Highlights from April 25, 2025
- President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived in Rome to attend tomorrow's funeral for Pope Francis.
- Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was sentenced to 87 months this morning on felony fraud charges. He pleaded guilty to the charges in August and was expelled from the House in December 2023.
- A Wisconsin judge was arrested by the FBI on charges she helped an undocumented immigrant avoid detention on an administrative immigration warrant.
- The president said it was a “good day” of talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war. “We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!’’ Trump said on Truth Social.
Sen. Jon Ossoff signals support for Trump impeachment
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., signaled support for impeaching Trump during a town hall he hosted near Atlanta, telling attendees that the president’s conduct “has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment.”
“I mean, I saw just 48 hours ago, he is granting audiences to people who buy his meme coin,” Ossoff said. “When the sitting President of the United States is selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him. There is no question that that rises to the level of an impeachable offense.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
George Santos urges Trump to intervene in 'over the top' prison sentence
Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., criticized a federal judge for sentencing him to 87-months in prison, and called on Trump to intervene.
"I believe that 7 years is an over the top politically influenced sentence and I implore that President Trump gives me a chance to prove I’m more than the mistakes I’ve made," Santos, who pleaded guilty last year, wrote in a social media post.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment tonight.
Santos said in his post that he offered his "deepest apology" and that he had asked the court for a sentence that balanced "accountability with the chance to prove through sustained, measurable action that I can still contribute positively to the community I wronged."
Santos has previously indicated that he would ask Trump for a pardon. Speaking on his podcast this month, Santos said, “You bet your sweet a-- I would,” when asked if he would seek a presidential pardon.
Trump urges Russia and Ukraine to hold direct talks at 'very high levels' to 'finish' the war
Trump said it was a “good day” of talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war, adding that the two countries should now meet at “very high levels” to “finish it off.”
“We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!’’ Trump said on Truth Social.
The post comes after Trump, in a Time interview published today, said that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” applying pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cede territory to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy has repeatedly declined to give up Ukrainian land.
Who is Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee judge arrested by the FBI?
Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee County judge arrested Friday by the FBI for allegedly obstructing federal authorities who were seeking to detain an undocumented immigrant, was a longtime social justice advocate before she took the bench.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security suggested in a statement that Dugan is an “activist judge.” A statement issued on the judge’s behalf following her dramatic arrest said Dugan “has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge.”
Dugan was born in 1959, according to the criminal complaint against her, and was first elected to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2016. She was re-elected to a second six-year term in 2022. The court’s website says she presides over misdemeanor cases.
“Justice is hard work. I love the challenge of such hard work,” she told the Milwaukee Independent in a 2016 profile.
Terminated USAID staff will be able to keep their government-issued devices
All U.S. Agency for International Development staff and contractors will be allowed to keep their government-issued electronic devices, which will be “remotely wiped and marked as disposed from USAID IT asset inventories," in the coming months according to an email from the agency obtained by NBC News.
The plan for the government-issued devices was first reported by The New York Times.
The government devices to be marked as disposed include iPhones, iPads and laptops, the email said, and the devices will wiped closer to the timing of employees' reduction in force dates, which in many cases are set for July or August.
Prior to Trump entering office for his second term, USAID had roughly 10,000 employees — it was not immediately clear how many devices and which kind of devices had been issued.
Trump and first lady arrive in Rome
Trump and first lady Melania Trump have arrived in Rome ahead of Pope Francis’ funeral tomorrow.
They were greeted by several dignitaries, including the Chief of the Diplomatic Protocol of the Italian Republic Ambassador Bruno Pasquino, and chargés d’affaires for the U.S. embassies to Vatican City and Italy.
The president and first lady held hands as they walked to their vehicle.
Wisconsin governor criticizes Trump over efforts to 'undermine our judiciary at every level'
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, criticized the Trump administration's arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan who is accused of interfering with an effort to detain an undocumented immigrant.
“In this country, people who are suspected of criminal wrongdoing are innocent until their guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt and they are found guilty by a jury of their peers—this is the fundamental demand of justice in America,” Evers said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump Administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor," he added.
