Politics

(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — The Navy said it canceled a speaking engagement at its academy in Annapolis, Maryland, with popular podcaster and author Ryan Holiday because it wanted to steer clear of what it saw as political content aimed at young naval officers.

Holiday, who speaks frequently about the value of stoicism and has written several books, including “The Obstacle is the Way,” said he had planned to speak to the midshipmen about the “pursuit of wisdom.”

Holiday said he shared his briefing slides in advance with the Navy, which included a reference to the New York Times’ story about the U.S. Naval Academy’s recent decision to pull some 381 books from its library. The Navy asked him to omit the reference, and Holiday said he refused.

“The idea that there are topics that are off limits or that they can’t handle is absurd on its face,” Holiday told ABC News.

When asked why Holiday’s speech was canceled, the Navy said it opted to make a “schedule change that aligns with its mission of preparing midshipmen for careers of service to our country.”

“The Naval Academy is an apolitical institution,” it added. “It is focused on developing midshipmen morally, mentally and physically in order to cultivate honorable leaders, create a culture of excellence and prepare future officers for military service.”

Holiday said the Navy hadn’t given him guidance in advance of the speech and that he didn’t see his presentation as overtly political because he wasn’t telling the midshipmen how to vote. He said it shouldn’t have been a surprise to the Navy that he’d want to discuss current events.

“I assumed we had the basic … standards of academic independence,” Holiday said.

The Navy pulled the books after President Donald Trump ordered the military to stop “promoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcating the following un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories.”

Included in the list of books removed from the academy library is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi.

A separate visit to the academy by filmmaker Ken Burns also was canceled recently, although the cancelation does not appear to be tied to a dispute over content. A spokesperson for Burns said the award-winning documentarian had planned to meet privately with faculty and staff later this month and now hopes to visit the school in October instead.

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(WASHINGTON) — Trump White House border czar Tom Homan stood by the administration’s position on the return to the U.S. of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national the Justice Department said was erroneously deported to a prison in his home country, and waived off responsibility for the migrant’s status in an interview with ABC News.

Homan spoke with “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an interview that will air this Sunday about the case and repeated the Trump administration’s allegations that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member and a violent threat to the public.

“We removed a public safety threat, a national security threat, a violent gang member from the United States,” he alleged.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and family members have denied that he is a member of MS-13, and the gang allegations are being disputed in court.

Watch more of Jonathan Karl’s interview with Tom Homan on “This Week” at 9 a.m. Sunday on ABC.

However, much of the evidence that has been cited by President Donald Trump and his allies, such as clothing they argue symbolizes gang membership, has not been brought up in court since the current administration began litigating this case.

The Supreme Court unanimously ordered the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. for a trial. As of Friday, the administration has not taken active steps to do so.

When asked by Karl about the order, Homan claimed the Trump administration does not have the right or ability to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. and argued Abrego Garcia is under the authority of the El Salvador government.

“I understand that ‘facilitate,’ but he’s also in the custody — he’s a citizen and a national of the country of El Salvador. El Salvador would certainly have to cooperate in that,” Homan said.

“But again, I’m out of the loop on that. I’m not an attorney. I’m not litigating this case. We’ll do whatever the law says we have to do, but I think and I stand by the fact [that] I think we did the right thing here,” he said.

Homan also joined Trump and other Republicans in their criticism of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who traveled to El Salvador this week and met with Abrego Garcia.

“You know, what bothers me more than that is a U.S. senator traveled to El Salvador on taxpayer dime to meet with an MS-13 gang member, [a] public safety threat, terrorist,” Homan said, without providing evidence that Van Hollen is using taxpayer money for the trip.

When ABC News reached out to Van Hollen’s office for comment on how the trip was funded, his office replied, “the Senator traveled in his official capacity with bipartisan approval to follow up on the case of a constituent and conduct oversight of U.S. foreign assistance programs. He did fly commercial.”

Abrego Garcia has never been convicted of a crime in the U.S., and his wife, Jennifer Vasquez, told ABC News on Wednesday that her husband has “never been convicted for anything.”

