Former FBI Director James Comey indicted; Trump signs order on TikTok deal

When Trump spoke with Erdogan in the Oval Office earlier today, he said the Turkish president is familiar with "rigged elections."

"We’ve been friends for a long time, actually, even for four years when I was in exile, unfairly, as it turns out, rigged election," Trump said. "He knows about rigged elections better than anybody, but when I was in exile, we were still friends."

Erdogan was re-elected in 2023 to an unprecedented third term.

Trump has frequently called into question the 2020 election results — in which he lost to former President Joe Biden.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard may have undermined the Trump administration’s criminal investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan when she revoked the security clearances of current and former officials who could be called as potential witnesses in the case, two senior administration officials told NBC News.

Gabbard on Aug. 19 stripped the security clearances of 37 former and current intelligence and national security officials whom she accused of manipulating or leaking intelligence or other misconduct. But her office did not properly coordinate the move with other agencies, and the Justice Department was blindsided, according to the two officials.

Axios first reported on the issue.

Read the full story here.

Longtime federal prosecutor, associate and friend of James Comey, Patrick Fitzgerald, has applied to the court to represent Comey in his legal proceedings.

Fitzgerald has previously been a part of Comey’s legal team in other matters.

As the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Fitzgerald oversaw the prosecutions of such high-profile investigations as the corruption case of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the racketeering and fraud case against former Illinois Governor George Ryan and the fraud case against media titan Conrad Black.

Two sources familiar with the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia confirm that James Comey’s son-in-law resigned as a federal prosecutor from that very office just minutes after his father-in-law, the former FBI director, was indicted Thursday.

Assistant United States Attorney Troy Edwards stepped down late Thursday afternoon after submitting a brief resignation letter which said he quit “to uphold my oath to the Constitution and the country.” 

Edwards watched today’s proceedings from the front row of the courtroom where the indictment was announced, according to NBC's Alex Bacallao, who was in the courtroom.

Trump announced today a new round of punishing tariffs, saying the United States will impose a 100% tariff on imported branded drugs, 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks and 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets.

Trump also said he would start charging a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture next week.

He said the new heavy-duty truck tariffs were to protect manufacturers from “unfair outside competition” and said the move would benefit companies such as Paccar-owned Peterbilt and Kenworth and Daimler Truck-owned Freightliner.

Read the full story here.

Former FBI Director James Comey posted a video to Instagram reacting to the indictment that was filed against him this evening.

Comey responds to indictment saying 'I'm innocent'

00:57

“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant and she’s right. But I’m not afraid and I hope you’re not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does,” Comey said.

He added, “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I’m innocent. So, let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”

The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey has sparked dueling reactions from Democrats and Republicans.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote, “Donald Trump forced out a respected U.S. Attorney because they wouldn’t go along with Trump’s demands for political prosecutions. Less than a week later, his inexperienced handpicked successor brings charges against a member of Trump’s enemies list. In my almost six years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, I never witnessed such a blatant abuse of the department.”

“The DOJ is now little more than an arm of the president’s retribution campaign,” Schiff added.

“Donald Trump is openly and nakedly trying to weaponize our justice system. In the end, that’s going to make us all less safe,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a post.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. posted, “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?”

However, some House Republicans have cheered news of the indictment. 

Two sources familiar with the Congressional investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstien tell NBC News that the Epstein estate has handed over another tranche of documents to the House Oversight Committee.

According to the sources, the estate handed over more than 8,000 documents which include unredacted calendars, call logs, and cash ledgers.

The committee is going through the material and intends to make records public once victims’ names are redacted.

Trump has reacted to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, applauding the Justice Department's move. 

The president posted on Truth Social, “JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI."

"Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts," Trump continued. "He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Over the weekend, Trump put pressure on Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against his political opponents.

The number of right-wing terror attacks in the U.S. plunged dramatically in the first half of 2025, while the amount of political violence from the left creeped up, a new study found.

The report on terrorism and political violence by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan research group, found that, through July 4, “2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumber those from the violent far right.”

The study noted there had been one right-wing terrorist incident this year — the June murder of Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband.

The report, written by the Washington think tank’s Daniel Byman and Riley McCabe, called that number “a remarkable drop off.”

