Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump officially pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley on Wednesday.

The official word came a day after his communications adviser announced the president would pardon the pair, who are serving time for tax evasion and bank fraud.

Their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, posted an image on Instagram Wednesday afternoon appearing to show Trump signing and posing with the pardon. A White House official confirmed the pardon.

Savannah Chrisley had appealed to the Trump administration for pardons for her parents and spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention. She said on Tuesday that Trump had called her to notify her that “he was signing paper pardon paperwork for both of my parents.”

“I will forever be grateful for President Trump, his administration and everyone along the way, all of my lawyers, the people who put in countless hours and effort and love for my family to make sure that my parents got home,” the 27-year-old said in a video on Instagram on Tuesday.

The couple, who became famous for their show “Chrisley Knows Best,” were sentenced in November 2022 to a combined 19 years in prison on charges including fraud and tax evasion. Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 16 months of probation while Julie Chrisley was ordered to serve seven years in prison and 16 months of probation.

The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.

The charges against the Chrisleys stem from activity that occurred at least as early as 2007, when the couple allegedly provided false information to banks and fabricated bank statements when applying for and receiving million of dollars in loans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In 2014, two years after the alleged bank fraud scheme ended, the couple is accused of fabricating bank statements and a credit report that had “been physically cut and taped or glued together when applying for and obtaining a lease for a home in California.”

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said the Chrisleys had engaged in a “fifteen-year fraud spree.”

“Chrisley Knows Best” premiered in 2014 and followed the lavish lifestyle of wealthy real estate developer Todd Chrisley and his family.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced he will nominate Emil Bove, his former personal lawyer-turned-controversial top Department of Justice official, to serve as a federal appeals court judge on Wednesday.

“It is my great honor to nominate Emil Bove to serve as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Emil is a distinguished graduate of Georgetown Law, and served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York for nearly a decade, where he was the Co-Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit.

“Emil is SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone,” he added. “He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Emil Bove will never let you down!”

Bove is known for his purge of career law enforcement officials across the DOJ and FBI prior to the arrivals of Senate-confirmed leaders, as well as his role in the DOJ’s decision to drop the criminal corruption prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

He will be nominated to serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over district courts in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Bove’s nomination means some of his most controversial actions will be put under the spotlight in what could be a bruising confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sources told ABC News that Republicans expect to schedule his confirmation hearing within the coming weeks.

Trump enlisted Bove to join his defense team in 2023 following his indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice by former special counsel Jack Smith. He also aided Trump’s defense team in his New York hush money prosecution, which resulted in Trump’s conviction of 34 felony counts.

Bove had served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for roughly a decade and worked on several high-profile terrorism, espionage and narcotics cases, including the indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

But Democrats will likely look to scrutinize the controversial early actions he took as the acting official leading the DOJ in Trump’s first months in office, when he took aggressive actions to shift law enforcement resources and personnel away from national security and public corruption investigations and toward immigration enforcement.

Bove also faced criticism and resistance from FBI leadership for his initiation of an investigation into hundreds of agents who assisted in the investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which resulted in a dramatic standoff with top career officials whom he accused of “insubordination” for initially withholding the agents’ names.

Bove’s role in dropping the criminal corruption case against Adams in exchange for his support on immigration enforcement also escalated into a crisis at both the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan.

Multiple members of the trial team as well as top officials in the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section resigned after several alleged the arrangement, which would have dismissed the charges against Adams while leaving the potential they could be brought again if he resisted the administration’s demands, amounted to a blatant quid pro quo.

The judge overseeing Adams’ case ultimately dropped the case permanently while refusing the DOJ’s request to dismiss the charges “without prejudice” and issued a blistering assessment that described the department’s rationale as “both unprecedented and breathtaking in its sweep.”

“Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” Judge Dale Ho said in his ruling.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump escalated his war with Harvard University on Wednesday, accusing it of “treating the country with great disrespect” and suggesting that it should stop fighting his policies.

“But Harvard wants to fight. They want to show how smart they are, and they’re getting their a– kicked, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“All they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper,” Trump said. “They’ve got to behave themselves.”

The president has accused Harvard of being antisemitic and taking in billions of federal dollars.

“I think they’re dealing very badly. Every time they fight, they lose another $250 million,” Trump said. “Yesterday, we found another $100 million.”

The president also doubled down on his claims that the school has enrolled too many foreign students and not done enough to ensure they aren’t “troublemakers.”

“They’re taking people from areas of the world that are very radicalized, we don’t want them making trouble in our country,” Trump said, adding that Harvard should cap its foreign students at 15%.

“We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools. They can’t get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country,” he said.

Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent a letter to Harvard demanding information on every international student with an F-1 visa that allows nonimmigrants to study in the U.S., warning that failing to comply with the request would result in the withdrawal of the school’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.

