Closing summary
We are wrapping up our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but will return on Monday. Here are the latest developments:
The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said that she is “deploying DOJ agents to ICE facilities—and wherever ICE comes under siege—to safeguard federal agents, protect federal property, and immediately arrest all individuals engaged in any federal crime.”
Donald Trump posted a lengthy screed on social media in which he demanded that Microsoft fire its head of global affairs, Lisa Monaco. As deputy attorney general, Monaco had overseen criminal investigations of Trump’s effort to stay in office after losing the 2020 election and the Capitol riot on January 6 2021.
Oregon lawmakers rejected Trump’s characterization of Portland as a scene of non-stop anarchy in dire need of federal troops as “a fable”.
The FBI has fired about 20 agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, AP reports.
Asked by CNN to reflect on Trump’s second term so far, Kamala Harris replied: “It’s painful to see. I mean, what’s happening with Comey: Are you fucking kidding me? The United States Department of Justice?”
The US supreme court on Friday extended an order that permits the Trump administration to not spend more than $4bn in congressionally appropriated foreign aid money that it is seeking to cancel.
After the indictment of James Comey, the president told reporters that he hopes “more” political adversaries will be prosecuted.
Oregon lawmakers reject Trump's claims about Portland as 'a fable' intended to justify deploying troops
Both of Oregon’s senators and three of its representatives in Congress rejected Donald Trump’s latest false claims about mass anarchy in the city of Portland as a fiction intended to justify the unnecessary deployment of federal troops as part of an “authoritarian” crackdown.
Speaking at a federal building in downtown Portland after oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facilities in the state, Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator, told reporters: “It’s important to recognize that the president’s argument is a fable, it does not resemble the truth.”
“If he watches a TV show in the morning and he see Portland mentioned, he says it’s a terrible place,” Wyden added.
During an Oval Office event to announce that the administration intends to investigate and disrupt what it claims is “organized political violence” funded by left-wing groups, Trump made several wild claims about Portland, which was a center of protests in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, but life has long since returned to normal and barriers around the federal courthouse and police headquarters downtown have been removed.
The president, however, apparently deceived by conservative outlets hyping video of a handful of protesters gathered outside an Ice facility in an outlying, residential neighborhood, insisted that the city has been in non-stop “anarchy” since 2020, and is barely livable.
“Portland is, I don’t know how anybody lives there, it’s amazing. But it’s anarchy out there,” the president said.
“You go out to Portland and you see what’s happening in Portland, this is like, nobody’s ever seen anything like it, every night, and this has gone on for years, they just burn the place down and you know the shop owners, most of them have left, but the few shops that are open, they just use plywood, just like 3/4 inch plywood, they don’t put store fronts in because they know it’s going to be burned down,” Trump insisted, falsely.
Describing the small number of protesters who have gathered outside an Ice facility that has been illegally used for detentions in a residential southwest neighborhood, Trump claimed, without evidence: “These are professional agitators, these are bad people and they’re paid a lot of money by rich people.”
“But we’re going to get out there and we’re gonna do a pretty big number on those people in Portland that are doing that,” the president said.
“These aren’t your protesters that make the sign in their basement late in the evening because they really believe it,” the president added. “These are professional anarchists and agitators, and they get hired by wealthy people.”
At Friday’s news conference, congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat, said: “This proclaimed ‘war on Antifa’ is completely a fallacy. Antifa is an ideology, it is not a group, and so we’re extremely concerned with what he’s going to try to do with that pronouncement.”
“Donald Trump does not care about safety. If he cared about safety he would not have released 1,600 convicted insurrectionists into the streets. He cares about control and authoritarianism,” she added. “Portland does not need the military. We do not want them, we do not need them, we do not welcome them to come here under his orders.”
At the same news conference, Jeff Merkley, Oregon’s other Democratic senator, pointed out that when they visited the Ice facility this week, there were no protesters present at all. He also disputed the notion “that Trump is trying to make a rational point based on evidence.”
“That is not correct. He is trying to project an image to justify forces that he can roll in to create chaos and then justify further authoritarian actions,” the senator added.
He also drew attention to video evidence from the local newspaper, the Oregonian, which showed that a recent clash between federal agents and a small number of protesters outside the facility had been entirely due to violence by the agents against the protesters, who remained peaceful.
Attorney general says she is deploying federal agents to guard Ice facilities
The attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on Friday that she is “deploying DOJ agents to ICE facilities—and wherever ICE comes under siege—to safeguard federal agents, protect federal property, and immediately arrest all individuals engaged in any federal crime.”
In her statement, posted on social media, Bondi added that she is responding to Donald Trump’s designation of certain forms of protest against immigration enforcement as acts of “terrorism” by instructing the FBI’s “Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country to disrupt and investigate all entities and individuals engaged in acts of domestic terrorism, including the repeated acts of violence and obstruction against federal agents.”
“The Department of Justice,” Bondi said, “will seek the most serious available charges against all participants in these criminal mobs, including conspiracy offenses, assault offenses, civil disorder offenses, and terrorism offenses.”
FBI reportedly fires agents photographed kneeling during 2020 racial justice protest in Washington
The FBI has fired about 20 agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers prompted nationwide protests, three people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.
The bureau had first reassigned the agents last spring but has since fired them, said the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel matters with The Associated Press.
The number of FBI employees fired was not immediately clear, but two people said it was roughly 20.
Jean-Frederic Dufour, the chief executive of Rolex, admitted in a letter to Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, that Donald Trump did bring up tariffs on Swiss imports, but only “in jest”, when he was a guest of the exclusive watchmaker during the US Open tennis final.
Warren had written to the Rolex CEO to ask, given “the President’s record of doling out special treatment to CEOs who are able to woo him with flattery, payoffs, or both”, whether he had invited Trump to watch the match from the Rolex box shortly after high tariffs on goods from Switzerland were announced, “to curry favor with the President in an effort to secure special-interest exemptions for Rolex products”.
“President Trump, never one to miss a rhetorical opportunity, did ask in jest whether he would have been invited had it not been for the tariffs – a moment that brought a round of laughter all around,” Dufour told Warren in a letter sent on Thursday.