Homan accused the senator of not taking time to meet with victims of MS-13 gang members in his state and inaction under the Biden administration to address border concerns.

“What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border the last four years under Joe Biden. … What shocks me is he’s remained silent on the travesty that happened on the southern border. Many people died, thousands of people died,” he said.

Upon returning to the U.S., Van Hollen told reporters his trip was about more than Abrego Garcia’s case.

“This case is not only about one man, as important as that is,” Van Hollen said. “It is about protecting fundamental freedoms and the fundamental principle in the Constitution for due process that protects everybody who resides in America.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard suggested Friday that a newly released batch of documents related to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy raise “more questions than answers.”

Her comment comes after doubts and conspiracy theories advanced by the late senator’s son and current secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

On Friday, Gabbard and Kennedy Jr. announced the release of more than 10,000 “previously classified” records related to the 1968 assassination of then-Sen. Kennedy, who was shot moments after delivering a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as part of his campaign for Democratic presidential nomination.

His confessed killer, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. But Kennedy Jr. has in the past cast doubt on Sirhan’s role in his father’s death and vocally supported his release from prison.

On Friday, Gabbard suggested in an interview with the Daily Wire that the new records, which include previously undisclosed FBI records about Sirhan’s contacts prior to the killing, raise fresh questions about the long-accepted narrative of Kennedy’s assassination.

“There’s no ‘smoking gun,'” Gabbard said. “But there are a lot of interesting things that have not been previously known that really call into question what really happened and who was behind it.”

“There are more questions than answers,” she continued.

Among the newly released documents are several frantic cables distributed in the hours after Kennedy’s assassination by federal investigators, who gave their investigation the code-name “KENSALT.”

Records show that FBI field offices from Birmingham to Boston scrambled to gather information on Sirhan’s background, contacts, and other leads. The records also include interviews with witnesses and responding police officers.

One file includes a hand-written note purportedly penned by Sirhan calling for Kennedy to be “disposed of like his brother was,” referring to President John F. Kennedy, who was killed five years earlier.

Robert Kennedy Jr. said in a statement on Friday that “lifting the veil on the RFK papers is a necessary step toward restoring trust in American government.”

“I commend President Trump for his courage and his commitment to transparency,” he continued. “I’m grateful also to Tulsi Gabbard for her dogged efforts to root out and declassify these documents.”

Attorneys for Sirhan have for years attempted to have him released from prison. In 2011, his lawyer told ABC News Sirhan was “set up” and “hypno-programmed.” Those assertions have gone unheeded. Parole boards have repeatedly denied his release.

President Donald Trump commissioned the release of records related to Kennedy’s assassination in an executive order signed in January. Gabbard subsequently launched a task force to facilitate “maximum transparency” in the release of records about the assassinations of Kennedy, his older brother, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Gabbard said Friday that an additional 50,000 records pertinent to the investigation of Kennedy’s death would be processed and made public in short order.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered an immediate halt to the planned firings of nearly 1,500 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and is ordering the Trump administration to hand over communications and make top officials available for testimony to determine whether they deliberately violated one of her court orders.

District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told attorneys for the government she was “deeply concerned” about the apparently rushed efforts to implement a Reduction In Force, or RIF, of approximately 1483 employees at the CFPB which was set to take effect at 6 pm tonight.

Jackson said the moves by CFPB leadership, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and general counsel of the OMB Mark Paoletta, in apparent coordination with a staffer from Elon Musk’s DOGE operation, Gavin Kliger, may be in direct violation of a preliminary injunction she had put in place — which the D.C. Circuit upheld in part. That injunction required terminations at the agency to be carried out only after “particularized assessments” of individual employees’ performance.

She told attorneys from the Justice Department the reductions in force were “not going to happen in the meantime” and ordered them to advise the agency leadership to make that clear to employees who had been informed they would be ousted. Many of those employees sat in her courtroom Friday, and several broke into tears following the hearing.

Jackson further ordered a hearing for April 28 where she said Paoletta should be prepared to testify under oath, and Kliger should also plan to be in attendance to potentially provide testimony. She also said the government should retain and be prepared to provide any communications between Paoletta, Vought and Kliger in advance of the hearing to help her determine whether her preliminary injunction was deliberately violated.

