pam bondi

July 24 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, at a federal courthouse in Florida on Thursday.

She was originally scheduled to meet Justice Department representatives at the minimum-security prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking, but instead the meeting will happen at the U.S. attorney’s office, located inside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, as first reported by ABC News.

“For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know?” posted U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to X Tuesday in regard to the Thursday meeting.

Maxwell has also been subpoenaed by House Oversight Committee Chairperson Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., for a deposition slated to take place at the prison where she is held on Aug. 11.

Maxwell was convicted and sentenced in June 2022 as an accomplice in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme and was denied a reassessment by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a recent review of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department and FBI allegedly found that President Donald Trump‘s name appeared several times in the files, and that Trump was informed of that by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in May before the Justice Department said it would not make those files public.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday during a press conference that when the Epstein files are made public, “which we must do as quickly as possible,” it needs to be done in a way that protects the victims mentioned in the files, some of whom are purportedly minors.

But he also stressed that only “credible evidence” should be revealed, and Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus responded on X Wednesday that “We understand [Johnson’s] general concern, Congress should always vet the credibility of its witnesses.”

However, Markus claimed, “those concerns are unfounded,” and that Maxwell testifies before Congress and not invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, that “she would testify truthfully.”

Markus also said that Maxwell is looking forward to her meeting with the DOJ, and that will inform how she proceeds in regard to the Congressional subpoena.

Rumors that Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while in custody, had a list of clients who participated in the abuse and exploitation have been denied by the DOJ. Further rumors involve President Donald Trump’s past relationship with Epstein, although Trump has since called public’s interest in the Epstein files a “scam” and a “hoax” created by his political opponents.

July 23 (UPI) — The U.S. House Oversight Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell as a subcommittee sought subpoenas for President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and the Justice Department.

A House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee also approved subpoenas to obtain Department of Justice records related to the Epstein files and deposing former President Bill Clinton and other Democrats.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., introduced the motion to subpoena the DOJ’s “full, complete [and] unredacted” Epstein files, which passed with an 8-2 vote.

Republican Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Brian Jack of Georgia and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania joined Democrats in voting in favor of the subpoena motion.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said he will sign the DOJ subpoena for the Epstein files, ABC News reported.

The subcommittee also seeks former President Clinton’s and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s depositions.

Others targeted for subpoenas include James Comey, Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, Robert Mueller, Alberto Gonzales and Jeff Sessions.

House speaker questions Maxwell’s credibility

The Oversight Committee wants to depose Maxwell on Aug. 11 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Fla.

Maxwell, 63, was an associate of former financier and convicted sex offender Epstein, who killed himself while jailed in New York City and awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges that included minors in 2019.

She also is the daughter of former British media mogul Robert Maxwell and is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida after a jury found her guilty of sex trafficking in 2021.

“The facts and circumstances surrounding both your and Mr. Epstein’s cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny,” Comer said in the subpoena.

Comer said the Justice Department also is undertaking “efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to your and Mr. Epstein’s cases.”

“It is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally,” he added, “and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein.”

Comer submitted the subpoena a day after a House Oversight subcommittee approved a motion that directed him to seek Maxwell’s testimony before the Oversight Committee.

The Justice Department on Tuesday also announced it will interview Maxwell soon to provide greater transparency in the case against Epstein.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday questioned the credibility of Maxwell’s testimony.

“Could she be counted on to tell the truth?” Johnson asked reporters. “Is she a credible witness?”

He called Maxwell “a person who’s been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable conspiratorial acts and acts against innocent young people.”

Federal judge denies Epstein grand jury files access

A federal judge on Wednesday denied one of three DOJ requests to release grand jury records from Epstein’s case there.

U.S. District of Southern Florida Judge Robin Rosenberg refused to unseal the grand jury testimony and records from cases against Epstein in 2005 and 2007.

Rosenberg said the Justice Department did not sufficiently outline arguments to unseal the court records.

She also denied a request to transfer the matter to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York.

Two federal judges there similarly are considering DOJ motions to unseal grand jury files from the former Epstein cases.

Bondi said Trump’s name is in the files

While those rulings are pending, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump his name appears in the Epstein files, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Bondi did not state the context in which Trump is mentioned, and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said Trump did not engage in any wrongdoing.

Instead, Trump expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club because the president thought Epstein was a “creep,” Cheung added.

Bondi earlier suggested she would release files related to the Epstein case, but recently said they don’t contain anything noteworthy.

Her announcement regarding the files triggered controversy, including among Republican congressional members.

Johnson canceled Thursday’s House session and said the chamber will recess until Sept. 2.

July 22 (UPI) — The Justice Department has dismissed a Biden-era lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors, as the Trump administration continues to attack the rights and medical care of transgender Americans.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that her department’s Civil Rights Division dismissed the lawsuit in a statement Monday that said the Justice Department “does not believe challenging Tennessee’s law serves the public interest.”

Gender-affirming care includes a range of therapies, including psychological, behavioral and medical interventions, with surgeries for minors being exceedingly rare. According to a recent Harvard study, cisgender minors and adults were far more likely to undergo analogous gender-affirming surgeries than their transgender counterparts.

Every major American medical association supports gender-affirming care for both adults and minors, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, the largest national medical association.

Despite the support of the medical community and evidence of its efficacy, gender-affirming care and this marginalized community continue to be targeted by conservatives and Republicans with legislation.

Tennessee enacted Senate Bill 1 in March 2023 to prohibit healthcare professionals from prescribing puberty blockers or hormones to minors to treat gender dysphoria, which attracted a lawsuit from the Justice Department under President Joe Biden, arguing the law violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, as all other minors continued to have access to the same procedures and treatments.

The conservative movement targeting the healthcare of transgender minors has since gained a supporter in the White House with the re-election of President Donald Trump.

Since returning to power, Trump has implemented an agenda targeting transgender Americans, including directing the federal government to recognize only two sexes determined at “conception,” restricting gender-affirming care for youth and banning transgender Americans from the military.

