DL Open Thread: Saturday, April 11, 2026

How Spotlight Delaware Reported Their Story On The Rockford Center.  Highly recommended for those who want to see how journalists operate.  This was a highly-complex and time-consuming story.  And, I might add, an important one.  Only great reporters could have done it justice.  As did Julia Merola and Nick Stonesifer.

Eric Swalwell’s Campaign Melts Down.  I’d pretty much figured he’d be the next Governor of California.  Looks like I was wrong:

Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a Los Angeles Democrat who was the chair of Eric Swalwell’s campaign for the governship of California, resigned from that role on Friday and called on Swalwell to drop out.

“Today I learned shocking information about Eric Swalwell containing the ugliest and most serious accusations imaginable,” Gomez said in a statement responding to the San Francisco Chronicle report that a former staffer had accused Swalwell of sexual assault.

“My involvement in any campaign begins and ends with trust. I cannot in good conscience remain in any role with this campaign, and I am stepping down from it effective immediately,” Gomez wrote. “The congressman should leave the race now so there can be full accountability without doubt, distraction, or delay.”

Here’s a story on one of the allegations.  My take?  When a whole bunch of staff members resign as they have here, there’s more than mere smoke there–especially since there are multiple allegations.

Could This Be Why Melania Tried To Distance Herself From Epstein?  I’m more than happy to amplify this speculation:

One possibility: Melania was trying to get ahead of some news about Amanda Ungaro and Paolo Zampolli. Zampolli, a longtime Trump associate, asked ICE to do him a solid and get Ungaro deported so that he could prevail in a custody battle over their son.

Zampolli has long claimed he introduced Melania to Donald, and Ungaro was still hanging out with Melania as late as the 2017 inauguration. But Zampolli is in the Epstein files a bunch, and once discussed buying a modeling agency with Epstein.

He also met Ungaro thanks to Epstein, after she flew from Paris to New York on his plane in 2002, when she was 17. Later that year, she met Zampolli, who was 32—but hey, he totally did not date her until she was 19, you guys.

But though Zampolli succeeded in getting Ungaro deported to Brazil, she still has her X account. On Wednesday, she posted to Melania that she would “take legal action against you and your pedophile husband.” She also reminded Melania of their long friendship.

“I have known you for 20 years. You knew I was detained in ICE. You were present in my life — every year on my son’s birthday, even sending Secret Service and being the first to congratulate him, back in 2016,” Ungaro wrote.

On Thursday, Ungaro stepped up her posting game, telling Melania, “I will tear down your corrupt system, even if it’s the last thing I do in my life. I will go all the way—I am not afraid. Maybe you should be afraid of what I know… of who you are, and who your husband is.”

So, the math checks out, as Ungaro’s post hit at midnight on Thursday, and Melania’s surprise press conference happened only about 13 hours later. 

Pakistan, Iran and, Yes, The Trump Family Business.   Perhaps you, like I, wondered why Pakistan is acting as the mediator in the Iran War.  This likely contains at least part of the answer:

In January, Zach Witkoff sat down at a table in Islamabad and signed a deal with Pakistan’s finance minister. Witkoff is the young CEO of Donald Trump’s crypto finance firm, World Liberty Financial, and the arrangement he struck that day would allow WLF’s stablecoin to be used for Pakistan’s cross-border transactions.

It was a hugely consequential moment for World Liberty. Despite Trump’s association and the involvement of his sons, this firm hasn’t exactly lit the blockchain world on fire. The value of the company’s token has plummetted from 31 cents to just 8 cents in recent months. World Liberty could use a deal like this—a government vouching for and endorsing the use of its coin. And the deal was being consummated, standing behind Witkoff was General Asim Munir, the top officer in Pakistan’s army.

The presence of a military leader during this financial meeting was odd. But three months later, Munir is connected to another Witkoff family effort: the ongoing negotiations to settle the war in Iran.

Munir has been a frequent visitor to the Trump White House and is a chief architect of Pakistani efforts to mediate an end to the Iran war. That means he’s working with Witkoff’s father, Steve Witkoff, the billionaire New York City real estate developer who Donald Trump appointed to be his Mideast envoy. The elder Witkoff will join Vice President JD Vance and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner at the negotiating table on Saturday, facing off with Iran’s negotiators in talks being brokered by Pakistan.

The Witkoff connection is not a coincidence. It’s another example of how the Trump crew is mixing business—their personal financial business—with US foreign policy.

Pakistan’s relationship with the United States has ebbed and flowed over recent decades, and under the Biden administration, it was at a low. But Pakistan has mounted a huge effort to cozy up to Trump. The country nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize, and the World Liberty Financial deal appears to be part of the overall effort.

It’s not clear if the effort by World Liberty Financial and Saqib to bring Trump’s defi operation into a potentially hugely lucrative relationship with the Pakistani government is the reason for Pakistan’s newly emerged role as Washington’s closest friend in the region, or if it’s the result of the arrangement—or something else entirely. But whatever the case, Trump is mixing his personal financial interests and US national security interests by intertwining his family business with the Pakistani government, while collaborating with Pakistan in this diplomatic initiative. At the negotiating table this weekend, his financial prospects—and those of his envoy’s son—could be difficult to separate from the fate of the Iran war.

Absolute Corruption.

What do you want to talk about?