Trump White House

Trump White House https://www.washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house Trump White House en-US Fri, 23 Oct 2026 20:38:30 GMT Two Ex-FBI Agents Are Arrested as the Hunter Biden Laptop Scandal Returns https://www.washingtonsun.com/legal/two-ex-fbi-agents-arrested-hunter-biden-laptop-scandal Jose Pagliery Republicans have long alleged that the pair lied to Congress ahead of the 2020 election. Fri, 23 Oct 2026 20:38:30 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/legal/two-ex-fbi-agents-arrested-hunter-biden-laptop-scandal

The inquiry dates back to an incident in which Hunter Biden left his laptop at a Wilmington, Delaware, computer repair shop in 2019, only to have it turned over to MAGA stalwart Rudy Giuliani. (Eric Thayer/AP)

The Hunter Biden laptop saga is back with a vengeance, with the Justice Department on Friday criminally charging two former high-ranking FBI agents with lying to Congress — settling a long-running score for Republicans who felt the pair had impeded their attempt to make the scandal a decisive issue in the 2020 election.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced that both former bureau officials surrendered Friday after arrest warrants were issued in a legal complaint filed Tuesday. The investigation was led out of the FBI’s Kansas field office.

The former agents ran the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, which was created in 2017 under then-Director Christopher Wray in the aftermath of Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election by maligning Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It was disbanded weeks after President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, as part of his transformation of the FBI.

Nikki Floris, 46, was the task force’s assistant director, and Bradley Benavides, 56, was its section chief. After their tenure on that team, both were pulled into House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan’s yearslong crusade to probe the business activities of President Joe Biden’s son.

The inquiry dates back to an incident in which Hunter Biden left his laptop at a Wilmington, Delaware, computer repair shop in 2019, only to have it turned over to MAGA stalwart Rudy Giuliani. The former New York City mayor handed it to the FBI, and the saga eventually blew up into a scandal following a New York Post story in the closing weeks of the 2020 presidential election alleging improper political influence tied to Hunter Biden’s business interests in Ukraine.

Floris and Benavides “knew about and were actively involved in the FBI’s investigations of Hunter Biden” but repeatedly feigned ignorance when answering the Judiciary Committee’s questions during two interviews in 2023, according to a 27-page affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Byron Militello, a longtime investigator at the bureau in the Midwest.

The affidavit alleges that Floris was directly involved with the way the bureau fielded press inquiries following the Post’s story on Oct. 14, 2020, and even approved additions to

Wray’s talking points about the matter for a call with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia). And it points to her conflicting answer in 2023 when the House Judiciary Committee asked how long the FBI had the laptop.

“I don’t know what laptop the article was referring to,” it quotes her as saying.

The affidavit also cites messages between Benavides and a person who appears to have been the assistant special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office, in which they discuss when exactly the laptop was seized and whether emails on it were shared with agents in New York. However, the affidavit says, Benavides told Jordan’s committee otherwise.

“I was made aware per the Wikipedia article that the FBI had taken possession of a

laptop circa December of 2019,” it quotes him saying in a transcript.

“Okay. You didn’t have that knowledge from your role in the FBI?” he was asked.

“Absolutely not,” he responded, according to the transcript.

Court records show that Floris is being represented by several lawyers including Margaret Donovan, a Connecticut attorney who is representing several FBI agents being targeted by the Trump administration. Benavides’ lawyer is Kimberly Paschall, who until last year was a senior attorney in the same D.C. office now prosecuting her client and has publicly signed on to a letter protesting what it calls the weaponization of the DOJ. Paschall did not respond to a request for comment.

Donovan and Washington Litigation Group lawyers Mary Dohrmann and Kyle Freeny put out a statement calling Floris “a patriot.”

“She served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years. Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts. It’s no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election,” they wrote. “The government’s reasons for charging Nikki are as transparent as they are unjust: to push a false narrative for a shot at political points. It’s another sad day for the DOJ, but we look forward to Nikki’s day in court.”

The current case stems from the Republican Party’s unfinished business with Hunter Biden, who faced decades in prison after being convicted of an illegal gun purchase and tax dodging — until he was pardoned by his father, the president. For years, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley has publicly complained that Floris and Benavides had become a speedbump in his attempt to draw attention to the Biden scandal during the closing months of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump ultimately lost.

At a time when Republicans were trying to pin then-candidate Joe Biden as a former vice president whose influence helped his son benefit from corrupt business dealings in Ukraine, Democrats were trying to cast the entire affair as a mere Russian foreign influence operation.