Harvard, which has sued the administration over its funding and grant cuts, said in a statement that it provided the federal government with “thousands of data points concerning its entire F-1 visa student population.” However, last week, Noem announced that she revoked the school’s SEVP certification and prevented it from accepting foreign students.

Harvard filed a lawsuit the next day and a judge granted a temporary order blocking the move.

Asked about a group of Jewish students at Harvard who protested on Tuesday against the federal government’s threats and cuts over perceived antisemitism, Trump dismissed their criticism and reiterated his claims of antisemitism at Harvard and other elite institutions.

“They’re hurting themselves. They’re fighting,” Trump said. “You know, Columbia has been, really, and they were very, very bad. What they’ve done that very antisemitic and lots of other things. But they’re working with us on finding a solution. And, you know, they take it off that hot seat. But Harvard wants to fight.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro vowed to improve safety and address violence in the nation’s capital when she was sworn in Wednesday as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C.

Referencing her experience as a judge and prosecutor, Pirro said as the top federal prosecutor in D.C. she will take on violence in the city that President Donald Trump has called unsafe and dangerous.

“Violence will be addressed directly with the appropriate punishment, and this city will again become a shining city on the hill in an America that President Trump has promised to make great again and will make safe again,” Pirro, a Trump ally, said in the Oval Office.

Trump said he has confidence in Pirro to improve safety in D.C.

“Jeanine Pirro, I have no doubt will be an exceptional U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, one of the truly most important positions in our country of any position, where she will restore public safety in our nation’s capital, break up vicious street gangs and criminal networks, and ensure equal justice under the law. You’ll see very, very big improvements in the D.C. area, that I can promise you,” the president said.

Trump signed the “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” executive order in March, which establishes a task force to help improve safety in the nation’s capital. The order has been criticized as micromanaging D.C., with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton saying it’s “insulting to the 700,000 D.C. residents.”

Earlier this month, Trump tapped Pirro — who most recently hosted Fox News’ “The Five” — for the job after controversy around his previous pick, Ed Martin.

Martin, who had served as D.C.’s interim top prosecutor, lost GOP support for the job. Martin’s past, specifically his defense of Jan. 6 rioters and inflammatory rhetoric around the Capitol attack, plagued his nomination.

Pirro faced her first test as the top federal prosecutor in D.C. last week when she spoke about the response to the deadly shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers. She addressed the shooting on Wednesday, saying hatred would not be tolerated under her watch.

“Just last week, here in our nation’s capital, two people on the brink of beginning their life had hopes and dreams that were never realized because a cold-blooded murderer made a decision to shoot them down on the streets on a cold, rainy night in our nation’s capital. This will not go without just accounting,” Pirro said. “My voice should be heard loud and clear. No more. No more tolerance of hatred, no more mercy for criminals.”

Pirro marks the latest Fox News personality to join the ranks of the Trump administration. Some of the most notable Fox News alumni appointed in Trump’s second administration include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who hosted “Fox & Friends Weekend,” and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who hosted “Unfiltered With Dan Bongino” before he left the network in 2023.

Pirro has been a longtime ally of Trump, dating back to her time as a prominent prosecutor in New York. She was an early supporter of his 2016 campaign and publicly defended him during the “Access Hollywood” tape scandal.

One of Trump’s final acts before leaving office in 2021 was issuing a last-minute pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, a longtime GOP donor.

With less than an hour before his term ended, Trump granted one final pardon to Albert Pirro, who was convicted more than two decades ago on 34 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion after he was found to have improperly deducted over $1 million in lavish personal expenses in tax write-offs for his businesses.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Will Steakin contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied North Carolina’s request for the agency to match 100% of the state funds for Helene cleanup, according to a letter sent from the acting FEMA administrator to the governor of North Carolina.

“After a careful and thorough review of all the information available, including that contained in your initial request for a cost share adjustment and appeal, we have concluded that an extension of the 100 percent federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance for an additional 180 days under major disaster declaration FEMA-4827-DR is not warranted,” acting Administrator David Richardson wrote in the letter.

The cost-sharing request comes from a Biden administration directive to match 100% of the funds that the state puts in to share costs of the disaster cleanup after Hurricane Helene devastated the state as a Category 4 storm in September 2024.

Over 230 people were killed by the storm, with at least 72 in Buncombe County, North Carolina, alone, amid record flooding throughout western North Carolina

Traditionally, there is a cost-sharing model with a 75% federal absorption of costs to 25% for states, but that was changed under the Biden administration to match the costs 100%.

It is unclear how FEMA would split costs between states and the federal government for future disaster relief.

