Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the second Trump administration to a close for the day. We will return on Friday morning. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump’s long public campaign to get someone to bring criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director he fired in 2017, finally succeeded on Thursday, as the White House aide he installed as a prosecutor this week indicted the man Trump holds largely responsible for the Russia investigation.
Trump celebrated the indictment of “One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to”, in a social media post that could be used as evidence that the prosecution is politically motivated.
“I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not either,” Comey said in an Instagram video statement. “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial.”
Maurene Comey, the former FBI director’s daughter, who led the federal prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and was fired this summer without explanation, cited Trump’s hatred of her father in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed this month.
Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born congresswoman from Minnesota, accused Trump of inventing a story he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, about having supposedly asked Somalia’s president if he would “take her back.”
Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the justice department and the FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce to investigate what he claimed is an organized campaign of political violence and domestic terrorism funded by Democrats.
The House Democratic campaign arm believes their lawmakers have the advantage in the tense battle over government funding, after last week refusing to back a Republican plan to prevent a shutdown unless their demands on healthcare and other issues are met.
We leave you with video of Hillary Clinton saying in a 2016 debate: “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.” He replied: “Because you’d be in jail.”
Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein, cites Trump's hatred of her father in wrongful termination lawsuit
Maurene Comey, the former FBI director’s daughter, who led the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and was fired this summer without explanation, cited Donald Trump’s hatred of her father in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed this month in federal court.
The suit explains that Maurene Comey was “abruptly fired” on 16 July 16 from her job as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan despite an “outstanding” performance review just months earlier.
The suit, which names the office of the president and the attorney general as defendants, says that they “fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”
It goes on to allege that Trump’s hatred of her father, and the antipathy of Trump’s outside adviser Laura Loomer, were major factors in her wrongful termination.
According to the suit:
James Comey served as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2013 until President Trump fired him in 2017. For the past nine years, President Trump has publicly criticized Mr. Comey for his actions while serving as FBI Director, and because after he was fired, Mr. Comey (i) wrote a memoir critical of President Trump, (ii) continued to publicly criticize President Trump and his Administration, and (iii) in May 2025 posted a message on social media that President Trump and others in the Trump Administration claimed to perceive as threatening.
Following Mr. Comey’s May 2025 social media post and other critical statements, President Trump’s supporters called for Ms. Comey’s firing. Notable among those supporters is Laura Loomer, a social media influencer who, on information and belief, has political influence in the Trump Administration, including influence over the termination of federal employees. President Trump has publicly stated: “If you’re Loomered you’re in deep trouble. That’s the end of your career in a sense.” On May 18, 2025, Ms. Loomer called for Mr. Comey’s “liberal daughter” and her “Democrat husband” to be “FIRED from the DOJ immediately” “for being a national security risk via their proximity to a criminal [i.e., Mr. Comey] who just committed a felony by threatening to assassinate the President.” Ms. Loomer also declared that, “under [Attorney General Pamela] Blondi [sic], every Deep State Operator is being emboldened,” and she “question[ed] the impartiality of Maurene and Lucas [Maurene’s husband] in their prosecutorial roles, especially in high-profile cases, due to the undeniable bias and influence stemming from James Comey’s public criticism of Trump and the ongoing investigation into his Instagram post.”
James Comey’s son-in-law resigned as a federal prosecutor minutes after the former FBI director was indicted Thursday.
Troy Edwards wrote in an email to Lindsey Halligan, the former White House aide with no prosecutorial experience parachuted into the job as US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia this week that he was resigning “To uphold my oath to the Constitution and the country”.
Edwards , who helped prosecute pro-Trump January 6 rioters later pardoned by Trump, was deputy chief of the national security section, which covers the Pentagon and CIA headquarters, and handles some of the highest-profile espionage cases.
'I'm innocent,' James Comey says in video statement posted on Instagram
James Comey, the former FBI director, professed his innocence in a video statement posted on Instagram on Thursday after he was indicted by the former White House aide Donald Trump appointed US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia this week.
“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump,” Comey said. “But we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either.”
“I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does,” he added.
“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial. And keep the faith,” he concluded.
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How Comey, who helped elect Trump, got to the top of his enemies list
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 get Trump elected president 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 plenty of evidence that the 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”.
While Mueller ultimately elected not to charge Trump’s son, Don Jr, with violating campaign finance laws by soliciting derogatory information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government in a meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign, the investigation made it plain that the Trump campaign had been open to help from Russia.
When a publicist for the Russian oligarch who paid Trump to stage his Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013 wrote to tell Don Jr that a Russian prosecutor wanted to offer the Trump campaign “official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia, calling it “part of Russia and its government’s support to Mr Trump”, Trump’s son replied, “If it’s what you say, I love it,” and got Trump’s campaign chair Paul Manafort and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to attend the meeting.
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”.
One of the ironies of the situation is that Comey, who cast himself as a rigidly non-partisan law enforcement official, played an outsized role in helping Trump to get elected in the first place.
It was Comey who, as FBI director in the summer of 2016, decided not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server to conduct official business while secretary of state, but took it upon himself to hold a press conference to explain his decision.
In that public forum, Comey said that while Clinton and her staff had been “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” and there was “evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information,” he had concluded, as a former prosecutor himself, that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case”.
That news conference offered Trump, who was then running against Clinton, ammunition to describe her use of a personal email server as reckless. Trump embraced that line of attack with glee, particularly after WikiLeaks published emails from Clinton campaign aides that had been stolen by Russian government hackers.
Then, days before the November election, Comey suddenly announced that the FBI had reopened its investigation of Clinton’s own emails, after copies of some mail was found on the laptop of the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, who was then married to Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin.
Although Comey then announced, before election day, that the review of the additional emails had found nothing of substance, Clinton dropped in the polls in the closing days of the campaign, and narrowly lost to Trump.
Another irony is that Comey, who has now been indicted by the new US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, is himself a former federal prosecutor in that office, who went on to serve as the US attorney for the southern district of New York, and deputy attorney general under George W Bush before later being appointed FBI director by Barack Obama in 2013.
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Attorney general and FBI director welcome Comey charges
Donald Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, welcomed the indictment of James Comey, who served as deputy attorney general during the George W Bush administration and was fired as FBI director by Donald Trump in 2017 after he told Congress that the FBI was conducting a counterintelligence investigation of Russian interference in the election of Trump as president in 2016.
