Hold onto your hats, folks—federal prosecutors are gunning for a shake-up in the legal team defending former FBI Director James Comey, alleging a conflict of interest that could upend his upcoming criminal trial.
In a nutshell, prosecutors are pushing to potentially disqualify Comey’s lead attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, over claims of his involvement in leaking classified memos back in 2017, while Comey faces serious charges tied to his past testimony on the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, the Washington Examiner reported.
This saga kicked off years ago when Comey’s handling of sensitive memos raised eyebrows, eventually leading to a scathing report from the Department of Justice inspector general.
Fast forward to September 2025, when a grand jury indicted Comey on two counts—making false statements and obstruction of justice—stemming from his 2020 remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s investigation into President Donald Trump and Russian collusion allegations.
The plot thickened on Sunday night as prosecutors filed a motion flagging Fitzgerald’s alleged role in leaking those memos to the press in 2017, suggesting it could taint his ability to defend Comey without bias.
They’re not pulling punches, arguing that this connection might be grounds for disqualification, a move that could throw a wrench into Comey’s defense strategy just months before trial.
Led by U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, alongside assistants N. Tyler Lemons and Gabriel Diaz, the prosecution has asked U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff for a speedy ruling on a filter protocol to sift through evidence.
This protocol aims to quickly separate protected material, ensuring both sides get access to relevant information—whether it helps or hurts Comey’s case—without delay.
Prosecutors stressed, “The sooner that the potentially protected information is reviewed and filtered, the sooner the parties can make any appropriate filings with the Court,” hinting at the urgency to resolve any conflict before the legal battle heats up (court documents).
Adding fuel to the fire, the Justice Department’s inspector general report from years back didn’t mince words about Comey’s actions, finding that his handling of certain memos broke both DOJ and FBI rules, as well as his own employment terms.
As Michael Horowitz, the inspector general at the time, put it: “Comey’s retention, handling, and dissemination of certain Memos violated Department and FBI policies, and his FBI Employment Agreement” (DOJ OIG report). Well, that’s a bureaucratic slap if there ever was one, and now it’s haunting Comey’s choice of counsel.
Prosecutors also pointed out that some communications under review date back to the same period covered in that damning report, raising further questions about Fitzgerald’s suitability to lead the defense.
Meanwhile, Comey’s legal team isn’t sitting idly by—they’re set to file their initial motions on Monday, reportedly aiming to dismiss the charges altogether before the trial even starts.
With the trial slated for January 5, 2026, at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, this clash over counsel could be just the opening skirmish in a broader war over accountability, transparency, and the messy intersection of politics and justice.
President Trump is cutting off all U.S. subsidies to Colombia, accusing the leftist president of the world's largest cocaine producer of failing to stop the manufacture and flow of illegal drugs.
"President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia,” Trump wrote.
This is not the first time Trump and President Gustavo Petro have clashed. While visiting New York in September for the United Nations General Assembly, Petro denounced Trump and encouraged U.S. soldiers to disobey the commander-in-chief.
The State Department swiftly responded by revoking Petro's visa.
Now, Trumps says he will cut off all U.S. support for Petro's country if he does not do more to target illegal drugs.
“It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” he added.
“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA,” Trump declared. “The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc.”
Trump capped his message to President Petro with a threat.
"Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely."
In addition to ending subsidies to Colombia, Trump has pledged to bring new tariffs against the U.S. ally, which was one of the top recipients of foreign aid before USAID was largely shuttered by Trump this year.
Trump has surged military assets to the Caribbean region, with much of the pressure being directed at Nicolas Maduro, the left-wing dictator of Venezuela, which neighbors Colombia.
Since September, Trump has carried out a campaign of deadly airstrikes against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean, prompting criticism from Petro and others who accuse Trump of murdering innocent fishermen without due process.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Sunday that a strike had taken out the members of a far-left Colombian rebel group, but Petro pushed back and claimed the boat belonged to a "humble family."
The first known survivors of Trump's strikes include a Colombian national who is being repatriated to his homeland to face prosecution.
“We are glad he is alive and he will be prosecuted according to the law,” Petro told the AFP.
While President Petro insists his government is fighting back against drug traffickers, cocaine production in his country is at an all-time high.
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is leaving the Democratic party, citing its "horrible" treatment of former president Biden, Breitbart reports.
