Former Trump White House adviser John Bolton surrendered at a federal courthouse on Friday after FBI investigators caught him leaking classified information.
Bolton allegedly leaked seven documents while working for Trump at the White House and leaked another shortly after the president fired him in September 2019, ABC News reported.
The longtime Trump critic pleaded not guilty to 18 felony counts and denounced the indictment as a sham, echoing Democrats who have accused Trump of "weaponizing" the law to target his political foes.
Bolton had a brief and rocky tenure as Trump's national security adviser during the president's first White House term.
A Republican fixture in Washington, D.C. foreign policy circles for decades, Bolton's aggressive personality and hawkish views clashed with those of the commander in chief, who would denounce Bolton as a reckless "warmonger" after firing him. After departing the White House, Bolton published a tell-all book that led to a reprimand from a judge for compromising national security.
In August, Bolton fell under scrutiny again after federal investigators raided his Maryland home and Washington, D.C. office. Many Democrats reflexively denounced the raid as an intimidation tactic, but few Democrats rushed to Bolton's defense after the charges were unveiled.
The indictment accuses Bolton of using a personal e-mail account to send over 1,000 pages of top secret and other classified information in "diary-like entries" to members of his family.
Prosecutors also say that Bolton unlawfully retained physical documents inside his home and also kept copies on his personal devices. Some of the information Bolton transmitted, which included sensitive details on "future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations," was allegedly exposed by Iranian hackers.
When Bolton reported the hack of his e-mail to the FBI in 2021, he failed to mention that he had used the account to send classified information, prosecutors say.
Bolton appeared to be aware that his clandestine actions could get him in trouble, telling one relative whom he sent a file, "None of which we talk about!!!", to which the person responded, "Shhhhh," the AP reported.
Bolton faces eight counts of unlawful transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
According to Bolton's lawyer Abbe Lowell, Bolton shared "unclassified" information with his immediate family only, and the FBI knew all about it in 2021. "Like many public officials throughout history," Lowell said, "Bolton kept diaries -- that is not a crime."
The prosecution of Bolton comes within weeks of indictments being brought against New York attorney general Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey, both Trump antagonists who have been accused of weaponizing the power of government in their own ways.
Unlike Comey and James, Bolton may have difficulty winning sympathy from the liberal media.
Even the left-leaning Associated Press acknowledged that the case against Bolton "was already well underway by the time Trump took office" and that it appears to be more "conventional" than the cases against James and Comey.
Vermont's Republican governor, Phil Scott, called for a state senator in his party to resign over his role in a leaked chat exchange among young Republicans that has grabbed national headlines.
Scott called out the senator, Sam Douglass, by name in a statement condemning the "vile" messages, which were leaked to Politico.
The texts were exchanged between a group of young Republicans in New York, Kansas, Vermont, and Arizona, and included jokes about Hitler, slavery, and rape.
"The hateful statements made in this group chat are disgusting and unacceptable. The vile, racist, bigoted, and antisemitic dialogue that has been reported is deeply disturbing. There is simply no excuse for it,” Scott said in a Tuesday statement.
“Those involved should resign from their roles immediately and leave the Republican party – including Vermont State Senator Sam Douglass,” he added.
As reported by Politico, Douglass made a disparaging comment in the chat about an Indian woman who "didn’t bathe often."
Some of the chat participants called black people "monkeys" and "watermelon people" and joked about the Holocaust, saying they would put their political enemies in gas chambers.
Douglass apologized on Wednesday and said he would make another statement before the week is over.
“I apologize so deeply to my constituents and colleagues that our county and state have been dragged into this,” he said. “I am currently weighing all my options to ensure that the outcome of this is what’s best for the safety and wellbeing of my family and my constituency, and I will make another statement before the end of the week.”
Some of the people who were involved in the conversations have been fired from their jobs in Republican politics.
While Democrats and some Republicans have called for the chat participants to face consequences, some on the right have dismissed the outrage as overblown.
