Today in One Sentence. The Justice Department sued California to stop it from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 voters it claims are “likely noncitizens”; “dozens of letters” with “suspicious substances” were mailed to state election officials and congressional offices; the Trump administration is reportedly investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar as part of an effort to strip her of U.S. citizenship and deport her; private donors committed $333 million to Trump’s White House ballroom, and at least $77 million came from donors who requested anonymity; Trump canceled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream Nidal Hasan’s firing-squad execution at Fort Hood; White House press secretary Katie Zacharia didn’t pass the California bar exam after graduating from law school; and 47% of voters want “substantial change” in how the country is run, with 33% saying they want a “complete and total upheaval.”.

1/ The Justice Department sued California to stop it from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 voters it claims are “likely noncitizens.” The department asked a judge to prevent their ballots from being counted in the Nov. 3 midterms until their citizenship could be verified. After sending Los Angeles County a voter list on a password-protected thumb drive, with the password handwritten on a blue sticky note attached to the letter, the department gave California 48 hours to review the list and set aside those mail ballots. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, however, said his office hadn’t accessed the drive “because doing so would conflict with established data privacy and information security protocols,” adding: “We do not consider the device a secure medium.” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber added that the administration provided no evidence or explanation for how the alleged noncitizens were identified, calling the demands “an emergency of the DOJ’s creation.” (Reuters / CNBC / New York Times / CNN / ABC News / Washington Post / Associated Press / Reuters)

2/ “Dozens of letters” with “suspicious substances” were mailed to state election officials and congressional offices. The FBI, Capitol Police, and Postal Inspection Service are investigating the “suspicious mailings,” which were sent to at least five Democratic Senate offices. Most were intercepted before they were delivered. Tests found no hazardous material in mailings received by Louisiana and Wisconsin. (NBC News / Associated Press / ABC News / CBS News / Wall Street Journal / Politico)

3/ The Trump administration is reportedly investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar as part of an effort to strip her of U.S. citizenship and deport her. Federal agents searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home three weeks before the midterm elections, seizing her cellphone, computers, notebooks, and passport. Investigators issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to Omar’s relatives, as part of an investigation into possible fraud in her family’s immigration paperwork. The investigation is focused in part on whether Omar or her late father changed her age on citizenship paperwork from 18 to 17, which would have allowed her to obtain citizenship automatically through her father rather than apply independently. Omar denied committing immigration fraud and accused Trump of attempting to “target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” (Wall Street Journal / Associated Press / NBC News / CBS News)

4/ Private donors committed $333 million to Trump’s White House ballroom, and at least $77 million came from donors who requested anonymity. Internal fundraising records show that companies and executives with federal contracts under Trump accounted for about half the total. Nvidia and Apple each pledged $25 million. Dish Network co-founder Charles Ergen pledged $25 million after the FCC dropped an investigation into his company, while a Rocket subsidiary pledged $10 million three weeks after federal regulators approved an acquisition. Salesforce pledged $2 million around the time it won an Army contract worth up to $5.6 billion. The list also includes a $2.5 million pledge from the daughter of a banker who Trump later pardoned. Meanwhile, Trump, who said he was helping pay for the project, doesn’t appear on the list. (Washington Post / Variety / The Verge)

5/ Trump canceled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream Nidal Hasan’s firing-squad execution at Fort Hood. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people there in 2009. “I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump said. 80% of Americans opposed Hegseth’s plan to livestream Hasan’s execution by firing squad. (Axios / Reuters / Bloomberg / New York Times / NBC News / Associated Press / Washington Post / ABC News)

6/ White House press secretary Katie Zacharia didn’t pass the California bar exam after graduating from law school. Trump, however, introduced her as an “attorney,” and Zacharia repeatedly called herself a lawyer. When asked which state she passed the bar in, Zacharia answered: “When I moved to China.” She later claimed she couldn’t hear the question over Marine One and had simply assumed Trump was asking where she went after law school. Zacharia, however, did once work as an independent distributor for a fitness multilevel marketing company, which she described as “sort of a pyramid scheme.” (Wall Street Journal / NBC News / The Hill / Wired)

poll/ 47% of voters want “substantial change” in how the country is run, with 33% saying they want a “complete and total upheaval.” (Associated Press)

The 2026 midterms are in 19 days; and the 2028 presidential election is in 754 days.