During her time as Biden's top spokesperson, Jean-Pierre was often criticized for her labored and unconvincing responses to tough questions about Biden's cognitive health and other topics. She has often been accused of helping to cover up Biden's decline, which became impossible to deny after a pivotal 2024 debate that led to the dramatic unraveling of his re-election campaign, and ultimately his entire political career.
Before throwing in the towel, Biden put up spirited resistance for a few weeks, raging at Democrat "elites" who had pressured him to quit, including his own former boss, Barack Obama.
In a move that blindsided Obama and other power brokers, Biden endorsed then-vice president Kamala Harris to take his place on the 2024 presidential ticket despite concerns about her competence, and she ended up losing decisively to President Trump in the general election.
The push to ditch Biden opened up a deep and lasting wound on the left, with Biden loyalists continuing to express anger over the way the lifelong Democrat was shoved aside - as Democrats persist in blaming Biden's unrealistic re-election hopes for their present woes.
In an excerpt from her book Independent, Jean-Pierre said she was stung by the Democrats' ambush of her former boss and surprised by Biden's eventual capitulation.
“Biden seemed to be totally at peace with his decision, but I was stunned, my feelings a blur. I was angry and sad. I was enraged and heartbroken that this man had given more than 50 years of his life to serving the American people, and in the end he’d been treated poorly by members of his own party. It was horrible,” she wrote.
Jean-Pierre acknowledged that leaving the Democratic party is not easy for her, given the central importance of the party machine in her own professional rise.
"The party was the vehicle that allowed me not just to have a front seat to history, working first on [Barack] Obama’s presidential campaign then in his administration, but also to make some history of my own as the first Black woman and openly queer person to ever be a White House press secretary. Never had I considered leaving the party until now," she wrote.
With her former party's brand in the gutter, some may be led to think Jean-Pierre is making a calculated career move as she embraces a vague "independent" label. Democrats responded angrily to her book announcement in June, dismissing her pivot as an opportunistic "grift" or cash grab.
But she insists her disillusionment with Democrats is genuine.
“You know what? I’m going to become an independent. I don’t think I can stomach being in the Democratic Party anymore,” she writes in the book.
During a discussion of her book on CBS, Jean-Pierre doubled down on her previous statements concerning Biden's mental acuity, insisting she never observed warning signs of cognitive decline.
"But when we talk about the mental acuity, and again, I take this very, very seriously, I never saw anyone who wasn’t there," she said.
President Trump was forced to quickly board Air Force One because of "increased security measures" at Palm Beach International Airport, Fox News reported.
The Secret Service found a suspicious hunting platform Friday near the airport, just one day before Trump arrived for a weekend at Mar-A-Lago.
The hunting stand had a direct line of sight to where Trump's plane lands at the airport, FBI director Kash Patel said.
"Prior to the President’s return to West Palm Beach, USSS discovered what appeared to be an elevated hunting stand within sight line of the Air Force One landing zone," FBI director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital.
"No individuals were located at the scene. The FBI has since taken the investigatory lead, flying in resources to collect all evidence from the scene, and deploying our cell phone analytics capabilities."
The authorities shared a picture of the hunting stand, which was found in a tree during "advance security preparations" before Trump's arrival in Palm Beach.
“The U.S. Secret Service is working closely with the FBI and our law enforcement partners in Palm Beach County. During advance security preparations prior to the Palm Beach arrival, which included the use of technology and comprehensive physical sweeps, our teams identified items of interest near Palm Beach International Airport,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
As Trump departed Florida on Sunday, he boarded Air Force One using a small flight of stairs as a precaution, a White House official told Fox.
Secret Service came under intense scrutiny for security failures after Trump was bloodied by a sniper's bullet at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
A second attempt on Trump's life was thwarted weeks later by a Secret Service agent who noticed a rifle poking from the fenceline of Trump's West Palm Beach golf course.
The gunman in that attempt, Ryan Routh, was found guilty last month, and he faces life in prison.
While speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump ripped Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, who was recently caught wishing death on a Republican politician and his children. Democrats have defended Jones, who has refused to drop out.
"You mean the animal that wanted to kill somebody who should not be allowed to be running for that office?" Trump said when asked about Jones.
