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    DOJ Fires 20 Employees Who Worked With Jack Smith On Trump Prosecutions

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2

    Twenty Department of Justice (DOJ) employees who worked with special counsel Jack Smith have been fired.

    The terminated staff includes two prosecutors, 12 support staff and six U.S. marshals who assisted with classified documents and the 2020 election investigations against President Donald Trump, an official confirmed to The Daily Caller.

    More than a dozen officials who worked with Smith were fired in January, while Smith himself resigned before Trump took office in January. Both of the cases were dismissed after Trump won the election.

    Joseph Tirrell, who was director of the Departmental Ethics Office, wrote on LinkedIn Monday that he was terminated by Attorney General Pam Bondi, sharing the letter he received in a post.

    “Until Friday evening, I was the senior ethics attorney at the Department of Justice responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics,” he wrote. “I was also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the ethics program across the Department. I led a small, dedicated team of professionals and coordinated the work of some 30 other full-time ethics officials, attorneys, paralegals and other specialists across the Department of Justice, ensuring that the 117,000 Department employees were properly advised on and supported in how to follow the Federal employee ethics rules.”

    In his final report, Smith claimed Trump would have been convicted if he had not won the election. Yet Smith indicated he did not bring insurrection charges because he could not prove Jan. 6 was more than a riot or that Trump incited it.

    Smith sought to fast-track the cases ahead of the 2024 election but ultimately failed to bring either one to trial.

    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.

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    Senate Panel Blocks Trump’s FBI HQ Plan

    By
    Patrick Houck
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    4
    I, Aude, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    A Senate committee voted Thursday afternoon to block President Donald Trump’s plan to keep the FBI headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., escalating a simmering power struggle over the agency’s future location.

    The dispute pits the White House against a bipartisan coalition in Congress that had long backed moving the agency’s headquarters out of the decaying J. Edgar Hoover Building and into suburban Maryland.

    Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2026 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill that would restrict funding exclusively to the original relocation site in Greenbelt, Maryland.

    The measure gained unexpected bipartisan traction, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) siding with Democrats. The decision to cross party lines prompted a backlash from several Republican senators, who argued the decision was outside the committee’s authority.

    Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) pushed back, saying the panel does not “get to choose sites.”

    The dispute led Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) to call for a “very long recess,” delaying further consideration of the bill. Collins said she hopes the standoff can be resolved before the next markup session.

    “I think it’s better we withdraw the bill for now than watch this bill go down,” she said.

    The panel is not expected to reconvene before next week.

    Trump’s plan would relocate the FBI to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center — a federal property just blocks from the White House. The administration argues the move keeps the FBI close to other national security agencies while avoiding the massive cost of building a new complex from scratch.

    But Maryland officials aren’t backing down, determined to secure the economic and strategic benefits of hosting the new FBI campus.

    Politico has more on the reaction and outlook from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

    The blowup exasperated some Democrats on the panel, who questioned why the Republican majority could not accept Van Hollen’s provision. “Because there was a bipartisan amendment adopted we’re going to tank this bill?” asked Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz.

    Others expressed confidence the issue would ultimately get settled.

    “I honestly think we’ll be able to resolve it,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the panel’s top Democrat. “We’ve always been able to work out issues.”

    Murkowski, who was spotted chatting on the floor on Thursday afternoon with Murray, said she had “volunteered” a path for members to hit pause on the bill and “get a little more information about what it is the administration is seeking to do with the [new headquarters plan], because it seems to me that is kind of the blank spot right now.”

    Despite cautious optimism, Thursday’s vote throws another wrench into the increasingly politicized debate over the FBI’s future headquarters — and highlights the broader friction between Congress and the Trump administration.

    READ NEXT: Trump Mulling Federal Takeover Of DC To Tackle Crime

    Help us slam the brakes on the Left’s 2026 plan to take down Trump!

    Secret Service Suspends 6 Agents Over Trump Assassination Attempt

    By
    Patrick Houck
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    0
    By The White House - https://www.flickr.com/photos/202101414@N05/54581054338/, Public Domain,

    Without Pay or Benefits…

    The U.S. Secret Service has acknowledged disciplinary action against six agents, citing operational lapses during the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

    The agency confirmed to Fox News that the disciplinary action occurred in February. A Senate report on the near-assassination is scheduled for imminent release.

    The attack occurred when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a rooftop roughly 400 feet from the rally stage. One bullet grazed Trump’s ear. Another fatally struck firefighter Corey Comperatore, who had shielded his family. Increasingly erratic gunfire from Crooks wounded two others before Secret Service counter-snipers neutralized him.