Last month, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against the Biden administration’s complaint to overturn the Tennessee law. The ruling fell along ideological lines, with the conservative justices voting for the law to stand. The liberal justices dissented.

“By retreating from meaningful review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent.

“Tennessee’s ban applies no matter what a minor’s parents and doctors think, with no regard for the severity of the minor’s mental health conditions or the extent to which treatment is medically necessary for an individual child.”

Bondi on Monday said the Supreme Court made “the right decision.” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said that by dismissing the lawsuit, they “undid one of the injustices the Biden administration inflicted upon the country.”

July 18 (UPI) — At least three people are dead following an explosion early Friday morning at a Los Angeles County Sheriff Department facility.

The three people killed are deputies with the law enforcement agency, KTLA first reported.

Officials have not said what caused the explosion, which took place at the Biscailuz Center Training Academy in East Los Angeles at about 7:30 a.m. PDT Friday, the LA Times reported, citing law enforcement sources.

Other injuries have been reported but authorities have not elaborated on their nature or extent.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s office said he had been briefed on the situation and “has offered full state assistance.”

The Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad responded to the scene following the explosion.

Federal officials are also involved in the investigation.

“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more. Please pray for the families of the sheriff’s deputies killed,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X.

Bondi said she had been in contact with Central District of California U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli’s office.

“We are closely monitoring the tragic incident that took the lives of three sheriff’s deputies at a training facility in Los Angeles,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on X.

“Our federal partners are on the ground, and we are working to support the ongoing response.”

“I am heartbroken to hear of the terrible tragedy that has unfolded today at an LA County Sheriff’s Department facility. I am closely tracking the situation as we learn more about what occurred and the condition of those affected,” LASD Supervisor Kathryn Barger told KNBC-TV.

“My heart is heavy, and my thoughts are with the brave men and women of the Sheriff’s Department during this difficult time. I stand with them and their families as they navigate the hours and days ahead,”

WASHINGTON — The case of Jeffrey Epstein, closed long ago by investigators but nevertheless a constant source of fascination to conspiracy theorists, is the story that won’t go away for President Trump, who this week continued to resist releasing documents in the case against bipartisan calls and increasing national interest.

The case has dogged Trump’s second term from the start, ever since the attorney general, Pam Bondi, alluded to the existence of a list of Epstein’s clients sitting on her desk in February. Bondi later said she misspoke and that no such list exists. But the president’s MAGA base and Democrats alike are now calling for the entire Justice Department file of Epstein material to be released, an appeal so far rejected by Trump and his aides.

Trump’s defensiveness over the file has put Republicans on Capitol Hill in the difficult position of appearing to protect Epstein’s co-conspirators, as Democrats take advantage of the internal Republican divide with calls for a vote to release the documents. A poll conducted by the Economist/YouGov this month found that 83% of Trump’s 2024 supporters want the government to release all material related to the Epstein case — “past supporters,” as Trump referred to them Wednesday, calling them “weaklings” and “foolish” for pressing their interest in the case.

Epstein, a wealthy financier with a deep bench of powerful friends, died in a New York City prison in August 2019 facing federal charges over a child sex trafficking conspiracy. The charges followed reporting by the Miami Herald of a scandalous sweetheart deal brokered by federal prosecutors in Florida that had allowed Epstein to serve a months-long sentence and avoid federal charges that could have resulted in life imprisonment.

One of those prosecutors, Alexander Acosta, later became Labor secretary in Trump’s first administration. He resigned amid a public outcry, weeks before Epstein’s death.

The New York City medical examiner and the inspector general of the Justice Department have ruled Epstein’s death a suicide. This month, the FBI released what it characterized as the “full raw” footage from a camera near what it says was Epstein’s prison cell at the time of his death. But suspicions of conspiracy were only turbocharged by the release of the tape, which Wired first reported had three minutes cut from the original footage, according to metadata of the file.

Epstein’s known association with some of the world’s most famous men, including Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, have fueled calls for their release. But it is Trump’s highly public relationship with Epstein that has caused the story to resurface.

“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Elon Musk, Trump’s largest donor in the 2024 presidential campaign and his close aide in the White House at the beginning of his term, wrote on X during their fallout last month. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” (He later deleted the post.)

Photos of Trump and Epstein attending parties together have proliferated online. And Trump frequently acknowledged their friendship before entering politics. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

On Wednesday, Trump said Bondi should release only material from the Epstein files that “she thinks is credible.” When asked whether he would support the appointment of a special counsel to examine the case, he replied, “I have nothing to do with it.”

“I would say these files were made up by [former FBI Director James] Comey and [former President] Obama, made up by the Biden [administration], and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,” he said.

On Wednesday, Maurene Comey, James Comey’s daughter and a federal prosecutor who had worked on the Epstein case, was dismissed from the Justice Department. Comey said Thursday that the department gave her no reason for her firing.

In a briefing Thursday, White House Press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the president’s opposition to a special prosecutor.

“The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case,” she said. “That’s how he feels.”

Legitimate concerns have been raised over releasing documents from the case that could reference individuals who are not credibly suspected of wrongdoing. But those calling for the release of the entire file now say that the scale of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring, and the corruption around efforts to protect him over nearly two decades, are a matter of public interest.

“We want the entire file — we don’t trust Bondi to say what’s credible and what’s not,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told MSNBC on Thursday. “We can be the judge of that ourselves.”

On Capitol Hill, responding to Republican concerns over the optics of voting against the release, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is considering a measure that would call for the files to be made public.

The measure would be nonbinding, a source familiar with the matter said.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi suggested Tuesday that she has no plans to step down as she dodged questions about Jeffrey Epstein and her clash with a top FBI official, seeking to press ahead with a business-as-usual approach in the face of right-wing outrage that has plunged the Justice Department into turmoil.

Pressed by reporters during an announcement touting drug seizures, Bondi sidestepped questions about the fallout of the Trump administration’s decision not to release more records related to the wealthy financier’s sex trafficking investigation that has angered high profile members of President Trump’s base. With some calling for her resignation, Bondi made clear she intends to remain attorney general.

“I’m going to be here for as long as the president wants to be here,” Bondi said. “And I believe he’s made that crystal clear.”

