(WASHINGTON) — At next week’s unusual gathering of several hundred senior U.S. generals and admirals, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will deliver his message of restoring the “warrior ethos” to the U.S. military and present new standards toward that goal, according to five U.S. officials.
Many of the senior military officers will come to the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, from all over the United States and from around the world to hear Hegseth in an event that could last just 30 minutes, according to two officials.
ABC News has previously reported that only officers in command positions and not staff positions are being summoned to the gathering and that they will also be joined by the senior enlisted adviser in that unit.
Five U.S. officials told ABC News that the rare gathering will allow Hegseth to personally tell the officers about the warrior ethos he envisions for the U.S. military and the path forward.
That will also include a discussion of new standards associated with how to achieve that goal and how the U.S. military will conduct itself.
President Donald Trump plans to speak to the generals and admirals at the meeting, White House officials told ABC News on Sunday.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson declined to comment to ABC News about what Hegseth planned to discuss at Tuesday’s meeting.
Restoring the warrior ethos to the U.S. military is a message that Hegseth delivers regularly during his speaking engagements in the U.S. and abroad.
While it is common for Hegseth and previous defense secretaries to meet with generals and admirals during their travels or at the Pentagon, it is unusually rare for so many high-ranking officers to be gathered at one location to hear from the defense secretary.
Overall, there are 838 total general officers and admirals on active duty — 446 of them are from the higher two-star, three-star and four-star ranks — according to the Pentagon’s latest statistics from June, though it is difficult to ascertain a breakdown of how many officers are in command positions versus staff positions.
Several questions have been raised about the increased security requirements that will be needed at the large Marine base located 35 miles south of Washington, D.C.
Questions have also been raised about the significant travel and lodging costs that would be associated with transporting so many senior military officers and their senior enlisted advisers to Quantico, said two U.S. officials.
Video of Tuesday’s meeting will be recorded by the Pentagon for future public distribution, according to officials.
The invitations that went out to officers in command positions earlier this week did not disclose a reason or topic as to why they were being summoned to the gathering in Quantico.
Because of that, speculation among military officials had been rampant about the topic for the meeting and whether it was related to his earlier announcement this year of a 20% reduction in the number of officers of four-star rank.
Concerns had also been raised about his previous removal of 15 senior military officers from their posts, including Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral.
(NEW YORK) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday he is “hopeful” a government shutdown can be avoided as Congress lurches toward its Tuesday deadline to reach a spending agreement.
Jeffries’ comments come after President Donald Trump canceled a meeting last week with Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to hammer out a deal before saying Saturday he’d meet with the Democrats and Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday.
“Our view going into the meeting is that we want to find bipartisan common ground, to find a spending agreement that avoids a government shutdown and actually meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health, their safety, and their economic well-being,” Jeffries told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
One of the main points of contention between Democrats and Republicans has been the impending expiration of the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits, which Democrats are fighting to extend.
“We know they don’t expire till the end of the year, so why not approve this and just get seven more weeks to negotiate?” Raddatz asked.
“Well, because notices are going to go out in a matter of days and it’s going to be a shock to the system of everyday Americans who are already struggling to get by,” Jeffries said.
Responding to Jeffries later on “This Week,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise advocated for passing a short-term funding bill and continuing negotiations into the coming months.
“Let’s let those talks continue till November with this short-term government funding bill that’s in the Senate,” Scalise said. “But it’s the same levels of funding that the Senate voted for, Democrats included, back in March.”
Scalise noted that he, like Jeffries, is hopeful that a shutdown can be avoided.
“I’m not only hopeful, I, Speaker Johnson, all my Republican colleagues voted to prevent a government shutdown, and we passed that bill to the Senate,” Scalise said.
“There’s still time for an agreement to be reached. I’m glad that President Trump is showing leadership and meeting with all leaders, Republican and Democrat, Monday in the White House,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump’s executive order strapping a six-figure fee to the H1-B visa has created confusion for tech firms and the tens of thousands of foreign employees that the companies have depended on for their growth, according to immigration and business experts.
Trump and his officials touted the recent order to add a $100,000 fee for every H1-B application as one that would help create more job opportunities for Americans. This visa program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.
However, the president’s move will make it difficult for tech firms to expand U.S. operations or incentivize highly talented foreign workers to choose America as the place they launch their next big idea, Stuart Anderson, the executive director of non-partisan think tank National Foundation for American Policy, told ABC News.
“More than half of the billion-dollar start-ups have at least one immigrant co-founder,” Anderson said. “And those firms lead to thousands of jobs for Americans.”