The Trump administration had begun the process this week of firing 1,474 employees at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, according to a sworn declaration from Paoletta, the agency’s chief legal officer.

The administration plans to run the agency with a 206-person staff, according to court filings Friday morning, a steep decrease from the 1,680 employees who previously worked for the consumer-protection agency. Some departments within the CFPB were cut entirely or reduced to a single employee, according to Paoletta.

“An approximately 200-person agency allows the Bureau to fulfill its statutory duties and better aligns with the new leadership’s priorities and management philosophy,” Paoletta wrote.

According to Paoletta, agency leadership conducted a “particularized assessment” of each department to determine how to run the CFPB with the “smaller, more efficient operation.”

“Leadership has discovered many instances in which the Bureau’s activities have pushed well beyond the limits of the law,” he wrote.

The CFPB, created by Congress to safeguard Americans against unfair business practices in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, has been targeted for elimination by President Donald Trump as part of his efforts to slash the federal government.

Trump has said the CFPB is “very important to get rid of” and that the organization was “set up to destroy some very good people.”

Its oversight applies to everything from mortgages to credit cards to bank fees to student loans to data collection. By law, the CFPB has the rare ability to issue new rules and to impose fines against companies who break them.

Since its establishment in 2011 through last June, the CFPB said it has clawed back $20.7 billion for American consumers.

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(WASHINGTON) — House Democrats are demanding the White House preserve the independence of the Smithsonian Institution after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in late March that directed federal agencies and the Smithsonian to eliminate what the order calls “anti-American” and “improper” content from the vast network of museums and national parks.

The top Democrat of the House Administration Committee, Rep. Joe Morelle, and other Democrats who have oversight of the Smithsonian Institution sent a letter, first obtained by ABC News, to Vice President JD Vance, who serves as a member of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents.

“We urge you to reject any effort to effectuate the goals of the Proclamation and to preserve the 175-year tradition of curatorial independence that has come to define the Smithsonian Institution,” the lawmakers wrote, raising concerns over Trump’s order.

The order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” directs Vance to eliminate what it claims are “improper ideology” from all areas of the institution, which consists of 21 museums, 14 education and research centers and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

“Unfortunately, we now stand at the brink of seeing the Smithsonian at its worst: shaped solely by the views and ideology of one individual as a means of expanding his political power,” the letter states.

The letter is the latest effort by Democrats to push back on one of several actions taken by the White House to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the federal government.

The order also directs Vance and Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum to restore federal parks, monuments, memorials and statues “that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.”

“If this Proclamation were to be implemented, the Smithsonian’s curatorial independence and excellence would be eliminated, and 175 years of this tradition would end,” the lawmakers warn.

Trump, in the order, singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture which he said perpetuated “race-centered” and “divisive” ideas.

“This flagrant attempt to erase Black history is unacceptable and must be stopped. The attempt to paper over elements of American history is both cowardly and unpatriotic,” the letter states.

The Smithsonian Institution was first established by Congress with funding from British scientist James Smithson.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service is considering revoking Harvard University’s tax-exempt status and a decision could be made in the coming days, sources told ABC News on Thursday.

The White House has already put a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value after the school refused to comply with a series of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration.

The Department of Homeland Security is also threatening to revoke Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program status, which allows for noncitizen students to study there under a specific visa, unless it turns over student visa holders’ records, specifically those pertaining to “illegal and violent activities,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Harvard in a letter sent by the department.

Attempts to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status would likely face legal challenges. In a statement, Harvard said revoking its tax-exempt status would be unlawful and endanger “our ability to carry out our educational mission.”

“Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission,” a university spokesperson said. “It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs, and lost opportunities for innovation. The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”

The White House said in a statement to ABC News that any investigation by the IRS into Harvard began before President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform that the school should lose its tax-exempt status.

“Any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the President, and investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to the President’s TRUTH,” principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said.