Vice president J.D. Vance has brushed off the controversy as nothing more than young people making crude jokes. Vance argues that the scandal involving Virginia Democrat Jay Jones, who fantasized about the murder of a Republican leader and his young children, is a much bigger deal.
“This is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia," Vance wrote Tuesday. "I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence.”
While Jones has apologized, no prominent Democrats have urged him to suspend his campaign for attorney general.
President Trump turned the tables on the media on Wednesday, threatening to send reporters "across the street" from the White House as news organizations boycott new rules for reporting on the Pentagon, the Washington Examiner reported.
The restrictions require reporters to pledge that they will not solicit or publish classified or otherwise unauthorized information, and credentialed journalists will no longer be free to roam the Pentagon building without an escort.
For years, journalists at top legacy media organizations have solicited and published classified and other sensitive information freely. In many cases, the reporting based on these leaks has been used for political purposes.
Since the dawn of the Trump era, especially, publishing leaked information has been a routine method of causing embarrassment and scandal for Trump and his allies.
Critics have said the Pentagon's new rules are broadly worded and draconian, but Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has defended them as "common sense," insisting press access is a "privilege, not a right" and that guardrails are necessary for national security.
The rules have been rejected almost universally by media organizations including Hegseth's former employer, Fox News.
“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues,” a joint statement from CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox News read. “The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections.”
With Hegseth seated next to him, Trump taunted journalists who oppose the new restrictions and suggested they have been spoiled in recent years, noting reporters did not always have easy access to the White House.
"We could move them very easily across the street. They used to be there," Trump said. "They would have more room. We have a beautiful, nice space. You could sit all by yourselves and have fun," Trump said.
"Instead, you walk around the White House talking to anybody that can breathe," Trump added.
"It bothers me to have soldiers and high-ranking generals walking around with you guys on their sleeve," Trump told the media.
"They can make a mistake and a mistake can be tragic," Trump added.
One America News Network, a pro-Trump media outlet, is the only network that has committed to signing the new rules.
Reporters began turning in their press credentials ahead of a Tuesday deadline to accept or reject the restrictions.
President Trump declined to say whether Palestinians should have a state of their own in the future, as questions linger over the implementation of his Gaza peace deal, Fox News reported.
Trump shared his thoughts with reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a whirlwind 24-hour trip through Israel and Egypt.
“Well, we’re going to have to see,” Trump told reporters when asked about how Gaza's future. “A lot of people like the one-state solution, some people like the two-state solution. We’ll have to see.”
After two years of war, much of Gaza has been utterly destroyed. For now, Trump is declining to say what Gaza's political future looks like in concrete terms as he focuses on clearing rubble.
"I’m not talking about single state or double state … I’m talking about the rebuilding of Gaza,” Trump said.
Trump's plans for Gaza have shifted considerably. Earlier this year, he sparked an outcry for suggesting that the coastal strip could be developed into a luxury resort.
His 20-point peace plan at least raises the possibility of a Palestinian state when the conditions are right.
The Trump plan calls for a temporary international government to rebuild the enclave, with a "board of peace," chaired by Trump himself, to oversee the reconstruction effort until a reformed Palestinian Authority is ready to take the reins.
"While Gaza redevelopment advances and when the [Palestinian Authority] reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people,” reads point 19.
Trump secured a major victory on Monday as Hamas released the last living Israeli hostages taken in the October 7, 2023, attack. After a triumphant visit in Israel, Trump stopped in Egypt for a global peace summit with world leaders, where he signed phase one of the cease-fire.
While hope is mounting for a new chapter of regional stability, tough obstacles remain.
The issue of Palestinian statehood remains a major point of contention.
Israel's government under prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu objects to a two-state solution. Israel has doubled down on that position despite accepting Trump's broad framework for peace.
There are also questions of whether Hamas will comply with demands to give up their weapons and relinquish authority over Gaza, which has been ruled by the terror group since 2007.