The announcement at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters of recent methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures represents an effort by Bondi to turn the page on the Epstein controversy and show that the Justice Department is forging ahead after days of mounting criticism from figures in the MAGA movement furious over the administration’s failure to deliver long-sought government secrets about Epstein. But her refusal to address the turmoil may only further frustrate conservative influencers who have been calling for transparency and accountability over the wealthy financier’s case.

“This today is about fentanyl overdoses throughout our country and people who have lost loved ones to fentanyl,” Bondi said in response to a question from a reporter about the Epstein files. “That’s the message that we’re here to send today. I’m not going to talk about Epstein.”

Trump has been seeking to tamp down criticism of his attorney general and defended her again earlier Tuesday, saying she handled the matter “very well.” Trump said it’s up to her whether to release any more records, adding that “whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”

Asked about Trump’s comment, Bondi said the Justice Department memo released last week announcing that no additional evidence would become public “speaks for itself and we’ll get back to you on anything else.”

The turmoil over the department’s handling of the Epstein matter spilled into public view last week with reports of a internal clash between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Part of the dispute centered on a story from the news organization NewsNation that cited a “source close to the White House” as saying the FBI would have released the Epstein files months ago if it could have done so on its own. The story included statements from Bondi, Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel refuting the premise, but not Bongino.

Asked Tuesday whether she believes Bongino should remain in his role, Bondi said only that she would not discuss personnel matters. Bondi stressed that she had spent the morning with Patel, adding that: “I think we all are committed to working together now to make America safe again and that’s what we’re doing.”

Bondi had already been under scrutiny after an earlier document release in February that she hyped and handed out in binders to conservative influencers at the White House lacked any new revelations. When that first release flopped, Bondi accused officials of withholding files from her and claimed that the FBI later turned over a “truckload” of evidence with thousands of pages of additional documents.

Despite promises that more files were on their way to the public, however, the Justice Department determined after a months-long review that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” according to the memo released last week.

Richer writes for the Associated Press.

July 12 (UPI) — Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday fired nine former members of former special counsel Jack Smith’s team that was tasked with prosecuting President Donald Trump.

Friday’s firings include two federal prosecutors and seven others who assisted Smith’s failed efforts to charge and convict Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, his handling of classified documents and other alleged offenses, The New York Times reported.

Friday’s firings raised to at least 20 the number of Justice Department employees who lost their jobs for participating in the effort to prosecute Trump.

In addition to the two prosecutors, the others who were fired fired on Friday helped to manage Smith’s office, provided paralegal services, oversaw financial records and conducted information security.

Earlier firings included some support staff, U.S. marshals, litigation assistants and others who were not directly related to Smith’s efforts to prosecute Trump, ABC News reported.

The firings have occurred in batches, similar to those on Friday, and often cite Article II of the Constitution, which defines presidential powers.

Smith on Jan. 11 resigned from the DOJ after completing his work and submitted a final confidential report on the two cases arising from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the FBI’s raid of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in search of classified documents.

A subsequent Senate Judiciary Committee found Smith had withheld relevant impeachment documents related to one of his cases against Trump that involved electors.

Smith knowingly used information generated by an “anti-Trump FBI agent acting in violation of FBI protocol,” the Judiciary Committee reported on Feb. 12.

“Jack Smith and his merry band of DOJ partisans weaponized the justice system to put President Trump and his defense team at an unfair disadvantage,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said of the committee report.

“Smith’s cases against Trump were never about fairness,” Grassley said. “They were always about vengeance and aimed at destroying a political opponent.”

July 11 (UPI) — Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files has FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino contemplating resigning from his position, according to several news reports.

Bongino and Bondi clashed over the matter earlier this week after she said there is no list of client names to be made publicly available, CNN reported on Friday.

The clash occurred at the White House on Wednesday after Bondi also said evidence confirms Epstein committed suicide and was not murdered while jailed in New York City in 2019.

Unnamed sources told Fox News, Axios and CNN that Bongino has said he might resign due to the conflict and has not been in his office since Wednesday.

Bondi, though, has said she won’t resign, and FBI Director Kash Patel, likewise, intends to stay with the federal law enforcement agency.

“President Donald Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law-and-order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable and delivering justice to victims,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told Fox News.

“Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all,” Fields said.

Epstein was a financier and a convicted sex offender who was found dead inside a New York Metropolitan Correctional Center jail cell while awaiting trial on federal charges in August 2019.

He was pronounced dead of suicide after being taken to a nearby hospital.

Trump said he might release the information from files while campaigning in 2024, and Bondi suggested she would release information after becoming the nation’s attorney general.

The Justice Department on Monday announced there is no client list and no evidence that he was killed.

Reports of conflict between the Justice Department and the FBI are false, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday in a post on X.

July 11 (UPI) — The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Minnesota’s hiring practices, the third legal or administrative action the Trump administration has taken against the Democratic-led state in just over two weeks.

The Justice Department informed Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of the investigation into the state’s hiring practices in a letter dated Thursday.

“Our investigation is based on information that Minnesota may be engaged in certain employment practices that discriminate against employees, job applicants and training program participants based on race and sex in violation of Title VII,” Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

“Specifically, we have reason to believe the Minnesota Department of Human Services is engaging in unlawful action through, among other things, the adoption and forthcoming implementation of its ‘hiring justification’ policy.”

Early this month, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced a new hiring policy set to take effect Aug. 12. It directs hiring supervisors to “provide a hiring justification when seeking to hire a non-underrepresented candidate when hiring for a vacancy in a job category with underrepresentation.”

The purpose of the directive is to ensure the department meets its affirmative action responsibilities, comply with state laws and increase the diversity of its workforce.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has sought to roll back so-called progressive practices, including diversity, equity and inclusion policies. In an executive order issued on his second day in office titled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, he specifically ordered the federal government to cease demanding that contractors adopt affirmative action policies, describing it as illegal discrimination.

The Justice Department on Thursday described the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ new policy as part of a broader effort by the state to engage in race- and sex-based employment practices.