Anderson, who served as the executive associate commissioner at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service under President George W. Bush, acknowledged that the H1-B program was in need of reform, particularly when it came to mega corporations dominating the visa’s lottery system. However, he said the current administration’s approach does more harm to the program than good.
He and other analysts noted that even if the $100,000 fee is reversed, some damage to the tech economy may have already been done as entrepreneurs and prospective employees rethink their options.
“If you cut off highly skilled people from coming into the country, you’re going to cut off chances of having a dominant economy,” Anderson said.
How H1-B works The H1-B visa program was created as part of the 1990 immigration bill and allowed foreign prospective employees with college and graduate degrees in select fields such as computer sciences, engineering and medical research to legally live and work in America.
The law allows for 65,000 H1-B visas a year, which lasts for three to six years, for applicants with bachelor’s degrees and an additional 20,000 a year for workers with higher-level degrees. Academic institutions are exempt from this cap.
Applicants can renew their visa when it expires with the approval of their employer.
A study released in March by Pew Research found that there were roughly 400,000 applications for the H1-B visa, the majority of which were for renewals.
In addition to paying for the visa’s fees, which are around $5,000 for filing costs, companies must follow strict rules in order for the visa to be approved, according to Greg Morrisett, the dean and vice provost of Cornell Tech.
“A company that files for an H1 has to provide an assertion that they hire for the same salaries as it does for an American citizen,” he said.
Morrisett said that many tech firms — such as Microsoft, Facebook and Google –have benefited from the program by hiring engineers and programmers from places like India, China and South Korea. He noted that these workers played essential roles in developing their products and successes.
Several major tech CEOs — including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Google’s Sundar Pichai — are foreign-born and were on H1-B visas after they finished their college and graduate studies in America.
“I think the U.S has led in technology and engineering because of the federal government’s investments and universities attracted the best minds and gave them the ability to thrive,” Morrisett said.
Despite its success, the program has come under criticism from conservative groups who argue that it takes jobs away from American-born workers.
Other critics argue that the visa lottery favors larger corporations, who have more money and resources to pay the filing fees and help process the applications, compared to smaller companies and startups.
Morrisett said the additional $100,000 fee will create a bigger push for the major corporations to get the H1-B talent.
“It’s devastating for the start-up world. The big tech companies can weather the storm but a lot of start-up companies simply don’t have the money,” he said.
The top companies with H1-B workers during the 2025 fiscal year were Amazon, with over 10,000 employees on the visa, followed by Tata Consulting Services, which has about 5,505, and Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google, which each have around 5,100, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Jeremy Robbins, the executive director of nonprofit advocacy group the American Immigration Council, told ABC News that smaller start-up firms are crucial for the tech industry’s growth. Every major tech company started off as a smaller mom and pop start-up that blossomed due to the right developer or engineer who cracked the code to bring an app or tech product across the finish line.
“Putting on a flat fee that privileges large companies over small ones, or incentivizes talent to go overseas or incentivizes companies to set up shop overseas, is not an answer,” he said.
Robbins acknowledged that some of the H1-B’s provisions needed tweaking. Some, such as the cap, are frozen in the economic landscape of the early ’90s, he noted. At the time, the country was in recession and falling behind in the tech boom.
“You want to think about how to do that and protect American workers. You would want to treat it differently from a boom time than during a recession,” he said.
Robbins said that Trump’s executive order on the H1-B “cut off the hand to treat a small pain in the finger.”
Trump’s EO creates confusion, fear On Sept. 19, Trump signed the order adding $100,000 to the fees associated with the H1-B visa. He and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the order was to promote American jobs.
“That’s the point of immigration: Hire Americans, and make sure the people coming in are the top, top people,” Lutnick told reporters at the time. “Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country.”
When asked if the executive order’s new fee covered first-time H1 applicants or all applicants once it kicked in on Sept. 21, Lutnick responded, “Renewals, first time.”
“The company needs to decide… is the person valuable enough to have a $100,000 a year payment to the government? Or they should head home and go hire an American,” he added.
The actual order, however, had different guidance and the discrepancy led to the frantic letters, according to the experts. The order said that the fee was a one-time charge that would only cover first-time applicants, which led to many companies sending frantic letters to their H1-B employees urging them not to leave the country, according to the American Immigration Council’s Robbins.
He told ABC News that his organization received reports of H1 visa holders who were overseas frantically booking flights to return to the U.S. during the weekend because they and their employers had no concrete information about their legal status.
“It’s thrown everyone into a disarray, and there are still questions as to how this will affect companies and their employees,” he said.
Representatives for Meta, Amazon, Apple and Google did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment. Representatives from Microsoft declined to comment.