Read the full story here.

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Thursday in a remarkable escalation of President Donald Trump’s threats to prosecute his political enemies.

A senior Justice Department official told NBC News it was a “two-count indictment.”

Former FBI Director James Comey indicted on two counts

04:10

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement posted on social media Thursday that did not name Comey, that the indictment “reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”

Read the full story here.

Trump signed a presidential memo this afternoon that directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro to pursue federal jurisdiction for crimes committed in Washington, D.C. that allow the death penalty under federal law.

Bondi and Pirro should pursue federal jurisdiction in such cases "to the maximum degree practicable," the memo says.

"It’s a very interesting capital punishment, capital city. That’s right. It’s capital, capital, capital, capital. But this is our capital city," Trump told reporters.

"We can't allow that to happen. People come in from Iowa to look at the Lincoln Memorial, and they end up getting killed. Doesn't happen anymore. It's not going to happen. And if it does happen, it's the death penalty for the person," he added.

Attorneys for Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook today urged the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s attempt to fire her, saying it would "eviscerate the independence" of the Federal Reserve Board.

"Contrary to the President’s boundless assertion of authority, there must be some meaningful check on the President’s ability to remove Governor Cook. Otherwise, any president could remove any governor based on any charge of wrongdoing, however flawed," the filing to the high court said.

It argues Trump's move to fire her is based on "flimsy, unproven allegations" of mortgage fraud and predicted he would ultimately lose the underlying case where she's challenging the firing.

Trump signed a memo today aimed at controlling political violence, calling those inciting violence "lunatics" and "anarchists." The order is supposed to set off an "administration wide response," including the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Treasury, to target the funders behind political groups committing violence.

"These aren’t your protesters that make the sign in their basement late in the evening because they really believe it," Trump said.

Trump mocked Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, both Democrats, telling reporters in the Oval Office this evening that he perceived Crockett as a "low IQ person," and had proposed sending Omar back to Somalia — the country where she was born.

"This is a low IQ person who I can’t even believe is a Congressperson," Trump said of Crockett, when asked whether Crockett should face repercussions over a recent comparison she made between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and slave patrols.

"Between her and Ilman Omar and the group, you know," Trump said, mispronouncing the name of the Minnesota Democrat. "I met the head of Somalia. Did you know that? And I suggested that maybe he’d like to take her back. He said, 'I don’t want her.'"

With a government funding deadline looming, the biggest sin in the eyes of the party’s base, according to Democratic officials and activists, would not be losing to Trump in a shutdown battle. It would be refusing to fight.

“They’re desperate to see from Democrats some sign that they understand how serious, how damaging, how dangerous things are and have gotten, and they’re prepared to use the tools and the leverage they’ve got to fight back,” said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive grassroots group that has thousands of chapters nationwide.

In March, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to use that leverage — the Democratic minority’s ability to block legislation with a filibuster — and allowed a Republican-written government funding measure to become law.

Now, Schumer promises this time will be different.

Read the full story here.

In response to the press, Trump questioned why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's unusual meeting of military generals planned for next week is "such a big deal."

"I love it. I mean, I think it’s great. Let [Hegseth] be friendly. Let him be friendly with the generals and admirals from all over the world," Trump said. "I’ll be there if they want me. But why is that such a big deal?"

Trump continued to press the Federal Reserve in comments to reporters at the Oval Office this afternoon to lower interest rates.

"They’re guarding against inflation that may happen in two years from now. We have to change. We have to change. I think we should be rewarded for good numbers, not penalized," Trump said.

The Fed announced this month that it would lower interest rates for the first time this year by a quarter point to its benchmark rate. The rate is now 4% to 4.25%.

Vance said that the American company that ends up owning TikTok will be worth $14 billion. The vice president also stressed that American investors will "actually control the algorithm" of the app.

"We actually think this is a good deal for investors, but ultimately the investors are going to make the determination about what they would invest in and what they think is proper value," Vance said.

"We don’t want this used as a propaganda tool by any foreign government," Vance said.

Neither the vice president nor Trump specified who exactly would be buying TikTok but said that Oracle is going to play "a big part."

Trump said as he signed an executive order on a deal centered on the sale of the Chinese-based TikTok to a group of American investors in the Oval Office this afternoon, that he used the social media platform during his 2024 campaign and touted its success with young voters.

