Closing abstract
This brings our reside protection of the second Trump administration to a detailed for the day. We’ll return on Friday morning. Listed below are the most recent developments:
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Donald Trump’s lengthy public marketing campaign to get somebody to carry legal prices towards James Comey, the previous FBI director he fired in 2017, lastly succeeded on Thursday, because the White Home aide he put in as a prosecutor this week indicted the person Trump holds largely liable for the Russia investigation.
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Trump celebrated the indictment of “One of many worst human beings this Nation has ever been uncovered to”, in a social media submit that might be used as proof that the prosecution is politically motivated.
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“I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not both,” Comey mentioned in an Instagram video assertion. “My coronary heart is damaged for the Division of Justice, however I’ve nice confidence within the federal judicial system and I’m harmless, so let’s have a trial.”
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Maurene Comey, the previous FBI director’s daughter, who led the federal prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and was fired this summer season with out clarification, cited Trump’s hatred of her father in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed this month.
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Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born congresswoman from Minnesota, accused Trump of inventing a narrative he advised reporters within the Oval Workplace on Thursday, about having supposedly requested Somalia’s president if he would “take her again.”
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Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the justice division and the FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce to analyze what he claimed is an organized marketing campaign of political violence and home terrorism funded by Democrats.
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The Home Democratic marketing campaign arm believes their lawmakers have the benefit within the tense battle over authorities funding, after final week refusing to again a Republican plan to forestall a shutdown until their calls for on healthcare and different points are met.
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We go away you with video of Hillary Clinton saying in a 2016 debate: “It’s simply awfully good that somebody with the temperament of Donald Trump just isn’t accountable for the regulation in our nation.” He replied: “Since you’d be in jail.”
Key occasions
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Closing summary
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Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein, cites Trump’s hatred of her father in wrongful termination lawsuit
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‘I’m innocent,’ James Comey says in video statement posted on Instagram
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How Comey, who helped elect Trump, got to the top of his enemies list
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Attorney general and FBI director welcome Comey charges
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Trump hails indictment of Comey: ‘Justice in America’
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Trump announces tariffs on trucks, kitchen cabinets and furniture
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Ilhan Omar says Trump made up story about discussing her with Somalia’s president
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Former FBI director and Trump critic James Comey indicted by prosecutor installed by president
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Trump directs FBI and justice department to investigate supposed funders of ‘organized political violence’
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House Democrat campaigners predict GOP ‘will be blamed’ if government shuts down over healthcare demands
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Trump signs memorandum directing federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for murders in Washington DC
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Trump says he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank
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Security at Ice facilities to be stepped up in wake of Dallas shooting
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Trump announces deal for US investors to take over TikTok in US
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Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Officials say shooter used ‘Ice tracking apps’ to monitor agents’ movements
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FBI special agent says suspect ‘intended to kill Ice agents’
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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’
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Officials confirm name of suspect in Dallas Ice facility shooting
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Utah court appoints attorney to man charged with killing Charlie Kirk
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Trump’s false assertion that London could introduce sharia law is ‘nonsense’, says UK’s Starmer in rare rebuke
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DOJ official pushes prosecutors to investigate George Soros’s foundation – report
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‘Radical left Democrats’ are causing increase in political violence, says Trump
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Trump stays quiet about Comey indictment, calls former FBI director a ‘sick person’
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Trump blames government shutdown on Democrats, after White House memo tells agencies to prepare for layoffs
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‘We’re close to getting a deal done,’ Trump says on Gaza war
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Trump says he wants Turkey to stop buying Russian oil
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Trump begins meeting with Erdoğan
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Trump welcomes Erdoğan to the White House
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Controversial Oklahoma state superintendent to resign, joins 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
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Union president says ‘federal employees are not bargaining chips’, as government shutdown looms
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Trump due to welcome president of Turkey to the White House
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Federal judge rules that fired inspectors general can’t be reinstated
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Federal prosecutors presented newly minted US attorney with memo suggesting not to file charges against Comey
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White House budget office tells agencies to prepare for mass firings in event of government shutdown – report
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Trump’s CDC cuts could threaten chronic illness and national security, experts warn
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Trump hangs autopen photo instead of Biden portrait in new presidential gallery
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Gunman wrote ‘ANTI-ICE’ on unused bullet in fatal attack on Dallas immigration office
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Former FBI director James Comey expected to be indicted on criminal charges, reports say
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 previous FBI director’s daughter, who led the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and was fired this summer season with out clarification, cited Donald Trump’s hatred of her father in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed this month in federal court docket.