“Minnesotans deserve to have their state government employees hired based on merit, not based on illegal DEI,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been a critic of Trump and ran against his ticket as the vice presidential candidate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Since then, the two have clashed.

After a man assassinated a state lawmaker and wounded another in Minnesota in mid-June, Trump declined to call Walz.

“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out — I’m not calling him. Why would I call? I could call him and say, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So, I could be nice and call him, but why waste my time?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Late last month, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit challenging Minnesota laws that provide some undocumented immigrants with higher-education tuition benefits not offered to all U.S. citizens.

The next day, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services opened a civil rights investigation into the Minnesota Department of Education over a transgender teenager competing on a girls’ softball team.

July 9 (UPI) — The Justice Department on Wednesday announced that it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics performing gender-affirming care for minors, as the Trump administration ramps up its attacks on this marginalized community.

No information about the doctors and clinics subpoenaed was provided by the Justice Department, though it suggested the subpoenas were part of investigations into “healthcare fraud, false statements and more.”

“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilate children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

On June 18, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors.

The subpoenas come despite every major American medical association supporting gender-affirming care for both adults and youth, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Gender-affirming care includes a range of therapies, from psychological, behavioral and medical interventions, with surgeries for minors being exceedingly rare. According to a recent Harvard study, cisgender minors and adults were far more likely to undergo analogous gender-affirming surgeries than their transgender counterparts.

Despite the support of the medical community and the evidence, conservatives, Republicans and the Trump administration have continued to target this community with legislation affecting their medical care and rights.

The subpoenas were announced the same day that the Federal Trade Commission hosted a day-long workshop titled “The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care for Minors,” during which Melissa Holyoak, an FTC commissioner, said that while they cannot make policy decisions limiting gender-affirming care, they can target the medical practice for deceptive statements.

“The FTC has previously enforced — and will continue to enforce — against deceptive representations made by medical practitioners, including claims in connection with treatments for transgender children,” she said, according to a copy of her remarks.

Also on Wednesday, the Department of Justice sued California over alleged Title IX violations concerning transgender athletes competing in women’s and girls’ sports.

The Democratic-led state has refused to comply with the Trump administration’s ban on transgender women and girls competing in sports that align with their gender identity.

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders targeting transgender Americans, including one directing the federal government to recognize only two sexes determined at “conception,” another restricting gender-affirming care for youth and a third banning transgender Americans from the military.

July 8 (UPI) — The Trump administration has announced it will work to limit Chinese nationals and nationals from other so-called adversarial countries from purchasing U.S. farmland, saying their ownership of U.S. crops poses a national security risk.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a seven-point National Farm Security Action Plan on Tuesday aimed at protecting U.S. farmland and food from becoming owned by foreign governments and entities, specifically the People’s Republic of China.

During a press conference in Washington, D.C., with the Trump administration’s leading law enforcement and military officials, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said U.S. farmland was under threat from “criminals,” “political adversaries” and “hostile regimes” seeking to use it as a weapon against the American people.

“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,” she said.

According to the plan, the USDA will seek state and congressional lawmakers to pass legislation and the president to institute executive action to end the direct and indirect purchase or control of U.S. farmland by nationals from countries of concern or other foreign adversaries.

Rollins explained that they are also working to “claw back” land already purchased by Chinese nationals and nationals from other foreign adversarial countries.

She said they have already canceled seven active agreements with entities in foreign countries of concern and that she signed a memo Tuesday to immediately remove 70 citizens from those countries who have contracts or research arrangements with the USDA. She added that another 550 entities were in the process of being removed.

The announcement comes amid deepening competition between the United States and China and concern over Chinese nationals potentially working in the United States to further the objectives of Beijing, whether that be through stealing technology or recruiting potential assets.

According to a USDA Farm Service Agency report for 2023, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean and Russian investment in U.S. agricultural land accounts for less than 1% of foreign-held agricultural property across the country, with Chinese investors owning 277,336 acres as of the end of that year.

Also participating in the press conference were Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, emphasizing the national security attention the Trump administration intends to place on U.S. ownership of U.S. cropland.

Hegseth, as the head of the Pentagon, said he wants to know who is buying farmland in the United States near his bases, calling that “common sense.”

“We would be asleep at the wheel if we were not fully a party to an effort like this, to ensure that our nation had the food supply it needs,” he said.

July 5 (UPI) — Five Florida state Democrat lawmakers on Thursday were denied access to the state’s newly opened “migrant” detention facility that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

State Representatives Michele Rayner, Anna Eskamani and Angie Nixon and Senators Carlos Guillermo Smith and Shevrin Jones were turned away while attempting to tour the facility, The Hill reported.

State law enforcement officers from several agencies stopped the lawmakers from entering the facility after showing up for an unannounced inspection of the facility that President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis toured on Tuesday and before detainees arrived there.

Safety concerns cited

Eskamani said they were told they could not tour the facility due to “safety concerns,” CNN reported.

“If it’s unsafe for us, how is it safe for the detainees?” Eskamani said she asked the general counsel for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The Florida lawmakers said they have the legal authority to inspect the detention facility.

“Florida law gives legislators the authority to make unannounced visits to state-run facilities,” Jones said in a post on X made on Thursday afternoon.

Jones said the group went to the detention facility “to inspect conditions and check on the well-being of the people inside.”

A group statement issued on Thursday accuses state officials of a “blatant abuse of power and an attempt to conceal human rights violations from the public eye.”

The facility received its first 500 detainees midweek and eventually will be capable of holding up to 3,000 detainees while undergoing deportation proceedings.

Not a federal facility

The detention facility is located in the Everglades along U.S. 41, about 70 miles west of Miami.

A local airport previously occupied the site, which Florida officials converted into a detention facility in eight days, DeSantis said while touring it with Trump on Tuesday.

Although Trump toured it, the facility is not a federal operation.

“The Department of Homeland Security has not implemented, authorized, directed or funded Florida’s temporary detention center,” DHS attorneys said in a court filing made on Thursday, the Miami Herald reported.

