(NEW YORK) — A storm system closing in from the Atlantic Ocean is expected to become Tropical Storm Imelda by the end of this weekend, and could bring storm surges and high winds to the Southeast U.S. coastline early next week.
The National Hurricane Center said Saturday that the storm — currently officially known as Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine, or PTC Nine — was northwest of the eastern tip of Cuba as of 5 a.m. ET, moving northwest at around 7 mph and forecast to cross the central and northwestern Bahamas this weekend.
The storm is expected to approach the southeastern U.S. coast early next week. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the central and northwestern Bahamas.
PTC Nine is expected to develop into a tropical depression on Saturday and a tropical storm around Saturday night or early Sunday. When it becomes a tropical storm, it will take the name Imelda.
Rain associated with the storm is expected to impact eastern Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and the Bahamas, with flash and urban flooding forecast through the weekend, the NHC said. Mudslides are possible in higher terrain, it added.
Expected rainfall is around 4 to 8 inches for the Bahamas, 8 to 12 inches and localized totals up to 16 inches for eastern Cuba, and 2 to 4 inches of additional rain for other parts of Cuba, as well as Jamaica and Hispaniola.
Up to 3 feet of storm surge is also expected for the coastlines in the northwestern Bahamas.
As the system approaches the U.S., coastal Georgia, the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic states may all see flash, urban and river flooding, the NHC said.
The storm is expected to be at or near Category 1 hurricane intensity when it approaches the U.S. coast early next week, the NHC said, bringing storm surge and wind.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Humberto has rapidly intensified to become the third major hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. The NHC said Saturday that Humberto is expected to “remain a powerful major hurricane through early next week.”
Humberto is still expected to track west of Bermuda on Tuesday through Wednesday and stay hundreds of miles west of the U.S., eventually turning northeast and back out to sea without a landfall.
Swells generated by the hurricane will begin affecting portions of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Bermuda this weekend, the NHC said in its latest update.
ICE officers clash with demonstrators outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility using smoke gas and plastic bullets to disperse crowds protesting against deportations in Broadview, Illinois, United States on September 19, 2025. Several hundred protesters had gathered near the Broadview ICE center, chanting against immigration enforcement policies. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday, according to the school district.
ICE said Ian Roberts was in the country illegally from Guyana and was working as a superintendent despite having “a final order of removal and no work authorization.”
When officers conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” tried to approach Roberts in his car on Friday, the superintendent sped away, and the officers later found his car abandoned, ICE said.
Police helped find Roberts, and when he was taken into custody, the superintendent was in possession of a loaded handgun, a fixed-blade hunting knife and $3,000 in cash, ICE said.
Roberts came to the U.S. on a student visa in 1999 and a judge gave him a “final order of removal” in May 2024, ICE said in a statement. Roberts has weapon possession charges from February 2020, the agency said.
School district officials said in a statement they didn’t have information on “next potential steps” for Roberts.
Roberts joined the Des Moines district in July 2023 and “held educational leadership positions in districts across the U.S. for 20 years,” school board chair Jackie Norris said at a news conference Friday.
“There is new information that has been made public that we did not know, and have not been able to verify as to whether that information is accurate,” she said.
“There is much we do not know,” she said. “However, what we do know is that Dr. Roberts has been an integral part of our school community since he joined over two years ago. During his time with our district, he has shown up in ways big and small, and has advocated for students and staff and begun introducing concepts that will help us reimagine education for future generations of Des Moines students.”
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter is dead after injuring former U.S. President Donald Trump, killing one audience member and injuring another in…Show more Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(DALLAS, Texas) — As the motive in the fatal sniper-type shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office this week becomes clear, law enforcement experts said the incident is part of a frightening trend of rifle-wielding shooters targeting politicians, police and others from long distances.
The Dallas shooter, according to authorities wanted to “terrorize” ICE officers not just in Dallas, but around the country. The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas made clear on Thursday that the shooter “hoped to minimize any collateral damage or injury to the detainees and any other innocent people. It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them. It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting ICE agents and ice personnel.” Authorities say the suspect’s writings showed he had an anti-ICE bias.
