Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: DOJ subpoenas Gallego’s PAC for Disneyland records

DOJ subpoenas Gallego’s PAC for Disneyland records

Oct 03, 2026

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Good Saturday morning. We start today again with a missive lobbed back toward one of Washington’s YOLO senators. Get in touch.

BURN BOOK: The White House is firing back at Thom Tillis over the expletive-ladened private texts the retiring senator sent to Donald Trump earlier this year, which are included in the North Carolina Republican’s upcoming book, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” and were obtained by Playbook. The texts from Tillis show that he told Trump he refused to take his “bullshit” and that he would’ve “immediately told you to fuck yourself” if the president had directly threatened him with a primary challenge.

“Looks like a pussy move to send a text instead of actually saying it to someone’s face. Shows what kind of character he is,” a senior White House official told Playbook’s Megan Messerly.

DRIVING THE DAY

Sen. Ruben Gallego’s leadership PAC has been subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation into the Arizona Democrat’s use of campaign cash to fund a luxurious lifestyle, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by Playbook.

The Justice Department issued a federal grand jury subpoena — the existence of which has not been previously reported — on Aug. 21 to Gallego’s Juntos PAC. It demands that the PAC produce information related to “activities on or about” Sept. 9, 2025, as well as records and statements Gallego submitted to the Senate Ethics Committee related to its probe into allegations of misuse of campaign funds, which the panel dismissed in June.

The subpoena says it relates to an “ongoing criminal investigation” and that the requested records will be turned over to a grand jury. Its deadline was Sept. 4.

In a statement to Playbook, Gallego spokesperson Jacques Petit said the “leadership PAC has complied with and responded to the Trump DOJ subpoena because it has nothing to hide.” Petit did not respond to a question about whether Gallego himself, his family, or any of his staff or campaign agents had also been subpoenaed.

The DOJ launched its probe into Gallego following a “whistleblower complaint” out of Southern California days after Playbook exclusively reported that he had used campaign cash as what one person familiar with the senator’s spending called “his personal slush fund.” That included trips to St. Barts, Miami, Chicago, Disneyland and Disney World with his family, more than $18,000 in reimbursements for child care, and Super Bowl tickets with the disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

Federal Election Commission records show that Juntos PAC made more than 20 disbursements on Sept. 9, 2025, covering charges associated with a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. That includes two charges to Disney's Grand Californian Hotel of $891.87 and $128.73, and more than a dozen charges for meals which range in price from $6.50 to $186.24.

The subpoena came from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, which serves Anaheim. That office is led by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, a fierce ally of President Donald Trump who remains the region’s top federal prosecutor despite federal rulings that he is unlawfully serving without Senate confirmation. Essayli and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California did not respond to requests for comment.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

Gallego’s office confirmed to Playbook that the senator and his family attended a retreat hosted by Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) at Disneyland and Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel Aug. 1-3, 2025, for an annual fundraising retreat, which included 16 Democratic members of Congress and 36 representatives of leading companies. Gallego spoke at the event and urged attendees to donate to Correa and other congressional Democrats, his office said.

A spokesperson for Correa, whose district includes most of Anaheim, told Playbook that the fifth-term congressman “holds an annual event where he invites many Congress members to his district to learn about his community and enjoy what his district has to offer. This event has always provided a local benefit to the community and its economy.”

“Attending a PAC retreat — as 16 members of Congress did for this trip alone — is appropriate and lawful under federal law, and we look forward to swiftly resolving this,” Petit said.

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Lawmakers have broad latitude over how they use leadership PAC money as long as the covered activity has some fundraising function, and Democrats and Republicans frequently attend donor retreats at Disneyland and Disney World. As recently as this past August, Gallego headlined another “Weekend in Disneyland” hosted by Correa at the same hotel — and brought his wife and children, Playbook previously reported. Correa and nine additional Democratic House members were also set to attend that event, according to an invitation obtained by Playbook.