The filing is in response to a lawsuit challenging the detention facility’s purpose, which prompted the Department of Justice to defend its existence.

The DOJ “has defended President Trump’s immigration agenda in court since day one and we are proud to protect ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ from baseless, politically motivated legal schemes,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Florida officials are considering adding two more such facilities to help hold and process detainees who are undergoing deportation proceedings.

The Department of Defense is deploying 200 Marines to Florida to assist with logistical and administrative support.

July 1 (UPI) — Two Chinese nationals made separate appearances in federal courts on Tuesday to face charges accusing them of acting as agents for the Chinese government.

Yuance Chen, 38, is a permanent legal resident of Happy Valley, Ore., and was arraigned on charges in the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Portland and accusing him of acting as an agent of the Chinese government without notifying the U.S. attorney general.

Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, also is charged with acting as an agent of the Chinese government and was arraigned in the U.S. District Court ofSouthern Texas in Houston. Lai traveled to the United States on a tourist visa in April.

“This case underscores the Chinese government’s sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Tuesday in a news release.

“The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country,” Bondi added.

The charges against both defendants were filed in the U.S.District Court of Northern California in San Francisco, and they were arrested on Friday, the Department of Justice. Each is innocent until proven guilty.

Both men are accused of “overseeing and carrying out various clandestine intelligence taskings in the United States on behalf of the [Chinese] government’s principal foreign intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security,” the DOJ said.

The pair allegedly were “attempting to recruit U.S. military service members on behalf of the People’s Republic of China,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.

“The Chinese Communist Party thought they were getting away with their scheme to operate on U.S. soil, utilizing spy craft, like dead drops, to pay their sources,” Patel continued.

He said the case was a “complex and coordinated effort” that involved counterintelligence work by FBI agents in San Francisco, Portland, Houston and San Diego and the agency’s Counterintelligence Division.

The DOJ accuses Lai of recruiting Chen on behalf of the MSS in 2021 and says the pair met in Guangzhou, China, in January 2022, to devise a dead-drop payment of at least $10,000.

They allegedly worked with individuals in the United States to leave a backpack with the cash inside a day-use locker at a recreational facility in Livermore, Calif., that same month.

The DOJ says Lai and Chen also conspired to obtain a list of personnel from a U.S. Navy recruitment center in San Gabriel, Calif., and a Navy installation in Washington state to identify potential intelligence assets and transmit the information to the MSS in China.

China’s MSS also instructed Chen in how to “engage and recruit future sailors and methods for minimizing his risk of exposure,” the DOJ alleges.

Chen also is accused of traveling to China in April 2024 and March 2025 to meet with MSS intelligence officers and discuss specific tasks and compensation.

Chen and Lai each could be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined up to $250,000 if found guilty of the charges against them.

June 26 (UPI) — President Donald Trump held a “One Big, Beautiful Event” rally on Thursday afternoon to garner support for the federal budget bill that he wants passed before Independence Day.

Trump was backed by dozens of supporters who represented many occupations while addressing attendees at the event held in the East Room of the White House.

“We’re cutting $1.7 trillion in this bill, and you’re not going to feel any of it,” Trump told media and other event attendees.

“Your Medicaid is left alone. It’s the same,” Trump said. “Your Medicare and your Social Security are strengthened.”

He said Democrats would cut Medicare and Medicaid benefits in half and asked people to contact their senators and representatives to support the budget bill.

“Almost every major promise made in the 2024 campaign already will have become a promise kept,” Trump said. “That’s very important.”

He said the budget bill would eliminate federal income taxes on tips, overtime pay or Social Security.

A reconciliation bill before the Senate would limit the income tax deduction on tips to the first $25,000, though.

The president also said a trade deal has been reached with China and another might be coming with India, but he did not elaborate on them.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and several members of Trump’s Cabinet attended the event, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Trump held the rally after the Senate parliamentarian earlier ruled several provisions in the Senate reconciliation bill violate Senate rules.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough nixed provisions that would have limited the use of healthcare provider taxes by states that recently expanded Medicaid coverage but did not increase Medicaid under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Those proposed changes would cost states more to provide Medicaid coverage.

MacDonough is still reviewing the Senate reconciliation bill and might issue more objections to proposed measures.

The House already passed the bill, but the Senate is trying to hammer out a reconciliation package that would pass both chambers and be ready for signing by the Fourth of July.

Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., already has said she intends to vote against the reconciliation bill, The Hill reported.

New York Republican Rep. Nick LaLota also is skeptical of the package and a potential limit on state and local tax deductions for taxpayers.

He said changes being made in the Senate reconciliation package make it impossible for a reconciliation bill to win approval in the House.

June 13 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday formally pleaded not-guilty to federal human trafficking and conspiracy charges.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, also said a court appearance this week was the first time she was able to see her husband since he was arrested and detained in March.

The Salvadorian migrant was returned to the United States earlier this month after being deported to a prison in El Salvador.

“Even though it was through a video screen, I was finally able to see Kilmar,” Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. citizen, told supporters at a rally in Nashville.

“I’m grateful for everyone who has been fighting for this milestone, in this fight to bring my husband back home with our children.”

The couple were living in Maryland with their young children at the time Abrego Garcia was arrested.

Lawyers will now argue in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes whether the 29-year-old should be granted bail before trial.

Prosecutors have argued he “would have enormous reason to flee” if released.

Abrego Garcia was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March and eventually deported to El Salvador.

Supporters argued Abrego Garcia was denied due process in the deportation proceedings

A U.S. District Court judge later ordered the federal government to “facilitate” his return, after the Justice Department later acknowledged Abrego Garcia’s deportation was made in error.

President Donald Trump‘s administration pushed back against efforts to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.

In 2019, a federal judge ruled in 2019 that Abrego Garcia could be deported, but not back to his home country of El Salvador.

He was indicted on two federal charges last month before his return to the United States. Abrego Garcia is accused of playing a “significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” dating back as far as 2016, Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time of the indictment.

Bondi said if Abrego Garcia is found guilty, he will be returned to El Salvador.

Police stopped the vehicle he was driving in Tennessee in 2002 and found several Hispanic men with no identification.