"He’s a third-rate intellect, he’s a guy who – I’ve never seen anybody say what he said, that he wanted to kill his opponent’s children – he wanted to kill his opponent," Trump said. "I can’t imagine anybody voting for Jay Jones. Look, you would think he’s totally discredited. I would think he wouldn’t even be allowed to do that; anybody would be put in prison for what he said."
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) refused to answer a direct question from a reporter on Saturday about whether Democrats would win a majority in the Senate or the House in the midterm elections in 2026.
Schiff spoke to a crowd with a megaphone at the "No Kings" protest in Washington, D.C., but wouldn't answer when a reporter from Breitbart News asked him, “Do you think that Democrats will take the House and Senate?”
“I’m gonna join the march, I’m sorry,” he told the reporter.
When asked a second time, a man standing in front of Schiff intervened and said, “We’re not doing interviews right now, thank you.”
Republicans have a level of hope that they can hold on to their majorities, based on some redistricting efforts and another fact Majority Whip Tom Emmer pointed out earlier this month.
"Democrats… have 13 of their members in seats that Donald Trump won in the last presidential election. We only have three,” he said.
Emmer said he expects "we’ll not only hold onto it, but we will expand it to some extent."
It would be unusual for Republicans to hold onto the House with the very slim margin they currently have there, since the party in power generally loses seats in the midterm.
President Donald Trump said he may hold a Republican National Convention before the midterms similar to the one held during a presidential election year.
He expressed confidence in August about how his party was doing so far:
The Republican Party is doing really well. Millions of people have joined us in our quest to MAKE AMERICA, GREAT AGAIN. We won every aspect of the Presidential Election and, based on the great success we are having, are poised to WIN BIG IN THE MIDTERMS. We have raised far more money than the Democrats, and are having a great time fixing all of the Country Destroying mistakes made by the Biden Administration, and watching the USA heal and prosper. The results are incredible, a record pace!!!
It would be a feat for the GOP to maintain majorities in both houses of Congress after the midterms, but Democrats have been busy shooting themselves in the foot left and right since Trump was elected, so you never know.
Another thing that helps Republicans' chances of maintaining their majorities in Congress is a recent Supreme Court ruling that reversed a part of the Voting Rights Act aimed at stopping states from redistricting in such a way that a minority group loses the majority in that district.
If Republican-led states redistrict affected districts as a result of this ruling, it could mean a net gain of 19 House seats, making it that much harder for Democrats to gain a majority.
These two factors are probably the reason Schiff isn't willing to declare victory now. Politics has become too unpredictable to get overconfident more than a year before a consequential election.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pushed back Sunday on ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl's comments about "No Kings" protests and the new Pentagon press rules, saying that "this is the modern Democrat party" at work spreading lies and hate.
Karl attempted to take Johnson to task for calling the "No Kings" protests "hate America rallies," saying, "Just on this notion that these are 'hate America' rallies — and you not only talked about anarchists, Antifa advocates, pro-Hamas wing — you said this is the modern Democratic Party. But I remember not that long ago what you said after the murder of Charlie Kirk when you said that we should view fellow Americans, not as our enemies, but as our fellow countrymen."
Johnson said he was trying to warn the public about the "modern Democrat party," which definitely has its "hate America" contingents.
"Look at what's happening in New York," Johnson said, referring to the mayoral candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. "They're about to elect an open socialist Marxist as the mayor of America's largest city."
The exchange followed questions about the Pentagon's new press policy, starting out with Karl characterizing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as being "afraid to interact with journalists who cover him."
"Fear is not part of the secretary of War’s make-up, OK?" Johnson shot back.
Karl criticized Hegseth's requirement that journalists agree to certain conditions to get access, as well as the fact that he has had only two press briefings during his tenure.
Dozens of journalists turned in their badges last week rather than comply with the new requirements.
"I can’t remember, and I don’t think you can either, a secretary of Defense who has been so transparent, out in the open, talking about priorities, principles and things," Johnson said in response.
Karl then swerved to the current government shutdown, demanding to know why Congress isn't in session trying to resolve it.
"The House did its job, exactly a month ago today on September 19. We passed the clean resolution," Johnson anwswered. "The Democrats have voted 11 times, except for three Democrats in the Senate, they voted 11 times to shut down the government and cease and halt those programs," Johnson said.