“Corruption is not a laughing matter,” Warren said in a statement on Friday. “While families are getting crushed by Trump’s chaotic tariffs, Donald Trump and his rich friends are laughing about tariffs in a fancy box sponsored by a luxury watch brand. How much more out of touch can Trump be?”
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Kamala Harris on Comey indictment: 'Are you fucking kidding me?'
The former vice-president, Kamala Harris, weighed in on the indictment of James Comey in blunt terms on Friday during an interview with CNN.
Asked to reflect on Trump’s second term so far, Harris replied: “It’s painful to see. I mean, what’s happening with Comey: Are you fucking kidding me? The United States Department of Justice?”
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Laura Loomer takes credit for Trump's effort to get Lisa Monaco fired by Microsoft
Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist and social media influencer who serves as an adviser to Donald Trump, has taken credit for the president demanding on Friday that Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco, the former deputy attorney general who coordinated investigations into Trump’s attempt to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
“After I alerted President Trump to the fact that [Microsoft] has hired Lisa Monaco to be their new President of Global Affairs, he has just called on Microsoft to terminate her employment,” Loomer wrote on X.
She then tagged the Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella and asked him: “are you going to comply?”
When Loomer first drew attention to Monaco’s hiring by Microsoft in July, she also noted that Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor she described as a “Jeffrey Epstein associate” is “on the board of Microsoft.”
When Trump was asked on Thursday in the Oval Office to name some of the “wealthy people” he was accusing of hiring “professional agitators” to carry out political violence, he said: “I hear names of some pretty rich people that are radical-left people… I hear about a guy named Reid Hoffman.”
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Pentagon prepares for possible military strikes on drug targets inside Venezuela – report
Days before hundreds of top US military commanders have been ordered to gather at a marine corps base in Virginia next week, Pentagon officials are preparing for possible strikes on suspected drug traffickers inside Venezuela in the coming weeks, NBC News reports, citing unnamed sources.
Critics of Donald Trump have already accused him of seeking to use military strikes against suspected drug traffickers off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks as a distraction from the clamor over his administration’s decision not to release files from the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for more than a decade.
If US strikes escalate to targets inside Venezuela, Democrats could echo the claims made by Republicans in 1998 when Bill Clinton fired dozens of Tomahawk missiles at a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan and a training camp in Afghanistan associated with Osama bin Laden.
Those 20 August 1998 strikes were launched two weeks after al-Qaida had killed 224 people in bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, but also just three days after Clinton had admitted to an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
A chorus of Republicans quickly accused Clinton of trying to create a foreign crisis to distract attention away from the sex scandal, and the accusation was reflected on the banners and signs of Sudanese protesters who marched in Khartoum that weekend holding up a large, handmade sign with an image of Lewinsky emblazoned with the slogan: “No War for Monika.”
At a Pentagon news conference after the strikes aimed at the then relatively unknown bin Laden, one reporter asked Clinton’s defense secretary, William Cohen, about suggestions that the timing of the attack bore “a striking resemblance to Wag the Dog”, the 1997 film about a White House that hires a Hollywood producer to create a fake war to divert the public from a sex scandal involving the president.
“The only motivation driving this action today was our absolute obligation to protect the American people from terrorist activities,” Cohen replied. “That is the sole motivation.”
“I don’t think any president, regardless of party, would ever take military action to distract from personal problems,” Dee Dee Myers, Clinton’s former press secretary, told Jay Leno that week in an appearance on the Tonight Show. “Most of the Congress, most of the American people I think, will say: ‘I don’t believe that our president, regardless of how bad things are, would do that.’”
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Trump backs away from claim that deal to end the war in Gaza is close
Donald Trump appeared to admit on Friday evening that his optimism about a deal to end the war in Gaza, expressed on Friday morning, had been premature.
“I am pleased to report that we are having very inspired and productive discussions with the Middle Eastern Community concerning Gaza,” the president wrote on his personal social media platform, hours after Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the United Nations that Israel’s military was “no done yet.”
“Intense negotiations have been going on for four days, and will continue for as long as necessary,” Trump added.
Hours earlier, as he left the White House to cheer on the American Ryder Cup golf team, Trump told reporters: “It’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza.”
“I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back, it’s going to be a deal that will end the war,” he added. “It’s going to be peace. I think we have a deal.”
By nightfall in Washington however, Trump had retreated to merely claiming that there was “Enthusiasm for getting a Deal done”.
Local TV conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group said their ABC-affiliate stations will start airing Jimmy Kimmy Live! again on Friday night, ending their preempting of the show.
Sinclair and fellow station owner Nexstar had continued to preempt Kimmel’s late-night talkshow even after ABC had put Kimmel back on air.
Together, Sinclair and Nexstar’s preemption of the show left about 25% of TV viewers in the US unable to watch it, with the two companies owning 70 ABC-affiliate stations combined.
Trump urges Microsoft to fire Lisa Monaco, who coordinated investigation of Trump's effort to overturn 2020 election
After a frustrating morning of watching American golfers lose three of the first four Ryder Cup matches to their European rivals, Donald Trump got back to work on Friday, by posting a lengthy screed on social media in which he demanded that Microsoft fire its head of global affairs, Lisa Monaco.
Monaco is the former deputy attorney general who oversaw the justice department’s investigation into Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
In March, Trump signed an executive order rescinding Monaco’s security clearance, along with those of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Liz Cheney and others.
In his social media post, Trump wrote that it was shocking that Monaco, who was Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser before later becoming Merrick Garland’s second in command at the justice department during the Biden administration, had been hired for “a very senior role with access to Highly Sensitive Information”.
“Monaco’s having that kind of access is unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to stand,” the president added. “She is a menace to US National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government.”
“It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco,” Trump concluded.
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Supreme court rules that Trump administration can withhold $4bn in foreign aid
The US supreme court on Friday extended an order that permits the Trump administration to not spend more than $4bn in congressionally appropriated foreign aid money that it is seeking to cancel.