In a statement, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said the denial will cost state residents “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“The money we have to pay toward debris removal will mean less money towards supporting our small businesses, rebuilding downtown infrastructure, repairing our water and sewer systems and other critical needs,” he said.

The funding debate is occurring as the Department of Homeland Security weighs how to eliminate the agency while still giving states funding for disasters.

At the center of the plan is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has personally weighed how to cut the agency.

“The president has indicated he wants to eliminate FEMA as it exists today and to have states have more control over their emergency management response,” Noem said on May 8, adding that the agency has “failed” in its mission and should be eliminated or downsized. “He wants to empower local governments and support them and how they respond to their people,”

FEMA has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Still, an internal review of FEMA this month indicated the agency is “not ready” for the 2025 hurricane season.

“As FEMA transforms to a smaller footprint, the intent for this hurricane season is not well understood, thus FEMA is not ready,” the review said, citing staffing limitations, hiring and a lack of coordination with states as the Trump administration attempts to reorganize and diminish FEMA.

The decision comes as the United States anticipates above-average hurricane activity on the Atlantic coast this year, with between 13 and 19 named storms expected.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is swearing in Jeanine Pirro as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. during a ceremony in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon — making her the latest Fox News host appointed by Trump.

Earlier this month, Trump tapped Pirro — a former judge and prosecutor who most recently hosted Fox News’ “The Five” — for the job after controversy around his previous pick, Ed Martin.

Martin, who had served as D.C.’s interim top prosecutor, lost GOP support for the job. Martin’s past, specifically his defense of Jan. 6 rioters and inflammatory rhetoric around the Capitol attack, plagued his nomination.

Pirro, a Trump ally, faced her first test as the top federal prosecutor in Washington last week when she spoke about the response to the deadly shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers.

During a news conference, Pirro said her office is investigating the case as a hate crime and act of terrorism.

“A young couple at the beginning of their life’s journey, about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag. We are not going to tolerate that anymore,” Pirro said during a press briefing last Thursday. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation’s capital.”

Pirro marks the latest Fox News personality to join the ranks of the Trump administration. Some of the most notable Fox News alumni appointed in Trump’s second administration include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who hosted “Fox & Friends Weekend,” and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who hosted “Unfiltered With Dan Bongino” before he left the network in 2023.

Pirro has been a longtime ally of Trump, dating back to her time as a prominent prosecutor in New York. She was an early supporter of his 2016 campaign and publicly defended him during the “Access Hollywood” tape scandal.

One of Trump’s final acts before leaving office in 2021 was issuing a last-minute pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, a longtime GOP donor.

With less than an hour before his term ended, Trump granted one final pardon to Albert Pirro, who was convicted more than two decades ago on 34 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion after he was found to have improperly deducted over $1 million in lavish personal expenses in tax write-offs for his businesses.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Will Steakin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will swear in Jeanine Pirro as the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. during a ceremony in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon — making her the latest Fox News host appointed by Trump.

Earlier this month, Trump tapped Pirro — a former judge and prosecutor who most recently hosted Fox News’ “The Five” — for the job after controversy around his previous pick, Ed Martin.

Martin, who had served as D.C.’s interim top prosecutor, lost GOP support for the job. Martin’s past, specifically his defense of Jan. 6 rioters and inflammatory rhetoric around the Capitol attack, plagued his nomination.

Pirro, a Trump ally, faced her first test as the top federal prosecutor in Washington last week when she spoke about the response to the deadly shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers.

During a news conference, Pirro said her office is investigating the case as a hate crime and act of terrorism.

“A young couple at the beginning of their life’s journey, about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag. We are not going to tolerate that anymore,” Pirro said during a press briefing last Thursday. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation’s capital.”

Pirro marks the latest Fox News personality to join the ranks of the Trump administration. Some of the most notable Fox News alumni appointed in Trump’s second administration include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who hosted “Fox & Friends Weekend,” and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who hosted “Unfiltered With Dan Bongino” before he left the network in 2023.

Pirro has been a longtime ally of Trump, dating back to her time as a prominent prosecutor in New York. She was an early supporter of his 2016 campaign and publicly defended him during the “Access Hollywood” tape scandal.

One of Trump’s final acts before leaving office in 2021 was issuing a last-minute pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, a longtime GOP donor.

With less than an hour before his term ended, Trump granted one final pardon to Albert Pirro, who was convicted more than two decades ago on 34 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion after he was found to have improperly deducted over $1 million in lavish personal expenses in tax write-offs for his businesses.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Will Steakin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration on Tuesday filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to lift what it called “onerous” due process procedures imposed by a federal judge for immigrants slated for deportation to a third country other than their own.

Solicitor General John Sauer told the court in the filing that a nationwide mandate issued last week by Judge Brian Murphy of the District Court of Massachusetts has created a “diplomatic and logistical morass” that is imposing “significant and irreparable harm” on the government’s efforts to remove criminal aliens.