At one point he circled back to the "No Kings" protests, saying, "If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now."
While in some ways, the press seems to be getting a little fairer in regards to how they're covering Republicans including Trump, the "No Kings" protests seem to have emboldened them to show their true feelings once again.
As my mom used to say, "This too shall pass." Trump is not a king, and everyone knows it whether they want to admit it or not.
President Donald Trump said Sunday evening that the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was still intact after the two sides exchanged fire over the weekend.
Trump seemed to blame civilians in Gaza for opening fire on Israeli soldiers, killing two of them. Israel then launched a series of air strikes on Gaza.
Hamas is being “quite rambunctious,” Trump said from Air Force One, but added he believes its leadership “isn’t involved in that.”
The ceasefire is "still in place," even though both sides accuse the other of violating it, he said.
It's about par for the course in the Middle East, where peace in Israel has never lasted long.
So far, Israel has withdrawn most of its soldiers from Gaza and has allowed food and medical aid to flow in.
Hamas returned all the living hostages it held back to Israel along with remains of 12 of the 28 dead ones. It said before the ceasefire that it would take some time to locate the remains of all the dead hostages.
Israel countered by saying the Rafah border crossing that connects Gaza with Egypt would stay closed until all the remains were returned.
Clearly, there are still tensions between the two sides, and Hamas has not yet disarmed.
Trump threatened last week that if Hamas didn't disarm voluntarily, they would be disarmed by force, though not by American forces.
Part of the peace plan that hasn't yet been implemented calls for Hamas's disarmament, but they haven't agreed to that part yet.
On Saturday, the State Department said it had intel that Hamas is planning an attack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which would definitely violate the ceasefire terms.
In that case, the U.S. said it would take action to “protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.”
“The United States and the other guarantors remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring the safety of civilians, maintaining calm on the ground, and advancing peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza and the region as a whole,” the statement further read.
From the very first day of the current federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump warned Democrats that their foot-dragging on a continuing resolution would likely result in significant cuts to programs and agencies they hold dear.
Trump is making good on that promise, as the Daily Caller reports, now working to gut a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that critics blame for the entrenchment of far-left abortion and gender ideology policies within the federal ranks.
At issue is the Office of Population Affairs (OPA), the stated mission of which is to further “reproductive health outcomes and adolescent health and wellbeing by supporting high-quality clinical services, evidence-based and innovative programs, rigorous research and evaluation.”
However, critics of the office believe that the agency has been a conduit through which far-left policies have been advanced throughout various arms of the federal government.
Though the OPA is intended to facilitate Title X of the Public Health Service Act, providing grants to support a “broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and related preventive health services,” detractors suggest that the mission has been altered to suit more partisan aims.
Pregnancy prevention has been a top priority, it has been claimed, and while the statute that OPA is designed to implement prohibits federal funding of abortions, the Biden administration initiated something of a workaround that facilitated referrals for pregnancy termination services.
Adding to the controversy, according to the outlet, is the fact that staffers affiliated with pro-abortion groups were effectively embedded within the office, which also endorsed and published materials promoting “gender-affirming care” for minors and distributed sexually explicit content.
It was on Oct. 10 that approximately 30 employees at OPA received reduction-in-force (RIF) notifications, indicating that the job cuts they entailed were permanent in nature and not temporary measures stemming from the government shutdown.
Staffers inside the OPA were reportedly locked out of their email accounts and government laptops as of Friday evening.
The number of cuts implemented represents, practically speaking, the effective shuttering of the office, a scenario that has been met with praise from Republicans such as Illinois Rep. Mary Miller.
Speaking to the Daily Caller News Foundation, Miller stated, “The Office of Population Affairs has long used taxpayer dollars to advance the leftist agenda targeting children and the unborn.”
Miller continued, “I applaud the Trump Administration’s efforts to root out far-left programs in the federal government that undermine the very fabric of our country.”
Democrats upset by the effective end of the OPA may want to tread carefully in terms of prolonging the government shutdown, particularly in light of Trump’s recent warning that the stalemate gives his administration the chance to close “Democrat programs that we want to close up or we never wanted to happen.”
With the president pledging that such initiatives are “never going to come back in many cases,” it seems that Democrats in Congress would be wise to bring the shutdown to a rapid end lest they suffer even deeper cuts to departments and priorities they hold dear.
