Germany, France, and Saudi Arabia. Nandy gave the parties until July 6 to respond, after which Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority could be asked to investigate.
Pennsylvania Votes to Repeal Big Tech’s $517 Million Data Center Tax Break. Pennsylvania’s House voted 197–5 on June 25, 2026, to repeal a sales tax exemption that was on track to hand Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet roughly half a billion dollars a year by 2030, and the Senate’s parallel bill passed 44–6. The exemption began in 2016 as a capped $5 million refund, but lawmakers uncapped it in 2021, and the cost was projected to balloon from $188.4 million in FY 2026–27 to $517 million annually by decade’s end. Prime sponsor Rep. Greg Vitali argued the break subsidized companies with net incomes above $100 billion and projects that were coming anyway. A December 2025 Emerson College poll found more Pennsylvanians oppose local data centers than support them.
Florida’s 800-Acre Data Center Plan Withdrawn After Backlash. A Florida housing developer called the Deltona Corporation tried to rezone 800 acres of rural Citrus County for a massive data center, and residents responded by forming a group called No Data Center Citrus, printing T-shirts, circulating a petition, and then showing up to a nine-hour planning meeting to make their feelings extremely clear. The planning board recommended denial. Deltona withdrew the proposal days later rather than face the county commission vote, which was shaping up less like a hearing and more like a sentencing. The county had already imposed a one-year moratorium on data centers in May and is now drafting an ordinance to regulate future proposals.