Federal law bars the president from directly or indirectly ordering the IRS to conduct or terminate an audit or investigation. The law also bars the vice president or any employee of the president or vice president from direct or indirect involvement.

Asked Thursday why his administration was going after Harvard’s tax-exempt status, Trump said, “Because Harvard is a disgrace, it’s antisemitic. Tax exempt status is a privilege and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard.

On Tuesday, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform: “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!,” Trump said.

Trump said Thursday that he was not involved in the effort, telling a reporter, “I read about it just like you did.”

The Trump administration had demanded that Harvard end its diversity, equity and inclusion programs; adopt merit-based admissions; and cooperate with immigration authorities.

In a letter on April 11, the Trump administration argued that the school “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment” and proposed terms including changing the school’s governance, adopting merit-based hiring, shuttering any DEI programs and allowing “audits” to ensure “viewpoint diversity.”

ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said he was blocked Thursday from entering the El Salvador prison that is holding the Maryland resident whom the courts say was erroneously deported from the United States last month.

The Maryland senator, who flew to the country on Wednesday, shared a video on social media showing guards stopping him and others from entering CECOT, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held.

The Supreme Court and a Maryland federal judge ordered that the U.S. government “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. after the Department of Justice said in court filings that the 29-year-old father was wrongfully deported because of an “administrative error.” The Trump administration has alleged it cannot bring him back and claimed outside of court that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.

Van Hollen was joined by Chris Newman, who he said is the attorney for Abrego Garcia’s wife and mother, and said they are trying to check on the deported man’s condition.

The video also showed Van Hollen and Newman speaking to prison guards, who were visibly shaking their heads “no.”

“These soldiers were ordered to prevent us from going any farther from this spot,” Van Hollen said. “I understand we’re about three kilometers now from CECOT, and as you can see, they’re letting other cars go by, but they stopped us because they’re under orders not to allow us to proceed to check on the well-being of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.”

Over the last couple of weeks, Republican members of Congress have gained access to the prison and posted pictures on their social media pages from inside the complex.

Van Hollen later told reporters that he made his request to visit the prison to the U.S. Embassy, which then passed the request to El Salvador’s government.

The senator said he also asked El Salvador’s vice president on Wednesday to visit the facility.

“I emphasized my goal was to check on his health and well-being,” he said.

The senator also said the prisoner has had no contact with anyone outside of CECOT, which he said is a violation of international law.

“El Salvador is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. El Salvador has signed and ratified that covenant, and that covenant says, and I quote, ‘A detained or imprisoned person shall be entitled to communicate and consult with his legal counsel,'” Van Allen told reporters.

The White House slammed Van Hollen for making the trip and advocating for Abrego Garcia on Wednesday. The administration and the DOJ have claimed with little evidence, that Abrego Garcia is a gang member.

The Justice Department has not charged Abrego Garcia with any gang-related crimes and his alleged MS-13 membership has been disputed in court.

A federal judge and the Supreme Court ordered the government to take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the U.S., and on Wednesday, the DOJ filed a notice that it is appealing.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s request on Thursday.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the situation on Thursday and claimed he isn’t involved.

“I was elected to get rid of those criminals, to get them out of our count,ry or to put them away, but to get them out of our country. And I don’t see how judges can take that authority away from a president,” he told reporters.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would hear expedited oral arguments next month over President Donald Trump’s emergency request to rollback nationwide injunctions against his executive order to end birthright citizenship.

The nation’s highest court set arguments for May 15 at 10 a.m.

The move by the justices sets the stage for a decision by this summer on three separate district court injunctions that had blocked the administration from moving forward with its plan to create a new standard for establishing citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to parents who do not have permanent legal status.

Trump had asked the Supreme Court to allow the administration to, at the very least, begin planning for the change. He also took aim at the universal lower court mandates that he argued exceeded their authority.

“This Court should declare that enough is enough before district courts’ burgeoning reliance on universal injunctions becomes further entrenched,” Trump’s acting solicitor general wrote in the application. “The Court should stay the district courts’ preliminary injunctions except as to the individual plaintiffs and the identified members of the organizational plaintiffs (and, if the Court concludes that States are proper litigants, as to individuals who are born or reside in those States).”