"I used it myself during the campaign, and it was very successful," Trump said.

Trump signs executive order facilitating sale of TikTok to group of U.S. investors

03:09

The president also said former conservative activist Charlie Kirk who was assassinated this month, "helped me a lot, too," and had encouraged him to use TikTok to reach voters.

"It’s very good and very meaningful, but we have American investors taking it over, running it, highly sophisticated," Trump said, adding that those investors, including Oracle’s co-founder Larry Ellison, would "play a very big role in terms of security, safety and everything else."

Trump is in the Oval Office preparing to sign a variety of executive orders, including a TikTok deal.

Three of the nation’s largest public school districts stand to lose $24 million after missing a Trump administration deadline to agree to change policies supporting transgender students, officials said Wednesday.

The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights had given New York City Schools, Chicago Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia until Tuesday to agree to stop giving students access to locker rooms and restrooms corresponding with their gender identity or risk losing funding for specialty magnet schools.

In letters to the districts Sept. 16, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Craig Trainor, said the practice violates Title IX, which forbids discrimination based on sex in education. Because the districts did not agree by Tuesday to take remedial action detailed in Trainor’s letters, the department said, Trainor will not certify that they are in compliance with federal civil rights law, making them ineligible for the grants.

Read the full story here.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters at a briefing this afternoon about a possible government shutdown that Democrats plan to push back against the administration if it tries to fire government workers.

“Donald Trump and the administration have been engaging in mass firings that we deem illegal throughout the year,” Jeffries said. “We will continue to push back against any effort to undermine federal civil service protections that exist in the United States of America. As a negotiating tactic, our response to Russ Vought is simple — get lost.”

The White House budget office, led by Vought, has warned that if the government shuts down next week, it could fire federal workers, not just furlough them as is normally done during a shutdown.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned senior military officers to Washington next week for an extremely rare meeting whose purpose has yet to be disclosed. 

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, sent a statement confirming that Hegseth will be meeting with senior officers next week without elaborating. 

"The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week," Parnell said. 

The Washington Post reported earlier today that Hegseth had ordered senior officers, including one-star general officers and admirals and above, to Washington for a meeting at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, about 30 miles south of Washington, on Tuesday. That could include as many as 800 senior officers. 

Trump escorted Erdogan out of the White House for the Turkish president's departure after their meeting.

"Great meeting," Trump said when asked by a reporter how it went. 

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska thanked first lady Melania Trump in a social media post for "for her support of Ukraine, particularly for her attention to children who have become victims of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine."

"I am sincerely grateful to Melania Trump for today’s meeting and look forward to further cooperation to protect what is most precious in the world — our children," Zelenska said later in the message. "For today, their protection is not just a collective endeavor, but a shared responsibility for our future."

Zelenska previously penned a letter to Melania Trump, which the Ukrainian president delivered during his August visit to the White House. Also in August, Melania Trump wrote a letter to Putin calling on him to protect "the innocence of these children."

Russia has pushed to relocate and re-educate thousands of Ukrainian children, sometimes forcing them to be adopted.

Career prosecutors who work in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia documented in a detailed summary why they believe probable cause doesn't exist to secure an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, a senior Justice Department official said.

The lawyers detailed the summary in a "declination memo" to newly appointed interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan.

The memo's existence was first reported by ABC News.

After a monthslong investigation, prosecutors do not feel they have enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress, according to the official, who has read the memo.

That, however, doesn't preclude Halligan from seeking an indictment from a grand jury anyway. NBC News reported yesterday that the Justice Department is considering charging Comey and a decision could be imminent as a five-year statute of limitations is set to expire early next week.

Democrats in Washington are ramping up efforts to investigate White House border czar Tom Homan over allegations that he accepted $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents last year.

In a letter obtained first by NBC News, Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee urged Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday to “immediately” release documents related to the probe that the Justice Department reportedly closed. Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, owned a private consulting business at the time.

Read the full story here.

Following the release of a memo from the Office of Management and Budget threatening mass layoffs if the government shuts down next week, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that federal employees shouldn't be used as "pawns" in a political fight to keep the government open.