The go well with explains that Maurene Comey was “abruptly fired” on 16 July 16 from her job as an assistant US lawyer in Manhattan regardless of an “excellent” efficiency evaluation simply months earlier.
The go well with, which names the workplace of the president and the lawyer normal as defendants, says that they “fired Ms. Comey solely or considerably as a result of her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or due to her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or each.”
It goes on to allege that Trump’s hatred of her father, and the antipathy of Trump’s exterior adviser Laura Loomer, have been main components in her wrongful termination.
Based on the suit:
James Comey served because the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2013 till President Trump fired him in 2017. For the previous 9 years, President Trump has publicly criticized Mr. Comey for his actions whereas serving as FBI Director, and since after he was fired, Mr. Comey (i) wrote a memoir important of President Trump, (ii) continued to publicly criticize President Trump and his Administration, and (iii) in Could 2025 posted a message on social media that President Trump and others within the Trump Administration claimed to understand as threatening.
Following Mr. Comey’s Could 2025 social media submit and different important statements, President Trump’s supporters known as for Ms. Comey’s firing. Notable amongst these supporters is Laura Loomer, a social media influencer who, on info and perception, has political affect within the Trump Administration, together with affect over the termination of federal workers. President Trump has publicly acknowledged: “Should you’re Loomered you’re in serious trouble. That’s the tip of your profession in a way.” On Could 18, 2025, Ms. Loomer known as for Mr. Comey’s “liberal daughter” and her “Democrat husband” to be “FIRED from the DOJ instantly” “for being a nationwide safety threat through their proximity to a legal [i.e., Mr. Comey] who simply dedicated a felony by threatening to assassinate the President.” Ms. Loomer additionally declared that, “beneath [Attorney General Pamela] Blondi [sic], each Deep State Operator is being emboldened,” and she or he “query[ed] the impartiality of Maurene and Lucas [Maurene’s husband] of their prosecutorial roles, particularly in high-profile instances, as a result of simple bias and affect stemming from James Comey’s public criticism of Trump and the continued investigation into his Instagram submit.”
James Comey’s son-in-law resigned as a federal prosecutor minutes after the previous FBI director was indicted Thursday.
Troy Edwards wrote in an electronic mail to Lindsey Halligan, the previous White Home aide with no prosecutorial expertise parachuted into the job as US lawyer for the jap district of Virginia this week that he was resigning “To uphold my oath to the Structure and the nation”.
Edwards , who helped prosecute pro-Trump January 6 rioters later pardoned by Trump, was deputy chief of the nationwide safety part, which covers the Pentagon and CIA headquarters, and handles a number of the highest-profile espionage instances.
‘I am harmless,’ James Comey says in video assertion posted on Instagram
James Comey, the previous FBI director, professed his innocence in a video assertion posted on Instagram on Thursday after he was indicted by the previous White Home aide Donald Trump appointed US lawyer for the jap district of Virginia this week.
“My household and I’ve identified for years that there are prices to standing as much as Donald Trump,” Comey mentioned. “However we couldn’t think about ourselves dwelling every other means. We won’t reside on our knees, and also you shouldn’t both.”
“I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not both. I hope as a substitute you might be engaged, you might be paying consideration and you’ll vote like your loved one nation relies upon upon it, which it does,” he added.
“My coronary heart is damaged for the Division of Justice, however I’ve nice confidence within the federal judicial system and I’m harmless, so let’s have a trial. And maintain the religion,” he concluded.
How Comey, who helped elect Trump, obtained to the highest of his enemies listing
Donald Trump’s lengthy public marketing campaign to get somebody in his administration to carry legal prices towards James Comey, the previous FBI director he fired in 2017, lastly succeeded on Thursday, however the president has been so public about his loathing of the indicted man, and his need to see him jailed, that it could be laborious for prosecutors to persuade a jury that the case was not introduced for political causes.
Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 after he reportedly refused a request to pledge his loyalty to the newly elected president, after which 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, nonetheless, as a result of it helped persuade then deputy lawyer normal Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to, in his phrases “oversee the beforehand confirmed FBI investigation of Russian authorities efforts to affect the 2016 presidential election and associated issues”.
Though Mueller’s report, issued in 2019, concluded that his crew “didn’t set up that members of the Trump marketing campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian authorities in its election interference actions”, the investigation unearthed loads of proof that the Russian effort did happen and, in Mueller’s phrases, “established that the Russian authorities perceived it might profit from a Trump presidency and labored to safe that consequence”.
Mueller added that the Trump marketing campaign “anticipated it might profit electorally from info stolen and launched by Russian efforts”.
