supporter

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom stepped to the microphone at the state Democratic headquarters in mid-August with the conviction of a man certain he was on the right side of history, bluntly saying California has a moral obligation to thwart President Trump’s attempt to tilt the balance of Congress.

Over the next 2½ months, Newsom became the public face of Proposition 50, a measure designed to help Democrats win control of the U.S. House of Representatives by temporarily redrawing California’s congressional districts.

Newsom took that leap despite tepid support for a gerrymandering measure in early polls.

With Tuesday’s election, the fate of Proposition 50 arrives at a pivotal moment for Newsom, who last week acknowledged publicly that he’s weighing a 2028 presidential run. The outcome will test not only his political instincts but also his ability to deliver on a measure that has national attention fixed squarely on him.

From the outset, Newsom paired his conviction with caution.

“I’m mindful of the hard work ahead,” Newsom said in August, shortly after lawmakers placed Proposition 50 on the ballot.

It was familiar territory for a governor who has built a career on high-stakes political bets. As San Francisco mayor, his decision to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2004 made him a progressive icon. It also drew accusations he’d energized conservative turnout that year in the presidential election that ended with George W. Bush winning a second term.

As the state’s newly elected governor, he suspended the death penalty in 2019 despite voters having twice rejected measures to do so, calling it a costly and biased system that “fails to deliver justice” — a move that drew fury from law enforcement groups and victims’ families. His decision to take on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a 2023 prime-time debate hosted by Sean Hannity on Fox News was intended to showcase his command of policy and political agility, but instead fell flat amid an onslaught of insults.

With Proposition 50, Newsom placed himself at the center of another potentially career-defining gamble before knowing how it would land. Ahead of Tuesday’s special election, polling suggests he may have played his cards right. Six out of 10 likely voters support Proposition 50, according to a survey by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies that was co-sponsored by The Times.

“You know, not everybody would have done it,” veteran Democratic strategist Gale Kaufman said. “He saw the risk and he took it.”

If approved by voters, the ballot measure would redraw California’s congressional maps to favor Democrats beginning with the 2026 midterm elections in hopes of discounting Republican efforts to gerrymander more seats for themselves. California introduced the measure in response to Trump and his political team leaning on Republican-led states to redraw their district lines to help Republicans retain control of the House.

The balance of power in the closely divided House will determine whether Trump can advance his agenda during his final two years in office — or face an emboldened Democratic majority that could move to challenge, or even investigate, his administration.

And while critics of the governor see a power-craving politician chasing headlines and influence, supporters say this is classic Newsom: confident, risk-tolerant and willing to stand alone when he believes he’s right. He faced intense backlash from his political allies when he had conservative personality Charlie Kirk as his inaugural guest on his podcast this year, on which Newsom said he believed it was “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. After Kirk was killed, Newsom regularly brought up that interview as a point of pride, noting the backlash he received from his own party over hosting a Trump ally.

In recent months Newsom struck a deal to stabilize struggling oil refineries, pushed cities to ban homeless encampments and proposed walking back healthcare coverage for undocumented immigrants — a series of moves that have tested his standing with progressives. Supporters say the moves show his pragmatic streak, while critics argue they reflect a shift to the center ahead of a possible presidential run.

“In so many ways, he is not a cautious politician,” said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School. “His brand is big, bold decisions.”

With Proposition 50, Newsom has cast the redistricting counterpunch as a moral imperative, arguing that Democrat-led states must “fight fire with fire,” even if it means pausing a state independent redistricting process largely considered the gold standard. The measure upends a system Californians overwhelmingly endorsed to keep politics out of the map-drawing process.

Levinson said Newsom’s profile has been rising along with the polling numbers for Proposition 50 as he has booked national television shows like ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and appeared in an ad in favor of the ballot measure with former President Obama, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other prominent Democrats that ran during the World Series.

“We are talking about Proposition 50 on a nationwide scale,” Levinson said. “And it’s really hard to talk about Proposition 50 without saying the words ‘Gov. Newsom of California spearheading the effort to pass.’”

California Republicans have called the effort misguided, arguing that the retaliatory response creates a slippery slope that would erode the independent redistricting process California voters have chosen twice at the ballot box.

“When you fight fire with fire, the whole world burns,” said California Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin), whose district is among those that would be overhauled under Proposition 50. “Newsom is trying to claim that Texas did a bad gerrymandering, but what California is doing is a good gerrymander because somehow it’s canceling it out … I just think gerrymandering is wrong. It’s wrong in Texas and it’s wrong in California.”

Kiley said Newsom never has been one to shy away from national attention “and for pursing explicitly partisan goals.”

“He’s certainly used this as an opportunity to do both of those things,” Kiley said.

Out of the gate, the redistricting plan had lackluster support. Then came the flood of ads by proponents peppered with talking points about Trump rigging the election.

Supporters of Proposition 50 took in more than four times the amount that opponents raised in recent weeks, according to campaign finance reports filed with the state by the three main committees campaigning about the measure. Supporters of Proposition 50 raised so much money that Newsom told them “you can stop donating.”

Political analysts said the redistricting fight has given Newsom what every ambitious politician craves: a narrative. It’s allowed him to cast himself as a defender of democracy while reenergizing donors. That message sharpened when Trump administration officials said they’d monitor polling sites in several California counties at the state GOP’s request, prompting Newsom to accuse the Trump administration of “voter intimidation.”

Republican strategist Rob Stutzman said the campaign gave Newsom something he’d struggled to find: “an authentic confrontation” with Trump that resonates beyond California.

“And I think it’s worked well for him nationally,” Stutzman said. “I think it’s been great for him in some ways, regardless of what happens, but if it does lose, it’ll hurt the brand that he can win and there will be a lot of disgruntled donors.”

While Newsom has framed the measure as good for the country, Stutzman said it’s clear that Proposition 50 has been particularly good for the governor.

“He’s used it for his own purposes very, very effectively,” Stutzman said. “If he becomes the [presidential] nominee, you could look back and say this was an important part of him getting there.”

