Popular conservative activist Charlie Kirk was reportedly shot at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Wednesday.
Bystanders report seeing Kirk shot near his neck during a Q&A with students.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) is coming to the defense of disgraced former Congressman George Santos, who is currently serving out his prison sentence.
On Monday, Greene called on President Trump to issue a pardon to Santos, who began his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey last month after being sentenced to 87 months in prison for wire fraud and identity theft. (RELATED: Disgraced Former Rep. George Santos Gets Over 7 Years In Prison)
In a letter to President Trump’s U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, Greene wrote:
I am writing to request that your office urge the President to commute the sentence of former Congressman George Santos. In April 2025, Mr. Santos was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. I wholeheartedly believe in justice and the rule of the law, and I understand the gravity of such actions. However, I believe a seven-year sentence for such campaign-related matters for an individual with no prior criminal record extends far beyond what is warranted.
As a Member of Congress, I worked with Mr. Santos on many issues and can attest to his willingness and dedication to serve the people of New York who elected him to office. He committed himself to serving his constituents and did whatever it took to represent their interests in Washington, D.C. He is sincerely remorseful and has accepted full responsibility for his actions. Furthermore, my office has spoken with a pastor of his who discussed the regret and remorse of Mr. Santos, agreeing that the sentence imposed is a grave injustice.
While his crimes warrant punishment, many of my colleagues who I serve with have committed far worse offenses than Mr. Santos yet have faced zero criminal charges. I strongly believe in accountability for one’s actions, but I believe the sentencing of Mr. Santos is an abusive overreach by the judicial system.
Commuting his sentence would acknowledge the severity of his actions and simultaneously provide a path forward in allowing him to make amends for his crimes and strive to better serve the people in his community.
In May, Santos teared up on Piers Morgan Uncensored and pleaded with Trump for a pardon, “commutation, clemency, whatever the president is willing to give me,” after being sentenced.
The former congressman also requested protective custody after expressing fear of being “brutalized” in prison.
“I’m not fearful of dying in there, I’m more fearful of being severely brutalized and harmed, if you get my drift,” he said.
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Last month, during an interview with Tucker Carlson, Santos also expressed concern that his time in prison could be a “death sentence.”
“Tucker, can I be honest with you?” Santos asked Carlson, who called Santos’s prison sentence unfair compared to lesser sentences handed to violent criminals.
“I hope you will,” Carlson responded.
“I don’t know that I survive it. They’re putting me in a violent prison. It’s a medium facility. I’m not a street-wise guy. I don’t know how to fight. I’m a gay man. We– statistics tell you what happens to gay men in prison. I didn’t know I survived this. I, I’m being honest. I mean, I can’t change that,” Santos said, later saying his only hope is prayer and a longshot pardon from President Donald Trump.
When Carlson pressed Santos on whether he was being serious, Santos insisted he is not “exaggerating” his fear, saying he’s lived a “sheltered” life that in no way prepared him for prison.
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On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired Maurene Comey, a prosecutor with the Southern District of New York who had prosecuted deceased financier and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Comey, a senior trial counsel, is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017.
“The reason for her firing was not immediately clear. She did not immediately respond to phone calls and an email seeking comment,” Politico said. “Comey, who had worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for nearly a decade, prosecuted both Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Maurene Comey worked at the SDNY for almost a decade.
Maurene Comey’s termination at the DOJ comes amid an investigation into her father, who posted an image of seashells on a beach arranged to say “86 47.” Though “86” is restaurant industry lingo for refusing service to a patron or kicking them out of an establishment, many conservatives insisted Comey was calling for the president’s death. Last week, The New York Times reported that the Secret Service had tracked the former FBI director after the incident.
The Justice Department last week released a memo concluding there was no evidence suggesting the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender kept a “client list” to blackmail high-profile individuals. The memo also found no evidence to suggest foul play in Epstein’s death, which had previously been ruled a suicide.
The memo spurred fierce backlash from many Trump supporters, who had long called on the government to release material on Epstein that they argue would expose wrongdoing at the highest level of elite circles.