President Trump received a hero's welcome in Israel on Monday as the last living hostages stolen by Hamas on October 7, 2023, were set free, an achievement few thought possible until Trump defied the odds with a historic peace deal.
The captives were released in two separate groups of seven and 13 to the Red Cross, the Hill reported.
Their release ends two long years of anguish for Israel, the captives, and their loved ones and stands as a significant diplomatic milestone for Trump, who made a whirlwind tour of Israel and Egypt on Monday to bask in the glory of his achievement.
Joyous, almost surreal scenes played out on Monday as the hostages were finally set free, just days after the second anniversary of the darkest day in Israel's modern history, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages on October 7th.
The last living hostages spent 738 dark days cut off from their families and the civilized world as their loved ones and others lobbied for their freedom.
Emotions ran high across Israel on Monday as Trump was compared to Cyrus the Great, the Persian emperor who freed the ancient Israelites from the Babylonian captivity. Trump spoke to a rapturous crowd at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, where he gave a triumphant speech.
"After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families," Trump said.
"Twenty-eight more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time."
Despite the warm feelings across Israel, not all families were celebrating Monday.
Hamas released only four of the deceased hostages among 28 presumed dead, leading the Hostage and Missing Families Forum to accuse the group of a "blatant breach" of the ceasefire deal. It came as Israel released 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, in accordance with the peace agreement.
Speaking at a peace summit in Egypt, Trump said that Hamas is searching for the bodies of the remaining captives.
"It’s a pretty gruesome task… They know the areas [where they’re located] and… they’re doing it in conjunction with Israel, and they’ll going to be finding quite a few of them,” Trump said.
Under Trump's 20-point peace deal, Hamas must also commit to disarm and abdicate rule in war-torn Gaza, terms that some are skeptical the terror group will honor.
Still, the release of the 20 hostages Monday is an incredible victory for Trump, for Israel, and for all of humanity.
The Senate was still working as the government remains shut down, passing a massive annual defense spending bill late last week -- primarily led by Senate Republicans.
According to The Hill, the Republican-led Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with a 70-20 vote, easily passing it after GOP senators struck a deal earlier in the day that unlocked the bill from being held up.
The bill, primarily aimed at funding the U.S. military, will provide the armed services $924.7 billion in fiscal 2026, according to the bill's language.
The legislation still has a long way to go before becoming law, as the approving of the bill by Senate Republicans means it will now move to the conference stage with the House and Senate armed services committees, where both sides can argue and negotiate.
Notably, the House version of the NDAA is slightly less top-line money, coming in at $893 billion.
The bill has been held up in the upper chamber, as it takes all 100 U.S. senators to agree to move forward on it. Some were holding out for certain additions.
The Hill noted:
The NDAA had come to the Senate floor in early September but saw little movement until Thursday morning. Action on the bill was stalled, as all 100 senators must agree to hold votes on amendments, with several sticking points causing a handful of lawmakers to halt the process.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) was the Republican senator who secured a deal with the other side to unlock the stalled process, securing "an agreement to vote on 17 stand-alone amendments and a package of nearly 50 less controversial amendments."
"We simply cannot delay this process any longer,” Wicker said on the Senate floor Thursday.
He added, "Let me make it clear: If we do not bring this to the floor today, this matter will not have time for deliberation on the Senate floor, and we’ll have to basically pretend that we’re having a conference between House and Senate members, and a very small group of senators will have to write this bill and bring it to the floor for final passage. That’s not the way this ought to be done."
There was some level of bipartisanship as both sides came together to give the Pentagon additional authorities to counter drone threats.
"Hundreds of drones have been spotted in the vicinity of military installations over the past few years, including military-sensitive sites like Langley Air Force Base," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said.
She added, "But current laws give the Department of Defense quite limited authority to mitigate these threats, and the patchwork of interagency coordination required to address them leaves gaps that endanger our military bases and the men and women who serve there."
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) worked with Gillibrand on inserting that particular amendment.
China will always do whatever it takes to infiltrate any level of U.S. government, and its spies are everywhere. One Foreign Service Officer (FSO) was just fired by the Trump administration for having a romantic relationship with the daughter of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affiliate.