"We must pass a clean, short-term continuing resolution to prevent a harmful government shutdown," Collins said. "Federal employees dedicate themselves to serving the public, and they should not be treated as pawns amid a needlessly partisan impasse."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, reacted to the memo with concern but not surprise. In a statement, Murray said that a shutdown threatens to "inflict more pain on the American people" and federal workers.

"This is nothing new: Donald Trump has spent the better part of a year chaotically and indiscriminately firing—and then rehiring—essential government workers," Murray said.

Trump blamed Democrats when asked about the administration's threat to launch mass layoffs of federal employees if there's a government shutdown next week.

"This is all caused by the Democrats. They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable. They never change. They want to give money away to illegals ... people that entered our country illegally," Trump said when asked why the administration plans to direct federal layoffs of government workers in the case of a shutdown.

"They want to give up massive federal money, and we don’t want to do that because it means everyone’s going to just keep pouring back right now," Trump said. "We have absolutely perfect borders like you haven’t seen in many years, even better than the buy of great borders during my four years."

Trump calls former FBI Director Comey 'a bad person'

00:33

Trump told reporters at the White House that Justice Department officials, not him, would determine whether to indict former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017.

At the same time, he said he believed he would be allowed to get involved in the case, without explaining what he meant.

“They’re going to make a determination. I’m not making that [determination],” Trump said of a Comey indictment. “I think I’d be allowed to get involved if I want, but I don’t really choose to do so. I can only say that Comey is a bad person. He’s a sick person.”

“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Trump added.

Asked for clarification, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson referred NBC News back to the president's remarks this morning. She did not provide further information.

Asked who was to blame for a shooting at an ICE facility yesterday in Dallas, Trump stated that the "radical left" is responsible and warned that political violence is "going to go back on them."

"And I’ll give you a little clue, the right is a lot tougher than the left, but the right is not doing this," Trump said. "They better not get [the right] energized, because it won’t be good for the left, and I don’t want to see that happen either."

"I’m the president of all the people, but the radical left is causing this," Trump warned.

Trump says that he's close to "some sort of deal" on ending the war in Gaza after meeting with leaders of Arab countries yesterday at the U.N. General Assembly.

"We had a great meeting with the leaders of that area, of that region, generally speaking, the Middle East," Trump said. "We had a great meeting. I think we’re very close to getting some kind of a deal done here."

NBC News reported that Trump told Arab leaders yesterday in a meeting at the U.N. that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

At that meeting, the president presented a 21-point plan for peace in the region, although it wasn't immediately clear what progress had been made in arriving at a deal.

Speaking to reporters with Erdoğan in the Oval Office, Trump said he wants Turkey to stop purchasing Russian oil, doubling down on a demand that he made of European countries at the U.N. General Assembly.

"I’d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues its rampage against Ukraine," Trump said.

President Trump urges Turkish President Erdoğan to stop buying Russian oil

00:29

Trump said it's "a shame" that Russia is killing many people "unnecessarily."

"It's such a waste of human life, and so he ought to stop — Putin ought to stop," he said.

Asked if Erdoğan could play a role in resolving Russia's war in Ukraine, Trump said: "The best thing he could do is not buy oil and gas from Russia. If he did that, that would be probably the best thing."

Trump said that he and Erdoğan would discuss the Patriot defense weapons system.

The leaders will also discuss F-35 and F-16, both of which are military planes, Trump said.

"I think he'll be successful with buying the things he'd like to buy," Trump said.

The U.S. previously prohibited Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program after concerns about the possibility of Russia being able to gather information on the U.S. jets because of Turkey's purchase of a Russian aid defense system.

Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Erdoğan was greeted by Trump when he arrived at the White House and waved to assembled reporters before the two leaders went inside.

Trump greets Erdoğan at the White House today. Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Trump has assured Arab leaders that he will not allow Israel to annex the already occupied West Bank, sources told NBC News, amid fears of retaliation from the U.S. ally after a host of countries moved to recognize Palestinian statehood.

Trump made the comments Tuesday, according to two sources who were in the room, as he presented his 21-point plan for peace in the Middle East to Arab leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The comments were first reported by Politico.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the meeting with leaders from countries including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey was “productive.” He said a breakthrough could be imminent in efforts to bring an end to the war in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has continued a deadly military campaign to take over Gaza City.