A justice department press release sent to reporters on Thursday began:
Today, a federal grand jury has charged former FBI Director James Comey with serious crimes related to the disclosure of sensitive information. The indictment alleges that Comey obstructed a congressional investigation into the disclosure of sensitive information in violation of 18 USC 1505.
The indictment also alleges that Comey made a false statement in violation of 18 USC 1001. Comey stated that he did not authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source. According to the indictment that statement was false.
The statement was followed by a quote from Bondi, which was posted on her official X account earlier. “No one is above the law,” the attorney general said. “Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”
“Today, your FBI took another step in its promise of full accountability,” Patel added. “For far too long, previous corrupt leadership and their enablers weaponized federal law enforcement, damaging once proud institutions and severely eroding public trust. Every day, we continue the fight to earn that trust back, and under my leadership, this FBI will confront the problem head-on.
“Nowhere was this politicization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose. Everyone, especially those in positions of power, will be held to account – no matter their perch. No one is above the law.”
Despite the intensity of those accusations from the most senior officials in the justice department, the statement included the following disclaimer, written in italics at the bottom of the page:
“An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
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Trump hails indictment of Comey: 'Justice in America'
In a sharp departure from the tradition that presidents should not comment on criminal cases, Donald Trump just celebrated the indictment of the former FBI director James Comey, in terms that could make it even easier for Comey’s lawyers to argue that he is the victim of selective prosecution.
The indictment came days after Trump forced out a career prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia who had determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge Comey, and posted a public instruction to Bondi to replace him with a White House aide, Lindsey Halligan, who could be trusted to prosecute Comey and other officials Trump holds a grudge against.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI. Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts. He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation,” the president added.
He then signed off with his political slogan: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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Trump announces tariffs on trucks, kitchen cabinets and furniture
As the legality of Donald Trump’s tariffs remains in doubt, the president announced three more on Thursday.
Writing on his social media platform, Trump said: “I will be imposing, as of October 1st, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all “Heavy (Big!) Trucks” made in other parts of the World. Therefore, our Great Large Truck Company Manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others, will be protected.”
In a separate post, he added: “We will be imposing a 50% Tariff on all Kitchen Cabinets, Bathroom Vanities, and associated products, starting October 1st, 2025. Additionally, we will be charging a 30% Tariff on Upholstered Furniture.”
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Ilhan Omar says Trump made up story about discussing her with Somalia's president
Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born congresswoman from Minnesota, accused Donald Trump of inventing a story he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, about having supposedly asked Somalia’s president if he would “take her back.”
Omar is a naturalized US citizen who was born in Somalia and raised in a refugee camp in Kenya, but Trump has frequently treated her criticism of him as an affront to the United States from someone he still regards as a foreigner.
Trump brought up Omar on Thursday in the course of a rambling answer to a question about Jasmine Crockett, a fellow Democratic congresswoman. When Trump was asked by a conservative reporter if Crockett should face “consequences” for saying, “When I see Ice, I see slave patrols,” the president repeated the racist claim he frequently makes about Black leaders who challenge him: “she is a very low IQ person.”
He then brought up Omar, whose name he mispronounced, unprompted.
“This is a low IQ person, who I can’t I can’t believe is a congressperson, between her and Ilman Omar,” Trump said. “I met the head of Somalia,” he continued, “And I suggested that maybe he’d like to take her back, and he didn’t want her.”
As Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance, doubled over in laughter, and other members of his cabinet chuckled, the president said again: “He said, ‘I don’t want her.’”
The White House was so proud of this quip that Trump’s special assistant, Margo Martin, posted video of it on an official government social media account.
Omar responded by suggesting the president, who said last week he was not sure if Somalia even has a president, had made the whole thing up. “From denying Somalia had a president to making up a story, President Trump is a lying buffoon. No one should take this embarrassing fool seriously,” she wrote on X.
Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was in New York this week to address the United Nations, but he the US official he met with was not the president, but his advisor on African affairs, Massad Boulos, whose son is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany.
Former FBI director and Trump critic James Comey indicted by prosecutor installed by president
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 justice, according to a person familiar with the matter, in the latest move in the president’s expansive retribution campaign against his political adversaries.
“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. We will follow the facts in this case,” Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, tweeted on Thursday.
The indictment came shortly after Trump instructed Bondi to “move now” to prosecute Comey and other officials he considers political foes, in an extraordinarily direct social media post trampling on the justice department’s tradition of independence.
Lindsey Halligan, the president’s former lawyer who was recently sworn in as the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, asked a grand jury to indict Comey for allegedly lying to Congress in testimony on 30 September 2020 before the five-year statute of limitations expires in the coming days. Comey’s testimony before the Senate judiciary committee was related to his handling of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, was elevated to the post after Erik Siebert was forced out of the job for failing to bring indictments against Comey and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.
Trump directs FBI and justice department to investigate supposed funders of 'organized political violence'
Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the justice department and the FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce to investigate what he claimed is an organized campaign of political violence and domestic terrorism funded by wealthy Democratic donors.
At an Oval Office event, Trump’s domestic policy adviser, Stephen Miller, claimed that violence on the fringes of racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, “all the way through to the Antifa riots”, was “part of an organized campaign of radical left terrorism” funded by wealthy donors. “It is terrorism on our soil,” Miller said.
According data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, nearly 10,000 Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 were entirely peaceful. According to the researchers, there was no looting, arson, or violence of any kind at 94% of the racial justice protests in 2020. And in many cases in which there was violence, it was either inflicted on protesters, by the police or right-wing vigilantes, or took place after peaceful rallies, in incidents that were given disproportionate attention by Fox News and the Trump White House.
“People and organizations have collected funds and organized violence,” Miller claimed.
“We are going to chase them down like the domestic terrorists they are,” the FBI director, Kash Patel added.
Citing his previously made claim that the production quality of signs seen at protests is evidence of funding, Trump claimed that protesters opposed to structural racism in policing or his mass deportation sweeps are “professional anarchists and agitators, and they get hired by wealthy people, some of whom I know, I guess”.
Asked who he was referring to, Trump said, “Soros is a name that I keep hearing”, in reference to the hedge fund billionaire philanthropist George Soros, whose Open Society Foundations is now run by his son Alex.