Trump has brushed aside calls to reveal more information about the Epstein case and has shown increasing frustration when asked about it over the past week.
“You mentioned past supporters when you were talking about the Epstein issue. Does that mean that you’re effectively disowning any supporters who are now calling—” a reporter asked Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Trump cut off the question and added, “I’ve lost a lot of faith in certain people, yeah, I’ve lost. Because they got duped by the Democrats.”
In a lengthy social media post, which included references to the president’s previous claims about the 2017 Russian election interference probe, Trump blamed Democrats for creating what he called a “scam” and “hoax.”
“Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at – It’s all they have – They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates,” Trump said. He added, “Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.”
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of Jason Galanis, a convicted ex-business associate of Hunter Biden, whom Trump officials described as the “fall guy” for the former first son’s business dealings.
Galanis was sentenced in 2017 to 189 months, or 14 years, in prison, after pleading guilty to securities fraud based on bonds issued by a company affiliated with a Native American tribe in South Dakota.
The funds were reportedly supposed to be used for certain projects, but were instead used for his personal finances.
A Trump administration official told Fox News Digital that Galanis served eight years and eight months of his sentence and had an “unblemished record while in prison.” The official also said Galanis was sexually assaulted by a security guard while in prison.
The Trump official told Fox News Digital that Galanis “basically was the fall guy for Hunter Biden and Devon Archer.” The official noted Galanis was “extremely cooperative” during the 2024 House impeachment inquiry into the Biden family.
“After serving eight years and eight months in prison on good behavior, the administration felt it was time for him to regain his liberty and go on into his private life,” the official told Fox News Digital.
Congressional investigators interviewed Galanis while he was in prison to gather information on the Biden family’s business dealings and any “access” to then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Galanis testified that Joe Biden was considering joining the board of a joint venture created by Hunter Biden and his business associates with ties to the Chinese Communist Party after he left the vice presidency.
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard is pushing the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute Obama administration officials linked to the debunked report alleging the 2016 Trump campaign engaged in Russian collusion.
More details are coming out concerning alleged efforts by former President Barack Obama and his team’s efforts to drum up intelligence to create a narrative of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Sunday. (RELATED: Report: Obama Admin. ‘Manufactured’ Intelligence To Establish Russian Collusion Narrative)
Gabbard appeared on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News, where she alleged a massive cover-up by intelligence officials in the Obama administration.
“There was direct intent to cover up the truth about what occurred and who was responsible, and the broad network of how this seditious conspiracy was concocted and who exactly was responsible for carrying it out,” Gabbard claimed.
“So at the end of the day, we need to look at Pam Bondi?” host Maria Bartiromo asked. “Is that the person who, at the end of the day, is gonna bring us accountability. Pam Bondi?”
Gabbard confirmed took the rare step of publicly calling on fellow administration officials to take action.
“Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel,” the director responded. “It is their responsibility to gather all of the evidence, both that we have released, the facts that have already been known previously, the information that will continue to come out, and move forward with this prosecution and these indictments.”
Gabbard told Bartiromo that her team released 100 documents on Friday.
They “provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected,” she noted. Gabbard also said they were referring all the records to the Department of Justice and FBI for a criminal referral.
“So the effect of what President Obama and his senior national security team did was subvert the will of the American people, undermining our democratic republic, and enacting what would be essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, who was duly elected by the American people,” Gabbard declared.
Pressed on whether she expects future indictments and prosecutions, Gabbard replied, “I’m not a lawyer. In my view, we have the evidence to be able to move forward and bring about justice, yes, to prosecute and indict those responsible.”
In a thread posted to X on Friday, Gabbard shared clips of documents and contended that Obama directed his top intelligence officials to “create” a new intelligence assessment in December 2016 that contradicted prior analyses, after which they “leaned on their allies in the media to advance their falsehoods” and push the narrative that Russia “intervened to hack the election in Trump’s favor.”