    Leadership Fallout and Push for Reform

    In the wake of the incident, then–Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned, acknowledging it as the agency’s most serious operational failure in decades.

    Acknowledging the desire for institutional reform, Deputy Director Matt Quinn stated, “We aren’t going to fire our way out of this.” Among the measures already underway: deploying military-grade drones, upgrading communication systems, and enhancing cooperation with local law enforcement.

    Heated Congressional Oversight

    Yet tensions boiled over in December 2024 during a public hearing held by the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump. Then–Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) engaged in a heated, nearly unintelligible shouting match over the agency’s preparedness.

    Lawmakers across party lines expressed deep frustration. Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) criticized the agency’s outdated communications and a culture that discouraged agents from voicing security concerns.

    Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) described the Secret Service’s posture during the Butler rally as “almost lackadaisical,” citing “really basic” lapses that hinted at complacency.

    The bipartisan panel released a scathing report, outlining multiple preventable failures and calling for sweeping structural reforms.

    Restoring Trust Under New Leadership

    In January 2025, President Trump appointed Sean Curran — the agent who shielded him that day in Butler — as the new director of the Secret Service, signaling a commitment to restoring trust and accountability within the agency.

    READ NEXT: DeSantis Suggests Musk Pursue Constitutional Amendments Instead Of Establishing New Political Party

    Help us slam the brakes on the Left’s 2026 plan to take down Trump!

    Report: Trump Considering Cabinet Member To Replace Powell At The Federal Reserve

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    By Federalreserve - https://www.flickr.com/photos/federalreserve/54004811346/, Public Domain,

    President Trump is reportedly mulling implementing some major leadership changes at the Federal Reserve.

    Reports indicate President Trump is considering a member of his Cabinet to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

    Powell has less than a year remaining in his term as Fed chair, which is due to expire in May 2026. President Donald Trump, who nominated Powell to the role in 2017, has signaled he won’t nominate the chair for another term and recently gave Powell the derisive nickname of “Mr. Too Late” amid his efforts to lobby the Fed to cut interest rates.

    Trump has suggested he could name Powell’s successor in the near future, well in advance of the end of Powell’s term as chair, and has reportedly developed a short list of contenders in mind.

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is one of the leading contenders for the role of Fed chair, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter, though the outlet noted the administration hasn’t started formal interviews.

    Bloomberg reported that former Fed official Kevin Warsh, who Trump considered for the treasury secretary role before opting to nominate Bessent, is also on the short list for the Fed chair role.

    Bessent testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday and was asked about reports linking him to the Fed chair role and whether he would rather have that role or remain as the Treasury secretary.

    The secretary said that his current role is “the best job” in the nation’s capital and that while he is “happy to do what President Trump wants me to do,” he “would like to stay in my seat through 2029” to advance the administration’s agenda until the end of the president’s term.

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    Marjorie Taylor Greene Turns On Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Marjorie Taylor Greene -Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, via Wikimedia Commons

    Tensions are rising…

    Staunch Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene seemed to side with Elon Musk’s opinion that the lawmakers who voted to support President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act should be “ashamed” of themselves.

    NewsNation host Blake Burman asked Greene on The Hill, “Congresswoman, you say in full transparency you didn’t know that this was in there and now you’re shining a light on it. How did you not know?”

    “Well, we don’t get the full bill text until very close to the time to vote for it, so that was one section that was two pages that I didn’t see,” replied Greene. “I find it so problematic that I’m willing to come forward and admit that those are two pages that I didn’t read because I never want to see a situation where state rights are stripped away, and that’s exactly what it– that’s what it says in that bill text, that it would take away states’ rights to regulate or make laws against AI for 10 years.”

    She continued, “And I think that’s pretty terrifying. We don’t know what AI is going to be capable of within one year, we don’t know what it will be capable of in five years, let alone 10 years.”

    Burman went on to ask Greene about Musk’s post attacking the “disgusting abomination” of a bill and declaring, “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

    Last month, the House of Representatives voted 215–214 following a turbulent 48 hours that saw late-night committee sessions, procedural skirmishes, and lobbying by House Speaker Mike Johnson to get Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” over the line.

    “He doesn’t specifically say you, but you did vote for it,” Burman pointed out. “Why do you think he’s doing this now, and do you take issue at Musk calling out folks like yourself?”