Robbins said that there will likely be legal challenges to the executive order. Federal law allows USCIS to collect fees only for the purpose of processing, since the agency is totally funded by fees, and the president’s power to change immigration law is murky, according to Robbins.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the president’s travel ban was constitutional since he based it off national security concerns. However, two years later, a California federal court blocked a Trump executive order that limited the approval of H1-B visas during the pandemic.
“Stay tuned,” Robbins said when asked about more details about legal challenges.
Ripple effects Whether or not Trump reverses his order either voluntarily or through the courts, the experts said that the American economy — especially the tech industry — will feel the effects of the move for years to come.
Morrisett said that he’s already heard concerns from Cornell Tech’s international students about their future job prospects in America in the wake of the order.
“When a student comes to study here, they get exposed to the tech ecosystem, they have a great idea, they want to create a company, and the start-ups have the tools to make that happen,” he said. “Now there are fewer incentives for them to stay in the country and foster that idea if they don’t have that visa.”
Morrisett added that the H1-B order, combined with the administration’s other actions to limit immigration such as Trump’s travel ban, increased deportation efforts and anti-immigration rhetoric, has tarnished America’s luster in the eyes of current and prospective foreign engineers.
“It is all compounding to the message, ‘We don’t want you in the United States,'” he said. “These are some of the smartest people in the world and they’re saying, ‘OK. We’ll go somewhere else.'”
Anderson said the talent won’t be the only group looking to more welcoming pastures. He noted that companies will be inclined to expand their presence internationally, countering Trump’s goal to strengthen America’s tech footprint.
“Even the smallest firms have international offices and if they want to get that skilled talent, they will go wherever they need to retain them,” Anderson said.
Robbins reiterated that there is definitely a need for reforms for the county’s immigration policies, including the H1-B program, but said leaders must recognize that the visa has been one of the most successful initiatives to expand the country’s tech industry and should not be hampered.
“Putting on a flat fee that privileges large companies over small ones, or incentivizes talent to go overseas or incentivizes companies to set up shop overseas, is not an answer,” he said.
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.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on September 26, 2025 in New York City (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — After being repeatedly condemned as a war criminal by other world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly’s current meeting in New York, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now having his turn speaking on the world stage on Friday.
Many delegates walked out as Netanyahu approached the podium.
“We’re not done yet,” Netanyahu said. “The final elements, the final remnants of Hamas, are holed up in Gaza city. They vow to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 again and again and again, no matter how diminished their forces. That is why Israel must finish the job, that is why we want to do so as fast as possible.”
Hours before his speech, Netanyahu’s office announced his address to the U.N. General Assembly would be broadcast live on loudspeakers aimed at Gaza from the Israeli side of the border.
“As part of the informational effort, the Prime Minister’s Office has instructed civilian agencies, in cooperation with the IDF, to place loudspeakers on trucks on the Israeli side of the Gaza border only, with the aim of broadcasting Prime Minister Netanyahu’s historic speech today at the UN General Assembly in the Gaza Strip,” a statement said.
Before departing Tel Aviv on Thursday, he vowed to take a strong stance against the countries that had formally announced their support for an independent Palestinian state during the annual global summit.
“I will condemn those leaders who, instead of denouncing the murderers, rapists, and child burners, want to give them a state in the heart of the land of Israel,” he said. “This will not happen.”
“This is an important visit for the State of Israel, especially at this point in time, when over the UN podium one hears too many false voices,” Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, said in a post on X.
“The prime minister’s speech at the General Assembly will strengthen our position and clarify to the world: Israel is fighting on all fronts, and its security — is not open to debate,” Danon added.
In addition to a frosty reception from heads of state opposed to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, Netanyahu is expected to face protests while in New York.
Family members of some of the hostages held in Gaza have announced plans to demonstrate outside of the U.N. headquarters during the prime minister’s speech, calling on Netanyahu and other leaders to prioritize the release of the hostages.
An isolated Israel
Even before Netanyahu arrived in New York, Israel’s isolation at the United Nations was evident.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani labeled Israel as a “rogue government” during his speech to the assembly on Tuesday, calling the Israeli airstrike on Hamas leadership in Doha earlier this month a “treacherous attack.”
“They visit our country and plot to attack it. They negotiate with delegations and plot to assassinate the members of the negotiation teams. It is difficult to cooperate with such a mentality that does not respect the most minimum standards of cooperation,” he said. “It is impossible.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres decried the war in Gaza during his remarks opening the General Debate.
“The scale of death and destruction are beyond any other conflict in my years as secretary-general,” he asserted.