Proposition 50 would shift the state’s congressional district lines to favor Democrats. It is Gov, Gavin Newsom’s response to a similar effort in Texas designed to put more Republicans in Congress. The new district lines would override those created by the state’s nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission.

Supporters include Democratic politicians and party organizations and labor unions. Newsom has said that this is a needed step to counter President Trump and to protect Californians. Republicans oppose the measure, arguing that partisan maps would take the state backward.

Overall fundraising

The Times is tracking contributions to one committee supporting Proposition 50 and two committees opposing the measure. Many committees have contributed to these main committees.

How money has flowed in over time

Since the proposal was announced in August, donations supporting the measure have poured in.

Biggest supporters

The Times is tracking contributions to the main fundraising committee supporting Proposition 50, which is controlled by Newsom. George Soros’ Fund for Policy Reform is the top donor with $10 million. House Majority PAC, the second-largest donor, aims to elect Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives. Labor unions are also major supporters.

The measure has received support from several business executive and philanthropist donors, including Michael Moritz, Gwendolyn Sontheim and Reed Hastings.

Almost 150,000 individuals gave $100 or more. More than $11 million, about 14% of the total raised, came from small-dollar contributors, or those who gave less than $100.

Biggest opposition

The Times is also tracking contributions to two main opposition committees. Most of the money to these groups has come from extremely large contributions from a handful of donors.

Charles Munger, Jr., son of the former Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, contributed more than $32 million to the Hold Politicians Accountable PAC.

Small-dollar contributions have made up $7,500 of the total raised.

The Congressional Leadership Fund has given $5 million to the Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab committee.

San Diego Democrat and former state Senate leader Toni Atkins dropped out of the 2026 California governor’s race Monday, part of a continued reshuffling and contraction of the wide field of candidates vying to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Atkins told supporters in a letter Monday afternoon that during a childhood in rural Virginia, she often felt “too country, too poor, too gay” to fit in. After building a life on the West Coast, where she found acceptance and opportunity, she worked for decades to build on “the promise of California” and extend it to future generations, she said.

“That’s why it’s with such a heavy heart that I’m stepping aside today as a candidate for governor,” Atkins wrote. “Despite the strong support we’ve received and all we’ve achieved, there is simply no viable path forward to victory.”

Atkins began her political career on the San Diego City Council after serving as a women’s clinic administrator. She became the first out LGBTQ+ person to serve as Senate president pro tem, the top position in the California Senate. She was also the speaker of the state Assembly, making her the first legislator since 1871 to hold both leadership posts.

In Sacramento, Atkins was a champion for affordable housing and reproductive rights, including writing the legislation that became Proposition 1 in 2022, codifying abortion rights in the California Constitution after national protections were undone by the U.S. Supreme Court.

With President Trump and his allies “gutting health care, cratering our economy, and stripping away fundamental rights and freedoms,” Atkins told supporters Monday, “we’ve got to make sure California has a Democratic governor leading the fight, and that means uniting as Democrats.”

Under California’s nonpartisan primary system, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. Votes on the left could be fractured among a half-dozen Democratic candidates, creating a more viable path forward for one of the two high-profile Republicans in the race to make it to the November ballot.

Atkins picked up millions of dollars in donations after entering the governor’s race in January 2024, and reported having $4.3 million on hand — more than most candidates — at the end of the first half of the year. More recent reports from major donations suggest her fundraising had lagged behind former Orange County-based U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former state Atty. Gen. and Biden appointee Xavier Becerra.

Although well-known in political circles, Atkins is not a household name. Recent polls, including one conducted by UC Berkeley and co-sponsored by The Times, showed her support in the single digits.

Nine months before the primary, the field of candidates is still in flux, and many voters are undecided.

At the end of July, former Vice President Kamala Harris made the biggest news of the campaign when she said she would not run. Shortly afterward, her political ally Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis abandoned her gubernatorial bid and announced she would run for state treasurer.

Some polling has shown that Porter, who left Congress after losing a bid for a rare open seat in the U.S. Senate, is the candidate to beat.

Last week, lobbyist and former state legislative leader Ian Calderon, 39, launched his campaign for governor, calling it the advent of a “new generation of leadership.”

Calderon, 39, was the first millennial elected to the state Assembly and the youngest-ever majority leader of the state Assembly. He is part of a political dynasty from southeastern Los Angeles County that’s held power in Sacramento for decades.

His family’s name was clouded during his time in Sacramento when two of his uncles served prison time in connection with a bribery scheme, but Calderon was not accused of wrongdoing.

UK police were recorded arresting a Palestine Action supporter for allegedly taking part in a Zoom meeting to plan a protest against the government’s designation of the group as a “terrorist” organisation.

Already the home of Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles is now also the home of South Korea’s Shohei Ohtani.

Like Ohtani, Son Heung-min has been the most popular athlete in his home country by a wide margin for close to a decade. Like Ohtani, Son has a pleasant disposition that has endeared him to people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Son was introduced as the latest addition to LAFC at a news conference on Wednesday at BMO Stadium, and he was everything he was made out to be.

He came across as sincere.

He was warm.

He was funny.

“I’m here to win,” Son said. “I will perform and definitely show you some exciting …

“Are we calling it football or soccer?”

None of this means Son will turn LAFC into the Dodgers overnight, of course. By this point, Major League Soccer and its teams understand that profile players aren’t transformative figures as much as they are building blocks. Son will be the newest, and perhaps most solid, block that will be stacked on the foundation established by the club’s first designated player, the now-retired Carlos Vela.

Outside of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, there might not be a player in the world who could be of a greater value than Son to LAFC, which continues to fight for relevance on multiple fronts. There was a reason the transfer fee paid by LAFC to Tottenham Hotspur of England was the highest in MLS history, a reported $26 million.

“Son’s arrival marks a new chapter, not just for LAFC but for the league and for football in the United States,” general manager John Thorrington said. “He brings not only incredible quality on the field but a magnetic presence off it, someone who inspires millions around the world and now will do so here in Los Angeles.”