Trump last month had suggested that a federal judge who blocked the deportation of Venezuelan migrants should be impeached. His administration has also been accused of inaction following a Supreme Court decision directing the government to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. after he was sent to an El Salvador prison.
In today's statement, Evers said that he will “continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.”
Trump’s memecoin dinner contest earns insiders $900,000 in two days
Trump and his allies have raked in nearly $900,000 in trading fees over the past two days from the president’s $TRUMP cryptocurrency token, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain data company.
The surge came after a Wednesday announcement in which the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president.
“Have Dinner in Washington, D.C. With President Trump,” reads a message on the front page of the Trump coin’s website. The event, which is black tie optional and hosted at the president’s private club in the Washington area, is scheduled for May 22, with a reception for the top 25 holders. A “VIP White House Tour” will take place the following day, the site says. The website also hosts an active leaderboard displaying the usernames of top buyers.
The $TRUMP memecoin jumped more than 50% on the dinner news, boosting its total market value to $2.7 billion. It was met with fierce criticism from some of Trump’s political opponents who said the move was further evidence that the president was using crypto to enrich himself. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a prominent Trump critic, wrote on X that the sale was “the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”
Newly elected Florida Senate Minority Leader says caucus is ‘more determined than ever’ after predecessor’s departure
Florida state Sen. Lori Berman, who Democrats in the state Senate elected as their new leader yesterday, said in a statement through her aide today that her caucus is "more unified and more determined than ever."
"I am honored and humbled to have the support of my colleagues to serve as the next Leader of the Florida Senate Democratic Caucus,” Berman said. “At a time when Floridians are demanding results, clarity, and courage, our caucus is more unified and more determined than ever."
The statement follows Berman's election as state Senate minority leader after state. Sen Jason Pizzo said on the senate floor yesterday that the Florida Democratic Party is "dead," and that he was changing his voter registration to "no party affiliation" and stepping down as Democratic leader.
Berman represents part of Palm Beach County, and was first elected to the state Senate in 2018 after serving in the state House.
Judge says the government is 'playing games' in international students' legal status cases
After the Trump administration agreed — for the time being — to reinstate the records of international students who have had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated, a new student visa hearing held just hours later reveals how unresponsiveness by ICE and a cumbersome process of restoring the documents might lead judges to still move full speed ahead with preventative actions in the dozens of cases that currently hang in the balance.
In this afternoon’s status conference on the case of Hamidreza Khademi, a 34-year-old master's student at Iowa State University, government counsel Joseph Carilli laid out the change of plans — but told an exasperated Judge Sparkle Sooknanan that he was unable to get any additional answers out of ICE in the last two weeks on whether Khademi’s specific records had been restored or when they could expect that to happen. All he knows is that there is a manual process for each record that ICE must change back, meaning it could take quite some time.
Carilli also said that, even though the records will be reinstated as the cases are decided, they could be terminated again if an individual commits an offense that warrants it. For Khademi and others who say their records were terminated unjustly in the first place, the question remains whether they might see a repeat in their future.
If ICE can't provide notice on which individuals have or have not had their SEVIS records restored, judges like Sooknanan with rapidly progressing cases could be forced to face the question of whether to trust the government at face value and risk imminent harm for the international students. While the government maintains termination of SEVIS records doesn’t equate to revoking a student’s F-1 visa, plaintiffs counsel in these cases has argued that, since the termination of SEVIS data results in schools halting their students from attending work or class — acts that are a requirement for a student to maintain their visa — it’s a direct pipeline. Sooknanan asked Carilli whether Khademi was technically still in lawful status in ICE’s view or could be subject to deportation, and Carilli wasn’t able to answer.
Sooknanan called it “surprising” and “incredibly unsatisfying” that Carilli wasn’t able to gather answers from ICE in the past few weeks. For someone like Khademi — who can’t work, along with having a pregnant wife two months from giving birth — she wasn’t willing to take the gamble that his records would be restored on their own and he wouldn’t be subject to deportation in the meantime — granting a TRO requiring the reinstatement and tersely asking Carilli specifically to let her know when that happens.
“I think the government has been and is playing games,” Sooknanan said.