Since an alleged would-be assassin attempted to kill President Donald Trump during a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at least seven sniper-type incidents have unfolded across the country, including the Sept. 10 shooting that claimed the life of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, according to reporting by ABC News.
While such shootings have been part of America’s history, including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, law enforcement experts told ABC News that they have never seen so many sniper-type incidents occurring in such a short amount of time.
“I believe this is the next chapter, if you will, in our history of violence, specifically active-shooter-type situations,” Jesse Hambrick, a retired Georgia deputy sheriff and counter-sniper expert, told ABC News.
The latest incident occurred on Wednesday morning when the 29-year-old suspect, identified by federal authorities as Joshua Jahn of Fairview, Texas, opened fire on a Dallas ICE facility, killing a detainee and leaving two others critically wounded, officials said. The victims were shot in an uncovered sallyport at the facility, officials said.
Jahn allegedly planned the attack for months and opened fire from the rooftop of a private office building overlooking the ICE facility, using an 8mm bolt-action rifle he legally purchased in August, Joe Rothrock, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Dallas office, said at Thursday afternoon’s news conference.
Rothrock described the shooting as a “targeted, ambush-style attack” and that the suspect engaged in a significant, high-degree of pre-attack planning, including researching the targeted building and using apps to track the location of ICE agents.
Federal officials said the suspect, a U.S. citizen who died by suicide, sprayed the length of the building with gunfire and left behind writings leading investigators to believe he wanted to shoot ICE agents, not detainees, and cause terror, federal officials said.
“Hopefully this will give ICE agents a real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP [armor-piercing] rounds on the roof?” the suspect allegedly wrote in one handwritten note, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Patel disclosed in a social media post on Thursday that the suspect also conducted multiple searches on ballistics and the ‘Charlie Kirk Shot Video’ before carrying out the attack.
Like the suspect in the Kirk shooting who engraved shell casings found at the scene with messages — including “Hey fascist! CATCH! — authorities said the suspect in the shooting at the Dallas ICE facility also wrote a message on at least one bullet casing found at the crime scene that read, “ANTI-ICE.”
Like some of the other sniper shooters who have carried out recent attacks, the suspect seemed prepared to die, Hambrick told ABC News.
“Here’s the reality, very honestly, if someone has no fear of losing their own life, it makes them dang near impossible to prevent from taking somebody else’s life,” Hambrick said.
The shooting at the ICE facility came just two weeks after a gunman perched atop a building at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, shot and killed Kirk as the 31-year-old co-founder of the conservative grass roots organization Turning Point USA was speaking to a large crowd at an outdoor event. The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested and charged with capital murder.
“The long-range threat is new, and I think that’s all stemming from Butler,” said Don Mihalek, a former senior U.S. Secret Service Agent, referring to the July 2024 attack on Trump, which killed one rallygoer and injured two others before the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crook, was fatally shot by a Secret Service counter sniper. “I think the Butler incident is being copycatted in many ways by other people.”
Less than a month after the assassination attempt on Trump, a sniper armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire from an overpass along Kentucky’s Interstate 75 near London, hitting a dozen vehicles and injuring eight people, authorities said. The suspect, 32-year-old Joseph Couch, a former member of the Army Reserve, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an 11-day manhunt, officials said.
On Sept. 15, 2024, just two months after the first attempt on Trump’s life, a Secret Service agent foiled another assassination attempt on the president at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The agent spotted the barrel of a rifle sticking out of the fence line and opened fire on the shooter, identified as 59-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, causing him to flee the area. Roth was convicted by a jury on Tuesday and faces a sentence of life in prison.
Several of the recent sniper attacks have targeted firefighters and law enforcement officers. On June 29, 2025, a 20-year-old suspect, identified as Wess Roley, allegedly ambushed and killed two firefighters in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after he set a fire they responded to, officials said. Roley was later found dead from suicide, authorities said.