According to Breitbart, Daniel Choi, a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, was terminated by Sec. of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump after undercover video surfaced that showed him admitting his secret relationship.
James O’Keefe’s undercover journalists caught Choi making the bombshell admission, and the video quickly made its way through the Trump administration and ended with a firing.
The O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) made the video public.
The video was damning, to say the least. In it, Choi admitted the secret romantic relationship and even said, “I defied my government for love."
🇺🇸 Secretary of State Marco Rubio has fired Daniel Choi, a State Department Foreign Service officer who admitted in an undercover video that he had a romantic relationship with a woman linked to the 🇨🇳 CCP.
“Today, after Presidential review and approval, the Secretary of State… https://t.co/vgpxitalNn pic.twitter.com/qWC9UaVyM1
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) October 9, 2025
The U.S. State Department issued a statement on the situation, noting that President Trump signed off on the termination.
“After Presidential review and approval, the Secretary of State has terminated a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who concealed a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with ties to the Chinese Community Party," the State Department said.
Breitbart noted:
A Department spokesperson told OMG that to their knowledge, this firing marks the first time such an action was taken, citing President Trump’s Executive Order 14211 for making the termination possible.
The outlet added:
Executive Order 14211 states that “All officers or employees charged with implementing the foreign policy of the United States must, under Article II, do so under the direction and authority of the President.”
“Failure to faithfully implement the President’s policy is grounds for professional discipline, including separation,” President Trump’s executive order adds.
Users across social media weighed in on the firing, with many applauding the revelation.
"The Daniel Choi case isn’t an isolated slip-up—it’s a symptom of systemic rot. Look at Linda Sun, Hochul’s aide funneling CCP cash into NY politics, or Elaine Fan’s family legacy of CCP propaganda. These aren’t coincidences," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "This highlights the risk of personal connections in international relations."
Thankfully, this one was noticed and caught. There are probably many more like it.
As controversy brews over Donald Trump's apparent Nobel Prize snub, the president is exposing the political bias that led to Barack Obama receiving the coveted award for "doing nothing," the Daily Mail reports.
"They gave it to Obama for absolutely nothing but destroying our country," Trump told reporters. "He got a prize for doing nothing."
Indeed, Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize a mere eight months into his eight-year long presidency, before the "hope and change" candidate had the chance to do anything very consequential on the world stage.
Even the liberal New York Times called Obama's Nobel Prize honor "premature" at the time, and to this day, it is still not clear what he did to merit the prize.
By the time Obama left the White House, the democratic hopes of the Arab Spring had turned to violence, ISIS was on the rise in Iraq, and Syria and Libya were in full-blown civil wars. When Trump became president in 2017, Islamist terrorism was surging all across the West.
Trump's criticism of Obama's Nobel Prize came shortly before Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025.
Critics, including those at the White House, have slammed the Nobel Committee's decision as political in the wake of Trump's historic Gaza peace deal, which has the potential to usher in a new chapter in the troubled Middle East.
However, it wasn't the snub it appeared to be, as the committee had already made its decision two days before the first phase of Trump's deal was approved by Israel and Hamas, the New York Post reported.
President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives.
He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.
The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace. https://t.co/dwCEWjE0GE
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) October 10, 2025
While the full scope of the comprehensive 20-point plan remains to be implemented, the agreement is a giant step forward after the two deadliest years in the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The last of the Israeli hostages, both dead and alive, are expected to be released early next week, and displaced Palestinians have begun returning to their homes after the cease-fire was officially implemented on Friday.
In typical Obama fashion, the former president released a passive-aggressive statement celebrating the breakthrough without giving Trump any credit at all.
"After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered,” Obama’s post read.
If the Gaza peace holds, it will be difficult for the Nobel Prize to retain any credibility if Trump does not receive it in 2026.