But rarely do lawmakers lean so heavily on their campaign coffers to fund such frequent high-end family trips as Gallego, who criss-crosses the country to luxury resorts with his wife, children and au pair in tow. In a June public statement following reports by POLITICO, The New York Times and The Daily Beast, Gallego suggested he was being targeted for “fundraising as all politicians do, but doing it as the father of children under 10.” Gallego told an audience in June at the Latino Vote Summit in Washington that he “never would have ran for Senate if it wasn’t for me being able to use campaign dollars for child care.”

It is rarer still for the Justice Department to subpoena a U.S. senator — particularly one who is openly considering a 2028 presidential bid.

The Senate Ethics Committee in June said it “did not find evidence” to support allegations of campaign finance violations and inappropriate sexual conduct that were leveled against Gallego by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.). The DOJ launched its federal investigation shortly after, which Gallego’s office has called an example of political targeting “by the most weaponized Department of Justice in history.”

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5 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US

1. COLD HARD CASH: “Democrats Have a Money Problem in the Races That Matter the Most,” by POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin in Fort Lauderdale: “Major Democratic contributors and small-dollar givers are flooding Senate hopefuls with cash, but in some of the most politically crucial states they could lose winnable gubernatorial races because they’re being so dramatically outspent by Republican nominees and their allied groups.”

2. POLL WATCH: One month out from Election Day, Democratic Senate nominees are now leading or tied in five reliably Republican states, according to a new New York Times/Siena poll. Among likely voters, Dems are leading in Texas and Alaska and are statistically tied in Ohio, Iowa and Kansas, the poll found. And voters give Democrats the advantage when it comes to which party they think will do better to improve affordability, per a new AP-NORC poll, which found that 38% of registered voters say the Democrats would be better for costs, compared with 27% who side with Republicans. U.S. adults were about evenly split on the issue in February, before the onset of the Iran war.

3. ROE WOES: “The Fall of Roe Changed Doctors. Now They’re Changing Politics,” by POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein: “Across major urban hospitals and tiny rural clinics, state abortion debates ushered in by Dobbs have spurred previously apolitical health care workers — including doctors, nurses, medical students and residents — to challenge abortion laws in state capitals, in Congress, in court, and in the court of public opinion. While many abortion providers had long been in the political trenches, physicians of all specialties, from rheumatology to oncology, joined them, changing both the medical field and U.S. politics in the process.”

The outsider Democrat making the case for 2028

Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu joins On The Road with Jonathan Martin at Mosca’s Restaurant for a conversation on Trump, Democrats’ future, 2028 speculation and what he says it will take to rebuild trust in American institutions.

Watch the episode now.

4. BIGGER IN TEXAS: Senior GOP officials and Republicans on the Hill are privately concerned that Trump’s political operation, which is flush with cash, won’t step in in time with the money necessary to push GOP Texas AG Ken Paxton across the finish line in a state that’s historically been a shoo-in for the party, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill reports. "A Trump operative told POLITICO that MAGA Inc. and its affiliates are expected to spend near $45 million on direct mail, TV, and digital advertising in Texas through Oct. 12, an increase from its previous $20 million to boost Paxton. But they said the team is still assessing how much more money to send in the final weeks, in consultation with Senate Republicans and their top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund."

5. WAR AND PEACE: “There’s One Middle East War Trump Seems Willing to Avoid,” by POLITICO’s Nahal Toosi: “As the Yemeni militant group pursues a new offensive against U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, Trump has — for now — resisted entering the fray with American airstrikes. He has made clear he isn’t inclined to abandon a ceasefire the U.S. reached with the Houthis after weeks of clashes last year, despite Saudi requests for more help as the Houthis threaten oil and other commerce in the Red Sea.”

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CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 18 funnies

Political cartoon

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GREAT WEEKEND READS AND TOP-EDS:

— Cereese Qusba and Sophia Dasser, two student journalists at The Cornell Daily Sun who published the groundbreaking report detailing the lawsuit alleging a brutal gang rape and drugging at a fraternity, spoke to The Cut’s Andrea González-Ramírez about their work and the stunning editorial the Sun dropped in the days after the initial report.