The most talented Mexican player of his generation, Vela forged an immediate connection with the community, carving out a place for LAFC in the congested Los Angeles sports market. Son will do the same, as this city is home to a large Korean community.

Supporters of Mexico’s national soccer team also share a fondness of Son because of a late goal he scored against Germany in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup, which enabled El Tri to advance to the round of 16.

More than ethnic background, Vela’s success with LAFC was driven by performance. Son is expected to deliver on that front as well. Son might be 33, but he remains a world-class attacker. He should be one of MLS’ best players from the moment he steps on the field, if not the best after Messi of Inter Miami.

“We can say I’m old, but I still have good physicality, good legs and still I have good quality,” Son said.

South Korean national team Son Heung-min poses for a photo with his new LAFC jersey.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

LAFC has become a model franchise in MLS not just because of how it markets itself. The club makes smart soccer decisions and Son is the latest.

What will distinguish Son from Vela is the opportunity he will present LAFC to build its global brand.

“From the early days of building this club, we’ve dreamt of building a club that would win trophies and make a major positive impact in our community and Los Angeles, but also make a mark on the world stage of global football,” lead managing owner Bennett Rosenthal said.

As much success as it has enjoyed domestically, as much attention as it received for participating in the recent Club World Cup, LAFC doesn’t have as much international name recognition as Inter Miami, which employs Messi; or the Galaxy, for which David Beckham played; or even the New York Cosmos, which made its name by signing Pele in the 1970s.

Son played 10 seasons with Tottenham, and by one estimate, the club had 12 million supporters in South Korea — or about one in four people in the country. Koreans traveled to London to watch Son play for Tottenham, just as many Japanese people travel to watch Ohtani at Dodger Stadium. Korean companies sponsored the Spurs.

The eyes of South Korea have shifted to LAFC. The team scheduled Son’s introductory news conference for 2 p.m. local time — or 6 a.m. in South Korea. An estimated 40 Korean journalists were issued credentials to cover the event.

Son acknowledged that as he prepared for life after Tottenham, LAFC was “not my first choice.” A conversation with Thorrington after the season changed his mind.

“He showed me the destination where I should be,” Son said.

Son attended LAFC’s Leagues Cup victory over Tigres of Mexico on Tuesday night and received a loud ovation when he was shown on the video scoreboard.

“It was just insane,” he said. “I just wanted to run into the pitch.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass presents new LAFC star Son Heung-min with a certificate of recognition during an introductory news conference on Wednesday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Son will be reunited with goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, his former teammate at Tottenham.

“He’s back to [being] my captain,” Son said. “So I have to say something good about him because otherwise in the locker room, he’s just going to kill me.”

Son laughed.

His personality will play in Los Angeles, just as it did in London. He will make LAFC a known commodity in South Korea, perhaps beyond. He will further enhance a structure that was built by Vela, ensuring the team’s next star will have an even greater platform on which to perform. He won’t be as prominent locally as Ohtani or Luka Doncic, but he doesn’t have to be.

CALVERT CITY, Ky. — Republican Nate Morris had deftly warmed up a crowd of party faithful, gushing about President Donald Trump and recounting his own life’s journey — from hardscrabble childhood to wealthy entrepreneur — when he turned his attention to the man he wants to replace, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

That’s when things got feisty. While bashing Kentucky’s longest-serving senator at a GOP dinner on the eve of Saturday’s Fancy Farm picnic, a tradition-laden stop on the state’s political circuit, Morris was cut off in midsentence by a party activist in the crowd, who noted that McConnell isn’t seeking reelection and pointedly asked Morris: “What are you running on?”

Morris touted his hard line stance on immigration and defended Trump’s tariffs as a boon for American manufacturing. But he didn’t retreat from his harsh critique of McConnell.

“We’ve seen 40 years of doing it the same way,” Morris said. “And, yes, he’s not on the ballot, but his legacy is on the ballot. Do you want 40 more years of that? I don’t think you do.”

McConnell’s blunt-force approach used against him

The pushback from a county GOP chairman revealed the political risks of attacking the 83-year-old McConnell in the twilight of his career. Towering over Kentucky politics for decades, McConnell is regarded as the master strategist behind the GOP’s rise to power in a state long dominated by Democrats. The state Republican headquarters bears McConnell’s name. As the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, McConnell guided Republican policymaking and helped forge a conservative Supreme Court. Back home, his appropriating skills showered Kentucky with federal funding.

Now, his blunt-force style of campaigning — which undercut so many foes — is being used against him.

Morris is running against two other prominent Republicans — U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron — for McConnell’s seat. The outcome will be decided in the spring primary next year. Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.

All three Republican hopefuls lavish praise on Trump — in hopes of landing his endorsement — but also have ties to McConnell, who mentored generations of aspirational Republicans. Cameron and Barr have chided McConnell at times, but it’s been mild compared to Morris’ attacks. Morris interned for McConnell but glosses over that connection.

McConnell pushes back

At events surrounding the Fancy Farm picnic, an event long known for caustic zingers that he has always relished, McConnell showed no sign of backing down.

“Surely this isn’t true, but I’ve heard that one of the candidates running for my office wants to be different,” McConnell told a Republican crowd that included Morris at a pre-picnic breakfast in Mayfield. “Now, I’m wondering how you’d want to be different from the longest-serving Senate leader in American history. I’m wondering how you’d want to be different in supporting President Trump.”

McConnell received multiple standing ovations. Morris stayed seated.

McConnell has consistently voted for Trump’s policies more often than Kentucky’s other Republican senator, Rand Paul, according to a Congressional Quarterly voting analysis. McConnell recently supported Trump’s signature tax and spending measure. Paul opposed it, saying it would drive up debt.

Yet Morris has taken on McConnell, who has famously had an up-and-down relationship with Trump.

McConnell teamed with Trump to put conservatives on the federal bench and pass tax cuts during the president’s first term. McConnell also guided the Senate — and Trump — through two impeachment trials that ended in acquittals. But the relationship was severed after McConnell blamed Trump for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters.