“Reid Hoffman,” Trump added, referring to the billionaire Democratic donor, a co-founder of LinkedIn and Microsoft board member. “I hear about him.”
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House Democrat campaigners predict GOP ‘will be blamed’ if government shuts down over healthcare demands
The House Democratic campaign arm believes their lawmakers have the advantage in the tense battle over government funding, after last week refusing to back a Republican plan to prevent a shutdown unless their demands on healthcare and other issues are met.
In a memo shared exclusively with the Guardian, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) outlines how the party’s lawmakers can use the standoff to their advantage as they seek to regain control of the House of Representatives in next year’s election.
“The American people desperately want the health care crisis fixed, and it’s crystal clear that Republicans will be blamed when they refuse to address the crisis they created,” the DCCC wrote.
House Republicans last week passed a bill to fund the government through 21 November on a near party line vote, without addressing any of Democrats’s demands. Republican leadership then announced the chamber would not return to work until October - when funding would be exhausted - in an attempt to pressure Senate Democrats to give the bill the support it needs to pass.
“Vulnerable House Republicans allowing health care costs to soar for millions of Americans combined with their decision to skip town provides a clear contrast and sets up a messaging frame that can carry through to next November when Democrats retake the majority,” the DCCC wrote.
“By refusing to work with Democrats to address their health care crisis, they are sending a message to the public that Republicans are more concerned about pleasing Donald Trump than working on behalf of the American people.”
Democrats are insisting Republicans undo cuts to Medicaid they approved earlier this year, extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans and restore funding to public media. Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrats in the House and Senate, respectively, attempted to meet with Donald Trump earlier this week, but he called it off. On Wednesday, the White House threatened mass layoffs of federal workers if the government shuts down.
Trump signs memorandum directing federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for murders in Washington DC
Donald Trump just signed a memo directing the justice department and his US attorney for the District of Columbia, the former Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro, to seek the death penalty in Washington DC.
The District of Columbia carried out its last execution in 1957. That April, it put Robert Eugene Carter to death for killing a police officer as Carter tried to flee a robbery.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center:
The District’s death penalty was nullified by the Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia in 1972 and repealed by the D.C. Council in 1981. District residents voted 2 – 1 against the death penalty in a 1992 referendum ordered by Congress. Prior to the referendum, the D.C. Council passed legislation allowing for a sentencing option of life without parole for first-degree murder. Lawmakers touted the legislation as an alternative to the reinstatement of the death penalty.
Trump says he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank
Asked by a reporter if he promised leaders of Arab and Muslim countries he met this week that he would block Israel from formally annexing the West Bank territory it has occupied since 1967, Donald Trump replied: “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope. I won’t allow it. It’s not going to happen.”
When the reporters asked if he had discussed the matter with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that he had, but stressed that the decision was up to him. “I’m not going to allow it.”
“There’s been enough, it’s time to stop now,” Trump added.
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Asked by reporters in the Oval Office about the possibility of a government shutdown, and whether he would agree to a request from Democrats to provide funds for health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans who depend on policies obtained through the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, Donald Trump just repeated his false claim that Democrats are insisting on funding “to give the money to illegal aliens”.
Security at Ice facilities to be stepped up in wake of Dallas shooting
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a written statement sent to the Guardian that security at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) offices will be stepped up after the shooting at an Ice office in Dallas, which she claimed was part of a wider pattern.
“In light of the horrific shooting that was motivated by hatred for Ice and the other unprecedented acts of violence against Ice law enforcement, including bomb threats, cars being used a weapons, rocks and molotov cocktails thrown at officers, and doxing online of officers’ families, DHS will immediately begin increasing security at Ice facilities across the country. Our Ice officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them,” McLaughlin said (bold text in the original).
McLaughlin then suggested, without evidence, that the shooting at the Ice facility had been inspired by anti-Ice rhetoric from Democrats. Law enforcement officials said earlier on Thursday that the gunman in Dallas acted alone, and wasn’t acting as part of “any specific group or entity”.
“This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about Ice has consequences,” McLaughlin said. “Comparing Ice day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences.”
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Trump announces deal for US investors to take over TikTok in US
Donald Trump just announced that TikTok will be able to remain operating in the United States because a deal has been agreed for a group of US investors to buy the video-sharing app’s US operations.
“We have American investors taking it over, running it,” Trump said, mentioning that one of the investors is Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder, and others include Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch.
The vice-president, JD Vance, said that the deal means that Americans will be able to use the app “with more confidence” because their personal data will not be shared with China, and the app will “not used as propaganda weapon” by the Chinese company that created it and designed the algorithm.
Asked whether the algorithm will still be under the control of the app’s Chinese parent company, Vance said “the US company will control how the algorithm pushes content to users”.
Trump also said that he as getting calls from friends who wanted a TikTok deal approved because of pressure from their children whop wanted to keep using it.
The vice-president said that the company is valued at $14bn.
Asked by a reporter if the change in ownership could mean that users will see “more Maga-related content”, Trump first joked that he would like to “make it 100% Maga”, before saying: “No, everyone is going to be treated fairly … every philosophy.”
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Here's a recap of the day so far
At a press conference following the shooting at a Dallas immigration facility, authorities said the suspect “intended to kill Ice agents”. So far, they believe the shooter – who they have identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn – acted alone, and wasn’t acting as part of “any specific group or entity”.
Law enforcement officials said that they recovered a “collection of notes” at Jahn’s residence which showed he did not intend to harm detainees. “It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting Ice agents and Ice personnel,” said Nancy Larson, acting US attorney for the northern district of Texas. They added that Jahn used an “Ice tracking app” to monitor federal agents, and believe he used a ladder to position himself at the top of a neighboring roof to carry out the attack. One detainee was killed, and two more were severely injured.
Earlier, while welcoming Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Donald Trump blamed “radical left” Democrats for the increase in political violence throughout the country. Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Trump added that “the radical left is causing this problem, not the right”.
The president also blamed Democrats for any mass layoffs at federal agencies in the event of a government shutdown. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a memo telling agencies to identify programs, projects and activities where discretionary funding will lapse at the end of the month, and prepare for a massive reduction-in-force. “This is all caused by the Democrats. They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable. They never change,” the president said.