Whereas Mueller in the end elected to not cost Trump’s son, Don Jr, with violating marketing campaign finance legal guidelines by soliciting derogatory details about Hillary Clinton from the Russian authorities in a gathering with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower through the 2016 marketing campaign, the investigation made it plain that the Trump marketing campaign had been open to assist from Russia.
When a publicist for the Russian oligarch who paid Trump to stage his Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013 wrote to inform Don Jr {that a} Russian prosecutor wished to supply the Trump marketing campaign “official paperwork and data that may incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia, calling it “a part of Russia and its authorities’s assist to Mr Trump”, Trump’s son replied, “If it’s what you say, I like it,” and obtained Trump’s marketing campaign chair Paul Manafort and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to attend the assembly.
The indictment of Comey comes as Trump seeks to make use of the ability of the justice division to punish a person he sees as a central determine within the Russia investigation he has regularly described as “a witch-hunt” and “a hoax”.
One of many ironies of the state of affairs is that Comey, who solid himself as a rigidly non-partisan regulation enforcement official, performed an outsized function in serving to Trump to get elected within the first place.
It was Comey who, as FBI director in the summertime of 2016, determined to not suggest legal prices towards Hillary Clinton over her use of a personal electronic mail server to conduct official enterprise whereas secretary of state, however took it upon himself to carry a press convention to clarify his choice.
In that public discussion board, Comey said that whereas Clinton and her employees had been “extraordinarily careless of their dealing with of very delicate, extremely categorised info” and there was “proof of potential violations of the statutes relating to the dealing with of categorised info,” he had concluded, as a former prosecutor himself, that “no cheap prosecutor would carry such a case”.
That information convention provided Trump, who was then operating towards Clinton, ammunition to explain her use of a private electronic mail server as reckless. Trump embraced that line of assault with glee, notably after WikiLeaks printed emails from Clinton marketing campaign aides that had been stolen by Russian authorities hackers.
Then, days earlier than the November election, Comey all of the sudden introduced that the FBI had reopened its investigation of Clinton’s personal emails, after copies of some mail was discovered on the laptop computer of the disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, who was then married to Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin.
Though Comey then introduced, earlier than election day, that the evaluation of the extra emails had discovered nothing of substance, Clinton dropped within the polls within the closing days of the marketing campaign, and narrowly misplaced to Trump.
One other irony is that Comey, who has now been indicted by the brand new US lawyer for the jap district of Virginia, is himself a former federal prosecutor in that workplace, who went on to function the US lawyer for the southern district of New York, and deputy lawyer normal beneath George W Bush earlier than later being appointed FBI director by Barack Obama in 2013.
Lawyer normal and FBI director welcome Comey prices
Donald Trump’s lawyer normal, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, welcomed the indictment of James Comey, who served as deputy lawyer normal through the George W Bush administration and was fired as FBI director by Donald Trump in 2017 after he advised Congress that the FBI was conducting a counterintelligence investigation of Russian interference within the election of Trump as president in 2016.
A justice division press launch despatched to reporters on Thursday started:
At this time, a federal grand jury has charged former FBI Director James Comey with severe crimes associated to the disclosure of delicate info. The indictment alleges that Comey obstructed a congressional investigation into the disclosure of delicate info in violation of 18 USC 1505.
The indictment additionally alleges that Comey made a false assertion in violation of 18 USC 1001. Comey acknowledged that he didn’t authorize somebody on the FBI to be an nameless supply. Based on the indictment that assertion was false.
The assertion was adopted by a quote from Bondi, which was posted on her official X account earlier. “Nobody is above the regulation,” the lawyer normal mentioned. “At this time’s indictment displays this Division of Justice’s dedication to holding those that abuse positions of energy accountable for deceptive the American individuals. We’ll comply with the info on this case.”
“At this time, your FBI took one other step in its promise of full accountability,” Patel added. “For a lot too lengthy, earlier corrupt management and their enablers weaponized federal regulation enforcement, damaging as soon as proud establishments and severely eroding public belief. Day-after-day, we proceed the struggle to earn that belief again, and beneath my management, this FBI will confront the issue head-on.
“Nowhere was this politicization of regulation enforcement extra blatant than through the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in historical past we proceed to analyze and expose. Everybody, particularly these in positions of energy, will probably be held to account – regardless of their perch. Nobody is above the regulation.”
Regardless of the depth of these accusations from probably the most senior officers within the justice division, the assertion included the next disclaimer, written in italics on the backside of the web page:
“An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed harmless till confirmed responsible past an affordable doubt in a court docket of regulation.”