    Greene responded:

    You know, I take no issue with anyone calling out the government. I think the American people, including Elon Musk, have the right to do that every single day. As a matter of fact, I wish they would come to Washington and call out this government a lot more. I’m one of the people that ran for Congress because I was angry at Republicans. I wasn’t angry at Democrats, they say what they’re going to do. They support big government, they support massive spending, they support the invasion of our country by illegal aliens from all over the world, including cartels and helping the cartels make billions of dollars. I ran in 2020 because I was angry at Republicans, so I fully understand what Elon is saying and, you know, I agree with him to a certain extent.

    She concluded, “However, I don’t want to continue this government on a CR that’s funding Democrat and Biden policies and funding, and this bill was important to transition over to exactly what the American people voted for.”

    The White House defended the President Donald Trump-endorsed “big, beautiful bill” on Tuesday. 

    Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”

    In May, when Trump was asked about Musk’s criticism of the bill on CBS, he responded, “Well, our reaction’s a lot of things,” before pivoting to talk about the votes needed to support pass the bill. 

    “Number one, we have to get a lot of votes, we can’t be cutting — we need to get a lot of support and we have a lot of support,” he said. “We had to get it through the House, the House was, we had no Democrats. You know, if it was up to the Democrats, they’ll take the 65 percent increase.”

    Musk Officially Signs Off From DOGE

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1

    Elon Musk thanked President Donald Trump as he officially signed off from DOGE duties…

    On Wednesday night, Elon Musk made it clear that the reason he was leaving his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project was due to a rule limiting special government employees to 130 days of service rather than any rumored feud with President Donald Trump.

    Musk’s departure from government work coincides with his recent remarks indicating he would focus more on his business ventures.

    “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

    This week, Musk publicly criticized the tax and spending package championed by Trump, saying, “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

    Musk’s DOGE claims it has saved American taxpayers $175 billion through a “combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.”

    Earlier this week, in an interview published in Ars Technica, Musk stated, “I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics, it’s less than people would think, because the media is going to over-represent any political stuff, because political bones of contention get a lot of traction in the media. It’s not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I’ve reduced that significantly in recent weeks.”

    Along with his major donations to the Republican effort last election cycle, Musk was also a major fixture on the campaign trail, appearing multiple times alongside Trump. 

    Howwever, at Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum, Musk said over video that he’s “going to do a lot less in the future.” Musk spent nearly $240 million through his political action committee, America PAC, helping Trump and Republicans in the 2024 election cycle.

    “I think I’ve done enough,” Musk said, adding, “If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason.”

    Harvard Sues Trump Admin. Over Foreign Student Ban

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    PaWikiCom, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Harvard University has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its decision to terminate the university’s student visa program. 

    Harvard said the policy will affect more than 7,000 visa holders and is a “blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act,” per its court filing.

    On Thursday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ordered Harvard to be taken off the Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. The order effectively bans Harvard from enrolling international students and forces current ones, who make up roughly a quarter of the school’s student population, to transfer. 

    DHS moved to terminate the program after Harvard allegedly failed to provide it with the extensive behavioral records of student visa holders the department requested. DHS offered Harvard 72 hours on Thursday to come into compliance with the request. 

    As of now, Harvard may no longer enroll foreign students in the 2025–2026 school year, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status to reside in the U.S. before the next academic year begins. International students made up 27 percent of Harvard’s student body in the 2024-2025 academic year. 

    The records requested include any footage of protest activity involving students on visas and the disciplinary records of all students on visas in the last five years. 

    Requested records also include footage or documentation of illegal, dangerous or violent activity by student visa holders, any records of threats or the deprivation of rights of other students or university personnel.

    Harvard President Alan Gerber announced the suit in a letter to the Harvard community.

    “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the complaint reads. 

    The administration has launched a multi-front pressure campaign against the school for refusing to bow to its demands for changes to its admissions and hiring policies, as well as getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and a stronger stance against antisemitism.  

    Last month, the school sued the administration for freezing more than $2 billion in federal funding unless it complies with various demands. 

    Judge Blocks Trump Order To Shutter Dept. Of Education

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    7

    Just in…

    A district judge on Thursday blocked President Trump’s executive order calling for the closure of the Department of Education — as well as against the reduction in force that laid off half of the agency’s workers.

    U.S. District Judge Myong Joun’s order blocks the Trump administration from carrying out the mass-firing at the DOE announced in March and orders that any employees who were already fired be reinstated.

    The ruling is a blow to Trump’s efforts to eliminate the department and the quick actions taken by Education Secretary Linda McMahon to make that campaign pledge a reality.  

    The plaintiffs “have provided an in-depth look into how the massive reduction in staff has made it effectively impossible for the Department to carry out its statutorily mandated functions,” District Judge Myong Joun said.  