For their part, top congressional Democrats said the memo was an intimidation tactic from the administration. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called Russ Vought, head of the OMB, a “a malignant political hack” and said that Democrats “will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings”. While Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said the move to fire workers was “nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government”. Lawmakers have until 30 September to pass a resolution to keep the government funded, and avoid a shutdown.
The justice department is preparing to indict former FBI director James Comey, according to multiple reports. This comes after Donald Trump fired Erik Siebert, the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, after he said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute longtime political adversaries like Comey, and New York attorney general Letitia James. Trump appointed White House staffer and attorney Lindsey Halligan as Siebert’s replacement. At the White House today, Trump kept quiet about any pending charges, but said that Comey is a “sick person” who did “terrible things at the FBI”.
Per the White House pool, President Erdoğan of Turkey has finished with his meetings in Washington and is flying back home.
Later, Donald Trump will welcome prime minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan for a meeting. Sharif will be making a stop in DC as part of his wider visit to the US, to address the United Nations general assembly.
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Charles said the detainees who were wounded in Wednesday’s attacks would receive due process, but stopped short of saying what their immigration status is currently.
Officials say shooter used 'Ice tracking apps' to monitor agents' movements
Officials today said they believe Jahn acted alone, but their investigation is ongoing.
Ice official Marcos Charles, who is the executive associate director for enforcement and removal operations, said that the shooter used “Ice tracking apps” to monitor the movement of federal agents.
Charles characterized the apps as “a casting call to invite bad actors to attack law enforcement officers”.
“It’s no different than giving a hitman the location of their intended target, and this is exactly what we saw happen in Dallas yesterday,” Charles said. “The media has been amplifying these apps, even as we warned them, it would only lead to more attacks on law enforcement. We truly wish we didn’t have to say, ‘I told you so’, but here we are.”
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FBI special agent says suspect 'intended to kill Ice agents'
FBI special agent in charge of the Dallas field office, Joe Rothrock, said that Jahn “intended to kill Ice agents” as he fired at “transport vehicles carrying Ice personnel, federal agents and detainees”.
Rothrock noted that the suspect also fired multiple shots into the windows of the office building where “numerous Ice employees do their jobs every day”.
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US attorney says shooter was targeting Ice personnel but there is no evidence he was in 'any specific group or entity'
Speaking now is acting US attorney for the northern district of Texas, Nancy Larson, who said that the FBI found “a collection of notes” at Jahn’s residence.
“He wrote that he intended to maximize lethality against Ice personnel and to maximize property damage at the facility,” Larson said. “It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them. It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting Ice agents and Ice personnel.”
Larson added that “the tragic irony” of Jahn’s “evil plot” was that a detainee was killed, and two others were left in critical condition.
While Larson said that the suspect’s words were “definitively anti-Ice”, authorities did not find evidence of membership in “any specific group or entity”.
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Officials confirm name of suspect in Dallas Ice facility shooting
Today’s press conference has begun, and authorities confirm the suspect is Joshua Jahn, 29, of Texas.
Law enforcement said that about 3 o’clock in the morning on Wednesday the suspect “was seen driving on footage with a large ladder on his car”. They believe that is what he used to position himself on top of the building.
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As we bring you the latest from Dallas, my colleague Eric Berger has more about the FBI’s investigation.
The FBI said on Thursday that the suspect in the shooting had engaged in a “high degree of planning” before the attack.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, said in a post on X that the alleged perpetrator downloaded a document titled “Dallas County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management” containing a list of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facilities.
Patel also said that the suspect conducted multiple searches of ballistics and the “Charlie Kirk Shot Video” in recent days, referring back to the murder of the rightwing activist and youth politics leader who was shot dead at an event in Utah earlier this month.
Patel further posted of the Texas suspect: “Between 8/19 – 8/24, he searched apps that tracked the presence of Ice agents. One of the handwritten notes recovered read, ‘Hopefully this will give Ice agents real terror, to think, “is there a sniper”? about to fire from a roof.”
A reminder, that one detainee was killed in Wednesday’s shooting, while two more were severely injured. The identities of the victims in have not yet been named. No federal agents were wounded in the attack, according to authorities.
Officials are expected to hold a news conference on the shooting at an Ice detention facility in Dallas that killed one person and left two people injured.
We’ll bring you updates from the briefing as we get them.
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The justice department’s purge of federal prosecutors deemed to be critical of Donald Trump has reached the Miami US attorney’s office, where a “rising star” of the department was terminated this week, according to the Miami Herald.
Will Rosenzweig was fired in a “terse” email from attorney general Pam Bondi as he celebrated the Jewish Rosh Hashanah holiday with his family on Tuesday, the newspaper said.
The 39-year-old is the third federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida “to be summarily fired by the Bondi-led justice department” since Trump started his second term as president in January.
Rosenzweig missed the message and only found out he had been fired when his office cell phone stopped working and he called in to find out why, the Herald said.
Rightwing agitator Laura Loomer celebrated Rosenzweig’s dismissal in a post to X on Wednesday, reposting a message from the conservative commentator Natalie Winters that claimed he “secretly ran anti-Trump blog for years”.
The Herald cited “multiple sources” that said Rosenzweig posted criticisms of Trump to social media beginning in 2017, while he was in private practice and before he joined the justice department.
Two other Miami federal prosecutors, Michael Thakur and Anne McNamara, were fired within days of Trump’s January inauguration, among more than a dozen attorneys and officials seemingly punished for working on cases against him prior to his November 2024 reelection.
According to the White House press pool, the president has emerged from his meeting with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
When asked about how the meeting went, Trump said “great” before giving a thumbs up to reporters.
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Utah court appoints attorney to man charged with killing Charlie Kirk
A Utah court has appointed an attorney to represent Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged with shooting and killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, after they determined he couldn’t afford private counsel.
“This action fulfills the Commission’s constitutional responsibility to ensure that individuals accused of a crime—who cannot afford legal representation—are provided with a qualified defense,” a spokesperson for Utah County said in a statement.
The court named Kathryn Nester as Robinson’s counsel moving forward.
Trump's false assertion that London could introduce sharia law is 'nonsense', says UK's Starmer in rare rebuke
Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer has rejected Donald Trump’s recent false assertion that there was a push to apply sharia law in London, calling it “nonsense” and defending London mayor Sadiq Khan in a rare criticism of the US president.