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CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju joined anchor Boris Sanchez on Tuesday to discuss the state of play surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case on Capitol Hill when they interviewed GOP Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.)
“Yeah, this is through a procedural vote, Democrats moving to force this vote to put Republicans on the record. If this were to succeed, it would have required that all documents related to Epstein be on a publicly accessible database within 30 days. That did not happen,” Raju explained, adding:
This came after the Senate and bipartisan Senate vote did succeed last week calling for the release of those Epstein files. But that separate bill has been stalled in the Senate committee. So it’s unclear exactly whether Congress will assert itself and force this issue. But the Republicans are divided about this. Republican leaders want absolutely nothing to do with this matter.
The speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, told me yesterday that he is going to defer to the White House on this. John Thune, the Senate majority leader, has not taken really any position on this at all. But members on the right flank of the House GOP and Senate GOP are the ones in particular who are raising the most concerns, including Congressman Tim Burchett, who just told me moments ago, he does not believe what the Justice Department is saying.
An amendment demanding that President Donald Trump’s administration release all files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was shot down by Republicans on the House Rules Committee on Monday.
The amendment, which was introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), was rejected by every Republican present during the vote except Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who voted with Democrats in favor of demanding that the Trump administration release the Epstein files.
Khanna’s amendment would have required U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to “retain, preserve, and compile any records or evidence related to any investigation, prosecution, or incarceration of Jeffrey Epstein,” and to “release and publish any records or evidence” on a “publicly accessible website” within 30 days.
Raju then played a clip of his exchange with Burchett, beginning with him asking, “Should there be investigation or special counsel investigation?”
“I don’t know. I’m not an attorney. Find them guilty and hang them publicly. I mean, that’s not over the top either. I’m ready. I’m over it. It disgusts me. I’m big on clarity and transparency, and that’s a good reason people don’t trust government, either party,” Burchett replied.
“But you don’t believe what the Justice Department is saying?” pressed Raju.
“I don’t know. No, I don’t. I think I don’t. I don’t trust them,” Burchett concluded.
“And that reference to the Justice Department memo that said that Jeffrey Epstein was indeed murdered and that there was no client list here, or that he was not murdered and that there was no client list, as some of those on the folks on the far right have suggested here. But there’s also no indication, Boris, that there will be an investigation into this on Capitol Hill. The Senate, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Jim Jordan, told reporters earlier today that he has confidence in President Trump and his handling of this matter,” concluded Raju.
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On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Burchett just formally called on Oversight Chair James Comer to allow Ghislaine Maxwell to testify in front of Congress on the Epstein situation.
On Monday evening, acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced that her office had charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) in connection with the congresswoman’s visit to an ICE detention facility in Newark.
McIver, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) and Reps. Rob Menendez (D-NJ)and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) visited the center on May 9. Baraka was arrested on that day, and shortly afterward, Habba hailed his arrest. But on Monday, Habba announced she is dropping the charges against the mayor and will proceed with the prosecution of McIver, alleging the lawmaker “assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement.”
On X, Habba wrote, “Today my office has charged Congresswoman McIver with violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1) for assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement.” In a statement, she added:
I take my obligations as U.S. Attorney seriously. I understand the responsibility that comes with my position, and I will work diligently to uphold the law and deliver justice to the people of New Jersey.
After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward.
In the spirit of public interest, I have invited the mayor to tour Delaney Hall. The government has nothing to hide at this facility, and I will personally accompany the mayor so he can see that firsthand.
The citizens of New Jersey deserve unified leadership so we can get to work to keep our state safe.
The dismissal against the mayor is not the end of this matter.
Congressional oversight is an important constitutional function and one that I fully support. However, that is not at issue in this case.
Representative LaMonica McIver assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1 1 1 (a)(1). That conduct cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey, and it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties. I have persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined.
No one is above the law — politicians or otherwise. It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work.
McIver responded with her own statement:
“Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district,” McIver said. “We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka.