After he was returned to the United States, Abrego Garcia was immediately sent to Tennessee to face the federal charges.

Federal officials also contend Abrego Garcia was a member of the El Salvadoran MS-13 gang, accusations he and his family deny. They argue Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador because of the threat of gang violence.

June 11 (UPI) — The second night of curfew took place in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, as local law enforcement, backed by several thousand members of the National Guard, attempted to restrain violent protests and prevent vandalism.

Meanwhile, a group of protesters were in a standoff with law enforcement officers outside a federal courthouse in Santa Ana, about 32 miles south of Los Angeles, in Orange County. Military-style vehicles and National Guards troops blocked a portion of a street in front of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse and in front of a federal building a couple blocks away.

And protests also are occurring in other major U.S. cities,, including New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

The downtown Los Angeles curfew will remain in effect between 8 a.m. and 6 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division. Ramps onto and off the 101 freeway also will continue to be closed, police said.

The curfew zone covers about 1 square mile and affects about 100,000 of Los Angeles’ 10 million residents.

Limited exceptions include law enforcement, emergency and medical personnel, residents, people traveling to and from work and credentialed news media representatives.

The White House confirmed Wednesday that 330 people were taken into custody by federal authorities since immigration sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began last week in Los Angeles.

Mayor Karen Bass said the number of people arrested from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning was “minor.”

About 225 were made, including 203 for failure to disperse. One person was arrested after an assault of a police officer with a weapon.

“If there are raids that continue, if there are soldiers marching up and down our street, I would imagine that the curfew will continue,” the mayor said.

During a news conference, Bass said she is trying to set up a call with President Donald Trump for him “to understand the significance of what is happening here.”

Court case

The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to reject California’s emergency court order request to limit how federal officials can use Marines and members of the state’s National Guard in and around Los Angeles.

The Guardsmen “are not performing law enforcement or any other functions,” Army Maj. General Niave F. Knell said in a declaration submitted to federal court Wednesday.

Justice Department lawyers responded to San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Wednesday seeking briefs.

The 32-page filing notes that it is entirely within Trump’s authority as commander-in-chief, and is not reviewable by the court.

Federal law generally bars the military from enforcing domestic laws, but Trump invoked a provision to protect federal property and personnel when there is a “rebellion” or “danger of rebellion.”

The brief suggests that Gov. Gavin Newsom broke the law by failing to pass on Trump’s order to activate the guard. They said he might be “unwilling” to put a stop to the violence.

The judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, initially rejected an immediate order and has scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

“The federal government is now turning the military against American citizens,” Newsom said in a news release Tuesday announcing the lawsuit. “Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy.

“Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a President. We ask the court to immediately block these unlawful actions.”

The attempted order was filed as part of the governor’s lawsuit against Trump, Hegseth and the Department of Defense, “charging violations of the U.S. Constitution and the President’s Title 10 authority, not only because the takeover occurred without the consent or input of the Governor, as federal law requires, but also because it was unwarranted.”

According to the lawsuit: “ICE officers took actions that inflamed tensions — including the arrest and detainment of children, community advocates, and people without criminal history — and conducted military-style operations that sparked panic in the community.”

Community members then began protesting to express opposition to “these violent tactics, arrests of innocent people, and the President’s heavy-handed immigration agenda.”

Protests continued for two more days, “and although some violent and illegal incidents were reported — leading to justified arrests by state and local authorities — these protests were largely nonviolent and involved citizens exercising their First Amendment right to protest. The protests did not necessitate federal intervention, and local and state law enforcement have been able to control of the situation, as in other recent instances of unrest.

Federal response

Approximately 2,000 Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are helping protect ICE Officers, Customs and Border Protection Officers and FBI Special Agents. Another 2,000 have been called up.

Army Maj. Gen. Scott M. Sherman, who is overseeing the National Guard, said about 500 of the National Guard troops have been trained to accompany agents on immigration operations.

National Guard troops have temporarily detained civilians in the Los Angeles protests, but they quickly were turned them over to law enforcement, Sherman said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration “is not scared to go further” in expanding its legal authority to deploy troops in the city.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also has deployed 700 Marines near Los Angeles. Sherman said the Marines are still training outside Los Angeles.

“Marines get a two-day set training for civil unrest, very extensive. It’s all about civil disturbance and how to control crowds and protection of facilities,” Sherman said during a news briefing Wednesday.

Hegseth told senators at a hearing Wednesday that Trump’s order to federalize the National Guard in California could be applied in other states.

“Thankfully, in most of those states, you’d have a governor that recognizes the need for it, supports it and mobilizes it, him or herself,” he said. “In California, unfortunately, the governor wants to play politics with it.”

Trump said in an interview with the New York Post’s Pod Force One, said: “I’m able to do things now that I wouldn’t have been able to do because the previous president and presidency was so bad that anybody looks good.

“As an example, I can be stronger on an attack on Los Angeles,” Trump said. “I think bringing in the National Guard four years ago, or eight years ago, would have been more difficult.”

Newsom on Wednesday said: “President Trump has unnecessarily redirected 4,800 activated guards and Marines to Los Angeles – that’s more soldiers than are currently stationed in Iraq and Syria combined.”

Situation on the streets

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said his agency is investigating whether there’s “conspiracy” or organization behind crimes committed during protests.

“There is some evidence we’ve seen that I don’t want to share at this time,” Luna said at a Wednesday news conference with Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.

He said authorities are focused on arresting individuals in causing unrest at the protests.

Hochman said his office will review additional criminal cases brought by law enforcement in addition to the five he announced Wednesday.

Two people were charged with assault on a peace officer after they allegedly drove motorcycles into a line of officers. One officer was hurt and several others were knocked down, Hochman said.

“For any individual who is engaged in criminal conduct but did not get immediately arrested, let me provide some bad news for you,” Hochman warned. “There is a tremendous amount of video out there through social media, and otherwise. We will know who you are, who engaged in this conduct. We will track you down, we will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will punish you. So for people who’ve already engaged in this, in this illegal activity, we’re coming for you.”