McConnell endorsed Trump in 2024, but in a biography by Michael Tackett of The Associated Press, released shortly before the election, McConnell described him as “a despicable human being.”

Running against career politicians

Morris, who started a waste management technology company, says the senator has been insufficiently loyal to Trump and allowed festering issues like immigration and the national debt to grow worse during his years in Senate leadership.

Morris wants to tether his opponents to McConnell while running on anti-establishment themes that his campaign thinks will appeal to legions of Trump supporters in the Bluegrass State.

“Let’s face it, folks, career politicians have run this country off a cliff,” Morris said.

Morris’ rivals sum up the anti-McConnell attacks as an angry, backward-looking message. Cameron called it a diversionary tactic to obscure what he said is Morris’ lack of both a message and credibility as a supporter of Trump’s MAGA movement.

“He can’t talk about his actual record. So he has to choose to pick on an 83-year-old,” Cameron said.

At Fancy Farm, where candidates hurl insults at one another against a backdrop of bingo games and barbecue feasts, Morris took a swipe at McConnell’s health.

“I have a serious question: who here can honestly tell me that it’s a good thing to have a senior citizen who freezes on national television during his press conferences as our U.S. senator?” Morris said. “It seems, to me, maybe just maybe, Mitch’s time to leave the Senate was a long time ago.”

McConnell had his customary front-row seat for much of the event but wasn’t there for Morris’ remarks. He typically leaves before all the speeches are delivered and exited before his would-be successors spoke.

Living by the sword

McConnell complimented Trump in his speech, singling out Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

“He turned Iran’s nuclear program into a pile of rocks,” McConnell, a steadfast advocate for a muscular U.S. foreign policy, said to cheers.

At the GOP dinner the night before in Calvert City, where candidates typically are more politely received, party activist Frank Amaro confronted Morris for his anti-McConnell barrage.

“He keeps bashing Mitch McConnell like he’s running against Mitch McConnell,” Amaro, a county Republican chairman, said afterward. “Overall, he’s helped Kentucky and the United States, especially our Supreme Court, more than any other U.S. senator in this country.”

But Morris’ blistering assessment of McConnell hit the mark with Trump supporter Patrick Marion, who applied the dreaded Republican-in-Name-Only label to McConnell.

“Personally, I think Mitch has been a RINO for way too long,” Marion said later. “I don’t think he was a true MAGA supporter of President Trump.”

Afterward, Morris was in no mood to back off.

“He’s the nastiest politician maybe in the history of this state if not in the history of this country,” Morris said of McConnell. “Look, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”

Schreiner writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Despite the sun bearing down on him and the sweat beading across his face, President Trump still lingered with reporters lined up outside the White House on Friday. He was leaving on a trip to Scotland, where he would visit his golf courses, and he wanted to talk about how his administration just finished “the best six months ever.”

But over and over, the journalists kept asking Trump about the Jeffrey Epstein case and whether he would pardon the disgraced financier’s imprisoned accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“People should really focus on how well the country is doing,” Trump insisted. He shut down another question by saying, “I don’t want to talk about that.”

It was another example of how the Epstein saga — and his administration’s disjointed approach to it — has shadowed Trump when he’s otherwise at the height of his influence. He’s enacted a vast legislative agenda, reached trade deals with key countries and tightened his grip across the federal government. Yet he’s struggled to stamp out the embers of a political crisis that could become a full-on conflagration.

Trump faces pressure from his own supporters

The Republican president’s supporters want the government to release secret files about Epstein, who authorities say killed himself in his New York jail cell six years ago while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. They believe him to be the nexus of a dark web of powerful people who abused underage girls. Administration officials who once stoked conspiracy theories now insist there’s nothing more to disclose, a stance that has stirred skepticism because of Trump’s former friendship with Epstein.

Trump has repeatedly denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago. For a president skilled at manipulating the media and controlling the Republican Party, it has been the most challenging test of his ability to shift the conversation in his second term.

“This is a treadmill to nowhere. How do you get off of it?” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist. “I genuinely don’t know the answer to that.”

Trump has demanded his supporters drop the matter and urged Republicans to block Democratic requests for documents on Capitol Hill. But he has also directed the Justice Department to divulge some additional information in hopes of satisfying his supporters.

A White House official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal strategy, said Trump is trying to stay focused on his agenda while also demonstrating some transparency. After facing countless scandals and investigations, the official said, Trump is on guard against the typical playbook of drip-drip disclosures that have plagued him in the past.

It’s clear Trump sees the Epstein case as a continuation of the “witch hunts” he’s faced over the years, starting with the investigation into Russian interference during his election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton nearly a decade ago. The sprawling inquiry led to convictions against some top advisors but did not substantiate allegations Trump conspired with Moscow.

Trump’s opponents, he wrote on social media on Thursday, “have gone absolutely CRAZY, and are playing another Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax but, this time, under the guise of what we will call the Jeffrey Epstein SCAM.”

During the Russia investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors were a straightforward foil for Trump to rail against. Ty Cobb, the lawyer who served as the White House’s point person, said the president “never felt exposed” because “he thought he had a legitimate gripe.”

The situation is different this time now that the Justice Department has been stocked with loyalists. “The people that he has to get mad at are basically his people as opposed to his inquisitors and adversaries,” Cobb said.

It was Trump’s allies who excavated the Epstein debacle

In fact, Trump’s own officials are the most responsible for bringing the Epstein case back to the forefront.

FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, regularly stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein before assuming their current jobs, floating the idea the government had covered up incriminating and compelling information that needed to be brought to light. “Put on your big-boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are,” Patel said in a 2023 podcast.

Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi played a key role too. She intimated in a Fox News Channel interview in February that an Epstein “client list” was sitting on her desk for review — she would later say she was referring to the Epstein files more generally — and greeted far-right influencers with binders of records from the case that consisted largely of information already in the public domain.