Last week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) warned against repercussions for his fellow Democrat lawmakers who clashed with federal agents at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, last week after Trump’s border czar Tom Homan issued a warning to the lawmakers that charges could soon follow.
During an exchange with Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, Jeffries repeatedly said “they’ll find out” when pressed what might happen if the House Democrats involved in the incident were to be arrested by federal authorities or get sanctioned.
First Lady Melania Trump is threatening to sue former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, for $1 billion over “defamatory” claims linking her to late financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Melania’s attorney Alejandro Brito demanded that Biden “immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump,” which were contained in a video interview with Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan and posted to Youtube in early August.
Read the full letter:
“Failure to comply will leave Mrs. Trump with no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to her to recover the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that you have caused her to suffer,” Brito wrote.
In the video interview, titled “Hunter Biden Returns” video earlier in August, the former first son claimed “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep.”
Biden also claimed that “Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania, and that’s how Melania and the first lady and the President met.”
“If you do not comply with the above by August 7, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. EST, Mrs. Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce her legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for over $1 Billion Dollars in damages,” Brito wrote. “You are on notice.”
A source close to the matter told Fox News that Biden did not comply with the requests by the set deadline.
After Fox News published the piece, however, Melania Trump got Biden’s reply addressing the attorney’s letter when Callaghan posted a further interview with him to YouTube on Thursday.
Callaghan, holding up a copy at the interview’s opening, declared: “The day of presidential litigation has arrived!”
“We’re here, maybe, to give you the platform to apologize to the first lady for your statements that you made about her possible connection to Jeffrey Epstein,” the host said to Biden.
“F*ck that! That’s not going to happen,” Biden laughed.
Defending his comments as citation, Biden continued:
First of all is that, what I said was what I have heard and seen reported and written, primarily from Michael Wolff but also dating back all the way to 2019 when the New York Times – I think Annie Carney and and Maggie Haberman – reported that sources said that Jeffrey Epstein claimed to be the person to introduce Donald Trump to Melania at that time.
Biden added that he would not bow down to pressure or lawsuit threats: “I also think they’re bullies and they think that a billion dollars is going to scare me.”
I have this to say to them: If they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the the nature of the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein, if the president and the First Lady want to do that and all of the known associates around them at the time of whatever time that they met, I’m more than happy to provide them the platform to be able to do it.
The letter comes after the Daily Beast pulled the article detailing allegations by journalist Wolff that Melania Trump was introduced to her husband Donald Trump via a modeling agent connected to Epstein, after a challenge from the first lady’s lawyers.
“Editor’s Note. After this story was published, The Beast received a letter from First Lady Melania Trump’s attorney challenging the headline and framing of the article. After reviewing the matter, the Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding,” The Daily Beast posted in place of the article. The url for the article appears to have been amended to remove the original headline and now reads: thedailybeast.com/epstein-this-story-has-been-removed.
It also comes after famed Democrat strategist James Carville apologized to the first lady after repeating the same claim.
Carville opened his latest episode of the Politics War Room podcast with a legal note.
“In last week’s podcast episode, we spoke with Judd Legum,” he said. “After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer. He took issue with our title of one of those YouTube videos from that episode and a couple of comments I made about the first lady. We took a look at what they complained about, and we took down the video and edited out those comments from the episode. I also take back these statements and apologize.”
An aide to the first lady, Nick Clemens, told Fox News in a statement, “First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods. The true account of how the First Lady met President Trump is in her best-selling book, ‘Melania.’”
A 17-year-old Wisconsin teen accused of killing his mother and stepfather had also plotted to assassinate President Donald Trump to start a “political revolution,” according to court documents.
Nikita Casap, 17, had images and messages on his phone that referenced a “self-described manifesto regarding assassinating the president, making bombs, and terrorist attacks,” FOX6 Milwaukee reported, citing a search warrant filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Images of a three-page document titled “Accelerate the Collapse” called for the assassination of Trump, according to the report.
