Two brothers pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday for their roles in an insider trading scheme.
Florida venture capitalist Michael Shvartsman, 53, and his brother, Gerald, 46, each pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman set the brothers’ sentencing hearing for July 17.
According to the Department of Justice, the brothers obtained confidential information about details of the deal, including the timeline of its announcement, and then bought millions of dollars’ worth of DWAC securities on the open market before the merger with Trump Media went public.
“Michael and Gerald Shvartsman admitted in court that they received confidential, inside information about an upcoming merger between DWAC and Trump Media and used that information to make profitable, but illegal, open-market trades,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release Wednesday from the Department of Justice.
“Insider trading is cheating, plain and simple, and today’s convictions should remind anyone who may be tempted to corrupt the integrity of the stock market that it will earn them a ticket to prison,” Williams added.
The Shvartsmans were arrested last June, along with a third individual, Bruce Garelick, who had worked at Michael Shvartsman’s Rocket One Capital venture firm. Garelick, who was placed on DWAC’s board of directors, is accused of providing critical information to the brothers about the forthcoming deal in 2021. Garelick is set to go to trial at the end of this month.
President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd after delivering remarks at the House GOP Member Retreat, Tuesday, January 6, 2026, at the Donald J. Trump- John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
The MAGA civil war over Iran just took an explosive new turn.
Alex Jones, one of President Donald Trump’s earliest and loudest supporters, is now demanding his removal from office—accusing the president of secretly preparing to revive the military draft and send American troops into a full-scale ground war.
In a fiery video posted Tuesday to his more than 4 million followers on X, Jones called for Trump’s impeachment, floated using the 25th Amendment and even demanded “Nuremberg-style trials” for administration officials.
“The big issue is how to stop Trump,” Jones declared, according to Mediaite. “This is a war; they’re getting the draft ready. If this isn’t a war, nothing’s a war.”
Jones then issued his most direct challenge yet to the president he once championed.
“And so I’m calling for it right now: 25th Amendment, impeachment, whatever needs to happen to get this front and center, to get control of our country,” he said.
The conspiracy broadcaster claimed Trump was preparing to use “total war” as a pretext to censor Americans, seize greater control over the economy and accelerate the displacement of workers through artificial intelligence.
“We are facing tyranny,” Jones warned. “We’ve got to come together and transcend left and right, and we have to say no to an expanded war that will definitely destroy the economy and kill a bunch of our troops.”
“They’re preparing a massive ground invasion,” he added. “It’s all confirmed.”
BREAKING: Alex Jones Calls For Impeachment Of President Trump For Attempt To Reimplement The National Draft & Launch Total Ground Invasion Of Iran!
"The Big Issue Is How To Stop Trump! 25th Amendment, Impeachment, Whatever Needs To Happen To Get This Front & Center!"
Jones presented no evidence supporting that claim.
The Selective Service System says there is currently no military draft. Reinstating one would require Congress to amend federal law and authorize the president to begin inducting Americans into the armed forces.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in March that ground troops and a draft were “not part of the current plan,” although she stressed that Trump was unwilling to remove military options from the table, according to PolitiFact.
Jones nevertheless urged Americans on both sides of the political divide to pressure Congress into ending the conflict.
“Americans, left and right, must come together now and demand Congress invoke the war powers and end this war now,” he said.
The tirade represents a stunning reversal for a man who helped boost Trump during his first campaign for the White House. Trump appeared on Jones’s program in December 2015 and praised his host, telling him, “Your reputation is amazing.”
But Jones’s relationship with Trump has steadily deteriorated as the Iran conflict has deepened. He joins prominent right-wing voices including Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in accusing the president of abandoning the “America First” movement’s opposition to prolonged foreign wars.
Jones has now pushed the rupture further than most, openly demanding that Trump be driven from the White House.
His outburst also comes as opposition to the conflict spreads beyond conservative media.
The House voted 214-208 last week to approve a war-powers resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from unauthorized hostilities with Iran. Four Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure, although a similar resolution failed in the Senate. The White House strongly opposed the House measure, arguing that it would interfere with Trump’s authority to defend American personnel and respond to Iranian attacks.
For Jones, however, a congressional rebuke is no longer enough.
The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Shortly before Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to presidential debates in June and September on Wednesday morning, Sean Hannity appeared on “Fox & Friends” to hail the incumbent president’s unexpected proposal for a debate as “excellent news.”
Hannity even backed Biden’s suggestion to mute a candidate’s microphone if they aren’t answering a question. The Fox News host argued that this would reduce Trump’s “aggressiveness.” Hannity maintained that Trump’s combative behavior and taunting during the first 2020 debate with Biden likely hurt him.
He expects that this time will be different. Addressing the new format, Hannity said, “This will put rails in place so that one person talks at a time, and the more Joe talks, I think the worse he does.”
“I think Donald Trump will wipe the floor with him, and I don’t care if we get the State of the Union jacked up Joe with caffeine, Red Bull, or whatever, or we get regular Joe that could barely walk off the stage last night.”
In a video posted to social media on Wednesday, Biden needled Trump over his ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan and said he beat him in two debates in 2020.