On Aug. 7, a gunman identified by authorities as 61-year-old Carmine Faino shot and wounded two Pennsylvania state troopers in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, with a rifle he allegedly fired “from a position of tactical superiority” after calling 911 to report shots fired near a home he shared with a girlfriend he allegedly killed, officials said. Faino was fatally shot by a special emergency response team, officials said.
Three days after the Pennsylvania attack, a sniper opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus in Atlanta, authorities said. The suspect, 30-year-old Patrick White, who officials said blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him sick and depressed, died by suicide.
Mihalek said such sniper shootings present a “tremendous challenge” for law enforcement to prevent, particularly at a time when ambush attacks on law enforcement are dramatically increasing.
In a report released on Sept. 2, the National Fraternal Order of Police stated that 229 officers have been shot in the line of duty thus far in 2025, 31 fatally. In 2024, 342 officers were shot in the line of duty, including 50 who were killed, up from 46 in 2023, according to the report.
There have been at least 50 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement this year, resulting in 66 officers being shot, 15 of them fatally, according to the report. In all of 2024, there were 61 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers nationwide, resulting in 79 officers shot, 18 fatally, according to the National Fraternal Order of Police.
Amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the country, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement this week that ICE officers are facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them since January.
In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said security protocols are being ramped up at ICE facilities across the country.
“Obviously, the next step for us is making sure our officers are safe. That’s my biggest fear every night, especially with these increases [in assaults], that everyone gets home safe every night. We’ve got to make sure our buildings and facilities are protected,” said Lyons.
Hambrick told ABC News that in the current threat environment, law enforcement agencies nationwide should be reevaluating their security tactics, including working with property owners in their communities to prevent easy access to rooftops.
“Law enforcement has to think now, ‘When I walk into a setting where I’m going to be, I’ve got to look up, and that’s not natural,” Hambrick said. “I’ve got to look around 360 degrees, and I need to secure those roofs.”
Mihalek said he believes the use of drones to scan the tops of buildings could become routine and help law enforcement agencies protect officers.
“Drones may become standard procedure in a lot of these law enforcement operations, especially for ICE,” Mihalek said.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a meeting at the 80th session of the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on September 23, 2025 in New York City. World leaders convened for the 80th Session of UNGA, with this year’s theme for the annual global meeting being “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.” (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump, who took office in January with a pledge to seek retribution against his political foes, made clearer than ever his eagerness to use the weight of the Justice Department against his perceived enemies this week.
Asked by reporters Friday who was next on his list a day after the DOJ brought a two-count indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, Trump said, “It’s not a list — but I think there will be others.”
Comey, who Trump fired from his post in 2017, had been a target of Trump since he oversaw the FBI’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey,” Trump wrote on social media following Thursday’s indictment. “He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation.”
The former FBI chief has been charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstruction of an investigative proceeding before Congress, related to his 2020 congressional testimony regarding the FBI’s Russia probe.
Comey, who said in a statement that he was innocent of the charges, said in an Instagram video, “My family and I have known for years that there are costs for standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees and you shouldn’t either.”
The charges were brought by the newly appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, former White House aide Lindsey Halligan, who took over the role after Trump ousted U.S. attorney Erik Siebert after sources say Siebert expressed doubts internally about bringing a case against Comey.
“What they did was so terrible and so corrupt,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday, referring to those involved in the Russia probe. “Comey placed a cloud over the entire nation.”
Trump, in the same interview, hinted at potentially charging former CIA Director John Brennan in relation to the Russia probe.
“We’ll have to see what happens. It is up to the Justice Department, but I can tell you, it is a group of people that was very disappointing,” Trump said. “This makes Watergate look like peanuts.”
Comey’s indictment came just days after top federal prosecutors at U.S. attorney’s offices around the country received a directive to prepare to launch investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a group funded by the billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, on potential charges ranging from support of terrorism to racketeering, sources told ABC News.