— Washington’s favorite independent is out with a new NYT opinion piece arguing that Trump is falling into the same trap as former President Joe Biden when it comes to the disconnect between the strength of the economy and voters’ gloomy perception of it. “It cost Mr. Biden and, eventually, Vice President Kamala Harris dearly. President Trump is now making a mistake even more damaging,” writes former Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

— Carl DeMaio, a rare Republican elected official in deep-blue California, is living a version of the GOP future, one in which the MAGA movement is sustained by “bottom-up organizing rather than top-down charisma,” Will McCarthy writes for POLITICO Magazine.

— Sen. Mitch McConnell’s recent health status and the swirl of rumors surrounding his absence bore a group of trackers following every flinch of movement around his D.C. home — “testing the limits of legal behavior,” Adam Pack writes for WSJ Opinion. “So Mr. McConnell and his staff are on mock trial, with ‘intelligence gatherers’ playing prosecutor. Even the scheduler’s midmorning coffee run is subject to discovery,” he added.

— Dario Amodei and Sam Altman have opened up a new frontier with the rapid development of their AI. The Atlantic’s Kevin Roose dives deep into the feud between the two tech titans that led to this moment.

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TALK OF THE TOWN

FOR YOUR RADAR — “The National Guard keeps appearing outside D.C. schools, stoking tensions,” by WaPo’s Angie Orellana Hernandez and colleagues: “Twice in the last few weeks, National Guard members have appeared in places where residents did not expect to see them: congregating outside D.C. public schools around student drop-off times.”

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — As President Donald Trump has cracked down on crime in Washington, D.C’s local court system is dangerously understaffed and short on funds, City Cast DC’s Emma Uber reports. “Unlike other local court systems, the D.C. Superior Court and D.C. Court of Appeals rely on Congress for funding. Since fiscal year 2023, the courts’ budget has remained flat even as civil and domestic case filings have climbed 33% and criminal cases have surged 160%.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy … Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Texas) … LA Mayor Karen Bass … Rev. Al Sharpton … Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng … AP’s Darlene Superville … WaPo’s Maegan Vazquez … POLITICO’s Kimberly Leonard and David Harrison … Ursula Perano … Logan Dobson of Targeted Victory … Backstory Strategies’ J. Toscano … Jake Braun … Jonathan Lamy of Live Nation … Katie Whelan … Sally Painter of Blue Star Strategies … former Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) … Michael Medved … former Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), Dave Obey (D-Wis.) and Charlie Melançon (D-La.) … Eric Reller … Ruben Gonzales of Penchina Partners … Mark Hamrick … Steve Keen of Live Oak Banking … Eric Wolff … NBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian … former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley … Tusk Strategies’ Bradley Tusk and Cristóbal Alex … Freddie Mac’s Darren Sharpe … Sarah Feinberg … Bre Booker Maxwell … N.Y. Post’s Marisa Schultz … Brunswick Group’s Emma Ball

THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):

CBS “Face the Nation”: Energy Secretary Chris Wright … Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) … Brett McGurk … Iowa Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn … Jan Crawford … Anthony Salvanto.

NBC “Meet the Press”: Rahm Emanuel … Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) … Steve Kornacki. Panel: Ashley Etienne, Matt Gorman, Jonathan Martin and Julio Vaqueiro.

FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Attorney General Todd Blanche … Justice Samuel Alito … Jonathan Turley … Tom Dupree. Panel: Karl Rove and Juan Williams.

CNN “State of the Union”: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett … Thomas Giuffra. Panel: Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Jamal Simmons, Scott Jennings and Xochitl Hinojosa.

ABC “This Week”: Lina Khan. Panel: Donna Brazile, Chris Christie, Doug Heye and Michelle Cottle.

MS NOW “The Weekend”: DNC Vice Chair Jane Kleeb … Milwaukee County Executive and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley (D) … Alabama gubernatorial candidate Doug Jones (D) … Don Calloway.

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