Former President Trump’s debate prep is going “great,” former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard informed Fox News.
“He knows the issues. He is very honed in on her [Kamala Harris’] record in reminding voters… ‘what have you done for the last three and a half years?’ You can paint this rosy picture about what you’re going to do, but we’re paying attention to what you’ve already done and how her policies have destroyed our economy, made us less safe, both here at home and abroad,” she told “FOX & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade.
The former president recruited Gabbard to help sharpen his skills ahead of the highly-anticipated Sept. 10 debate, where he is slated to face off against Vice President Kamala Harris at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia.
Gabbard infamously tore into Harris during a 2019 Democratic primary debate for jailing hundreds of Californians for marijuana violations despite smoking the drug herself.
“She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” she said during the viral exchange.
So anyways, last time Tulsi Gabbard tried to go against VP Harris…here’s how it went: pic.twitter.com/YH3IST8tEb
CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings signaled that he would run for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) seat in 2026 if President Donald Trump tells him to.
During an interview with Jennings on the Real America’s Voice show Bolling!, host Eric Bolling asked, “A lot of people are floating your name to take over, to jump into Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat next year in ’26. You thinking about it?”
BREAKING: GOP pundit and CNN contributor Scott Jennings says he’s open to running for Mitch McConnell’s seat — but only if President Trump asks him to.
“Yeah, I haven’t made any announcements about that,” replied Jennings, who worked as a special assistant for former President George W. Bush. “There’s three people in the race, I know them all, like them all, have been in and out of their lives in varying degrees over the years. I’ve supported them all in various endeavors, so I’m confident the seat will remain Republican.”
He continued, “I do think politics is a team sport, and I think Trump’s the head coach. And eventually he’s gonna weigh in on this, and my political advice would be to anybody, you know, if he calls a play, we’re gonna have to run it. I wouldn’t want to run against the president in Kentucky. So, I don’t really have any announcement about it at the moment.”
After Bolling pressed, “If Trump taps you, you’re gonna run?” Jennings said cryptically, “I pay very close attention to everything the president says.”
McConnell, who has held his Senate seat since 1985, announced in February he would not seek re-election in 2026 amid growing concerns over his health.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and businessman Nate Morris have all declared their candidacy in the race.
Nearly one week after Trump was charged with 34 felony counts in part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into alleged hush money payments the third-time White House contender is to return to New York to be deposed in a $250 million civil suit brought by state Attorney General Letitia James (D).
“This case is complex, but it is not complicated,” Judge Arthur Engoron said last month of the civil suit. “Essentially, it all boils down to whether (Trump’s) statements of financial interest are true or false.”
AG James claims Trump and others at his Trump Organization deceived lenders and insurance companies by inflating the value of his assets in order to get loans for his real estate and resort business, then undervaluing them for tax purposes. James is seeking to recover more than $250 million in “ill-gotten gains” and to bar the Trumps from doing business in New York. Engoron has set a trial date of October 2.
James campaigned on a pledge to prosecute Trump, who she once called an “illegitimate president.” Trump has called James, who is black, a “racist in reverse.”
“I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president,” James said in a 2018 video during her successful campaign to be attorney general. “I believe that this president is incompetent. I believe that this president is ill-equipped to serve in the highest office of this land. And I believe that he is an embarrassment to all that we stand for.”
On April 5, the New York grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump for his alleged role in a hush money bribe to adult film star Stormy Daniels amid the 2016 presidential election in DA Alvin Bragg’s yearslong investigation into the real estate mogul.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Daniels payment in 2019. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
On Tuesday, the former President surrendered to the Manhattan Criminal Court for his arraignment
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America,
Tucker Carlson is back.
Sort of, at least.
While his presence on cable news remains sorely missed by millions, the dethroned Fox News (FNC) host is poised to speak publicly for the first time since his dismissal by network executives.
According to The Daily Caller, a website Carlson co-founded in 2010, Carlson will give a speech at an Alabama fundraiser for the Rainbow Omega foundation.
Rainbow Omega is an organization that aims to help adults with “developmental and intellectual disabilities.” The fundraiser will take place at the Oxford Performing Arts Center in Oxford, Alabama.
This appearance will be the first public event Carlson has attended since his abrupt exit from Fox News last Monday. Multiple sources told Mediaite that he was fired.
Rumors have swirled since the shocking cable news shakeup, but no specific reason for his termination has been confirmed.
The news follows leaked video footage by Media Matters for America of Carlson’s behind-the-scenes banter with FNC employees and TV personalities while the cameras were rolling but he wasn’t on-air.
However, even some of his harshest critics argue the footage amounts to a big ole nothing burger.
1. Prepping for an interview with Piers Morgan, Carlson tells the host, "If we're going to talk about sex, I'd love to hit some of the fine points of technique"
Morgan replies, "We can certainly talk about your sexual technique, especially after your tanning testicles last week" pic.twitter.com/q41FGWujn8
President Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to Michelino Sunseri, an endurance athlete who was convicted last year for descending the Grand Teton via a “restricted” trail during a record-breaking run. Sunseri’s case had become a flashpoint in the debate over federal overreach and the growing tendency of unelected bureaucrats to criminalize harmless behavior.