“This DOJ, along with our hard-working and dedicated U.S. Attorneys, will always prioritize public safety and investigate organizations that conspire to commit acts of violence or other federal violations of law,” a DOJ spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations called the accusations “politically motivated attacks.”
FBI Director Kash Patel disputed accusations that the DOJ’s probes were motivated by politics.
“Career FBI agents, intel analysts, and staff led the investigation into Comey and others,” he posted online Friday. “They called the balls and strikes and will continue to do so. The wildly false accusations attacking this FBI for the politicization of law enforcement comes from the same bankrupt media that sold the world on Russia Gate — it’s hypocrisy on steroids.”
Democrats like Sen. Peter Welch weren’t buying it.
“President Trump and his Justice Department’s indictment of James Comey is a new low for our democracy. The reason for the indictment is clear: Comey is Trump’s political adversary,” Welch wrote on X.
Asked by reporters about the indictment on Friday, Trump said, “They weaponized the Justice Department like nobody in history. What they’ve done is terrible. And so I hope — frankly, I hope there are others, because you can’t let this happen to a country.”
“It’s about justice, not revenge,” Trump said. “It’s about justice.”
ABC News’ Rachel Scott contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A retired investment banker was arrested Friday at his Connecticut home on federal charges he trafficked women for sex acts in luxury hotels and at a Manhattan apartment converted into a sex dungeon with BDSM equipment, according to a federal indictment.
Howie Rubin, 70, and his former personal assistant, Jennifer Powers, 45, are charged with sex trafficking and transportation for the purposes of prostitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Rubin is due in Brooklyn federal court later Friday. Powers, who was accused of facilitating the alleged sex trafficking operation, was arrested in Texas.
It was not immediately clear whether either had retained counsel.
Rubin, a former top manager at Soros Fund Management and Bear Stearns, has been under investigation for years after multiple women claimed in 2017 he subjected them to beatings and rape. Rubin has long denied the accusations but the women won a multimillion dollar civil judgment against him for violating the Trafficking Victim Protection Act.
“For many years, Howard Rubin and Jennifer Powers allegedly spent at least one million dollars to finance the commercial sexual torture of multiple women via a national trafficking network,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said in a statement. “The defendants allegedly exploited Rubin’s status to ensnare their prospective victims and forced them to endure unthinkable physical trauma before silencing any outcries with threats of legal recourse.”
According to the criminal charges, from at least 2009 through 2019, Rubin recruited dozens of women to engage in commercial sex acts with him involving bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadomasochism.
“During many such encounters, Rubin engaged in conduct beyond the scope of the women’s consent,” the indictment said.
The indictment includes ten women, identified as Jane Does #1 through #10, who allege Rubin “brutalized” them, causing them to fear for their safety and resulting in significant pain or injuries, which at times required women to seek medical attention.
Some of the women were former Playboy models targeted through social media or modeling pages, according to the indictment.
At first, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said the commercial sex acts primarily occurred at luxury hotels in Manhattan. However, in 2011, Rubin leased a luxury penthouse apartment near Central Park.
According to the indictment, Rubin and Powers transformed one of the bedrooms in the penthouse into a sex “dungeon” that was painted red and soundproofed; had a lock on the door; was furnished with BDSM equipment to which women could be strapped and restrained; and contained devices to shock or electrocute them, among other items.
“Rubin and Powers, together with others, materially misrepresented to women the extent, manner and/or degree to which Rubin would engage in physical and sexual violence,” the indictment said. “Rubin provided a ‘safe word’ the women could say to convey that they wanted the violent sexual conduct to cease, but then disregarded the safe word when women used it and continued the violent conduct without the women’s consent.”
The indictment continued, “In other instances, regardless of whether Rubin had provided a safe word, the women were unable to object to Rubin’s conduct because they were bound and/or gagged during the sexual encounter. In still other instances, women became unconscious during the sexual encounters, such that they were unable to consent.”
Prosecutors said Rubin paid different women for commercial sex multiple times a week, sometimes on consecutive days and Powers would manage the fallout due to his alleged violence.