Anti-Trump attack dog and notorious “Russian collusion” fabulist Eric Swalwell (D-CA) claims that President Trump is about to be overwhelmed by a groundswell of GOP opposition, the Daily Mail reports.
In a dramatic, vaguely threatening post on X, Swalwell alleged that as many as 100 Republicans will defy the president over the so-called Epstein files, which have dominated Democrats’ talking points in recent months.
In a curious shift, Democrats have cast themselves as champions of transparency in the Epstein case, which they showed little interest in until recently.
But since July of this year, when the Justice Department officially rejected the existence of the so-called client list, Democrats have fixated on accusing Trump and his administration of protecting a shadowy cabal of pedophiles.
“It's coming to an end guys. I've spoken to a lot of House Republicans this week and they've confided that Trump's movement/support is fading,' Swalwell wrote on X.
“As one told me, ‘this Epstein bomb is about to drop and no want [sic] wants to defend a pedo-protector. It's just a matter of time."
Swalwell then claimed in a follow-up post: “One Republican just texted me that if there's a discharge vote on Epstein they expect a ‘jail break’ of over 100 members. Trump will go nuts!'
Swalwell did not name any of these rebel Republicans who are supposedly ready to break with Trump.
Swalwell’s Epstein claims likely reflect the wishful thinking of his party's base more than political reality. We have heard many times before that the “walls are closing in” on Trump, and each time those predictions have proven wrong.
During Trump's first term, Swalwell was among the most prolific promoters of the baseless "Russian collusion" hoax that was predicted to end Trump's political career.
It surely does no favors to Epstein’s victims that a notorious, lying blowhard like Swalwell is now claiming to be their advocate. But Democrats believe they can use the Epstein scandal to drive a wedge between Trump and his MAGA base and tarnish the president’s reputation without evidence of wrongdoing.
Many Trump supporters remain skeptical of the government’s tidy conclusions in the Epstein case, and a few Republicans in the House have clashed with the White House over the files. But Trump’s approval rating has held steady through months of Epstein-related drama, despite Swalwell’s dramatic claims of Trump’s movement collapsing.
When asked for a response to Swalwell’s latest outlandish claims, the White House referenced Swalwell's past romantic involvement with a Chinese spy.
“Did his Chinese spy lover Fang Fang write this tweet?” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) is winning praise from the left as she strays from her party's shutdown talking points.
The Georgia congressman is demanding the renewal of the Obamacare tax credits at the center of the government shutdown, warning that premiums will double unless Congress acts.
“I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year,” Greene wrote on X.
With her take on the subsidies, Greene is at odds with Republican leaders who have insisted on passing a "clean" continuing resolution to open the government without any policy attachments.
Democrats have refused to support a funding bill without guarantees that Congress will extend the enhanced tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
Greene said she is "not a fan" of the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare, and she acknowledged the health care law made insurance unaffordable for her family. But she defended the tax credits that many people, including her own children, rely on to afford the steep premiums on the Obamacare health exchanges.
“I’m going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year, my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district,” the Georgia Republican continued.
Democrats including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-Ny.), the party's leader in the shutdown fight, have highlighted the support from Greene to attack her party as out of touch on healthcare.
“So hold on to your hats,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “I think this is the first time I said this, but, on this issue, Representative Greene said it perfectly.”
Greene is regarded with contempt by most liberals, making her alignment with Democrats on Obamacare surprising to many.
But this is not the first time that the Trump-supporting Greene has bucked the president and his party, with Greene also supporting a discharge petition to force a vote on the so-called Epstein files as Trump seeks to move on from the controversy. Greene has also criticized Trump at times for moves on foreign policy that she says betray the "America First" creed.
Republicans, including Trump, have said they are willing to negotiate healthcare, but not while the government is shut down.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has dismissed Greene's criticism of the party's healthcare plans as uninformed.
“Congresswoman Greene does not serve on the committees of jurisdiction to deal with those specialized issues, and she’s probably not read that in on some of that, because it’s still been sort of in their silos of the people who specialize in those issues,” Johnson said Tuesday.