    “Defendants do acknowledge, as they must, that the Department cannot be shut down without Congress’s approval, yet they simultaneously claim that their legislative goals (obtaining Congressional approval to shut down the Department) are distinct from their administrative goals (improving efficiency). There is nothing in the record to support these contradictory positions,” his ruling continues.

    Read:

    doe-rulingDownload

    The ruling comes just a day after another federal judge blocked Trump’s administration from firing two Democrat members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Wednesday.

    U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton found that allowing unilateral firings would prevent the board from carrying out its purpose.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    House Passes Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ By One Vote

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    2
    Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    House Republicans succeeded in pushing through President Donald Trump’s sprawling fiscal package on Thursday, which passed by the narrowest of possible margins – one vote.

    The 215–214 vote followed a turbulent 48 hours that saw late-night committee sessions, procedural skirmishes, and lobbying by House Speaker Mike Johnson to get Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” over the line.

    In the end, just two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Warren Davidson (Ohio) — opposed the legislation. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) voted “present.”

    Republicans on the House floor erupted in cheers and applause when Johnson slammed the gavel just before 7 a.m. to close the successful vote.

    The bill — titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” adopting Trump’s slogan for the measure — extends the tax cuts enacted by the president in 2017; boosts funding for border, deportation, and national defense priorities; imposes reforms, like beefed-up work requirements, on Medicaid that are projected to result in millions of low-income individuals losing health insurance; rolls back green energy tax incentives; and increases the debt limit by $4 trillion, among many other provisions.

    It also does away with taxes on tips and overtime — two of Trump’s campaign promises — among other provisions.

    Its passage marks a massive victory for Johnson, who successfully cajoled scores of Republican holdouts — from hardline conservatives to vulnerable moderates — to support the bill before his self-imposed Memorial Day deadline, muscling it through his razor-thin majority.

    “This is a big day,” Johnson said at a press conference surrounded by GOP leadership after the vote. “We said on the House floor, it’s finally morning in America again.”

    “Today the House has passed generational, truly nation-shaping legislation to reduce spending and permanently lower taxes for families and job creators, secure the border, unleash American energy dominance, restore peace through strength and make government work more efficiently and effectively for all Americans,” he added.

    Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Rejected By GOP-Led House Committee

    By
    Patrick Houck
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    4
    Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

      Fiscal fractures within the GOP torpedo Trump-backed budget…

      President Trump’s 2025 budget proposal — branded the “Big Beautiful Bill” — was dealt a devastating blow on Friday when the House Budget Committee voted it down in a 16–21 decision. All Democrats opposed it, but the decisive factor was a group of Republicans who broke ranks, citing concerns about federal debt and spending.

      The Proposal: Sweeping Trump Agenda, Big Price Tag

      The bill laid out a sweeping fiscal roadmap aligned with Trump’s priorities for a transformative second term: deep tax cuts, uncompromising immigration enforcement, increased defense spending, and accelerated domestic energy production. But its projected $2.5 trillion increase to the federal deficit over the next decade drew fire — even from within the GOP.

      Just days before the vote, a nonpartisan budget analysis warned that the proposal would exacerbate the national debt, which already exceeds $36 trillion. As Fox News reports, that forecast gave fiscal conservatives new ammunition to push back ahead of today’s committee meeting:

      The committee met on Friday to mark up and debate the bill, a massive piece of legislation that’s a product of 11 different House committees’ individual efforts to craft policy under their jurisdictions. The result is a wide-ranging bill that advances Trump’s priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, energy, defense and raising the debt limit.

      Emotions ran high in the hallway outside the House Budget Committee’s meeting room from the outset, however, giving the media little indication of how events would transpire.

      Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who had been at home with his wife and newborn baby, surprised reporters when he arrived at the Cannon House Office Building after he was initially expected to miss the committee meeting.

      His appearance gave House GOP leaders some added wiggle room, allowing the committee to lose two Republican votes and still pass the bill, rather than just one.

      Office of Speaker Mike Johnson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

      In the end, five Republican committee members voted against the bill:

      • Chip Roy (Texas)
      • Andrew Clyde (Georgia)
      • Lloyd Smucker (Pennsylvania)
      • Josh Brecheen (Oklahoma)
      • Ralph Norman (South Carolina)

      Smucker, who initially supported the measure, reversed his position and voted “no” at the last minute — adding insult to injury for supporters of the president’s agenda.

      The vote underscores a growing tension within the Republican Party: Are Trump’s populist, big-ticket proposals increasingly at odds with traditional conservative budget hawks who prioritize fiscal restraint? Only time will tell.

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