“If Rubin was satisfied with the way that the women had endured a sexual encounter, the women received $5,000 per encounter; if he was dissatisfied, he paid them several thousand dollars less,” the indictment said.
(NEW YORK) — New Jersey’s closely-watched gubernatorial race was jolted Thursday after the National Archives blamed a technician’s mistake for the release of Congresswoman and New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill’s unredacted military records.
Sherrill and some Democratic allies are calling for an investigation, saying the release was no mistake but an extension of President Donald Trump’s effort to weaponize the federal government against his political opponents.
Responding to a routine records request, the National Archives released Sherrill’s unredacted military records that show she had an unblemished career in the Navy, including a 1991 medal for saving the life of a fellow classmate. But the records contained unredacted information such as Sherrill’s Social Security number.
“Well, it’s really scary in these times, of course, to have all that private information in the public… But I think what this shows too, is that my opponent and the Trump administration will stop at nothing. They will completely weaponize the federal government to achieve what they want,” Sherrill said Friday on MSNBC.
Asked if she suspects anything “nefarious,” she said, “I more than suspect.”
ABC News has reached out to the White House about Sherrill’s claims she’s being targeted by the administration.
ABC News has not obtained or viewed the records.
CBS News, which first reported on the records release, said that it had been investigating if Sherrill was involved in a scandal in 1994 where more than 130 Midshipmen were implicated in a cheating scandal. Sherrill was not involved but, because she did not report her classmates, she was not permitted to walk at graduation.
Sherrill said this was a 30-year-old widely reported incident that does not reflect on her military service. Her campaign has not provided other documentation about the incident, but other records have shown that her graduation date and commission date were identical, indicating the Navy did not have an issue with her graduating.
Her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, said her admission raises concerns.
“Today’s admission by Congresswoman Sherrill that she was implicated in, and punished for, her involvement in the largest cheating and honor code scandal in the history of the United States Navy is both stunning and deeply disturbing,” Ciatterelli’s campaign said in a statement on Thursday.
“For eight years, Mikie Sherrill has built her entire political brand around her time at the Naval Academy and in the Navy, all the while concealing her involvement in the scandal and her punishment. The people of New Jersey deserve complete and total transparency,” Ciatterelli’s campaign said.
CBS News reported that the request came from Ciattarelli ally Nicholas De Gregorio, who was tasked with doing so by political operative Chris Russell.
Russell, on Thursday, pointed to the National Archives’ apology and said the request error came in response to documents not related to the cheating scandal.
“FACT: The National Archives provided documents in response to a legitimate and perfectly legal FOIA request. Documents, btw, that had NOTHING to do with the cheating scandal,” Russell wrote on X on Thursday.
“The National Archives then apologized to the requestor and took full responsibility for their error. Now… it’s time for Rep. Sherrill to come clean and authorize release of all of her records.”
The National Archives, on its end, admitted in a letter, shared by the Sherrill campaign, it “should have provided only information that is releasable to the public under the FOIA. Unfortunately, however, in responding to the request, we released the comprehensive record, including personal information such as your social security number and date of birth … We have already reached out to the requester, Nicholas De Gregorio, and asked that he not further disseminate the information that was released to him in error.”
ABC News has reached out to the National Archives for comment on the record release.
The Sherrill campaign said it is considering legal action, and that counsel for Sherrill has already sent letters to the National Archives, Ciattarelli campaign, Russell, and De Gregorio.
“We are calling on Jack Ciattarelli and the Trump administration to immediately stop illegally distributing Mikie Sherrill’s military files, with protected personal information like her Social Security Number, and we will explore appropriate legal action,” campaign spokesperson Sean Higgins said in a statement on Thursday.
“To have a guy I’m running against who will stop at nothing to illegally obtain records, it’s beyond the pale,” Sherrill said at an event on Thursday.
The records request, according to CBS News, was done through a routine and legal procedure and recognized the request would redact personal information.
Ciatterelli, in a statement Friday, called for his Sherrill to share more documents from her time in the Naval Academy.