Leticia Rhi Buckley, who lives and works just under a mile from the Los Angeles Federal Building, told CNN that the Trump administration’s narrative that Los Angeles is under siege is false. She said the vast majority of what she’s witnessed has been peaceful.

“I live less than a mile from here. I drive home and about five blocks down, there’s nothing. It’s like nothing is happening,” she said. “Living in downtown for 15 years, it’s gotten louder when the Dodgers won the World Series, or when the Lakers won.”

Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, said “the portrayal is that all of our cities are in chaos. Rioting is happening everywhere, and it is a lie,” she said, adding it is not an insurrection as Trump suggests.

“Given that I was there on January 6th and saw that insurrection take place, the idea that this, what is happening here is an insurrection is just false and I think it is deliberately false,” Bass, appearing with 30 other mayors in the region, said. “I don’t think they’re confused.”

Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said authorities are collecting video, photos and body camera footage to identify anyone who committed acts of violence.

ICE agents conducted raids Wednesday morning in Downey, Calif., Councilman Mario Trijulli said. The city of more than 110,000 people located south of Los Angeles.

Fearful immigrants

Nannies are worried they could be profiled and detained by ICE agents while working, one of them told CNN.

“I’m a citizen of the United States, but my color, my skin color, makes me wonder…will they see me different?” Elsy Melara said. “I’m honestly not afraid to the point myself, but I’m afraid that if they don’t believe me, or if they choose not to believe me, what would happen to the kid?”

She said she knows two nannies are in ICE detention after they were handcuffed in a public park.

LA’s garment industry is on edge.

Federal agents were seen going into the manufacturer Ambience Apparel in Downtown Los Angeles on Monday.

“We’re hearing from our membership about a lot of fear and stress. People’s mental health is really being impacted,” Bo Metz, founder of LA-based manufacturer Bomme Studio, told Vogue Business. “People are afraid to leave their homes. Some people are opting to not go to work and others have no choice. We also need to continue to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads. Workers are really feeling that pressure right now.”

More than one-third of the more than 300,000 workers producing clothing and shoes in the U.S. are immigrants, according to an analysis by Fwd.us, an immigration reform organization. That includes an estimated 30,000 undocumented.

June 6 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is back in the United States after being indicted in Tennessee on two federal charges involving migrant smuggling, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.

Bondi said Abrego Garcia, 29, is in the United States to “face justice.”

He made his first court appearance Friday afternoon in Nashville. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes set his arraignment for Wednesday and a hearing on whether he should be detained before the trial.

The Justice Department said in a court filing that he should be held in pretrial custody because “he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight, and no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of the community or his appearance in court.”

On May 21, a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned an indictment, charging Abrego Garcia with criminal counts of alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, Bondi said at a news conference.

Abrego Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy indicted.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was presented with an arrest warrant for him and he agreed to return him to the United States, Bondi said.

“We’re grateful to President Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges,” Bondi said.

Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges and serves his sentence, he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.”

President Donald Trump later told reporters that “I don’t want to say that” it was his call to bring him back to the United States.

“He should have never had to be returned. Take a look at what’s happened with it. Take a look at what they found in the grand jury,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Jersey. “I thought Pam Bondi did a great job.”

Ben Schrader, the chief of the criminal division in the office for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, resigned the same week of the grand jury indictment last month, CNN reported. Schrader’s post on LinkedIn does not mention the Abrego Garcia case.

On April 17, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with his constituent in El Salvador.

“After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen posted on X Friday. “This has never been about the man — it’s about his constitutional rights & the rights of all.”

In the indictment unsealed Friday afternoon, Abrego Garcia and others are accused of participating in a conspiracy in which they “knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens who had no authorization to be present in the United States, and many of whom were MS-13 members and associates.”

The allegations from 2016 to this year involve a half-dozen alleged unnamed co-conspirators. Abrego Garcia and others worked to move undocumented aliens between Texas and Maryland and other states more than 100 times, according to the indictment.

They “ordinarily picked up the undocumented aliens in the Houston, Texas area after the aliens had unlawfully crossed the Southern border of the United States from Mexico,” the indictment said.

Abrego Garcia and someone referred to a CC-1 “then transported the undocumented aliens from Texas to other parts of the United States to further the aliens’ unlawful presence in the United States.”

To cover up the alleged conspiracy, prosecutors say Abrego Garcia and his co-conspirators “routinely devised and employed knowingly false cover stories to provide to law enforcement if they were stopped during a transport,” including claims that migrants being transported were headed to construction jobs.

In November 2022, Abrego Garcia is accused of driving a Chevrolet Suburban and was pulled over on a Tennessee interstate highway, with nine other Hispanic men without identification or luggage.

Prosecutors allege that Abrego Garcia transported narcotics to Maryland, though he wasn’t previously charged with any crimes.

“For the last 2 months, the media and Democrats have burnt to the ground any last shred of credibility they had left as they glorified Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a known MS13 gang member, human trafficker, and serial domestic abuser,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on X. “Justice awaits this Salvadoran man.”

Abrego Garcia and his family have denied allegations that he’s an MS-13 member, and he fled gang violence in El Salvador.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, said his client should appear in immigration court, not criminal court.

“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order,” Sandoval-Moshenberg Now told CNN. “Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”

Abrego Garcia deported in March

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland since he arrived in the United States in 2011 unlawfully.

The government earlier, through a confidential informant, said his clothes had alleged gang markings when he was arrested in 2019.

Abrego Garcia was living with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and children when he was arrested in March and deported to El Salvador to the maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. He was with a group of more than 230 men, mostly Venezuelans, accused of being gang members.

In April, the State Department said Abrego Garcia was moved to a lower-security facility in Santa Ana.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was a mistake because he had been granted a legal status in 2019. The Department of Homeland Security is banned from removing him to his home country of El Salvador because he was likely to face persecution by local gangs. He didn’t have a hearing before his deportation.

The government has utilized the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, to quickly deport migrants from the United States.

In an April hearing, District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to comply with expedited discovery to determine whether they were complying with the directive to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, which was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The high court and district judge said the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return for due process.