Trump was specifically referenced in an excerpt from the document, which said “getting rid of the president and perhaps the vice president” is “guaranteed to bring in some chaos. … Point being this manifesto is specifically for the attack that targets Trump.”
Casap was charged earlier this month in the shooting deaths of his mother, Tatiana Casap, and his stepfather, Donald Mayer. The couple were found severely decomposed in their home on Feb 28 – more than two weeks after prosecutors allege Casap killed them.
During an interview with one of Casap’s classmates, authorities learned that Casap told the female classmate he had been in contact with a man from Russia, who they claim knew about the teen’s scheme to take passports, a car and the family dog and flee to Ukraine, according to the report.
A recent study by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) has revealed a concerning trend: a significant portion of left-leaning Americans believe that political violence, including assassination, is justifiable against figures such as President Donald Trump and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk. The study surveyed over 1,200 U.S. adults and found that 38% of respondents felt that assassinating Trump would be at least “somewhat justified,” with this figure rising to 55% among those identifying as left-leaning. Similarly, 31% of overall participants, and 48% of left-leaning individuals, expressed some level of justification for assassinating Musk.
This data suggests a troubling normalization of violent political rhetoric within certain segments of the population. The NCRI report highlights that this shift has been particularly pronounced following the December 2024 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly by Luigi Mangione. Mangione’s actions have been glamorized in various online communities, leading to a proliferation of memes and discussions that endorse political violence.
Tensions are rising after the Justice Department claimed it had no evidence that notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein had a client list, blackmailed powerful people, or was murdered.
Democrats in Congress say they will introduce measures this week to press for the disclosure of files reported to Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who was found dead at the age of 66 in his New York City jail cell in 2019 after being arrested on sex trafficking charges involving young girls.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is calling on House Republicans to hold a vote demanding the Trump administration release the “FULL Epstein files.”
“Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich & powerful being protected?” Khanna said in a post on the social platform X over the weekend.
“On Tuesday, I’m introducing an amendment to force a vote demanding the FULL Epstein files be released to the public,” he continued. “The Speaker must call a vote & put every Congress member on record.”
The Justice Department last week released a memo concluding there was no evidence suggesting the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender kept a “client list” to blackmail high-profile individuals. The memo also found no evidence to suggest foul play in Epstein’s death, which had previously been ruled a suicide.
The memo spurred fierce backlash from many Trump supporters, who had long called on the government to release material on Epstein that they argue would expose wrongdoing at the highest level of elite circles.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer, a staunch ally of President Trump, said Sunday night there should be a special counsel to examine the handling of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Loomer, who has bashed Attorney General Pam Bondi for her handling of the Epstein documents, told Politico’s Playbook newsletter that a special counsel should be appointed “so that people can feel like this issue is being investigated, and perhaps take it out of [Bondi’s] hands, because I don’t think that she has been transparent or done a good job handling this issue.”
Much of the frustration from MAGA allies has been directed at Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said earlier this year that files were on her desk but then seemed to suggest they did not exist by releasing the memo last week. Bondi argued she was referring to the case file on Epstein, not a specific “client list.”
Trump has remained adamant in his position and has fiercely defended Bondi against the onslaught of backlash.
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump said in the social media post on Saturday.
Dan Bongino, the Deputy Director of the FBI, reportedly threatened to leave the bureau if Attorney General Pam Bondi remains on the job due to her handling of the Epstein files, a source close to Bongino told The Daily Wire.
One source close to Bongino predicted to Axios, “He ain’t coming back.” Trump administration officials, however, are saying that Bongino remains on the job.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday he believes FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is “in good shape” following a reported clash with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“I spoke to him today,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. “Dan Bongino, very good guy. I’ve known him a long time. I’ve done his show many, many times. And he sounded terrific actually. No, I think he’s in good shape.”
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FBI Director Kash Patel broke his silence on Saturday amid rumors that he might also consider leaving if Bondi stayed, saying in a post to X that the “conspiracy theories” were not true and that he would continue to serve under Trump as long as the president wanted him to be there.