The unsigned order from the court’s conservative majority, over the objections of the court’s three liberals, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, lifted a lower court’s order that the administration was obliged to spend funds appropriated by Congress.
Late last month, Trump informed the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, that he would not spend $4.9bn in foreign aid that Congress had previously approved, decrying it as “woke, weaponized and wasteful spending”. The money was to go to United Nations organizations and peacekeeping operations, as well as development assistance and democracy-promotion projects.
The court’s majority wrote that Trump’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision, while cautioning that it was not making a final ruling in the case.
“The effect is to prevent the funds from reaching their intended recipients — not just now but (because of their impending expiration) for all time,” Kagan wrote in her dissent, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson. “Because that result conflicts with the separation of powers, I respectfully dissent.”
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'It's hard to see how we get blamed for it,' says Democratic congressman on looming shutdown
I’ve just spoken with Glenn Ivey, the Maryland Democratic congressman, who took part in the House Democrats’ virtual caucus meeting today. He noted that lawmakers were “resolute” on the call, but ultimately since both sides are “dug in” he expects a government shutdown next week.
However, Ivey said that he finds it “hard to see” how Democrats get blamed for it.
“What are the Democrats doing that they’re going to see as obstructing?” he said. “It’s holding out for healthcare … We’re trying to keep grandma in the nursing home, keep your monthly payments from tripling in January. I mean, they’re really going to be mad at us for that?”
Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have said, repeatedly, that since Democrats aren’t budging on accepting the GOP’s “clean” continuing resolution, they would be responsible for government shutdown at the end of September.
Currently, the Republican-written bill is languishing in the Senate, and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, has vowed to not call the lower chamber back until after funding lapses in just a few days.
After the office of management and budget sent out a memo this week to federal agencies, telling them to brace for more layoffs in the event of a government shutdown, Ivey (whose district borders Washington DC and includes many federal workers) said that many of his constituents have already felt the impact of reductions in force since Trump returned to the White House.
“[The administration] has done everything they can to get rid of as many federal employees as possible,” Ivey said. “So they’re not, they’re not really seeing how things would be different.”
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New Arizona congresswoman suggests her swearing-in might be delayed because she is key vote to release Epstein files
Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who just won a special election to replace her late father, Raúl Grijalva, in Congress, suggested on Thursday that her swearing-in might be delayed by Republican House leaders because she has promised to sign a discharge petition calling for the release of files on the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for over a decade.
Grijalva told the MeidasTouch Network, a liberal podcast, that she intends to be in Washington on Monday but has been told that she will have to wait for official results to be certified before being sworn in. She noted that this is a departure from procedure, as just a few weeks ago another Democrat, James Walkinshaw, was sworn in the day after his election. Two Republicans who won special elections earlier this year were also sworn in the day after their victories.
“Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m number 218,” Grijalva said, meaning that her signature on the discharge petition would mean that a majority of the House backed the measure to compel the justice department to release all of the Epstein files, against the wishes of the president.
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Senate Democrats say DoJ has been weaponized in letter to Bondi, demand information and interviews with officials
Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee sent a letter to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, today, accusing the justice department of being weaponized by Donald Trump.
They cite recent examples, including Thursday’s indictment of James Comey, and the president’s move to force out Erik Siebert from his role as the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia and replace him with a White House staffer and Trump ally.
“Our justice system operates on the principle that the president cannot demand the prosecution of an individual to settle personal scores, let alone when there is no credible evidence that a person engaged in any wrongdoing,” the lawmakers wrote.
The senators, led by the committee’s ranking member, Dick Durbin, are demanding that the Department of Justice provide documentation into several ongoing investigations, and interviews with several officials, including Ed Martin – a Trump loyalist who is now in charge of the DoJ group investigating the “weaponization” of the justice system.
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Democrats on House oversight committee release new Epstein records, including diaries and flight logs
Democrats on the House oversight committee have released a tranche of partial records from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, which include flight logs, diary appointments and a financial ledger.
In the partially redacted documents, there are several emailed schedules over the years, which include:
A 2019 breakfast with former White House adviser Steve Bannon.
Lunch in 2017 with billionaire and Trump ally Peter Thiel.
A potential visit from Elon Musk to Epstein’s island in 2014.
There is also a flight log from 2000, which lists Prince Andrew as a passenger on Epstein’s private plane.
“It should be clear to every American that Jeffrey Epstein was friends with some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world,” said oversight spokesperson Sara Guerrero. “Every new document produced provides new information as we work to bring justice for the survivors and victims. Oversight Democrats will not stop until we identify everyone complicit in Epstein’s heinous crimes.”
However, the committee’s Republican leadership said the records were “old news”, and that the members in the minority were “conveniently withholding documents that contain the names of Democratic officials”.
“Once again they are putting politics over victims,” Republicans said. “We are releasing them all soon.”
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Nineteen people detained at an immigration detention center that the Trump administration opened within Louisiana’s infamous Angola prison were entering their fifth day on hunger strike on Sunday, according to advocacy groups.
Those striking at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) processing center set up at Angola’s former Camp J are demanding access to medical and mental health care – including prescription medications, according to the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition (SEDND) and the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG).
A statement from both groups says that detainees at the facility the Trump administration has dubbed “the Louisiana Lockup” are also asking for basic necessities such as toilet paper, hygiene products and clean drinking water. Further, they seek visitation from Ice officers to raise concerns about conditions inside the facility.
People with chronic health conditions are not receiving prescribed medications, according to the SEDND and NIPNLG statement, and there is no access to services such as a law library or religious programming, which are required under federal detention standards.
Angola’s official name is the Louisiana state penitentiary. The strike there comes after Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, declared a state emergency in July to address what he said is a lack of capacity to house offenders at the prison.
Sinclair says it will end Jimmy Kimmel Live! suspension
Sinclair – the company which owns more than 35 ABC affiliates– said today that it will “end its preemption of Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and the show will return tonight across its stations.
This comes after several lawmakers criticized Sinclair for deciding to keep the late-night show off the air, despite Disney’s decision to end the suspension earlier this week, following Kimmel’s criticism of the Trump administration in the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting.