“Nothing can justify the horrific Hamas terror attacks of October 7 and the taking of hostages, both of which I have repeatedly condemned. And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres added.
He also called on Israel to fully comply with provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice, which require Israel to take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza.
The Israeli government has long held that the United Nations is biased against Israel and has denied violating international law.
However, rulings from another global tribunal — the International Criminal Court (ICC) — may have altered Netanyahu’s travel plans.
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, and flight data from his journey to New York showed his plane took an indirect route to New York, avoiding the airspace of countries that could enforce the warrant.
Israel’s government has not commented on why the longer route was selected.
Both Israel and the United States are not party to the Rome Statute, which is the treaty that established the ICC and have not consented to its jurisdiction. The Trump administration has also taken several steps to penalize the ICC for issuing warrants for the arrests of Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials.
Netanyahu returns to Washington
While in the U.S., Netanyahu is also slated to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington — marking the fourth time the two have met face-to-face since Trump’s return to the White House.
This private meeting may prove much more consequential for Israel and the broader Middle East than Netanyahu’s speech on the global stage.
U.S. and Israeli officials say the leaders are expected to discuss what retaliatory actions Israel may take in response to the growing push to recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N.
The two also held a phone call on Thursday, according to the White House.
Although Trump and Netanyahu are close allies, the meeting comes at a time when both have diverging agendas. The prime minister has been contemplating annexing additional territory in the West Bank– something the president has vowed he won’t permit.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it,” Trump said on Thursday. “It’s not going to happen.”
The president also expressed renewed hope for an agreement to resolve the conflict and free the hostages from Gaza, predicting it could happen “soon.”
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked a large number of general officers and admirals to gather next Tuesday at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, according to five U.S. officials. Two of them told ABC News they don’t know what prompted this gathering of potentially hundreds of the U.S. military’s most senior leaders.
It is very rare to hold such a large meeting of general officers who are based stateside and overseas in one location and for it to include the defense secretary.
The unusual meeting will also take place months after Hegseth ordered a 20% reduction in the number of officers of the four-star rank, in addition to the 15 senior military officers he has removed from their posts, including Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral.
“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Parnell used to Hegseth’s informal title, which came from President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War earlier this month. The formal renaming of the department would require Congress to act.
Overall, there are 838 total general officers and admirals on active duty — 446 of them are from the higher two-star, three-star and four-star ranks — according to the Pentagon’s latest statistics from June.
It was unclear to the officials if all of the general and flag officers in the U.S. military were being invited to attend this meeting or if would only apply to a segment of those high-ranking officers.
The Washington Post was first to report the news of next week’s gathering.
It is not unusual for a defense secretary to meet with senior military officers at the Pentagon or those on domestic and overseas travel. Twice a year, the senior officers in charge of the U.S. combatant commands gather at the Pentagon to meet with the secretary.
However, the size and scope of the meeting that makes next week’s gathering rare and likely a security concern for planners. The meeting has also led to speculation among officials as to whether it has anything to do with Hegseth’s moves to reduce the number of officers serving as generals or admirals.
In May, Hegseth signed a memo directing a “minimum” 20% reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals across the active-duty force.
He also called for at least a 20% reduction of general officers in the National Guard, as well as at least a 10% reduction in general and flag officers affiliated with combatant commands.
In a video accompanying the memo, Hegseth described it as a “Less Generals More GIs Policy.” In the memo, Hegseth said the order was needed to “drive innovation and operational excellence, unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hinder their growth and effectiveness.”
“A critical step in this process is removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions,” he also wrote.
(WASHINGTON) — A key Senate hearing from five years ago is the center of the federal probe into former FBI Director James Comey, sources told ABC News Thursday.
At least two exchanges he had with lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee in September of 2020 are being scrutinized, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Comey, who appeared virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lied when he affirmed prior congressional testimony that he never authorized leaks to the media, the sources said.
“On May 3rd, 2017, in this committee, Chairman Grassley asked you point blank, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? You responded under oath, ‘Never.’ He then asked you, ‘Have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton administration?’ You responded again under oath, ‘No.’ Now, as you know, Mr. McCabe, who works for you, has publicly and repeatedly stated that he leaked information to the Wall Street Journal and that you were directly aware of it and that you directly authorized it. Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true. One or the other is false. Who’s telling the truth?” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked Comey.
“I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017,” Comey responded.
“So your testimony is you’ve never authorized anyone to leak? And Mr. McCabe, if he says contrary, is not telling the truth, is that correct?” Cruz asked.
“Again, I’m not going to characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today,” Comey responded.