Read the full story here.

Trump is set to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the White House later this afternoon after hosting a separate bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this morning.

The meeting with Sharif comes after the U.S. and Pakistan announced in late July that they had reached a trade deal that Pakistan said would lead to lower tariffs on exports.

Trump said the agreement entailed both countries working together to develop the Asian nation's oil reserves.

In June, Pakistan said that it would recommend Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the president's efforts to bring an end to the conflict between Pakistan and India.

When Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow decided in February that she wanted to run for an open U.S. Senate seat, she conveyed her intentions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But the committee asked her to hold off, according to three sources familiar with the conversations.

In that call and subsequent ones, some of which took place at the staff level, DSCC officials didn’t explicitly ask her not to run, but “they were slow-walking,” said one source who discussed the private conversations on condition of anonymity. “It was, ‘Can you wait a little longer, can you wait?’”

In early April, McMorrow defied their wishes and launched her campaign, inveighing against “the same old crap in Washington” and highlighting polls that showed the Democratic Party’s approval rating at an all-time low.

“We need new leaders,” she said in her launch video. “Because the same people in D.C. who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it.”

Whether she intended it or not, the 39-year-old McMorrow started a trend of Democratic outsiders end-running party leaders to launch their campaigns, sometimes in explicit opposition to them. The movement is fueled by a crisis of confidence among Democratic voters in their own party, which is giving encouragement to the types of nontraditional candidates who have been walloped by leadership-aligned rivals in the past.

Read the full story here.

With a government shutdown looming, the Trump administration is threatening to fire federal employees if a deal isn’t reached in less than a week. Usually, if the government shuts down, some workers go on unpaid leave, but the White House is now raising the stakes, saying additional jobs will be lost. NBC’s Ryan Nobles reports for "TODAY."

Trump threatens mass firings if government shuts down

02:03

China led several countries in announcing new climate plans yesterday following a veiled rebuke of the U.S. president’s anti-climate rhetoric a day earlier at the U.N. General Assembly.

Addressing a climate leaders’ summit hosted by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a live video message from Beijing that by 2035, his country would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 10% from their peak.

In addition, Xi said China planned to increase its wind and solar power capacity by six times its 2020 levels within the next 10 years — helping to increase its share of nonfossil fuels in domestic energy consumption to over 30%.

China‘s reduction target marked the first time the world’s biggest emitter pledged a cut in emissions, rather than just limiting their growth, though the reduction was less than many observers had expected.

Read the full story here.

The escalator escalation keeps escalating.

Trump has demanded an investigation into what he called a “triple sabotage” at the United Nations General Assembly, including his unsubstantiated allegation that an escalator was deliberately halted while he and first lady Melania Trump were riding it.

The U.N. says the escalator was likely stopped when a White House videographer accidentally triggered a safety mechanism. Nonetheless, Secretary-General António Guterres’ office said late Wednesday that it had ordered a “thorough investigation” into the three incidents mentioned by Trump, and was “ready to cooperate in full transparency” to find out what caused them.

Trump Claims 'Sabotage' at UN for Escalator, Teleprompter Mishap

00:46

Read the full story here.

Trump will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House this morning as the Republican leader has indicated that the U.S. government’s hold on sales of advanced fighter jets to Ankara may soon be lifted.

During Trump’s first term, the United States kicked out Turkey, a NATO ally, from its flagship F-35 fighter jet program after it purchased an air defense system from Russia. U.S. officials worried that Turkey’s use of Russia’s S-400 surface-to-air missile system could be used to gather data on the capabilities of the F-35 and that the information could end up in Russian hands.

But Trump last week gave Turkey hope that a resolution to the matter is near as he announced plans for Erdogan’s visit.

Read the full story here.

Trump is expected to sign a deal today to facilitate the sale of TikTok from a Chinese-based company to a group of American investors, two senior White House officials told NBC News.

Members of the Trump administration have signaled for days that a deal was being finalized between Chinese and U.S. officials.

A senior White House official confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday that once the deal was implemented, TikTok’s U.S. operations would be run by a new joint-venture company. ByteDance, TikTok’s current China-based owner, will hold less than 20% of the stock of the new company, the official said.

Read the full story here.