In a statement the broadcast conglomerate said:
Over the last week, we have received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives. We have also witnessed troubling acts of violence, including the despicable incident of a shooting at an ABC affiliate station in Sacramento. These events underscore why responsible broadcasting matters and why respectful dialogue between differing voices remains so important.
According to Reuters, Sinclair’s ABC stations represent about 14% of US households. Another ABC station owner, Nextstar Media Group, has kept Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air – after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr put pressure on ABC affiliates to suspend the show or risk losing their broadcast licenses.
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Top House Democrat slams Trump for attending Ryder Cup with looming government shutdown just days away
In a quick press conference today on Capitol Hill, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, scolded the president for his trip to New York today. “Donald Trump, get back to Washington DC. Why are you at a golf event right now and the government is four days away from closing?” the congressman said. “That’s outrageous. And it speaks to the fact that these extremists could care less about the health, safety and economic wellbeing of the American people. They’re on vacation right now.”
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Here's a recap of the day so far
Fewer than 24 hours after the indictment of James Comey, the president said that he hopes “more” political adversaries will be prosecuted. Speaking to reporters before he left DC to attend the Ryder Cup in New York, Trump maintained that the former FBI director’s prosecution was “about justice … not about revenge”. The president kicked off the day with Truth Social posts that called Comey “a dirty cop” and “destroyer of lives”.
Meanwhile, Democrats and legal experts say the indictment is latest sign Trump is turning the justice system into weapon to silence critics, as my colleague Chris Stein reports.
Trump also continued to blame Democrats for a looming government shutdown. A reminder that lawmakers have yet to pass a resolution to keep the government funded beyond 30 September. Today, the president held up his side of the blame game, telling reporters: “These people are crazy, the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down, but they’re the ones that are shutting down.” For their part, House Democrats will meet virtually today for a caucus meeting, as they refuse to back any funding bill without several healthcare provisions.
Democrats on the House judiciary committee are asking its Republican leader to allow victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates to testify about “the institutional failures that enabled these horrific crimes”. The letter, signed by 17 Democrats and led by ranking member Jamie Raskin and congresswoman Deborah Ross, a leader in the Democratic Women’s caucus and longtime champion of sexual violence survivors, comes amid continued pressure for the Trump administration to authorize the release of more files related to the disgraced financier.
Congressman Raskin said that the indictment of James Comey is because the justice department is in “full cover-up mode” over the Epstein files. In an interview with CNN, the Democrat from Maryland called the prosecution an example of the “complete politicization of the Department of Justice”. He added: “We’re in the midst of trying to get this information with apparently real crimes. And we’ve got a strong, bipartisan majority saying, ‘Stop the cover-up of the Epstein files. Just go ahead and release them.’”
An federal immigration officer has been “relieved of his duties” after a video showing him pushing a woman to the floor at an immigration court in New York City spread quickly on social media. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said that the agent’s actions were “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of Ice”. McLaughlin added that the officer is “being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation”.
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An Arizona Republican state representative who has expressed support for January 6 insurrectionists on Wednesday called for a Democratic congresswoman to be executed, as a response to a video clip.
The comment on X by state representative John Gillette of Kingman, Arizona, first reported by the Arizona Mirror, was a reaction to a short clip drawn from a YouTube video in March by US representative Pramila Jayapal, a longtime Democratic congresswoman representing Washington state, titled The Resistance Lab. In the video, Jayapal discusses preparations for street protests against the Trump administration.
“Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged … it will continue,” he posted.
Nothing in either the clip or the longer video actually suggests Jayapal is advocating for the overthrow of the US government. The video carries explicit calls for non-violent protest and discussed with alarm a rise in political violence in the US.
Gillette’s comment is a continuation of a string of inflammatory far-right online invective by the Mohave county Republican and retired army reserve command sergeant major. Gillette has defended January 6 protesters, who were intent on violently overturning Trump’s defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, as “political prisoners” and described Muslims as “terrorists”.
It also reflects a widening call among Republicans to criminalize protest and speech critical of the Trump administration.
Gillette has not yet responded to a request from the Guardian for comment.
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Ice agent 'relieved of duties' after widely circulated video shows him pushing a woman to the floor
An federal immigration officer has been “relieved of his duties” after a video showing him pushing a woman to the floor at an immigration court in New York City spread quickly on social media.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said that the agent’s actions were “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of Ice”.
“This officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation,” McLaughlin added.
The video shows a woman, and a young girl who appears to be her daughter, pleading to officers to not take away her husband at 26 Federal Plaza. In the video, they are crying as officers take him into custody. ProPublica identified the woman as Monica Moreta-Galarza, from Ecuador.
The video captures Moreta-Galarza pleading with the now-suspended officer. He tries to dismiss her by saying “adios”. When Moreta-Galarza touches his shoulder, he grabs her, pushes her across the hallway, against the wall, and on to the floor.
After the incident, Democratic congressman Dan Goldman, of New York, said that Moreta-Galarza “fled” to his office with her two young children. ProPublica also reported that Moreta-Galarza was later taken to hospital after being pushed to the ground.
I’m Till Eckert, a ProPublica reporter. For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been going to the same NY immigration courthouse.
— ProPublica (@propublica) September 26, 2025
Nearly every time, I see ICE agents arresting immigrants. Today, a woman was slammed to the ground after begging officials not to take her husband away.
Thread👇 pic.twitter.com/elTzcoskS9
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Ahead of House Democrats’ meeting today, as a government shutdown looms, Donald Trump continued to blame lawmakers across the aisle for any lapse in government funding earlier today.
“These people are crazy, the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down, but they’re the ones that are shutting down,” the president said.
A reminder that Congress is in recess this week, and only the Senate is set to return on Monday – before funding expires at midnight on 30 September. A continuing resolution to keep the government open stalled in the upper chamber last week.
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DoJ is in 'full cover-up mode', says top House Democrat on judiciary committee following Comey indictment
Per my colleague Chris Stein’s reporting earlier, that Democrats on the House judiciary committee are calling Republican leadership to allow survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse to testify, congressman Jamie Raskin – the committee’s ranking member – said that the indictment of James Comey is because the justice department is in “full cover-up mode”.