“At a minimum, the Court should stay the injunctions to the extent they prohibit agencies from developing and issuing public guidance regarding the implementation of the Order. Only this Court’s intervention can prevent universal injunctions from becoming universally acceptable,” she added.

While the immediate issue is the scope of the injunctions, it’s also possible the justices wade into the substance of Trump’s executive order itself and the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, which was enshrined in the 14th Amendment and been repeatedly upheld by high court precedent.

Four separate district courts and three federal appeals courts have kept the Trump policy on hold during litigation, finding it very likely unconstitutional.

Earlier this month, a coalition of states and immigrant advocates had asked the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s emergency request to rollback a nationwide injunction against his executive order ending birthright citizenship.

“Being directed to follow the law as it has been universally understood for over 125 years is not an emergency warranting the extraordinary remedy of a stay,” they wrote. “This Court should deny the federal government’s request. Many aspects of constitutional interpretation are hotly debated, but not the merits question in this case. For over a century, it has been the settled view of this Court, Congress, the Executive Branch, and legal scholars that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause guarantees citizenship to babies born in the United States regardless of their parents’ citizenship, “allegiance,” “domicile,” immigration status, or nationality.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for a Venezuelan man who is currently imprisoned in a notorious Salvadoran prison filed a habeas petition on Wednesday, asking a federal judge to order the immediate release of their client.

Instead of deporting Edicson David Quintero Chacon to Venezuela, the government is “paying” for his “torture in El Salvador with U.S. taxpayer dollars in flagrant violation of the United States Constitution,” his attorneys said in the filing.

According to the habeas petition, on June 13, 2024, Quintero Chacon went to his routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in North Carolina where he was detained and taken into custody and transferred to a detention center in Georgia. Then, in September 2024, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S. to Venezuela.

On February 10, 2025, he filed a habeas petition challenging his detention in Georgia, saying he “was not fighting [his] case anymore” and that he “just wanted to go home.”

A month later, after being transferred to a detention center in Texas, Quintero Chacon was put on one of the first flights to El Salvador with more than a hundred other Venezuelan migrants.

“Mr. Quintero’s continuing detention—now approaching a year—is lawless,” his attorneys said in the petition. “There is no statutory authority that could possibly justify his continued custody under or by color of the authority of the U.S. government, let alone at CECOT.”

The government’s decision to transfer Quintero Chacon to CECOT, his attorneys said, “will amount to an effective life sentence—and possibly a death sentence.”

Quintero Chacon’s attorneys said in the filing that he has not been charged with or convicted of a crime in any country.

“He is a loving husband, father of two small children, brother, and son, and a skilled carpenter and fisherman,” his attorneys said in the petition.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the habeas petition and questions about Quintero Chacon.

In a 5-4 decision earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union said on Wednesday they plan to refile more than a hundred habeas claims in Washington for the men who were deported on March 15.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said he was blocked Thursday from entering the El Salvador prison that is holding the Maryland resident who the courts say was erroneously deported from the United States last month.

The Maryland senator, who flew to the country on Wednesday, shared a video on social media showing guards stopping him and others from entering CECOT, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held.

The Supreme Court and a Maryland federal judge ordered that the U.S. government “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. after the Department of Justice said in court filings that the 29-year-old father was wrongfully deported because of an “administrative error.” The Trump administration has alleged it cannot bring him back and claimed outside of court that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.

Van Hollen was joined by Chris Newman, who he said is the attorney for Abrego Garcia’s wife and mother, and said they are trying to check on the deported man’s condition.

The video also showed Van Hollen and Newman speaking to prison guards, who were visibly shaking their heads “no.”

“These soldiers were ordered to prevent us from going any farther from this spot,” Van Hollen said. “I understand we’re about three kilometers now from CECOT, and as you can see, they’re letting other cars go by, but they stopped us because they’re under orders not to allow us to proceed to check on the well-being of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.”

Over the last couple of weeks, Republican members of Congress have gained access to the prison and posted pictures on their social media pages from inside the complex.

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