Trump hails indictment of Comey: ‘Justice in America’
In a pointy departure from the custom that presidents mustn’t touch upon legal instances, Donald Trump simply celebrated the indictment of the previous FBI director James Comey, in phrases that might make it even simpler for Comey’s legal professionals to argue that he’s the sufferer of selective prosecution.
The indictment got here days after Trump pressured out a profession prosecutor within the jap district of Virginia who had decided that there was inadequate proof to cost Comey, and posted a public instruction to Bondi to switch him with a White Home aide, Lindsey Halligan, who might be trusted to prosecute Comey and different officers Trump holds a grudge towards.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “One of many worst human beings this Nation has ever been uncovered to is James Comey, the previous Corrupt Head of the FBI. At this time he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for numerous unlawful and illegal acts. He has been so unhealthy for our Nation, for thus lengthy, and is now initially of being held liable for his crimes towards our Nation,” the president added.
He then signed off together with his political slogan: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump broadcasts tariffs on vans, kitchen cupboards and furnishings
Because the legality of Donald Trump’s tariffs stays unsure, the president introduced three extra on Thursday.
Writing on his social media platform, Trump mentioned: “I will probably be imposing, as of October 1st, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all “Heavy (Massive!) Vans” made in different elements of the World. Due to this fact, our Nice Massive Truck Firm Producers, comparable to Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Vans, and others, will probably be protected.”
In a separate post, he added: “We will probably be imposing a 50% Tariff on all Kitchen Cupboards, Lavatory Vanities, and related merchandise, beginning October 1st, 2025. Moreover, we will probably be charging a 30% Tariff on Upholstered Furnishings.”
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 narrative he advised reporters within the Oval Workplace on Thursday, about having supposedly requested Somalia’s president if he would “take her again.”
Omar is a naturalized US citizen who was born in Somalia and raised in a refugee camp in Kenya, however Trump has often handled her criticism of him as an affront to the US from somebody he nonetheless regards as a foreigner.
Trump introduced up Omar on Thursday in the midst of a rambling reply to a query about Jasmine Crockett, a fellow Democratic congresswoman. When Trump was requested by a conservative reporter if Crockett ought to face “penalties” for saying, “Once I see Ice, I see slave patrols,” the president repeated the racist declare he often makes about Black leaders who problem him: “she is a really low IQ particular person.”
He then introduced up Omar, whose title he mispronounced, unprompted.
“This can be a low IQ particular person, who I can’t I can’t imagine is a congressperson, between her and Ilman Omar,” Trump mentioned. “I met the pinnacle of Somalia,” he continued, “And I prompt that perhaps he’d wish to take her again, and he didn’t need her.”
As Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance, doubled over in laughter, and different members of his cupboard chuckled, the president mentioned once more: “He mentioned, ‘I don’t need her.’”
The White Home was so pleased with this quip that Trump’s particular assistant, Margo Martin, posted video of it on an official authorities social media account.
Omar responded by suggesting the president, who said last week he was undecided if Somalia even has a president, had made the entire thing up. “From denying Somalia had a president to creating up a narrative, President Trump is a mendacity buffoon. Nobody ought to take this embarrassing idiot severely,” she wrote on X.
Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was in New York this week to handle the United Nations, however he the US official he met with was not the president, however 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 put in by president
Lauren Gambino
James Comey, the previous FBI director and considered one of Donald Trump’s most frequent targets, was indicted on Thursday on one depend of creating a false assertion to Congress and one depend of obstruction of justice, in response to an individual acquainted with the matter, within the newest transfer within the president’s expansive retribution marketing campaign towards his political adversaries.
“Nobody is above the regulation. At this time’s indictment displays this Division of Justice’s dedication to holding those that abuse positions of energy accountable for deceptive the American individuals. We’ll comply with the info on this case,” Pam Bondi, the US lawyer normal, tweeted on Thursday.
The indictment got here shortly after Trump instructed Bondi to “transfer now” to prosecute Comey and different officers he considers political foes, in a very direct social media submit trampling on the justice division’s custom of independence.
Lindsey Halligan, the president’s former lawyer who was just lately sworn in because the US lawyer for the jap district of Virginia, requested a grand jury to indict Comey for allegedly mendacity to Congress in testimony on 30 September 2020 earlier than the five-year statute of limitations expires within the coming days. Comey’s testimony earlier than the Senate judiciary committee was associated to his dealing with of the investigation into Russian meddling within the 2016 US presidential election.
Halligan, who has no prosecutorial expertise, was elevated to the submit after Erik Siebert was pressured out of the job for failing to carry indictments towards Comey and Letitia James, the New York lawyer normal.