“They’re doing the bidding of President Trump with respect to Mr Comey, they’re doing the bidding of President Trump with respect to covering up cases,” Raskin said in an interview with CNN News Central.
He added:
What we see is the complete politicization of the Department of Justice. But we’re in the midst of trying to get this information with apparently real crimes. And we’ve got a strong, bipartisan majority saying, ‘Stop the cover-up of the Epstein files. Just go ahead and release them.’”
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‘Dangerous abuse of power’: lawmakers sound alarm over Comey indictment
For Donald Trump, the indictment of former FBI director and longtime foe James Comey was “justice in America”. Legal observers and lawmakers see something far more troubling.
A former Republican appointed to lead the bureau by Barack Obama and kept on by Trump until he was fired in 2017, Comey was indicted Thursday on charges related to allegedly lying to Congress five years ago during a hearing on the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
The charges were filed in the eastern district of Virginia only after Erik Siebert was forced out as US attorney for reportedly finding no grounds to indict Comey. The justice department replaced him with Trump loyalist with little prosecutorial experience, Lindsey Halligan, and shortly after, a grand jury indicted Comey on one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.
The indictment is the latest sign that the president is making good on his promise “to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics”, said Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee.
“This kind of interference is a dangerous abuse of power. Our system depends on prosecutors making decisions based on evidence and the law, not on the personal grudges of a politician determined to settle scores,” Warner said.
Democratic senator Adam Schiff, a former federal prosecutor who played a lead role in Trump’s first impeachment, said on X he had “never witnessed such a blatant abuse of the” justice department, calling it “little more than an arm of the president’s retribution campaign”.
Mike Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union, said Trump “has yet again proven his disdain for the principles that have actually made America great”.
Read the rest of Chris’s piece here:
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Bryan Graham at Bethpage Black
Donald Trump’s arrival dominated the opening day of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, about 37 miles south-east of Manhattan, where fans had begun lining up outside the gates as early as 3am.
Helicopters circled constantly overhead, while spectators navigated TSA-style checkpoints and Secret Service patrols around the main grandstand.
Shortly after 11am, Air Force One made a low, close flyover of the grounds as it approached Farmingdale, drawing gasps from the crowd and reminding everyone of the president’s imminent appearance.
Officials had urged spectators to budget extra time, wary of the sort of disruption seen at the US Open tennis tournament earlier this month, when Trump’s visit delayed entry and thousands of spectators missed the start of the men’s final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! The crowd at the Ryder Cup went WILD when President Trump did a flyover on Air Force One
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 26, 2025
And this is in NEW YORK!
“USA! USA!”
47 will be on the ground shortly! pic.twitter.com/Oh9NogzFoV
At Bethpage, Trump’s presence was no less inescapable. The early carnival atmosphere – fans chanting “U-S-A” as the American pair of Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas won the opening hole – quickly dulled as Europe seized control.
By midday, the sport itself had receded. What lingered was the sound of choppers, the roar of Air Force One overhead, and the heavy security presence behind the 18th green and near the first tee that turned golf’s biennial matchplay carnival into a backdrop for presidential theatre.
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Responding to James Comey’s indictment last night, Matthew Miller, who was the director of public affairs at the justice department during the Obama administration, wrote on X:
The Justice Department we have long known is dead. As in many authoritarian states, it now exists as an arm of the government to punish the president’s enemies, regardless of the law. A tragedy for the country with lasting implications, even if this case is dismissed.
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The chair of the House select committee on China has said he will conduct full oversight over a deal for Chinese-based ByteDance to sell the US assets of TikTok that was approved by Donald Trump under a 2024 law.
“The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm, as well as preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance,” said the Republican representative John Moolenaar.
He said he would host the leadership of the new TikTok entity at a hearing next year.
Updated
Immigrants with no criminal record now largest group in Ice detention
Immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention, according to data released by the government. The number of people with no criminal history arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and detained by the Trump administration has now surpassed the number of those charged with crimes.
Ice, the federal agency most heavily relied upon by Donald Trump to carry out his mass deportation campaign, released its latest numbers on Thursday.
According to the official data, 16,523 people in immigration detention with no criminal record were arrested by Ice, compared with 15,725 who do have a criminal record and 13,767 with pending criminal charges.
There are now a total of 59,762 people in Ice detention across the US. The remaining number of people in Ice custody were brought in by border officials.
The numbers released by Ice mark the first time under the second Trump administration that the total number of immigrants with no criminal history in detention has surpassed that of people convicted of a crime or with pending charges.
The agency’s data also contradicts Trump administration officials’ repeated narrative that the chief focus of the White House’s agenda and the Department of Homeland Security dragnet is dangerous criminals.
Read my full report with Will Craft below.
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Comey's son-in-law resigns as federal prosecutor – reports
James Comey’s son-in-law, Troy Edwards, has resigned as a federal prosecutor for the eastern district of Virginia, following his father-in-law’s indictment.
According to his resignation letter, seen by multiple outlets, Edwards sent his resignation notice to Lindsey Halligan – the newly minted US attorney for the district – and wrote that he was quitting “to uphold my oath to the constitution and the country”.
A reminder that Halligan was appointed after Trump fired her predecessor, Erik Siebert, after Siebert said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey and other Trump adversaries.
Edwards was on the team of attorneys who charged participants in the January 6 attack on the US capitol.
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House Democrats call for Epstein victims to testify
Democrats on the House judiciary committee are asking its Republican leader to allow victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates to testify about “the institutional failures that enabled these horrific crimes”.
The letter, signed by 17 Democrats and led by ranking member Jamie Raskin and congresswoman Deborah Ross, a leader in the Democratic Women’s caucus and longtime champion of sexual violence survivors, comes amid continued pressure for the Trump administration to authorize the release of more files related to the disgraced financier.
“The release of Justice Department files related to the sex trafficking ring led by Mr Epstein, while necessary, is not a substitute for the voices of these survivors,” the letter reads.