At the United Nations earlier this week, Trump delivered a blistering and sweeping criticism of immigration policies in Europe in which he singled out the UK capital, falsely claiming “now they want to go to sharia law” and calling Khan a “terrible, terrible mayor”.
“The idea of the introduction of sharia law is nonsense and Sadiq Khan is a very good man,” Starmer told ITV London. He added that there are few things he disagrees with Trump on, “but I’m very clear, this is one of them”.
Khan in 2016 became the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London. He has since won two more mayoral elections and has the largest personal mandate of any British politician, something Trump usually holds in high regard.
The US president’s comments this week were the latest in a long-running public feud between the two men that goes back to at least 2017, when Khan criticised Trump for pledging a travel ban on a number of majority-Muslim countries. Trump has called Khan “a nasty person” who has “done a terrible job” and rightwing commentators in the US have routinely attacked crime rates in London and the diversity of the capital’s population.
Trump’s surprise criticism of Britain on Tuesday was particularly jarring as it came only a week after he gushed about the US-UK relationship during his unprecedented second state visit, in which he was treated to the full array of British pageantry including a white-tie banquet at Windsor Castle hosted by King Charles.
Khan responded to Trump’s comments this week by accusing him of being “racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic”, and pointed to data that shows a record number of Americans are settling in Britain.
He said liberal US citizens identified with London because of the city’s “fundamental values, like adhering to the rule of law, being proud of our diversity and championing the rights of minority communities”.
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The Washington Post (paywall) is reporting that defense secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of the US military’s generals and admirals from around the world to gather on short notice and without a stated reason at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week.
“Even top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting,” according to the Post, “sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year”.
DOJ official pushes prosecutors to investigate George Soros's foundation – report
In the latest instance of the US justice department moving against Donald Trump’s political enemies, the New York Times (paywall) reports that “a senior DOJ official has instructed more than a half-dozen US attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor whom Trump has demanded be thrown in jail”.
Per the NYT report:
The official’s directive, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, goes as far as to list possible charges prosecutors could file, ranging from arson to material support of terrorism. The memo suggests department leaders are following orders from the president that specific people or groups be subject to criminal investigation – a major break from decades of past practice meant to insulate the justice department from political interference.
Trump has revisited his grievances with Democratic megadonor Soros, 95, in recent days, amid a backdrop of threatening to silence liberal and progressive individuals and groups in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk – which he has repeatedly blamed on the so-called “radical left”.
Last Friday he singled out Soros, a longtime backer of progressive causes and Democratic candidates, and his foundation, the Open Society Foundations which funds global democratic initiatives, telling Fox & Friends that “we’re going to look into Soros” for possible violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. He also told NBC News Soros “should be put in jail”, adding: “He’s a bad guy.”
Per the NYT report:
[Soros’s foundation] provides grants to groups that work for human rights, democracy and equity, but Mr. Trump and some Republicans contend, without providing evidence, that it is a shadowy network promoting civil unrest, violent protests and property destruction. Liberals say the assertions are falsehoods aimed at stifling dissent.
Chad Gilmartin, a spokesperson for the justice department, defended the move to the NYT. “This D.O.J., along with our hard-working and dedicated U.S. attorneys, will always prioritize public safety and investigate organizations that conspire to commit acts of violence or other federal violations of law,” he said.
In a statement provided to the Guardian, the Open Society Foundations denounced the accusations as “politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the first amendment right to free speech.”
The organization said its work in the United States was “solely dedicated to strengthening democracy and upholding constitutional freedoms.” Saying it condemned terrorism and denying that it funded it, the group added, “Our activities are peaceful and lawful.”
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'Radical left Democrats' are causing increase in political violence, says Trump
During his brief media availability before his meeting with the president of Turkey, Donald Trump once again blamed “radical left” Democrats for the increase in political violence throughout the country, after yesterday’s shooting at an Ice facility in Dallas.
One detainee was killed, and two were severely injured in the attack. Notably, no federal agents were wounded. Department of Homeland Security officials said on Wednesday it was “an attack on Ice law enforcement”. At both today’s press conference and in a statement, law enforcement said that shell casings found near the shooter had “anti-Ice” messaging on them.
In the Oval Office today, Trump said that “the radical left is causing this problem, not the right”.
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I’ve been speaking with Carl Tobias, professor at University of Richmond School of Law, who told me that an indictment against Comey might be a more difficult hurdle to clear than the justice department realizes.
“Although federal prosecutors generally encounter little difficulty in securing an indictment from a grand jury, a Virginia federal grand jury, especially one in Richmond, where Comey is well respected and led the US Attorney office here, may complicate DoJ’s ability to secure an indictment,” Tobias said.
He added there is a general weakness in the case. The fact the previous US attorney for the district, Erik Siebert, found insufficient evidence to charge Comey, alongside Trump’s calls for attorney general Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey, who he proclaimed is “guilty as hell”, could taint the indictment and appear to be politically motivated.
Tobias noted that if the justice department is unsuccessful in securing the indictment, it may seek out other avenues to target Comey.
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Trump stays quiet about Comey indictment, calls former FBI director a 'sick person'
The president said that he “didn’t know what was going to happen” with regard to reports of the imminent indictment of former FBI director James Comey.
“I can only say that Comey is a bad person. He’s a sick person. I think he’s a sick guy…he did terrible things at the FBI,” the president said, after praising Lindsey Halligan, the new US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.
Trump appointed Halligan, a former White House staffer, after firing her predecessor, Erik Siebert, when he said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey.
Trump blames government shutdown on Democrats, after White House memo tells agencies to prepare for layoffs
In response to a question about the circulated memo by the OMB to federal agencies, telling them to prepare for significant layoffs in the event of a government shutdown, Trump blames Democrats for any reduction-in-force.
“This is all caused by the Democrats. They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable. They never change,” the president said. “This is what Schumer wants. This is what the Democrats want.”
“With all of the heavy bombardment over the last two weeks, they’ve gained almost no land. Think of that. They’ve gained almost no land,” Donald Trump said of Russia’s most recent offensive in Ukraine. “I’m not going to ever call anybody a paper tiger, but Russia spent millions and millions of dollars in bombs, missiles, ammunition and lives, their lives, and they’ve gained virtually no land.”