Tensions spiked earlier this month when the FBI and the Justice Department, in an unsigned two-page letter, said that no client list existed, that the evidence was clear Epstein had killed himself and that no additional records from the case would be released to the public. It was a seeming backtrack on the administration’s stated commitment to transparency. Amid a fierce backlash from Trump’s base and influential conservative personalities, Bongino and Bondi squabbled openly in a tense White House meeting.

Since then, the Trump administration has scrambled to appear transparent, including by seeking the unsealing of grand jury transcripts in the case — though it’s hardly clear that courts would grant that request or that those records include any eye-catching details anyway. Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche has taken the unusual step of interviewing the imprisoned Maxwell over the course of two days at a courthouse in Tallahassee, Fla., where her lawyer said she would “always testify truthfully.”

All the while, Trump and his allies have resurfaced the Russia investigation as a rallying cry for a political base that has otherwise been frustrated by the Epstein saga.

Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who just weeks ago appeared on the outs with Trump over comments on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, seemed to return to the president’s good graces this week following the declassification and release of years-old documents she hoped would discredit long-settled conclusions about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The developments allowed Trump to rehash long-standing grievances against President Obama and his Democratic advisors. Trump’s talk of investigations into perceived adversaries from years ago let him, in effect, go back in time to deflect attention from a very current crisis.

“Whether it’s right or wrong,” Trump said, “it’s time to go after people.”

Megerian and Tucker write for the Associated Press.

Benito Flores, who more than five years ago seized a state-owned home in El Sereno to protest against homelessness in Los Angeles, has died.

A 70-year-old retired welder, Flores had been fighting to remain in the home. Last month, he and a group of supporters prevented Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies from evicting him from a small duplex on a narrow street in El Sereno.

As part of the eviction defense, Flores constructed an elaborate tree house 28 feet high in an ash tree in the home’s backyard, where he planned to retreat if police attempted to haul him out.

In the six weeks since the failed eviction attempt, Flores continued to fortify the property, including building additional defenses in a second tree in the backyard. Supporters believe that Flores died after falling out of that tree.

On Friday afternoon, a neighbor found him unresponsive on the ground near the tree with his safety harness broken, said Roberto Flores, who operates a private community center in El Sereno and helped organize the ongoing protests.

“He’s a martyr for human rights, for the decent right of housing for everyone,” said Roberto Flores, who is not related to Benito.

Benito Flores was the final holdout in a protest that captured nationwide interest when it began in March 2020.

Flores and a dozen others occupied empty homes owned by the California Department of Transportation, which the agency acquired by the hundreds a half-century ago for a freeway expansion that never happened.

The activists, who call themselves “Reclaiming Our Homes,” argued that the true crime wasn’t breaking into empty houses, but rather that publicly owned homes were left vacant while tens of thousands of people lived on the streets of Los Angeles.

Backed by a wave of public support, the dozen “Reclaimers” were allowed to stay legally in Caltrans-owned homes for two years through a temporary lease agreement managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. When that expired in late 2022, Flores and many Reclaimers attempted to remain in the properties, saying the alternatives offered by the housing authority were insufficient to keep them permanently housed.

But as eviction threats mounted, some of the protesters began accepting settlements to leave and others were evicted. Flores continued the fight.

He told The Times on the eve of the June eviction attempt that he wanted to make a statement about political leaders failing to provide housing for all who need it. Flores suffered from diabetes and said if he was removed he would have had no other option except to sleep in his van — where he lived for 14 years before the home seizure.

“Who is supposed to give permanent housing to elders, disabled and families with children?” Flores told The Times last month. “It is the city and the state. And they are evicting me.”

About 50 mourners gathered at Flores’ home Friday night for a vigil and ceremony honoring his life and activism. His body, covered with a white sheet, remained in the backyard and supporters placed flowers on it after paying their respects.

The official cause of death remains under investigation. Personnel from the L.A. County Medical Examiner arrived at the property Friday evening to remove the body and begin their examination.

For an entire decade now, Donald Trump has been immune to alienating his supporters — a base so loyal they’d drink bleach if he told them it would own the libs (and some probably did).

Stormy Daniels? A spiritual growth opportunity for evangelicals to witness a modern-day King David. Inciting a Capitol riot? Boosted his Q-rating (not to mention his QAnon rating). Bombing Iran? Sure, a few “America First” types grumbled into their microphones about endless wars before dutifully moving on.

Trump himself bragged he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue, shoot somebody and not lose a single voter. He was right.

But the current wave of intra-MAGA criticism — over the Trump administration’s defensive insistence that Jeffrey Epstein (a) definitely committed suicide, and (b) never had a client list — feels categorically different.

Trump can usually smother an inconvenient news cycle by tossing a fresh carcass on the table, be it a deranged Truth Social post or a threat to jail an enemy.

This time, however, his suggestion that Rosie O’Donnell should have her citizenship revoked barely registered above ambient noise, as the mob kept hammering him over his refusal to release the Epstein files. His latest weapon of mass distraction is a not-so-subtle hint that he might fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. But even that hasn’t managed to shift the spotlight away from Epstein.

Having failed at distraction, Trump reverted to bullying. He scolded the press for dredging up old news (“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?”) He took to Truth Social to tell his MAGA supporters not to “waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein.” He absurdly claimed the Epstein files were a “scam” and a “hoax” made up by Democrats, and described the folks who “bought into this bull—” as “weaklings” and his “PAST supporters.”

These efforts tamed some of the criticism inside the MAGA tent. But for others, it only reinforced the perception of a cover-up.

So why has the Epstein scandal — of all things — threatened civil war on the right? I have some thoughts.

First: It speaks to where the passions of MAGA really lie. For some percentage of Trump supporters, exposing the satanic, blood-drinking pedophile cabal was supposed to be the deliverable — his raison d’être — the payoff.

Instead they got, what, corporate tax cuts?

Second: The Epstein narrative is too lurid and concrete to be handwaved away. Epstein really was a sex trafficker. There really are those photographs of him palling around with Trump. He really was on “suicide watch.” Minutes really are missing from the surveillance video near Epstein’s cell. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi really did say on Fox News in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now.” You don’t need to be in a tin-foil hat to notice the fishiness here.