In the midst of that scramble, according to Republicans, Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon requested that the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force brief the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees about what they claimed was Russia’s attempt to sway the presidential election.

That briefing, which is mentioned in a GOP report, eventually came on Aug. 6, 2020. As Republicans tell it, that hearing derailed their congressional investigation into Hunter Biden by marring it as the spoils of a Russian disinformation campaign.

“That FBI task force was involved in unnecessarily briefing us two senators,” Grassley said last year, referring to himself and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin. “But that only happened after pressure from our Democratic colleagues. So, pure and simple, this was a setup,”

“The contents of that briefing were later leaked to the media, even though the FBI promised us confidentiality,” he continued. “Those leaks were used to falsely link our Biden family investigation to somehow advancing Russian disinformation. The FBI’s conduct undermined and frustrated our congressional investigation.”

Grassley released a statement Friday that called Floris and Benavides “two unelected bureaucrats” who “used the power of government to smear my and Senator Johnson’s constitutional oversight and distract from inconvenient truths that weaponized bureaucrats and the Biden administration didn’t want you to know.”

The FBI affidavit unsealed Friday references that interaction and the way it later led to a House Judiciary probe under Jordan, whose committee interviewed Floris on July 19, 2023, and Benavides on Sept. 28, 2023. According to the affidavit, Floris described herself during that testimony as the FBI’s election security lead during the 2020 presidential election.

The affidavit quotes the House Judiciary Committee asking her, “Was there ever a discussion at the [Foreign Influence Task Force] about Hunter Biden?” To which she responded: “No. At least not with me. And again, there’s a whole team below me, so whether or not conversations happened, I don’t know, but I personally did not have any conversations.”

However, the affidavit alleges that Floris and Benavides oversaw how the task force “informally formed a group of analysts to work on a project later known as ‘Round River,’” which is described as a group that was “scrutinizing informant intelligence relating to the Hunter Biden investigations as potential disinformation.”

Wyden’s office shot back on Friday afternoon.

“The idea that the Russian disinformation narrative was fabricated by the Foreign Influence Task Force is a conspiracy theory. As the Wyden-Peters report lays out, the overwhelming evidence shows that the Grassley Johnson investigation advanced a Russian disinformation campaign in an effort to affect the outcome of the 2020 presidential election,” senior Wyden aide Keith Chu told The Washington Sun.

The first Trump administration’s own Treasury Department sanctioned Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach and others for their role in the Hunter Biden affair and attempt to influence the U.S. presidential election, noting that Derkach had “been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services.”
]]> Researchers Call Out the Irony in Melania Trump’s Women’s Health Push https://www.washingtonsun.com/health/researchers-melania-trump-womens-health-push Paige Huffman The call for investment in women’s health research contradicts staffing and budget cuts at the nation’s health and research agencies, researchers say. Fri, 23 Oct 2026 20:15:46 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/health/researchers-melania-trump-womens-health-push

Melania Trump’s new initiative coincided with President Donald Trump’s executive order establishing a White House women’s health task force and a women’s health division at the National Institutes of Health. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

First lady Melania Trump’s new initiative to advance research in women’s health has some women’s health researchers scratching their heads.

The Trump administration’s approach to federal grant funding and demographic-specific research — including freezing billions in health research funds and banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs — has taken a toll on those doing the very work the Trump administration now says it wants to prioritize, these researchers said.

“I have a whole lab of junior investigators and early-career investigators that I mentor, and some of them left academia feeling very discouraged that their research would not get funded or that they could not have a career in this area,” said Dr. Crystal Schiller, who leads a lab at the University of North Carolina studying women’s neuroscience. “And that was very disheartening.”

Schiller said she’s still “very happy” to see the administration identify women’s health research as a priority.

Melania Trump’s new initiative and President Donald Trump’s coinciding executive order establishing a White House women’s health task force and a women’s health division at the National Institutes of Health, expressed a “commitment to advancing women’s health and ensuring that medical research, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment reflect the highest quality of scientific evidence.”

The administration’s slash-and-burn approach to federal funding, however, is still fresh on many researchers’ minds. Dr. Jane Salmon, a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, said she is also optimistic about the renewed focus on research around women’s health, but noted that the field was particularly hard hit by the Trump administration's changes.

“We lost people to industry. We admitted fewer students because of lab resource losses and insecurity about supporting [students],” Salmon said. “There was an environment of no security. It created a culture of anxiety and a low threshold for departures.”

The Trump administration has laid off thousands of federal public health workers and proposed cutting NIH’s budget by 12%. An analysis by the liberal think tank Center for American Program found the administration had eliminated at least $3 billion in women’s health research grants.