“The House Judiciary Committee has an important role to play in addressing the institutional failures that enabled these horrific crimes and failed to protect the women and girls he trafficked and abused.”
Testimony by the survivors – some of whom appeared at a press conference outside the US Capitol earlier this month – “will help Congress to better understand the systemic breakdowns and shortcomings that enabled Mr Epstein’s network to operate for so long, including potential gaps in law enforcement practices, prosecutorial discretion, victim protection protocols, reporting requirements, and institutional oversight.”
A spokesperson for the committee’s Republican chair, Jim Jordan, did not respond to a request for comment.
The demand comes as a petition to force a vote in the House on legislation to release the Epstein files draws near to receiving the 218th signature necessary for its success, after Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election for a vacant seat earlier this week.
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Trump says he hopes 'there will be others' after Comey indictment
Earlier, on the south lawn of the White House, Donald Trump took a few questions from reporters.
“It’s about justice, it’s not about revenge,” the president said with regard to James Comey’s indictment. “He didn’t think he’d be caught, and he got caught,” Trump said, referring to the former FBI director he fired in 2017. “He lied. He lied a lot.”
The president also said that he hopes “there will be others” who are prosecuted.
Without giving much detail, the president also said that he “thinks we have a deal with Gaza”.
“I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back. It’s going to be a deal that will end the war,” he said.
“That’ll be number eight,” he added, referring to his misleading list of conflicts that he’s resolved since he returned to the White House.
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The president has just left DC to attend the Ryder Cup tournament in New York. He didn’t stop for questions as he boarded the plane.
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Barbara McQuade, former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan, made a key point on social media today about the grounds for a Comey conviction.
She notes that while “probable cause is legally sufficient” in order to obtain an indictment, the justice department policy requires enough evidence to “obtain and sustain a conviction”.
“That means proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” she adds.
Netanyahu addresses the UN general assembly
Right now, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is speaking at the United Nations general assembly in New York.
According to my colleague Amy Sedghi, before he started speaking, dozens of delegates in the hall walked out. There were boos and cheers.
Netanyahu just thanked Donald Trump for his “his bold, decisive action against Iran” earlier this year.
As a reminder, that you can follow the latest developments at our dedicated liveblog below.
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Donald Trump’s long public campaign to get someone in his administration to bring criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director he fired in 2017, finally succeeded on Thursday.
But the president has been so public about his loathing of the indicted man, and his desire to see him jailed, that it might be hard for prosecutors to convince a jury that the case was not brought for political reasons.
Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 after he reportedly refused a request to pledge his loyalty to the newly elected president, and then publicly confirmed to Congress that the FBI was conducting a counterintelligence investigation of Russian efforts to help Trump get elected in 2016.
Trump’s firing of Comey backfired, however, because it helped convince then deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, to, in his words, “oversee the previously confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters”.
Although Mueller’s report, issued in 2019, concluded that his team “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities”, the investigation unearthed evidence that a Russian effort did take place and, in Mueller’s words, “established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome”.
Mueller added that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts”.
The indictment of Comey comes as Trump seeks to use the power of the justice department to punish a man he sees as a central figure in the Russia investigation he has continually described as “a witch-hunt” and “a hoax”.
Ahead of government funding expiring, House Democrats hold caucus meeting
The House Democratic caucus will meet virtually today at 2pm EST, ahead of a looming government shutdown just five days away.
Congressional Democrats have so far been united in their push-back on the Republican-written resolution to extend government funding until 21 November. For the president’s part, he cancelled a meeting with Democratic leadership that was scheduled for this week.
Democrats have also called the memo by the office of management and budget (OMB) – which told federal agencies to prepare for a reduction in force in the event of a shutdown – an intimidation tactic.
The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, called Russ Vought, the director of the OMB, a “malignant political hack” earlier this week, and told him to “get lost”.
“We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings,” Jeffries added.
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ACLU calls Comey indictment 'a grotesque abuse of presidential power'
In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that the indictment of former FBI director James Comey “represents a grotesque abuse of presidential power”.
“By firing his previously appointed U.S. Attorney and installing someone who would do his bidding and bring criminal charges at his direction. President Trump has yet again proven his disdain for the principles that have actually made America great,” said Mike Zamore, the ACLU’s national director of policy and government affairs. “The president and his administration have corrupted our system of justice to turn his campaign of retribution into reality.”
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Donald Trump will leave the White House at about 9:50am EST to attend the Ryder Cup golf tournament in Bethpage, New York. We’ll keep an eye out for the president if he speaks to reporters en route.
He’ll spend the day at the competition before heading back to DC at 3:30pm EST.
President Donald Trump insisted South Korea will provide billions of dollars in investments “upfront”, despite Seoul’s assertion that it would suffer a financial crisis if it meets the US demands without safeguards.
In July, South Korea pledged $350bn toward US projects, but has balked at US demands for control over the funds and South Korean officials say talks to formalise their trade deal are at a deadlock.
Earlier this month, Trump formalised a trade deal with Japan, lowering tariffs on Japanese automobile imports and other products in return for $550bn of Japanese investment in US projects, and US officials have pressed Seoul to follow suit.
“We have in Japan it’s $550bn, South Korea’s $350bn. That’s upfront,” Trump told reporters on Thursday in the Oval Office as he touted the amount of money he said his sweeping tariffs have brought in.
South Korea, however, says it cannot afford to structure its investments in the same way as Japan, and president Lee Jae Myung told Reuters last week that without safeguards such as a currency swap, South Korea’s economy could be plunged into crisis.
Well, the president is awake.
Donald Trump has posted the following on his Truth Social social media network:
JAMES COMEY IS A DIRTY COP. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
That outburst came shortly a more detailed post in which he called former FBI director James Comey “corrupt".