And third: The incentives have changed for MAGA influencers. Trump finally feels like a lame duck, and the knives are out, not just to inherit the throne, but for the whole spoils system of the MAGA grift.

To be clear, plenty of the usual sycophants have decided to “trust the plan” and go along with the party line. But others — Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nick Fuentes and assorted alt-right B-listers — seem to have caught the scent of blood in the water.

Even the new cohort of MAGA-adjacent bro podcasters — guys like Andrew Schulz — have started to openly criticize him. Schulz recently called Trump’s failure to release the Epstein files “insulting our intelligence,” which, for that demographic, is tantamount to open revolt.

Here, Trump could really face some attrition. Unlike the evangelical core, these manosphere podcasters (and their legions of young male listeners) are not partisans or ideologues; their support for Trump has always been more middle finger than mission. And middle fingers, as everyone eventually learns, can be directed at new targets anytime.

So how does this end?

Eventually, this story will be suppressed or at least professionally ignored. But it won’t be fully memory-holed. It will linger somewhere between subliminal and ubiquitous, in much the same way that George W. Bush never fully escaped the stench of those nonexistent WMDs (even after Republicans agreed to stay the course).

So Trump survives — but he carries with him a dormant virus that could flare up again.

There’s a certain irony here that’s almost too obvious to point out, except that it’s also irresistible: Trump built an entire ecology of paranoia — a system that rewards its most theatrical paranoids. He spent years feeding his ravenous base suspicion and spectacle. And it worked. Until he finally got out-conspiracy-theoried.

Even the best carnival barker runs out of new tricks eventually. And when the crowd starts peeking behind the curtain, the spell is broken, and the jig is up.

Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy Rich Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”

NEW YORK — As his supporters erupt over the Justice Department’s failure to release much-hyped records in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation, President Donald Trump’s strategy has been to downplay the issue.

His problem? That nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.

Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI abruptly walked back the notion that there’s an Epstein client list of elites who participated in the wealthy New York financier’s trafficking of underage girls. Trump quickly defended Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and chided a reporter for daring to ask about the documents.

The online reaction was swift, with followers calling the Republican president “out of touch” and demanding transparency.

On Saturday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to again attempt to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the issue. He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration — “all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”

That did little to mollify Trump’s supporters, who urged him to release the files or risk losing his base. At least one follower responded to Trump’s post by saying it seemed as though the president was just trying to make the issue go away — but assured him it wouldn’t.

The political crisis is especially challenging for Trump because it’s one of his own making. The president has spent years stoking dark theories and embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only savior who can demolish the “deep state.”

Now that he’s running the federal government, the community he helped build is coming back to haunt him. It’s demanding answers he either isn’t able to or does not want to provide.

“The faulty assumption Trump and others make is they can peddle conspiracy theories without any blowback,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University. “The Epstein case is a neat encapsulation that it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle.”

A problem that’s not going away

Last week’s two-page statement from the Justice Department and the FBI saying they had concluded that Epstein did not possess a client list roiled Trump’s supporters, who pointed to past statements from several administration officials that the list ought to be revealed.

Bondi had suggested in February that such a document was sitting on her desk waiting for review, though last week she said she had been referring generally to the Epstein case file and not a specific client list.

Conservative influencers have since demanded to see all the files related to Epstein’s crimes, even as Trump has tried to put the issue to bed.

Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec said at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit on Saturday that he would not rest “until we go full Jan. 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files.”

Trump’s weekend post sought to divert attention by calling on supporters to focus instead on investigating Democrats and arresting criminals rather than “spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein.” His first-term national security advisor, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, pleaded with him to reconsider.

“@realdonaldtrump please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away,” Flynn wrote, adding that failing to address unanswered Epstein questions would make facing other national challenges “much harder.”

Other Trump allies continue to push for answers, among them far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has called for Bondi to resign. She told Politico’s Playbook newsletter on Sunday that a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the handling of the files on Epstein, who was found dead in his federal jail cell in 2019 about a month after he was arrested.

Experts who study conspiracy theories warned that more sunlight does not necessarily make far-fetched narratives disappear.

“For some portion of this set of conspiracy theory believers, no amount of contradictory evidence will ever be enough,” said Josephine Lukito, who studies conspiracy theorists at the University of Texas at Austin.

Trump and his colleagues set their own trap

The president and many figures in his administration — including Bondi, Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel — earned their political capital over the years in part by encouraging disproven conspiracy theories on a range of topics, from elections to vaccines.

Now, they’re tasked with trying to reveal the evidence they’d long insisted was there — a challenge that’s reached across the government.

Last week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin posted on X what seemed like an endorsement of a notorious conspiracy theory that the contrails left by aircraft are releasing chemicals for potentially nefarious reasons. But a second post from Zeldin underscored the fine line the Trump administration is trying to walk by linking to a new page on the EPA website that essentially debunked the theory.

The value of conspiratorial fabrications is that they help people get political power, said Russell Muirhead, who teaches political science at Dartmouth College. He said Trump has exploited that “more ably than anybody probably in American history.”

But the Epstein case brings unique challenges, he said. That’s because it’s rooted in truth: A wealthy and well-connected financier did spend years abusing large numbers of young girls while escaping justice.

As a result, Trump needs to come forward with truth and transparency on the topic, Muirhead said. If he doesn’t, “large segments of his most enthusiastic and devoted supporters are going to lose faith in him.”

A potentially costly distraction

As right-wing outrage over Epstein dominates the political conversation, Democrats and other Trump rivals have been taking advantage.

Several Democratic lawmakers have called for the release of all Epstein files and suggested Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them. Conservatives expressed concerns that Trump’s approach on Epstein could hurt them in the midterms.

“For this to go away, you’re going to lose 10% of the MAGA movement,” right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon said during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Friday.

There’s also the challenge of governing.