'We're close to getting a deal done,' Trump says on Gaza war
When asked whether Trump and Erdoğan are aligned on the war in Gaza, and foreign policy in the region, the US president said he “doesn’t know” what the leader of Turkey’s stance is.
However, he noted that his meeting with Arab leaders on Tuesday was successful, before repeating his insistence on the release of all Israeli hostages. “We want them all back, we want them back at one time,” Trump said.
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Trump says he wants Turkey to stop buying Russian oil
During his spray with reporters, Trump said: “I’d like to have him [Erdoğan] stop buying any oil from Russia, while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine.”
The president repeated that the Russian economy is struggling due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. “It’s such a waste of human life, and so he ought to stop. Putin ought to stop,” Trump said.
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Trump begins meeting with Erdoğan
Speaking in front of reporters, Donald Trump describes his strong relationship with the president of Turkey.
“When I was in exile, we were still friends,” Trump said, referring to the four years after he lost the 2020 election to former president Joe Biden.
Trump said that Erdoğan has “built a tremendous military” and they buy a significant amount of weapons from the US.
“They want to buy F-16s, F-35s and some other things, and we’re going to talk to them about that,” Trump said. “We’re just going to have, I think, a very interesting couple of hours.”
Trump welcomes Erdoğan to the White House
Donald Trump just welcomed the president of Turkey to the White House. They’re due to start their meeting shortly.
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Controversial Oklahoma state superintendent to resign, joins conservative teachers non-profit
Ryan Walters, the controversial state superintendent in Oklahoma, announced he would resign from his position to take on a new role at a conservative teachers non-profit.
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Top Democrats say they 'won't be intimidated' by White House memo ordering layoffs in event of government shutdown
Top congressional Democrats have made their feelings clear about a memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that tells federal agencies to brace for layoffs in the event of a government shutdown.
A partisan blame game has ensued after lawmakers failed to pass a resolution to keep the government funded beyond the 30 September deadline.
In a post on X, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called Russ Vought, head of the OMB, a “a malignant political hack” and said that Democrats “will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings”.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said the move to fire workers was “nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government”.
“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one – not to govern, but to scare,” Schumer added.
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One key discussion area we’ll be keeping an ear out for during today’s meeting with Erdoğan is any movement on ceasefire plans in Gaza. Particularly after Donald Trump’s multilateral meeting this week with Turkey’s president and several leaders of Arab and Muslim countries.
At the meeting, the president presented the leaders with a 21-point plan for peace in the Middle East, according to special envoy Steve Witkoff. We’re hopeful – and I might say even confident – that in the coming days we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough,” Witkoff told reporters on Tuesday.
Union president says 'federal employees are not bargaining chips', as government shutdown looms
The president of a major union representing federal employees has called on both parties to resume negotiations and prevent a government shutdown from beginning next Wednesday.
The appeal from American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley comes after the White House warned that it would use a shutdown to begin another round of layoffs of government workers and focus on agencies that would be closed if funding lapses.
“The truth is simple: Republicans cannot fund the government without Democratic votes. That means the only path forward is compromise. The president and congressional leaders must sit down and negotiate in good faith to keep the lights on for the American people. Nothing less is acceptable,” Kelley said in a statement.
“Federal employees are not bargaining chips. They are veterans, caregivers, law enforcement officers, and neighbors who serve their country and fellow Americans every day. They deserve stability and respect, not pink slips and political games.”
Republicans have demanded that Democrats agree to extend government funding through 21 November. But the minority party has balked, and insisted that the GOP agree to undo cuts to Medicaid and public media funding approved earlier this year and extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans.
The two sides do not appear to be negotiating. At the Capitol on Wednesday, Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said he had last talked to Republican speaker Mike Johnson last week about “logistics around the government funding vote, but had no discussion about substance.”
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Trump due to welcome president of Turkey to the White House
At 11am EST the president is due to welcome the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. We’ll bring you the latest lines as that happens.
Federal judge rules that fired inspectors general can't be reinstated
A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that she won’t reinstate several inspectors general who were fired by Donald Trump earlier this year.
But noted that the administration’s actions likely violated the Inspectors General Act, which requires the president to give Congress at least 30 days notice and provide detailed reasoning behind the termination of a government watchdog.
When Trump took office he cleared house, firing 17 inspectors general – whose job is to monitor agencies for waste, fraud and abuse – with two-line emails.
Eight of the fired inspectors general filed a lawsuit, asking to be reinstated to their positions.
“President Trump violated the IGA. That much is obvious,” judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, wrote. However, she noted that the court cannot “provide the plaintiffs more”.
“If the court reinstated plaintiffs, the president could refire each of them by providing the required notice and rationale. And that ‘rationale’ could well cause the very reputational harm they seek to avoid,” Reyes added. “They sacrificed much to take on the role of an IG and its many demands – no doubt including substantial time away from family and far larger paychecks available in the private sector. They deserved better from their government. They still do.”
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Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is now addressing the floor via video link.
A reminder, that the Trump administration barred Abbas and his senior aides from traveling to New York for the gathering of world leaders.
Abbas says that Israel have “imposed a stifling siege on an entire people” and says that it is “not merely an aggression; it is a war crime and a crime against humanity”.
He adds that Israel continues to illegally expand its settlements. He says Palestine rejects and “completely deplores” plans for a “Greater Israel”.
Our dedicated liveblog will be covering the latest developments.
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Federal prosecutors presented newly minted US attorney with memo suggesting not to file charges against Comey
Regarding James Comey’s expected criminal charges, ABC news has reported that federal prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia presented the newly minted US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, with a memo earlier this week that detailed why not to file criminal charges against the former FBI director.
ABC cites sources familiar with the memo, who also noting that justice department lawyers would be unable to secure a conviction of Comey by proving the claims “beyond a reasonable doubt”, and they couldn’t reach a significantly lower standard to secure an indictment.
A reminder, Donald Trump fired Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, after he said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general and longtime Trump adversary.
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White House budget office tells agencies to prepare for mass firings in event of government shutdown - report
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), managed by Russell Vought, is instructing federal agencies to prepare “reduction-in-force” plans for mass firings during a possible government shutdown, according to a report by Politico.