In March of 2025, NIH began canceling grants for research projects related to diversity, equity and inclusion. In the year that followed, the NIH saw a 31% decline in projects that included the word “women,” according to reporting from The Washington Post.

In a statement to The Sun, White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said that improving health for Americans was a “top priority for President Trump and the First Lady” and that the new task force “will work to close critical research gaps and strengthen care for women across all stages of life.”

Researchers told The Washington Sun that women’s health has historically been underfunded and understudied, from a lack of inclusion in clinical trials to studying treatments for conditions that disproportionately or more severely affect women. In 2025, a consensus study report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommended that Congress invest $11.4 billion into women’s health research over five years. The executive order from the Trump administration does not say how it will fund the investment it calls for.

“Any effort to increase attention to funding for those things is a good thing,” said Sheila Burke, a health care policy adviser and co-chair of the NASEM committee that authored the report. “The concern I had was there was no mention of money.”

The NIH already has an Office of Research on Women’s Health, but the office does not have its own research budget and must coordinate across all 27 of the agency’s institutes.

Former first lady Jill Biden also formed a White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research during her tenure. The initiative was followed by an executive order from President Joe Biden saying “we know far too little about women’s health across women’s lifespans.”

Unlike the Trump administration’s task force, the Biden administration’s order directed the head of the Office of Management and Budget to participate in its task force, implying that the initiative would be considered in budget talks. The Trump-defined task force does not include the head of OMB.

The Biden administration did not secure a congressional budget for women’s health research at the NIH. Katie Keith, former deputy director of the White House Gender Policy Council who oversaw Jill Biden’s initiative, said that the Biden Women’s Health Initiative pooled resources across government agencies and was “able to galvanize almost a billion dollars ourselves.”

Keith said that the Biden initiative worked with the National Science Foundation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and several other agencies not named in the Trump executive order. These agencies experienced significant staffing and funding losses in DOGE cuts.

“Watching all those cuts and having entire divisions that worked on women’s health-related issues, in some instances, be gutted I think was a huge setback to this effort that they say they now want to prioritize,” Keith said.

The Biden initiative was led by Dr. Carolyn Mazure, a professor of psychiatry and founding director of the Women’s Health Research group at Yale School of Medicine.

Trump’s task force will be co-chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Trump said that his motivation for announcing an investment in women’s health was inspired by Melania Trump. In the White House Rose Garden, Trump said, “When I heard about it, I said, ‘Are you sure they don’t have that?’ Who the hell wouldn’t have a women’s health division?”

The NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health was established in 1993 and makes up less than half a percent of the agency’s budget.]]> State Asked Foreign Service Officers Up for Promotion Whether They Voted for Trump https://www.washingtonsun.com/administration/state-foreign-service-officers-voting-history-interview-promotion Eric Katz Federal law strictly prohibits making civil service personnel decisions on the basis of political affiliation. Thu, 22 Oct 2026 09:10:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/administration/state-foreign-service-officers-voting-history-interview-promotion Marco Rubio and Donald Trump

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump have moved to remake the nation’s diplomatic corps. (Evan Vucci/AP)

The State Department has asked some foreign service officials up for promotion who they voted for in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, raising concerns the agency is violating a federal law that bars politicized personnel decisions within the nonpartisan ranks.

Top officials in the State Department made clear that only candidates who voted for President Donald Trump would be eligible for the mid-to-upper level foreign service roles. They also told candidates that their campaign donation history would be examined and any donation to Democrats would be disqualifying.

The Washington Sun spoke to six current and former State Department officials familiar with the line of questioning around candidates’ voting histories. Three of the sources had spoken directly with individuals who had been asked the questions.

Congressional Democrats have been preparing to probe such incidents.

“The Committee has been following allegations that the Trump Administration is making political affiliation a factor in employment for some time now,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Washington Sun in a statement. “These are critical national security positions and individuals should be chosen for their experience and ability, not their political loyalty. We are working with the House and other relevant committees to thoroughly investigate all such claims.”

While the federal government employs thousands of political appointees who turnover with each administration, the vast majority of the government workforce are permanent, career staff intended to be shielded from political interference.

Federal law directly prohibits federal officials from making any personnel decisions on the basis of political affiliation.

A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment on the voting history questions but emphasized the importance of “fidelity” in a statement.

“Fidelity means upholding the Constitution and the law and executing policy with loyalty to the American people and their interests,” the spokesperson said. “It emphasizes the critical importance of service, integrity, and policy alignment across the Foreign Service. It is not about partisan behavior but rather about executing the president’s vision for foreign policy.”