Trump wrote:
Whether you like Corrupt James Comey or not, and I can’t imagine too many people liking him, HE LIED! It is not a complex lie, it’s a very simple, but IMPORTANT one. There is no way he can explain his way out of it. He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start. Nevertheless, words are words, and he wasn’t hedging or in dispute. He was very positive, there was no doubt in his mind about what he said, or meant by saying it. He left himself ZERO margin of error on a big and important answer to a question. He just got unexpectedly caught. James “Dirty Cop” Comey was a destroyer of lives. He knew exactly what he was saying, and that it was a very serious and far reaching lie for which a very big price must be paid! President DJT
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said he and President Donald Trump had made “meaningful progress” on a range of regional and bilateral issues at their first meeting in the White House in six years, where they discussed defence cooperation and trade.
Trump told reporters after Thursday’s meeting with Erdogan that he believed Nato member Turkey would agree to his request to stop purchasing Russian oil and said that he may lift US sanctions on Ankara so it can buy advanced American F-35 jets, Reuters reported.
In comments to reporters on his flight home from Washington, Erdogan said the two leaders had exchanged views on steps to boost trade, including the revision of customs duties to achieve their target of $100bn trade volume.
“It’s certainly impossible to resolve every issue in a single meeting. However, this meeting has led to meaningful progress on many issues,” Erdogan said, according to a transcript of his comments shared by his office on Friday.
Erdogan added that he had left the meeting with Trump “happy”.
A group of Disney investors is asking the company to turn over documents related to the company’s decision to temporarily suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, amid charges the media company may have been “complicit in succumbing” to media censorship.
The investors, composed of lawyers for the American Federation of Teachers and Reporters Without Borders, noted that Disney’s stock “suffered significant declines in response to the company’s abrupt decision to suspend Mr. Kimmel and his show”, it said in a letter to Disney.
“The fallout from suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! sparked criticism as an attack on free speech, triggered boycotts and union support for Mr. Kimmel, and caused Disney’s stock to plummet amid fears of brand damage and concerns that Disney was complicit in succumbing to the government overreach and media censorship,” the letter said.
The lawyers are demanding “copies of any meeting minutes, meeting agenda and written materials provided to the [company’s] board or presented at any meeting of the board” regarding Kimmel’s decision. It cites a law in Delaware, where Disney is incorporated, that says shareholders can receive materials around board discussion “to investigate potential wrongdoing, mismanagement and breach of fiduciary duty by members [of the board]”.
Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday outlining the terms of a deal to transfer TikTok to a US owner.
Trump said he and China’s president Xi Jinping had come to an agreement to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US, separating the social media platform from its Chinese owner ByteDance. Trump said the deal complies with a law that would have forced the shutdown of the app for American users had it not been divested and sold to a US owner.
“I spoke with President Xi and he said, ‘Go ahead with it,’” Trump said at a press conference. “This is going to be American-operated all the way.”
Under the plan, US investors will take over the majority of TikTok’s operations and take charge of a licensed copy of the app’s powerful recommendation algorithm. American companies are expected to own about 65% of the US version of the spun-off company, while ByteDance and Chinese investors will own less than 20%. The new version of TikTok will be controlled by a seven-member board of directors made up of cybersecurity and national security experts, six of them Americans, according to the White House.
The new US company will be valued at $14bn, according to JD Vance, who also spoke at the press conference, a number far lower than the valuation for ByteDance overall, which is estimated to be around $330bn. By comparison, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is valued at $1.8tn.
The group of American TikTok investors is led by the US software giant Oracle, which will oversee TikTok’s US operations, provide cloud service for user data storage and get a license to take control of the app’s algorithm. White House officials have said ByteDance and Chinese officials will not have access to US user data.
The Open Society Foundations (OSF), the major philanthropic group funded by George Soros, has criticized the Trump administration for “politically motivated attacks on civil society” after a report that the justice department had instructed federal prosecutors to come up with plans to investigate the charity.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that a lawyer in the office of Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, sent a memo to several federal prosecutors in attorney’s offices in California, New York, Washington DC, Chicago and Detroit, offering a range of charges to consider against the group. Those charges included racketeering, arson, wire fraud and material support for terrorism, the newspaper reported.
The push comes as Trump has ramped up efforts to deploy the justice department to target his enemies. He has pledged to crack down on leftwing groups in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing and has repeatedly singled out Soros, a major funder of liberal groups, as a target. “We’re going to look into Soros, because I think it’s a Rico case against him and other people,” Trump said on 12 September, using an acronym to refer to racketeering charges. “Because this is more than like protests. This is real agitation.”
In a statement, the OSF described the effort as “meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the first amendment right to free speech”.
“The Open Society Foundations unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism. Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law,” it said in a statement.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook urged the US supreme court on Thursday to reject Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her, telling the justices the Republican president’s unprecedented move would destroy the central bank’s independence and disrupt financial markets.
Lawyers for Cook filed a written response opposing the justice department’s 18 September emergency request to lift a federal judge’s order that blocked Trump from immediately removing Cook, an appointee of Democratic former president Joe Biden, while her legal challenge continues.
Granting Trump’s request, her lawyers told the supreme court, “would dramatically alter the status quo, ignore centuries of history and transform the Federal Reserve into a body subservient to the president’s will”.
Washington-based US district judge Jia Cobb ruled on 9 September that Trump’s claims that Cook committed mortgage fraud before taking office – allegations that Cook denies – likely were not sufficient grounds for removal under the 1913 law that created the Fed.
The US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit in a 2-1 ruling on 15 September denied the administration’s request to put Cobb’s order on hold, ruling that Cook likely was denied due process in violation of the US constitution’s fifth amendment.
In Thursday’s filing, Cook’s lawyers said the Fed’s “unique history of independence” has helped make the US economy the strongest in the world. Siding with Trump, they wrote, “would signal to the financial markets that the Federal Reserve no longer enjoys its traditional independence, risking chaos and disruption”.
Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, sued Trump in August after the president announced he would remove her. Cook has said the claims made by Trump against her did not give him the legal authority to remove her and were a pretext to fire her for her monetary policy stance.
The White House is telling federal agencies to prepare large-scale firings of workers if the government shuts down next week in a partisan fight over spending plans – prompting the Democrats to accuse Donald Trump of intimidation tactics.