The federal prosecutors separately investigated an exchange between Comey and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, in which Comey said he could not recall a September 2016 intelligence document he had been sent.
Republicans said his response raises questions as to whether the investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was a result of a strategy pushed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Intelligence officials have raised doubts regarding the validity of that document.
On Wednesday, prosecutors determined they would be unable to convince a jury that Comey knowingly gave false testimony in either exchange.
While they informed President Donald Trump’s appointed U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan of their determination in a memo on Monday, sources told ABC News that she still intends to press forward and seek an indictment of Comey.
Vice President JD Vance greets local law enforcement as he arrives to depart on Air Force Two at Piedmont Triad International Airport, September 24, 2025 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Alex Brandon/Pool via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance blamed Democrats after a sniper opened fire on an ICE facility in Texas — as questions remain about the motive behind the attack and the intended target.
“This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis,'” Trump wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, in which he said he had been briefed on the shooting.
“I AM CALLING ON ALL DEMOCRATS TO STOP THIS RHETORIC AGAINST ICE AND AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT, RIGHT NOW!” Trump added.
Vance addressed the shooting during a visit to North Carolina on Wednesday, saying the administration had evidence not yet released to the public that the shooter was a “violent left-wing extremist.”
“They were politically motivated to go after law enforcement. They were politically motivated to go after people who are enforcing our border,” Vance said.
The Department of Homeland Security called the shooting an “attack on law enforcement.” FBI Director Kash Patel released images of bullets recovered from the scene, including one engraved with “ANTI-ICE,” and DHS released a photo that appears to show a gunshot in an American flag display.
One detainee was killed and two others were critically wounded in the attack at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, according to DHS. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
Vance offered condolences to those affected by the attack, saying it “looks like some of the detainees, in other words, some of the potential illegal aliens were some of those who were affected.”
“Look, just because we don’t support illegal aliens, we don’t want them to be executed by violent assassins engaged in political violence either,” Vance said.
Vance went on to say rhetoric disparaging law enforcement is “disgusting” and suggested Democrats were to blame.
“You don’t have to agree with my immigration policies. You don’t have to agree with Donald Trump’s immigration policies. But if your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell and you have no place in the political conversation of the United States of America,” the vice president added.
Democratic leaders condemned the shooting, which they said is part of an alarming trend in America, as well as anti-immigrant rhetoric they say puts that community in harm’s way.
“No one in America should be violently targeted, including our men and women in law enforcement who protect and serve our neighborhoods, and the immigrants who are too often the victims of dehumanizing rhetoric,” House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement.
“The political and ideologically-motivated violence in America has reached a breaking point this year. We need leaders who bring the country together in moments of crisis — and that is what is required right now,” they wrote.
“This is a heartbreaking act of violence. All of us need to reject extremism in our politics and come together to prevent tragedies like this,” said Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, who represents San Antonio.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat whose been an outspoken critic of ICE, said she was “devastated by the horrific shooting” that claimed the lives of detainees and was “grateful that no members of law enforcement were injured.”
“The rhetoric used to dehumanize and demonize immigrants in this country has led to increased hate crime incidents and other horrific events like the mass shooting in El Paso — often at the hands of troubled white men. This rhetoric not only threatens the lives of immigrants in the country but also makes the job of our law enforcement officers more dangerous, as can be seen by today’s tragic events,” Crockett said in a statement.
Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Washington D.C., June 8, 2017. Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump’s handpicked U.S. Attorney in Virginia is planning to ask a grand jury in the coming days to indict former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress, despite prosecutors and investigators determining there was insufficient evidence to charge him, sources with direct knowledge of the probe told ABC News.
Earlier this week, prosecutors presented Lindsey Halligan — Trump’s former personal attorney whom he appointed to lead the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia — with a detailed memo recommending that she decline to bring perjury and obstruction charges against Comey, the sources familiar with the memo said.
A monthslong investigation into Comey by DOJ prosecutors failed to establish probable cause of a crime — meaning that not only would they be unable to secure a conviction of Comey by proving the claims beyond a reasonable doubt, but that they couldn’t reach a significantly lower standard to secure an indictment, the sources said.
According to Justice Department guidelines, prosecutors are generally barred from bringing charges unless they can prove a defendant will “more likely than not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by an unbiased trier of fact and that the conviction will be upheld on appeal.”
Despite their recommendations, Halligan — who has never prosecuted a criminal case in her career as an insurance lawyer — plans to present evidence to a grand jury before the statute of limitations for the alleged offense expires next week, the sources said.
Comey’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Halligan’s apparent plan to seek charges against Comey follows a clear directive from Trump, who over the weekend directly called for prosecutions against Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