On Wednesday, Xinis ordered seven documents to be unsealed in the deportation.

Trump criticized judges for interfering in cases.

“Frankly, we have to do something, because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide,” Trump said Friday night. “And that’s not supposed to be the way it is. So I could see bringing him back … he’s a bad guy.”

The criminal charges could impact his immigration case, John Sandweg, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told CNN.

“I think what we’re going to see is on the back end of this criminal prosecution — now that they’re prosecuting him for these immigration-related offenses — if they get a conviction, they will go back to the immigration court and argue that now there are those changed circumstances,” said Sandweg, who is now a partner at law firm Nixon Peabody.

June 4 (UPI) — Federal officials have arrested a Washington man they said provided “significant quantities” of explosive materials to the man who attacked a California fertility clinic in a suicide bombing.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California charged Daniel Jongyon Park of Kent, Wash., with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Officials arrested him Tuesday night shortly after he arrived on a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Park had been deported from Poland where he traveled to in the days after the May 17 attack.

Police said Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, Calif., attacked the American Reproductive Centers location in Palm Springs, Calif., using a vehicle-borne bomb. He was allegedly motivated by his anti-natalist views that people shouldn’t be brought into the world without their consent.

The Justice Department said Park shared Bartkus’ views and bought and shipped more than 200 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus’ home. Park also joined Bartkus in Twentynine Palms, where the two allegedly conducted experiments on how to build explosives using the chemicals.

Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked the Polish government for assisting in returning Park to the United States to face charges.

“Bringing chaos and violence to a facility that exists to help women and mothers is a particularly cruel, disgusting crime that strikes at the very heart of our shared humanity,” she said.

June 2 (UPI) — A Romanian man on Monday pleaded guilty as the ringleader of a group making bomb threats and triggering “swatting” attacks against 75 U.S. public officials, including members of Congress, four religious institutions and journalists, the Justice Department said.

Thomasz Szabo, 26, was extradited from Romania to the District of Columbia in November, DOJ said in a news release.

Szabo and his co-conspirators reported false emergencies at government buildings, houses of worship, and private residences, including the homes of senior government officials, prosecutors said.

Nemanja Radovanovic, 21, of Serbia, was charged with Szabo in August 2024 on one count of conspiracy, 29 counts of threats and false information regarding explosives, and four counts of transmitting threats in interstate and foreign commerce.

Szabo, who is also known as Plank, Jonah and Cypher, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of threats involving explosives.

He faces up to 15 years in prison for the two counts. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 23.

“This defendant led a dangerous swatting criminal conspiracy, deliberately threatening dozens of government officials with violent hoaxes and targeting our nation’s security infrastructure from behind a screen overseas,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

In late 2020, Szabo founded an online community that falsely reported threats at the addresses for the purpose of provoking a police response there, DOJ said. He was the moderator of chat groups.

The false reports included a threat in December 2020 to commit a mass shooting at New York City synagogues, and one in January 2021 to detonate explosives at the U.S. Capitol and kill President-elect Joe Biden.

Szabo publicized “swatting” activity to his followers and encouraged them to engage in behavior like that.

From Dec. 24, 2023, to early January 2024, DOJ said members of Szabo’s group committed swatting and bomb threats that included at least 25 members of U.S. Congress or family members, at least six current or former senior U.S. Executive Branch officials, at least 13 current or former senior federal law enforcement officials, multiple members of the federal judiciary and at least 27 current or former state government officials or family members of officials. Also targeted were religious institutions and remembers of the media.

“I did 25+ swattings today,” one subordinate bragged to Sazabi, and “creating massive havoc in America. $500,000+ in taxpayers wasted in just two days.”

Investigating the cases were the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office and Criminal Investigative Division, the FBI’s Washington and Minneapolis Field Offices, and the U.S. Capitol Police.

In December, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger testified before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee about the need for more officers as the number of threats against members of Congress escalates.

Other agencies assisting were in Bucharest, Romania; south Florida, central Florida; Syracuse, N.Y.; western Washington State; South Dakota; southern Illinois; and northern New York.

“Today, Szabo pleaded guilty to a years-long conspiracy that targeted victims with swatting and bomb threats, including to government buildings, houses of worship and homes of government officials,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “Swatting endangers lives and will not be tolerated by the FBI. We are fully committed to working with our partners.”

“Anyone who hijacks police resources for senseless crimes like these will have to answer for their actions,” interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro in the District of Columbia said.

Szabo was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years.

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) — President Donald Trump welcomed the University of Florida’s men’s basketball team to the White House on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate its 2025 NCAA championship season, praising the Gators’ teamwork, grit and determination.

Standing alongside head coach Todd Golden, Trump called Florida’s run “one for the history books” and noted the program’s place in history as the only NCAA Division I school to win three national titles in both basketball (2006, 2007, 2025) and football (1996, 2006, 2008).

The Gators finished a dominant 36-4 season with a 65-63 victory over Houston in what Trump described as “one of the most exciting games and championships” he had seen.

“You refused to let up when the odds were against you,” Trump told the team. “Lesser teams would have crumbled.”

Trump highlighted stellar performances throughout the season, including that by senior guard Walter Clayton Jr., who scored a career-high 34 points in the Final Four against Auburn and became the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 to score 30 points or more in both the Elite Eight and Final Four.

“He’s unbelievably special,” Trump said. “He’s going to be a very early draft pick if they’re smart.”

University of Florida Interim President Kent Fuchs, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former Florida senator, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who served at Florida attorney general.

Golden thanked Trump for the invitation and drew a comparison between the team’s culture and the country’s ideals.

“Mr. President, I’d like to think of our program similarly to how you think of the United States. We’re a meritocracy,” Golden said. “We work really, really hard. No matter what you look like, where you come from, if you put the team first and win, we’re going to play you.”

He then presented the president with a signed Gators jersey featuring the number 47, referencing Trump’s status as the 47th president.

Trump accepted the gift and invited the team to the Oval Office for commemorative coins and photos alongside members of his administration and several lawmakers.

“Go Gators,” he said. “We love you.”