Bondi and Bongino had a tense exchange last week at the White House over a story about Epstein, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

And Loomer, who is close to Trump, said Friday she was told that Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning.” Bongino showed up at work Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel issues. The FBI declined to comment.

Patel also took to social media Friday to dismiss what he called “conspiracy theories” that he himself would be leaving the administration.

Dallek, the George Washington University professor, said it’s alarming that the country’s top law enforcement officials are feuding over a conspiracy theory.

“It’s possible at some time voters are going to notice the things they want or expect government to do aren’t being done because the people in charge are either incompetent or off chasing rabbits,” he said. “Who is fulfilling the mission of the FBI to protect the American people?”

Swenson and Riccardi write for the Associated Press. Riccardi reported from Denver. AP writers Eric Tucker, Melissa Goldin and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.

NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani declared victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary Tuesday night after Andrew Cuomo conceded the race in a stunning upset, as the young, progressive upstart who was virtually unknown when the contest began built a substantial lead over the more experienced but scandal-scarred former governor.

Though the race’s ultimate outcome will still be decided by a ranked choice count, Mamdani took a commanding position just hours after the polls closed.

With victory all but assured, Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who ran an energetic campaign centered on the cost of living, told supporters, “I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.”

“I will be the mayor for every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for Governor Cuomo, or felt too disillusioned by a long-broken political system to vote at all,” he said. “I will work to be a mayor you will be proud to call your own.”

Cuomo, who had been the front-runner throughout a race that was his comeback bid from a sexual harassment scandal, conceded the election, telling a crowd that he had called Mamdani to congratulate him.

“Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won,” Cuomo told supporters.

Cuomo trailed Mamdani by a significant margin in the first choice ballots and faced an exceedingly difficult pathway to catching up when ballots are redistributed in New York City’s ranked choice voting process.

Mamdani, a member of the state Assembly since 2021, would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor if elected. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams skipped the primary. He’s running as an independent in the general election. Cuomo also has the option of running in the general election.

“We are going to take a look and make some decisions,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo and Mamdani were a study in political contrasts and could have played stand-ins for the larger Democratic Party’s ideological divide, with one candidate a fresh-faced progressive and the other an older moderate.

Cuomo characterized the city as a threatening, out-of-control place desperate for an experienced leader who could restore order. He brought the power of a political dynasty to the race, securing an impressive array of endorsements from important local leaders and labor groups, all while political action committees created to support his campaign pulled in staggering sums of cash.

Mamdani, meanwhile, offered an optimistic message that life in the city could improve under his agenda, which was laser-focused on the idea that a mayor has the power to do things that lower the cost of living. The party’s progressive wing coalesced behind him and he secured endorsements from two of the country’s foremost progressives, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Unofficial results from the New York City’s Board of Elections showed that Mamdani was ranked on more ballots than Cuomo. Mamdani was listed as the second choice by tens of thousands of more voters than Cuomo. And the number of votes that will factor into ranked choice voting is sure to shrink. More than 200,000 voters only listed a first choice, the Board of Elections results show, meaning that Mamdani’s performance in the first round may ultimately be enough to clear the 50% threshold.

The race’s ultimate outcome could say something about what kind of leader Democrats are looking for during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The primary winner will go on to face incumbent Adams, a Democrat who decided to run as an independent amid a public uproar over his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent abandonment of the case by Trump’s Justice Department. Republican Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, will be on the ballot in the fall’s general election.

The rest of the pack has struggled to gain recognition in a race where nearly every candidate has cast themselves as the person best positioned to challenge Trump’s agenda.

Comptroller Brad Lander, a liberal city government stalwart, made a splash last week when he was arrested after linking arms with a man federal agents were trying to detain at an immigration court in Manhattan. In the final weeks of the race, Lander and Mamdani cross endorsed one another in an attempt to boost their collective support and damage Cuomo’s bid under the ranked choice voting system.

Among the other candidates are City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, hedge fund executive Whitney Tilson and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Mamdani’s grassroots run has been hard not to notice.

His army of young canvassers relentlessly knocked on doors throughout the city seeking support. Posters of his grinning mug were up on shop windows. You couldn’t get on social media without seeing one of his well-produced videos pitching his vision — free buses, free child care, new apartments, a higher minimum wage and more, paid for by new taxes on rich people.

That youthful energy was apparent Tuesday evening, as both cautiously optimistic canvassers and ecstatic supporters lined the streets of Central Brooklyn on a sizzling hot summer day, creating a party-like atmosphere that spread from poll sites into the surrounding neighborhoods.

Outside his family’s Caribbean apothecary, Amani Kojo, a 23-year-old first-time voter, passed out iced tea to Mamdani canvassers, encouraging them to stay hydrated.

“It’s 100 degrees outside and it’s a vibe. New York City feels alive again,” Kojo said, raising a pile of Mamdani pamphlets. “It feels very electric seeing all the people around, the flyers, all the posts on my Instagram all day.”

Cuomo and some other Democrats have cast Mamdani as unqualified. They say he doesn’t have the management chops to wrangle the city’s sprawling bureaucracy or handle crises. Critics have also taken aim at Mamdani’s support for Palestinian human rights.

In response, Mamdani has slammed Cuomo over his sexual harassment scandal and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cuomo resigned in 2021 after a report commissioned by the state attorney general concluded that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women. He has always maintained that he didn’t intentionally harass the women, saying he had simply fallen behind what was considered appropriate workplace conduct.

Izaguirre writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.

Before the sun rose Tuesday, Benito Flores fortified the front door of his one-bedroom duplex on a narrow street in El Sereno.

Flores, a 70-year-old retired welder, had illegally seized a home five years ago after its owner, the California Department of Transportation, had left it vacant. He’d been allowed to stay for a few months, then was directed to this nearby home owned by the agency, but now it was time to go.

Later in the morning, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were scheduled to lock him out.

Flores clearly had other plans. Over months, he’d sawed wooden two-by-fours to use as a brace between the front door and an interior wall to make it harder to breach. He bolted shut the metal screen door. Once Flores was satisfied he’d secured the entrance Tuesday, he retreated to a wooden structure he built 28 feet high in an ash tree in the backyard.