Sunseri reacted to the news with relief on Monday, writing on Facebook: “IT’S FINALLY OVER. The trail trial of the century is officially over. In a twist even Hollywood couldn’t write, I woke up this morning to find out I’ve been given a PRESIDENTIAL PARDON from Donald J. Trump — over the Grand Teton FKT and my use of the Old Climber’s Trail.”
A Record Run Turned Legal Battle
In September 2024, Sunseri ascended and descended the 13,775-foot Grand Teton in an astonishing 2 hours and 50 minutes, setting a new fastest-known time. But instead of celebrating the athletic achievement, federal authorities charged him days later for taking a “prohibited” route—the Old Climber’s Trail—during his descent.
Although the trail has long been used by climbers and is not inherently unsafe, the National Park Service classified it as “restricted,” and Sunseri was prosecuted under rules that critics say lack proper legal grounding.
A Case of Bureaucratic Overreach?
The Pacific Legal Foundation, which took up Sunseri’s defense, argued that the federal government had overstepped its authority. According to PLF, the regulations used to charge Sunseri were created by low-level park staff—not by Congress or any properly authorized rulemaking process.
“We are thrilled that Michelino’s nightmare is over,” said PLF attorney Michael Poon. “But we’re not done fighting unconstitutional regulations that let unelected officials criminalize harmless conduct. We stand ready to help other Americans facing similar prosecutions.”
This theme—federal agencies creating de facto laws without accountability—has become a major concern among conservatives, especially as executive-branch rulemaking grows in scope and impact. Sunseri’s case, many argue, is a prime example of ordinary Americans being punished by faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats.
Sunseri: “They Tried to Make an Example of Me”
Sunseri was convicted last September despite his defense showing that many climbers had used the same trail over the years. He said officials seemed determined to “make an example” of him rather than apply common sense.
“This case was a massive waste of taxpayer money and government energy from the start,” Sunseri said. “Unfortunately, instead of working with me, the system tried to make an example of me. I know this pardon might get swept up in politics in this heated time, and that’s unfortunate—because this particular case is about fairness and common sense.”
After being convicted of a crime for taking a prohibited trail during his Grand Teton run, Michelino Sunseri got a big surprise when he woke up Monday to a Presidential Pardon! pic.twitter.com/hJ1COc0zeb
A senior Iranian official identified in media reports as a potential backchannel to President Donald Trump has publicly denied any involvement in negotiations with the United States.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, rejected the reports after The Jerusalem Post described him as the “top person” Trump had suggested his administration was engaging with behind the scenes.
🚨 US is holding talks with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, source tells @Jerusalem_Post
In a post on X, Ghalibaf dismissed the claim and accused the U.S. of spreading misinformation.
“Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors. All Iranian officials stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved. No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”
2/ No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) March 23, 2026
The denial comes amid conflicting signals from Washington about the state of diplomacy. Just hours earlier, Trump said his administration had engaged in “very good and productive conversations” with Iran and announced a five-day pause on planned military strikes targeting Iranian energy infrastructure.
Read Trump’s Truth Social message:
“I AM PLEASE TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump wrote. “BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WITCH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.”
The pause marked a sharp shift in tone after Trump had warned over the weekend that Iran could face “total decimation” if it failed to comply with U.S. demands regarding the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump hinted at the existence of a high-level Iranian contact but declined to identify the individual.
“A top person,” Trump said, offering no further details.
When asked whether Iran’s newly named supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was involved, Trump said the U.S. had not heard from him. Khamenei has not appeared publicly since his appointment and is widely believed to be gravely injured.
“Don’t forget: We’ve wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two and largely phase three. But we’re dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader, you know it’s a little tough, they’ve wiped out — we’ve wiped out everybody,” Trump added.
Trump’s claims of active discussions followed his announcement that strikes would be temporarily halted to allow negotiations to continue. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry has also denied that any talks are taking place, underscoring the uncertainty surrounding the diplomatic track even as tensions remain high following U.S. threats tied to the Strait of Hormuz.
President Donald Trump announced that Dr. Ben Carson will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, noting that there will be a ceremony at the White House to honor him.
President Trump said on Saturday he will award Ben Carson, his first-term Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“We are going to be presenting Dr. Ben Carson with the highest civilian award and honor in our country. It’s the civilian version of the Medal of Honor, which is our highest military award. It’s the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said in remarks at an event hosted by the American Cornerstone Institute, which Carson founded.
Trump said he plans to have a ceremony for Carson at the White House but did not specify timing.
“Congratulations Ben. He didn’t know this. He didn’t know it. I hope he’s happy,” Trump said after making the announcement at the conclusion of his remarks at the American Cornerstone Institute’s Founders’ Dinner on Saturday.
Carson, a former neurosurgeon, ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 against Trump. The president then tapped him to serve as HUD secretary. Carson served as the national faith chair for the Trump campaign in the 2024 election.
Trump recently said he would posthumously award conservative activist Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom after he was fatally shot on Sept. 10 at an open-air event at Utah Valley University.