After a group of detainees said to be headed to South Sudan sued over their alleged inability to raise fears of torture, Judge Murphy issued a preliminary injunction halting any future removals unless detainees were given notice of their destination, at least 10 days to raise concerns for their safety, and 15 days to contest an adverse finding by an immigration officer.

The temporary order applies universally to any individual slated for removal to a third country. The government is required under international law to ensure that migrants in its custody are afforded protections under the Convention Against Torture, of which the U.S. is a signatory. The Trump administration insists it has been in compliance.

“Based on what I’ve learned,” Judge Murphy said during a hearing last week, “I don’t see how anybody could say that these individuals had a meaningful opportunity to object. If I was in any of those groups and I was going to be deported to South Sudan, I would need an opportunity to investigate that and to be able to articulate a well-founded fear about why being returned to South Sudan would be would result in torture or death. The department did not do it. In this case, they did not offer any opportunity to object.”

Sauer told the justices Murphy’s move exceeds his authority, “jeopardizes the public interest,” and has upended sensitive diplomatic and national security negotiations with third countries. He said all of the detainees to be removed have already received adequate due process and had final orders for removal entered.

“The district court’s invented process offers little but delay. While certain aliens may benefit from stalling their removal, the Nation does not,” he wrote.

As part of its aggressive push to remove unlawful or criminal immigrants, the Trump administration has pursued third-country partners willing to accept those who will not be taken back by their home countries.

Hundreds of migrants in recent months have been sent by the U.S. to the CECOT prison in El Salvador even though they are not Salvadoran nationals. The administration has also sought removals to several African nations.

The Supreme Court — increasingly thrust to the center of escalating disputes over aspects of Trump’s immigration policy — has unanimously ruled that all non-citizens on U.S. soil must be afforded “due process of law”

“Detainees are entitled to notice and opportunity to be heard appropriate to the nature of the case,” the justices unanimously stated last month in a per curiam (unsigned) opinion.

The specifics, however, remain contested. Legal scholars say the type of “notice” and “hearing” historically afforded depends on an immigrant’s status and circumstance, such as whether they had been lawfully admitted to the country in the first place, have deep ties to the community, or are seeking asylum.

The court is also currently weighing the ability of individual federal judges to issue binding nationwide orders, blocking the government from executing a policy. After Trump issued an executive order ending birthright citizenship — and three district court judges issued injunctions against it — the administration asked the high court to issue definitive guidance the matter. A decision is imminent.

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(WASHINGTON) — After hearing the news that President Donald Trump will pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who served time for tax evasion and bank fraud, their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, in a video on Instagram posted on Tuesday, celebrated the news.

“The president called me personally as I was walking into Sam’s Club and notified me that he was signing paper pardon paperwork for both of my parents,” Chrisley said in the Instagram video. “So both my parents are coming home tonight [Tuesday] or tomorrow [Wednesday], and I still don’t believe it’s real. I’m freaking out — the fact that the president called me.”

“I will forever be grateful for President Trump, his administration and everyone along the way, all of my lawyers, the people who put in countless hours and effort and love for my family to make sure that my parents got home,” the 27-year-old continued.

Chrisley emphasized that her parents now get a “fresh start” thanks to the pardon.

“My parents get to start their lives over… President Trump didn’t just commute their sentences, he gave them a full unconditional pardon. So for that, I am forever grateful,” Chrisley said.

Savannah Chrisley had previously appealed to the Trump administration for pardons for her parents and spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

The couple, who became famous for their show “Chrisley Knows Best,” were sentenced in November 2022 to a combined 19 years in prison on charges including fraud and tax evasion.

Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 16 months of probation while Julie Chrisley was ordered to serve seven years in prison and 16 months of probation. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.

“Chrisley Knows Best” premiered in 2014 and followed the lavish lifestyle of wealthy real estate developer Todd Chrisley and his family.

The charges against the Chrisleys stem from activity that occurred at least as early as 2007, when the couple allegedly provided false information to banks and fabricated bank statements when applying for and receiving millions of dollars in loans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In 2014, two years after the alleged bank fraud scheme ended, the couple is accused of fabricating bank statements and a credit report that had “been physically cut and taped or glued together when applying for and obtaining a lease for a home in California.”

In a phone interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Savannah Chrisley told ABC News the call from Trump came “totally out of the blue.”

“I kind of had gotten to a place where I had lost hope, and just felt like nothing was going in my favor. And then I got the call … It was just a shock, and the president was so kind and loving. He’s the reason my family is coming back together,” Chrisley said. “I have always stood by him and his administration, and I will continue to stand by them and fight for them.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women — a move that could alter guidance for doctors as well as some insurance coverage.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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