The spokesperson added that Secretary Marco Rubio has prioritized merit and rewarding “demonstrated performance on behalf of administration priorities” in promoting career staff into leadership positions.

Through multiple communications with The Washington Sun in the days before and immediately after publication of this story, the State Department declined to directly address agency officials asking foreign service officers about their voting histories.

Seven hours after the story had been published and widely shared, the spokesperson for the State Department issued an addendum to the agency’s previous comment to “reject this absurd premise that individuals are being asked about their political affiliations, and even more so for promotions.”

“As it has been expressed repeatedly, this Administration will prioritize merit rather than giving out leadership positions based on the number of years individuals have been at the Department,” the spokesperson said in the new statement.

Since publication, The Washington Sun has heard from more individuals familiar with the State officials questioning foreign service officers about voting and donations histories.

In July of last year, the State Department added a “fidelity” section to the foreign service’s performance-evaluation process, requiring managers to assess employees’ commitment to “completely aligning oneself and one’s team to the most current [U.S. government] goals.”

The department also announced last year it was remaking the Foreign Service Officer Test, which all candidates must pass. One person who recently took the exam said it included questions about the impact of former President Ronald Reagan’s tax policies and the accomplishments of Mike Pompeo, who was secretary of State during Trump’s first term.

“There was just something about the test that made it seem like they weren’t looking for the highest scores but people who answered a certain way on specific questions,” the person said.

Trump and Rubio have moved to remake the nation’s diplomatic corps. The State Department has shed nearly one-fourth of its workforce through layoffs and various separation incentives. It has awarded a $1 million, no-bid contract to a recruitment firm whose CEO has said more Christians should serve in government and hiring at the department had become too “woke.”

As The Washington Sun reported, veteran foreign service officials have also been boxed out of senior positions, asked to resign and sidelined in major foreign policy decisions. Those efforts have led to a wave of recent departures from the diplomatic corps’ top ranks.

“This is more evidence that there is conduct to get rid of folks because of perceived political affiliations,” one congressional aide not authorized to speak to the press said of the State Department asking foreign service candidates about their voting history.

The Trump administration has faced some legal action against its efforts to identify supporters among the civil service.

It previously overhauled the federal hiring process by requiring applicants to write short essays on their favorite Trump policies, but it subsequently replaced those questions under court order.

Federal workers’ unions have also sued over the administration’s plans to create a new class of workers who can be fired for any reason.

Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a good government advocacy group, said State’s latest actions mark an “appalling and flagrant disregard of federal law” designed to protect federal workers from being evaluated based on political allegiance.

“This is yet another shocking example of the Trump administration hurtling our government back in time to the spoils system of the 19th century,” Stier said. “Ultimately, it’s the safety and security of the American people that are being compromised.”

This article has been updated with additional comments from the State Department.]]> Former DHS Data Chief: White House’s Tally of Immigrants Leaving Is ‘Highly Unlikely’ https://www.washingtonsun.com/immigration/former-data-tally-immigrants Jackie Llanos The Trump administration says 3 million immigrants left the U.S., but it has not explained how it reached that number. Thu, 22 Oct 2026 09:03:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/immigration/former-data-tally-immigrants Trump

The new analysis from the Migration Policy Institute is an attempt to fill in the gap of information left by DHS’s lack of reporting. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

A former top statistics official who resigned from the Department of Homeland Security this summer says the government is overstating how many unauthorized immigrants have left the country during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Marc Rosenblum, whose blistering resignation letter from a decade-long career at DHS garnered national attention, is behind a new estimate published Thursday that says between 790,000 and 1.9 million immigrants departed the U.S. from Jan. 20, 2025, to July 31, 2026.

The Trump administration has said more than 3 million unauthorized immigrants have left during that period, but has not explained how it reached the number. The new analysis from the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank where Rosenblum is now a senior fellow, is an attempt to fill in the gap of information left by DHS’s lack of reporting.

“It's highly unlikely that 3 million total foreign-born [people] departed the United States in the first 18 months of the Trump administration, and even more unlikely that 3 million unauthorized immigrants departed during that time period,” Rosenblum said.

MPI’s analysis didn’t include immigrants who had lived in the U.S. less than a year because that wouldn’t match the common understanding of what it means to reduce the size of the unauthorized population, Rosenblum said.

The think tank said its estimate increases to 1.3 million to 2.4 million total departures — still short of the government’s number — when accounting for those who had been present in the country less than a year, as well as people turned around at the border without setting foot inside the U.S., whom the government does include in its count.

Rosenblum said DHS counts people who were turned aside at border entry points before entering the country as well as those who overstay visas by a few days. And the government doesn’t gather data on most people who leave the U.S. through the southern border, he said.