“The real issue at hand is exactly why Congresswoman Sherrill was barred from walking at her graduation? What specific honor concept violations was she punished for… The only way to determine any of these answers is through her authorizing full and immediate release of all academic, disciplinary, and investigatory records related to her time at the Academy and the scandal itself,” he wrote.
House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Thursday called for a criminal investigation.
“Mikie Sherrill is a patriot and a hero who has served this country, graduated from the naval academy, helicopter pilot, tours of duty in dangerous places overseas and the Middle East, came home, served as a federal prosecutor, is a supermom and a great public servant and a member of Congress,” Jeffries said. “It is outrageous that Donald Trump and his administration and political hacks connected to them continue to violate the law and they will be held accountable.”
(NEW YORK) — Shane Tamura, who drove cross-country from Las Vegas and opened fire at the New York headquarters of the NFL, killing four, had CTE, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Friday, confirming what was in the shooter’s own writings.
Police found a three-page note in Tamura’s pocket claiming he had a traumatic brain injury and blaming the NFL for “concealing the dangers to players’ brains to maximize profits.”
Elsewhere, Tamura wrote, “Study my brain please. I’m sorry.”
Tamura died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“Following a thorough assessment and extensive analysis by our neuropathology experts, OCME has found unambiguous diagnostic evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, in the brain tissue of the decedent. The findings correspond with the classification of low-stage CTE, according to current consensus criteria,” the medical examiner’s office said. “CTE may be found in the brains of decedents with a history of repeated exposure to head trauma. The science around this condition continues to evolve, and the physical and mental manifestations of CTE remain under study.”
The medical examiner’s office previously said Tamura died by suicide of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The pathologists do not say whether CTE played a role.
Four people were killed in the shooting: a security guard for the building; an executive at Blackstone who was a wife and mom; a police officer who was a dad of two; and a young employee at Rudin Management.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Chris Murphy speaks during the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit on September 24, 2025 in New York City. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Word of former FBI Director James Comey’s federal indictment sent anger and shockwaves around Congress, with several prominent Democrats sounding off on what they called a politically motivated attack by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy called Comey’s indictment — which was on charges of making a false statement and obstruction related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 — a “constitutional crisis.”
“We aren’t on a slippery slope to a constitutional crisis. We are IN the crisis. Time for leaders – political leaders, business leaders, civic leaders – to pick a side: democracy or autocracy?” he wrote on X Thursday night.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin pointed to the recent resignation of U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert and appointment of Lindsey Halligan as setting the stage for Comey’s indictment. Siebert, Trump’s previous nominee for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned from the office after sources said he refused to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James over unfounded allegations of mortgage fraud. Trump later claimed he “fired” Siebert and quickly installed Halligan into the position.
“As if by magic, within mere days of being appointed, Ms. Halligan delivered for the president by filing the exact baseless charges against Mr. Comey that her predecessor had rejected,” Raskin said in a statement.
“I have no doubt that a jury of his peers will acquit and vindicate Mr. Comey after being afforded the opportunity to hear all the relevant evidence,” he added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement Thursday night calling the indictment a “disgraceful attack on the rule of law.”
“The malicious prosecution against James Comey has no apparent basis in law or fact, and lawyers of good conscience in the department know it,” he said.
Republicans were more subdued in their initial reaction to the indictment.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appeared to seek more details and let the legal process play out.
“At the time of Comey’s alleged false statements and obstruction, my colleagues and I had active investigations. If the facts and the evidence support the finding that Comey lied to Congress and obstructed our work, he ought to be held accountable,” he said in a statement.
A few Republicans, however, praised the Justice Department.
“As I said last month, it’s time to expose the lies and corruption from people like James Comey,” Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt said in a post on X.
Republican Sen. John Coryn noted that while the “legal system provides for the presumption of innocence, Comey’s accountability for FBI abuses during the first Trump term are long overdue.”