In a memo released on Wednesday night, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said agencies should consider a reduction in force for federal programs whose funding would lapse next week, is not otherwise funded and is “not consistent with the president’s priorities”.
That would be a much more aggressive step than in previous shutdowns, when federal workers not deemed essential were furloughed but returned to their jobs once the US Congress approved a new financial plan.
A mass firing would eliminate employees positions, which would trigger yet another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that has already faced major rounds of cuts this year, leading with the dramatic intervention by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) early in the second Trump administration.
When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon about the possibility of a government shutdown, Trump said: “Could be, yeah, because the Democrats are crazed. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
Asked whether he would agree to a request from Democrats for an extension of subsidies for the costs of healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, on which millions of Americans depend for health insurance – which has become the sticking point in negotiations over the government funding bill – Trump simply repeated his false claim that Democrats are insisting on funding “to give the money to illegal aliens”.
Trump signs memo targeting ‘domestic terrorism’ amid fears of crackdown on the left
Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum on Thursday aimed at reining in what he has called a radical leftwing domestic “terror network” but which seemed likely to meet fierce legal pushback from critics depicting it as a licence for a broad crackdown on his political opponents.
Prompted by journalists, Trump suggested that George Soros, the billionaire Hungarian-born philanthropist who funds the Open Society Foundations, could be in his sights. He also identified Reid Hoffman, a billionaire venture capitalist, adding: “I hear about him. Maybe it could be him. It could be a lot of people.”
Earlier, the Open Society Foundations had hit back at reports that the justice department was planning to target the group and criticized the Trump administration for “politically motivated attacks on civil society”.
Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement: “After one of the most harrowing weeks for our first amendment rights, the president is invoking political violence, which we all condemn, as an excuse to target non-profits and activists with the false and stigmatizing label of ‘domestic terrorism’. This is a shameful and dangerous move.”
At a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, the memorandum was presented as aimed at “establishing a comprehensive strategy to investigate, disrupt and dismantle all stages of organized political violence and domestic terrorism”.
It was said to be part of an administration-wide response that would include the FBI’s joint terrorism taskforces, the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury.
Trump says US will impose new tariffs on heavy trucks, drugs and kitchen cabinets
Donald Trump on Thursday announced a new round of punishing tariffs, saying the United States will impose a 100% tariffs on imported branded drugs, 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks and 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets.
The US president also said he would start charging a 50% tariff on bathroom vanities and a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture next week, with all the new duties to take effect from 1 October.
Drug companies warned earlier this year that Americans would suffer the most if Trump decided to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
In 2024, the US imported nearly $233bn in pharmaceutical and medicinal products, according to the Census Bureau. The prospect of prices doubling for some medicines could send shock waves to voters as healthcare expenses, as well as the costs of Medicare and Medicaid, potentially increase.
Pascal Chan, vice-president for strategic policy and supply chains at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, warned that the tariffs could harm Americans’ health with “immediate price hikes, strained insurance systems, hospital shortages, and the real risk of patients rationing or foregoing essential medicines”.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that James Comey, the former FBI director and one of Donald Trump’s most frequent targets, was indicted on Thursday on one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding, the latest move in the president’s retribution campaign against his political adversaries.
The indictment, filed in federal district court in Alexandria, Virginia, shows Comey’s charges centred on whether he lied and misled lawmakers during testimony in September 2020 about the Russia investigation.
Comey was expected to surrender and have his initial appearance in federal district court on Friday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter. Comey is expected to be represented by Patrick Fitzgerald, a former US attorney for the northern district of Illinois.
While the precise details were not clear in the sparse, two-page indictment, it appeared to reference Comey’s testimony that he had never authorized someone at the FBI to leak to the news media about the Trump or Hillary Clinton investigations – a claim prosecutors alleged was false.
“No one is above the law. Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people,” Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said in a statement on Thursday.
The indictment followed Trump’s instruction to Bondi to “move now” to prosecute Comey and other officials he considers political foes, in an impatient and extraordinarily direct social media post trampling on the justice department’s tradition of independence.
It also came less than a week after Lindsey Halligan was installed as the top federal prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia, after Trump fired her predecessor, Erik Siebert, after he declined to bring charges against Comey over concerns there was insufficient evidence.
Halligan, most recently a White House aide and former Trump lawyer who has no prosecutorial experience, was also presented with a memo earlier this week laying out why charges should not be brought. But the justice department still pushed it through, people familiar with the matter said.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the US senate intelligence committee, said:
Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics.
Responding to the indictment, hours after it was filed, Comey said in a video statement posted on Instagram that he was innocent and welcomed a trial.
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either,” Comey said.
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
Authorities said on Thursday that the words of the suspect in the shooting on Wednesday at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility in Texas were “definitively anti-Ice” but said that they did not find evidence that the suspect was a member of “any specific group or entity, nor did he mention any specific government agency other than Ice”.
The Open Society Foundations (OSF), the major philanthropic group funded by George Soros, criticized the Trump administration for “politically motivated attacks on civil society” after a report that the justice department had instructed federal prosecutors to come up with plans to investigate the charity.
Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum on Thursday aimed at reining in what he has called a radical leftwing domestic “terror network” but which seemed likely to meet fierce legal pushback from critics depicting it as a licence for a broad crackdown on his political opponents.
Donald Trump on Thursday announced a new round of punishing tariffs, saying the United States will impose a 100% tariffs on imported branded drugs, 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks and 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets. The US president also said he would start charging a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture next week.
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday outlining the terms of a deal to transfer TikTok to a US owner. Trump said he and China’s president Xi Jinping had come to an agreement to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US, separating the social media platform from its Chinese owner ByteDance. Trump said the deal complies with a law that would have forced the shutdown of the app for American users had it not been divested and sold to a US owner.
A group of Disney investors is asking the company to turn over documents related to the company’s decision to temporarily suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, amid charges the media company may have been “complicit in succumbing” to media censorship.
An impromptu statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands was unceremoniously removed from the National Mall in Washington just a day after a group of anonymous artists erected it there.