If the police wanted him to leave, they’d have to come get him in his tree house.

“I plan to resist as long as I can,” Flores said.

The homemade structure, 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide, represents the last stand for Flores and a larger protest that captured national attention in March 2020. Flores and a dozen others occupied empty homes owned by Caltrans, acquired by the hundreds a half-century ago for a freeway expansion that never happened. They said they wanted to call attention to the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.

The issue, Flores said, remains no less urgent today. Political leaders, he argued, have failed to provide housing for all who need it.

“They don’t care about the people,” Flores said. “Who is supposed to give permanent housing to elders, disabled and families with children? It is the city and the state. And they are evicting me.”

For the public agencies involved, the resistance represents an intransigence that belies the assistance and leniency they’ve offered to Flores and fellow protesters who call their group “Reclaiming Our Homes.” The state allowed group members, or Reclaimers, to remain legally and paying rents far below market rates for two years. Since then, the agencies have continued to offer referrals for permanent housing and financial settlements of up to $20,000 if group members left voluntarily.

Evictions, they’ve said, were a last resort and required by law.

“We don’t have any authority to operate outside of that,” said Tina Booth, director of asset management for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, which is operating the housing program on Caltrans’ behalf.

Four Reclaimers, including Flores, remain in the homes.

Two have accepted settlements and are expected to leave within weeks. The final Reclaimer also has a court-ordered eviction against him, but plans to leave without incident.

Caltrans wants to sell Flores’ home and the other empty houses in El Sereno to public or nonprofit housing providers, which would make them available to low-income residents for rent or purchase.

Flores said evicting him makes no sense because the property is intended to be used as affordable housing that he qualifies for. Flores, who suffers from diabetes, collects about $1,200 a month in Social Security and supplemental payments. If he’s removed, Flores said, he has no other option except to sleep in his van — where he lived for 14 years before the home seizure.

“We are going to live on the streets for the rest of our lives,” Flores said of he and others evicted in the protest group in an open letter he sent to Sheriff Robert Luna last week.

Flores received advance notice of the lockout. His supporters began arriving at 6 a.m. Tuesday to fill the normally sleepy block. Flores already was up in the tree.

Within 90 minutes, more than two dozen people had arrived. They stationed lookouts on the corners. Some went inside Flores’ house through a side door to provide another layer of defense.

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1. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies speak over a fence to Benito Flores on Shelley Street in El Sereno, CA on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. 2. Benito Flores speaks with the media on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 saying that the sheriff’s department that will serve him with eviction lack compassion and that him living on the street will mean facing death.

Gina Viola, an activist and former mayoral candidate, rallied the crowd on the sidewalk. It was “despicable,” she said, to leave homes empty when so many were in need. She said those in power needed to act, just as Flores and the Reclaimers have, to provide permanent housing immediately.

“This is part of a reckoning that is long overdue,” Viola said.

She pointed to the tree house, praising Flores.

“He’s a 70-year-old elder who has climbed … into the sky to make this point to the world: ‘This is my home and I won’t leave it.’”

The structure has been visible from the street for weeks. Flores had attached a sign to the front with a message calling for a citywide rent strike.

The tree house is elaborate. Flores used galvanized steel braces to attach a series of ladders to the ash tree’s trunk. Where the trunk narrowed higher in the tree, Flores bolted spikes into the bark to make the final few steps into the structure.

Inside the tree house and hanging on nearby branches were blankets, warm clothing, food, water and his medication. To keep things clean, there’s a wooden broom he can sweep out leaves and other detritus. Flores expected to charge his phone via an extension cord connected to electricity in the garage. He bolted a chair to the bottom of the tree house and has a safety belt to catch him should he fall.

Deputies had not yet arrived by 9 a.m. Flores descended, wearing a harness, to speak with members of the news media from his driveway. He spoke from behind a locked fence.

Flores rejected the assertion that the Housing Authority has provided him with another place to live. He said the agency’s offers of assistance, such as Section 8 vouchers, aren’t guarantees. He cited the struggles that voucher holders face when finding landlords to accept the subsidies.

“They offered me potential permanent housing,” Flores said of the Housing Authority.

Jenny Scanlin, the agency’s chief strategic development officer, said that Flores was offered more than two dozen referrals to other homes, but that he rejected them. Some involved waiting lists and vouchers, but others had occupancy immediately available, she said.

“We absolutely believe he would have had an alternative place to live — permanent affordable housing” — had Flores accepted the assistance, Scanlin said.

Joseph De La O, 62, seized a Caltrans-owned home in 2020. He accepted a settlement from HACLA and has since returned to homelessness. He came to Flores’ home to help protest the eviction.”

As Flores held court in the driveway, he rolled up a pant leg to show a sore from his diabetes and said that on the streets he’d have nowhere to refrigerate his insulin.

While Flores spoke, supporters were on edge. Representatives of the property management company milled a block away holding drills.

Around 9:45, two sheriff’s cruisers parked a block away. Three deputies got out and met the property managers, then walked to Flores’ home.

Flores’ supporters met them at the driveway. The deputies said they wanted to talk to Flores and brushed past to the locked gate. Flores told them to ask themselves why they needed to evict a senior citizen. The deputies responded that they had offered assistance from adult protective services and were following orders from the court.

A deputy handed Flores a pamphlet describing housing resources the county offered, including information about calling 211. Flores held up the paper above his head to show everyone. The crowd started booing and yelling “Shame.”

An officer then tried to reason with Flores in Spanish. But it was clear things were going nowhere.

“Suerte,” the officer said to Flores. “Good luck.”

Then they left.

The Sheriff’s Department could not immediately be reached for comment, and a Caltrans spokesperson referred comment to the Housing Authority. Scanlin said she expected the lockout process would continue per the court’s order.

Flores and his supporters believe sheriff’s deputies could return at any time. Some are planning to camp out at his house overnight.