“These charges are serious offenses, especially if committed by the head of our nation’s top law enforcement agency, and there must be consequences for any crimes,” he said in a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — Justice Clarence Thomas said the Supreme Court should take a more critical approach to settled precedent, saying decided cases are not “the gospel” and suggesting some may have been based on “something somebody dreamt up and others went along with.”
Thomas made the comments during a rare public appearance Thursday evening at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C., just over a week before the high court starts a new term that includes challenges to several major, longstanding decisions.
The Court is poised to revisit Humphrey’s Executor v U.S. — a 90-year precedent that limits a president’s ability to remove members of some independent federal agencies without cause. The justices will also consider whether to overturn Thornburg v Gingles, a landmark 1986 decision governing the use of race in redistricting under the Voting Rights Act.
For the first time, the Court is also considering a petition for writ of certiorari asking them to explicitly revisit and overturn the 2015 decision in Obergefell v Hodges, which extended marriage rights to same-sex couples.
“At some point we need to think about what we’re doing with stare decisis,” Thomas said Thursday, referring to the legal principle of abiding by previous decisions. “And it’s not some sort of talismanic deal where you can just say ‘stare decisis’ and not think, turn off the brain, right?”
The Court’s senior conservative suggested that some members of the Court over the years have blindly followed prior judgments, comparing them to passengers on a train.
“We never go to the front see who’s driving the train, where is it going. And you could go up there in the engine room, find it’s an orangutan driving the train, but you want to follow that just because it’s a train,” Thomas said.
“I don’t think that I have the gospel,” he said, “that any of these cases that have been decided are the gospel, and I do give perspective to the precedent. But it should — the precedent should be respectful of our legal tradition, and our country, and our laws, and be based on something, not just something somebody dreamt up and others went along with.”
Thomas has long been an outspoken advocate for revisiting some of the Court’s significant landmark opinions. In a 2022 concurring opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health — which overturned Roe v Wade — Thomas urged his colleagues to “reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell” — cases involving rights to contraception, same-sex intimacy, and marriage.
Donald Trump speaks to members of the media as he departs the White House on September 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump stood by his Justice Department and slammed James Comey Friday, just hours after the former FBI director was indicted on charges of making a false statement and obstruction related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020.
“It’s about justice. He lied, he lied a lot,” Trump told reporters outside the White House Friday morning.
Asked if the indictment was about justice or revenge, Trump said “It’s about justice, not revenge. It’s about justice. Also, it’s also about the fact that you can’t let this go on.”
The president claimed that there could be “others” who face similar legal action, but didn’t mention any names.
“But, there’ll be others. Look, that’s my opinion. They weaponized the Justice Department like nobody in history. What they’ve done is terrible. And so, I would — I hope – frankly, I hope there are others, because you can’t let this happen to a country,” Trump said.
Comey’s indictment came just days after Trump issued a public demand for his Justice Department to act “now” to bring prosecutions against Comey and other political foes.
Trump told reporters that Democrats “weaponized the Justice Department like nobody in history,” claiming they went after him unjustly.
In a social media post earlier Friday morning, the president called Comey “one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to,” as he celebrated his indictment.
In another post, Trump proclaimed “JUSTICE IN AMERICA” and decried him as a “DIRTY COP” in another.
Trump, who was indicted twice during President Joe Biden’s term, and members of his administration have decried the “weaponization” of the DOJ and vowed to end what they viewed as politically motivated prosecutions. The charges against Trump, related to election interference and mishandling of classified documents, were subsequently dropped because of DOJ policy barring prosecuting a sitting president.
“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi posted to social media following the indictment. “Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”
Comey’s lawyer fully denied the charges in a statement obtained by ABC News.
“Jim Comey denies the charges filed today in their entirety. We look forward to vindicating him in the courtroom,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald as counsel for Comey.
Comey has been outspoken about Trump’s efforts to politicize the justice system.
That argument is now likely to be central to Comey’s defense in his criminal case, which could prove to be a highly consequential test for both the Justice Department and the federal judiciary.
Comey has been summoned to appear for arraignment on Oct. 9.