Amid years of scandal and suspicion regarding his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a prominent member of the British royal family has just been forced to take what is surely a most regrettable step.
As Breitbart reports, Prince Andrew, son of the late Queen Elizabeth II and brother of King Charles, has announced that he will cease use of his royal titles and honors conferred upon him, including that of the Duke of York, in the culmination of a staggering fall from grace.
In what some believe is his anticipation of new, damning revelations about his past ties to Epstein by way of a posthumous memoir from alleged victim Virginia Giuffre, Andrew issued a statement last week informing the public of what he characterized as his decision regarding his titles and honors.
“In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family,” the announcement began.
The statement continued, “I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.”
Andrew added, “With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honors which have been conferred upon me.”
The royal concluded with a defiant note, declaring, “As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
Giuffre’s upcoming book contains salacious allegations regarding her interactions with Andrew facilitated by Epstein, details that contradict the prince’s prior public denials, and suggest a far closer relationship than previously acknowledged.
According to NBC News, Andrew’s woes continue to mount, as Metropolitan Police in London are said to be “actively looking into” reports that the prince attempted to wrongfully obtain personal information about Giuffre in a bid to discredit her.
The Mail on Sunday was reportedly informed that Andrew sought assistance from his own police protection officer in probing Giuffre’s background, doing so in advance of the publication of an infamous photo showing him with his arm around the then-17-year-old girl, with Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell also seen in the shot.
“We are aware of media reporting and are actively looking into the claims made,” a police spokesperson stated.
This and other revelations rumored to be imminent appear to have been the final straw regarding Andrew’s status, with the BBC reporting that the royal was under “enormous pressure” from his brother, King Charles, as well as the future king, Prince William, to abandon his titles.
Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, with whom he continues to reside, will no longer be known as the Duchess of York, though their daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, will retain their royal titles, as the New York Post explains.
For now, the disgraced pair will be permitted to remain in their home at Royal Lodge, which is subject to a long-term lease with the Crown Estate, though there have long been rumblings that King Charles – and perhaps also Prince William – would like to end that arrangement as well.
President Donald Trump has confirmed that two men who survived a military strike on a drug smuggling vessel will be sent to their respective countries.
In an announcement on Saturday, Trump confirmed that the two men on the drug-running vessel will be sent to Ecuador and Colombia to face prosecution for the illegal and nearly fatal drug-running enterprise.
The two men were on board a semi-submersible vessel believed to be transporting fentanyl and other narcotics along a well-known smuggling route toward the United States.
The strike on the vessel marked the sixth strike that the U.S. military has made on suspected drug-running vessels in the Caribbean under the leadership of Trump.
Trump has vowed to crush Central and South American drug cartels both by closing down the southern border, but also by using lethal military force to disrupt the trafficking of deadly drugs that kill countless Americans every year.
For years, drug cartels have had carte blanche to run their deadly cargo through the Caribbean Sea and across the southern border, but those days are over as long as Trump is in the White House.
Trump celebrated the strike in a post on Truth Social saying, "It was my great honor to destroy a very large drug-carrying submarine that was navigating toward the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route. U.S. intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics."
Alongside this post, Trump released the footage of the strike that destroyed the vessel in a similar fashion to the last few strikes on drug smuggling vessels.
For the first time, those participating in smuggling deadly drugs have something to fear. Simply seizing random amounts of smuggled drugs isn't enough to truly deter cartel activity.
Furthermore, Trump has avoided a massive legal headache as he no longer has to worry about detaining prisoners of war who have the legal right to contest their detention in the American court system.
Instead, these smugglers have gone to their respective countries, where their cases will be handled. The cases will likely be open and shut, and those smugglers can expect to spend some time behind bars, which is still better than being dead.
On the home front, Trump is already dealing with growing legal challenges as Democrats have predictably chosen to side with drug-smuggling cartels and launch spurious lawsuits against Trump's use of military force against cartels.
Of course, it's not just Democrats who have an issue with Trump starting a hot war against cartels. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has been a staunch critic of Trump's use of force and claims that the military strikes on drug smuggling vessels are illegal.
It remains to be seen what will happen with these legal challenges, but it's refreshing to see America's trillion-dollar military used to directly defend the homeland instead of waging meaningless wars on the other side of the globe.