A reminder that government funding expires on 30 September, and congressional lawmakers have yet to pass any kind of funding extension.
According to a memo shared with Politico, federal programs which did not benefit from “mandatory appropriations” will bear the brunt of the firings should a continuing resolution, to keep the government funded, fail to pass. Agencies have been instructed to submit plans for layoffs to OMB, and to issue notices to employees even if they would otherwise be excepted or furloughed during a lapse in funding, according to the report.
The memo notes that reductions in force will be in addition to furloughs in the event of a government shutdown.
According to an official granted anonymity to speak with Politico about plans not yet public, programs that will continue regardless of a shutdown include “Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, military operations, law enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and air traffic control”.
“We remain hopeful that Democrats in Congress will not trigger a shutdown and the steps outlined above will not be necessary,” the memo reads. As of now, leaders on Capitol Hill are continuing the blame game if a shutdown comes to pass.
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Dozens of House Democrats have signed a letter to Donald Trump and secretary of state Marco Rubio, urging the administration to recognize Palestinian statehood.
The letter, led by California Democrat Ro Khanna, has 46 signatures, and lawmakers will send it to the US president on Friday, according to plans first provided to the Guardian.
The letter’s delivery will coincide with the conclusion of the United Nations general assembly. This week, France joined the growing chorus of US allies – including the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal – and called for the formal recognition of a Palestinian state.
“Just as the lives of Palestinians must be immediately protected, so too must their rights as a people and nation urgently be acknowledged and upheld,” the letter reads. “We encourage the governments of other countries that have yet to recognize Palestinian statehood, including the United States, to do so as well.”
Joining Khanna in signing the letter are several House progressives including congressman Greg Casar of Texas, congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington state and congressman Maxwell Frost of Florida. In August, the Guardian reported on the draft of the letter which, at the time, had a little over a dozen signatures.
The letter calls for the adoption of the same framework that French president Emmanuel Macron laid out earlier this year in order to “guarantee Israel’s security”. This includes “the disarmament of and relinquishing of power by Hamas in Gaza”, as well as working with the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Authority, Arab allies, and Israel to ensure this is possible.
Khanna told the Guardian that the letter is a “litmus test” for the Democratic party and any Democratic candidates. He added that lawmakers from his own party that are holding out on signing are “totally out of touch with our base and Democratic voters, they’re totally out of touch with the young generation, and they’re totally out of touch with the world”.
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Donald Trump will welcome the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to the White House today for a bilateral meeting.
He’ll welcome the Turkish leader at 11am EST, when we’ll get the opportunity to cover his arrival.
As of now, both the meeting with Erdoğan and the lunch following will be closed to press. But we’ll let you know if the press pool ends up getting access at any point.
Later, Trump will sign executive orders, and have a meeting with the prime minister of Pakistan, from the Oval Office.
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The White House asked federal agencies on Wednesday to prepare plans for mass firings during a possible government shutdown next week, marking a sharp departure from the temporary furloughs of workers typically seen during past shutdowns, Reuters reports.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent the memo to federal agencies and asked them to identify programs, projects and activities where discretionary funding will lapse on 1 October if the US Congress does not pass legislation to keep the federal government open.
“Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown,” the OMB said in the memo, which the White House provided.
It was not clear whether the White House was trying to take advantage of a possible shutdown to advance Donald Trump’s push to slash the federal workforce, or whether it was a negotiating tactic to force Democrats to agree to pass the Republicans’ funding legislation.
“This is an attempt at intimidation,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement late Wednesday. “Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since Day One – not to govern, but to scare.”
He predicted any firings will be overturned in court, as others have been.
Agencies were told to submit their proposed reduction-in-force plans to the OMB and to issue notices to employees.
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One element of the possible indictment against the former FBI director James Comey is expected to accuse him of lying to Congress during testimony.
MSNBC’s justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian posted on X that Comey could be accused of lying about whether he authorized a leak of information during his testimony on 30 September 2020.
The testimony related to his handling of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
He wrote:
Former FBI Director James Comey, for years the target of President Trump’s ire, is expected to be indicted in the coming days in the Eastern District of Virginia, where a prosecutor who opposed bringing the case was recently fired, three sources familiar with the matter told MSNBC.
The full extent of the charges being prepared against Comey is unclear, but the sources believe that at least one element of the indictment – if it goes forward – will accuse him of lying to Congress during his testimony on September 30, 2020 about whether he authorized a leak of information.
The five year statute of limitations on that charge would lapse on Tuesday.
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Trump’s CDC cuts could threaten chronic illness and national security, experts warn
Donald Trump’s budget would cut funding for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by 53%, eliminating 61 programs and laying off another 16% of health agency staff, according to a new report – moves that would drastically reduce disease prevention and fuel more chronic illness, public health leaders say.
“We cannot lose this,” said Joseph Kanter, CEO of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). “This is crucial to the health of every person in every community across this country, whether they realize it or not.”
Federal cuts are already reverberating throughout the US. The Trump administration has clawed back more than $12bn from public health budgets.
There have been delays in releasing funds already appropriated by Congress, which means local programs have had to shutter even when they were supposed to be funded. More than 20,000 employees have left health agencies in the past eight months because of layoffs, firings and resignations.
“We’re facing really significant threats to our ability to invest in chronic disease prevention with what’s been happening these last few months,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (Naccho).
The public health system in the US is fragmented by state, but it is underpinned by funding and support from the CDC. Some 80% of the CDC’s funding flows to state, local, territorial and tribal health departments.
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Rodney Taylor, a Liberia-born man who is a double amputee and is missing three fingers on one hand has filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court seeking release from Georgia’s Stewart detention center, after being held there by Ice for eight months.
“What is at stake in this case … is one of the most profound individual interests recognized by our legal system: whether Ice may unilaterally take away – without a lawful basis – his physical freedom, ie, his ‘constitutionally protected interest in avoiding physical restraint’,” the petition says.
The action is “a canary in the coalmine for what’s about to happen” nationwide, said Sarah Owings, Taylor’s immigration attorney. “[T]housands of habeas claims are going to be filed across the country,” she said, after a Board of Immigration Appeals decision on 5 September dramatically curtailed the immigration system’s ability to release detainees while awaiting decisions on their status.
This is making immigration attorneys turn to federal district courts, observers told the Guardian.
Taylor’s continued detention despite his extensive medical needs is “yet another stark example of the cruelty of this administration”, said Helen L Parsonage, the attorney who filed the petition.
Brought to the US by his mother on a medical visa when he was a child, Taylor had 16 operations for his medical conditions. Now 46, he has lived in the US nearly his entire life and works as a barber.
He got engaged only 10 days before Ice detained him in January – due to a burglary conviction from when he was a teenager and for which the state of Georgia pardoned him in 2010, according to Owings, who shared some of Taylor’s paperwork with the Guardian.
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Donald Trump alleged “triple sabotage” at the United Nations, after the US president was plagued by a series of unfortunate events surrounding his address to the global body.
“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday,” Trump wrote Wednesday in a 357-word social media chronicle of “Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!”
According to Trump, his smooth arrival at the summit in New York on Tuesday was disrupted when the escalator ferrying him and the first lady, Melania Trump, “stopped on a dime”. He expressed relief that the first couple “didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first”.
Then, when he took the green marble podium, his teleprompter went “stone cold dark”.
“I immediately thought to myself, “Wow, first the escalator event, and now a bad teleprompter. What kind of a place is this?’” Trump wrote. Adding insult to injury, he recounted a third alleged offense. After being forced to improvise part of his speech to the general assembly, he asked his wife how he had done, and she replied: “I couldn’t hear a word you said.”
“This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN,” Trump declared, demanding an “immediate” investigation into the matter, a diplomatic incident so Trumpian it has earned the name “escalatorgate”.
Trump hangs autopen photo instead of Biden portrait in new presidential gallery
Donald Trump has added a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the exterior of the White House, featuring portraits of each of the previous commanders-in-chief – except for one.
Instead of a headshot of Joe Biden, the Republican incumbent instead placed a photo of an autopen signing the Democrat’s name – a reference to Trump’s frequent allegation that the former president was addled by the end of his term in office and not really the one making decisions.
The snub is the latest attempt by Trump to delegitimise a predecessor he routinely belittles, including in front of more than 100 world leaders on Tuesday at the UN general assembly gathering. Trump has never acknowledged his own defeat to Biden in the 2020 election, instead falsely chalking up the outcome to voter fraud.
Trump had previously signalled he would represent Biden with an autopen on the walkway. Trump has alleged without evidence that Biden administration officials may have forged their boss’s signature by using the autopen and taken broad actions he was not aware of.
He has also cast doubt on the validity of pardons and other documents that Biden signed with an autopen, even though other presidents before him have also relied on the device to sign key papers. A Republican-led House committee is investigating the Biden administration’s autopen use.
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Gunman wrote 'ANTI-ICE' on unused bullet in fatal attack on Dallas immigration office
A gunman, who wrote “ANTI-ICE” on an unused bullet, fired on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas from a nearby rooftop on Wednesday, killing a detainee and badly wounding two others before taking his own life, officials said.
Donald Trump and members of his administration seized on the attack as the latest instance of what they characterized as an escalation of politically motivated violence incited by the left.
They accused California governor Gavin Newsom and other Democrats of stirring hate by unfairly vilifying law enforcement and conservative political figures, Reuters reported.
FBI director Kash Patel posted a photo on X showing what he said was the suspect’s unused ammunition. The shell casing of one round was inscribed with “ANTI-ICE”.
“While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack,” Patel wrote. US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem later said in a Fox News interview that the gunman “was targeting Ice,” based on “evidence so far in this case”.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump accused “Radical Left Democrats” of stoking anti-ICE violence by “constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to Nazis”.
Invoking the recent assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, Trump said that “radical left terrorists” pose a “grave threat” to law enforcement and “must be stopped”.
Trump said he would sign an executive order this week to “dismantle these domestic terrorism networks”. He offered no evidence to support the notion that “networks”, rather than individuals, were behind recent acts of political violence, or that left-wing perpetrators were any more prevalent than those on the right in recent years.
In a statement about the Texas shooting, the Department of Homeland Security said the suspect fired “indiscriminately” at the Ice facility, including at a van in the building’s secured entryway where the victims were shot. DHS said one detainee was killed and two others were in critical condition.
Officials have not disclosed the identities of the victims.
Read more on the story here:
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Former FBI director James Comey expected to be indicted on criminal charges, reports say
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
James Comey, the former director of the FBI, is reportedly facing imminent criminal charges, which are expected to be filed in federal court in Virginia, according to a report by MSNBC on Wednesday.
Comey has long been a focus of criticism from Donald Trump, who dismissed him from his role as FBI chief during the early months of his first term.
The news of a possible indictment surfaced just days after Erik Siebert, who had been serving as the acting US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, resigned under political pressure from Trump. Siebert had reportedly opposed pursuing charges against Comey in that jurisdiction.
On Monday, Lindsey Halligan, an attorney who has previously represented Trump in personal legal matters, was appointed as Siebert’s replacement.
In a social media post over the weekend, Trump expressed his outrage over the lack of charges against Comey, labelling him “guilty as hell”.
MSNBC journalist Ken Dilanian posted on X on Wednesday, stating that “the full extent of the charges being prepared against Comey is unclear”.
In other developments:
Donald Trump demanded an investigation of what he called “triple sabotage” of his UN address on Tuesday: a malfunctioning escalator, a faulty teleprompter and an apparent sound problem in the hall. UN officials said the US delegation was responsible for the first two, and the third was less dramatic than Trump claimed.
JD Vance, the vice-president, claimed without evidence that a gunman who opened fire at an Ice facility in Dallas, killing one detainee and wounding two more before taking his own life, was a “violent leftwing extremist”.
The White House used a wall of the presidential residence to stage an elaborate prank, creating a “walk of fame” featuring framed portraits of 44 of the 45 men to have served as president, all except for Joe Biden, who was represented by an image of an autopen, to suggest that he did not actually run his administration.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, said that Democrats “have drawn a line in the sand” when it comes to the Republican-written short term spending bill, that extends government funding until 21 November.
The state superintendent in Oklahoma announced plans to put rightwing Turning Point USA chapters in every high school in the state, saying it would counter “radical leftist teachers’ unions” and their “woke indoctrination”.
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