Researchers lack information about how the government counts that 3 million number. Republican lawmakers and immigration hawks have called for transparency from DHS, wanting to see the results of Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts.

The White House once again touted on Tuesday the more than 3 million departures, saying in a press release that it has deported or removed nearly 1.2 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said deportations are at a record high.

Although MPI’s analysis contests the department’s accounting of total departures, the think tank concluded that the number of immigrants who left was two to three times higher than in the past 12 years.

“Most of the numbers are not at all-time highs,” Rosenblum said.

Among other data, MPI used information forced out of the administration through public records lawsuits from the Deportation Data Project and Mexican census data capturing the number of the country’s nationals who returned after living in the U.S.

DHS hasn’t been responsive to requests for immigration enforcement data from the Oversight Project, a group that supports the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration and has filed two lawsuits demanding records on deportations and self-deportations.

“I have no reason to doubt the 3 million figures, but also have no reason to believe it until they release the actual data,” said Neal Cornett, the project’s director of state litigation. “It's just a claim from the Department of Homeland Security, and there should be data that they would have that would be able to confirm that.”

The Oversight Project requested records showing the number of immigrants who have self-deported via a Customs and Border Protection app and the amount of money DHS has spent on stipends for those immigrants, according to documents Cornett shared with The Washington Sun.

DHS gave the group an entirely redacted document on Oct. 8. The department claimed the records were protected under exemptions that shield law enforcement information that “would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigation or prosecution,” according to a letter DHS sent to the Oversight Project.

“It's not like we're asking the exact details of it, or how these people would be contacting them or anything like that,” Cornett said. “We just want to know what the numbers are.”

A White House spokesperson referred questions to DHS, which did not respond to requests for comment.]]> Trump Props Up Graham in Last-Minute Push in South Carolina Senate Race https://www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/trump-south-carolina-darline-graham-annie-andrews-race The Associated Press Democrat Annie Andrews said Graham's need for Trump's visit shows she's losing. Thu, 22 Oct 2026 01:49:49 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/trump-south-carolina-darline-graham-annie-andrews-race Trump

President Donald Trump told the crowd that Sen. Darline Graham would never let them down. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

By Meg Kinnard and Michelle L. Price

PENDLETON, S.C. — President Donald Trump traveled to South Carolina on Wednesday to boost U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, whose stumbles in her first campaign since replacing her late brother have Democratic voters hopeful — but not necessarily optimistic — that their candidate can break Republicans' grip on the state.

Trump, who was repeatedly interrupted by protesters early in his speech, sought to reassure South Carolinians on Wednesday that the late Sen. Lindsey Graham held his sister in high esteem. “Everybody respects her. She’s smart and incredible. She’ll never let you down,” Trump said as he made a case for her.

He said Graham's Democratic opponent, pediatrician Annie Andrews, would "be the most extreme and one of the most crazy people in the entire country. It would be a disaster.”

The president initially focused his remarks along Republican attack lines that accuse Andrews of supporting surgeries for transgender minors, which she denies. But the president over an hour and a half drifted from subject to subject, spending relatively little time on South Carolina.

Instead, he mused about renaming bodies of water, lamented that he should have won the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer Prize, and did an imitation of a female bodybuilder. He ticked through some of the things he has done since returning to office, like his push to lower drug prices, and some goals for the rest of his term, such as expanding the death penalty.

Although South Carolina is not typically a midterm battleground, Trump has been deeply invested in Graham. He supported her appointment to replace Lindsey Graham after his death in July, and he backed her in a special primary when she faced several more experienced Republican opponents. But some distance emerged between the Republican president and the senator over the weekend over his decision to waive Ukraine war sanctions on Russia that were set to be imposed under a law named after Lindsey Graham.

Republicans want to make sure Andrews doesn't pull off an upset victory. More than $34 million has flowed into the race, and Republicans have hammered Andrews as a “radical liberal."

Trump this week is rallying every day for candidates across the country, even in conservative areas, and imploring voters to “pretend I'm on the ballot” in hopes of averting a lackluster midterm turnout for Republicans.

“Darline Graham knows that our campaign’s momentum is so strong she called Donald Trump to come campaign for her in South Carolina," Andrews said in a fundraising appeal email.

Darline Graham rushed to define herself — and clung close to Trump

Lindsey Graham had been on a glide path to a fifth term when he died of an aortic tear. Darline Graham, former director of the state agency for the blind, received bipartisan support when she was appointed to serve out her brother's term. But her decision to run for the seat in the midterms prompted skepticism that the political neophyte was up for the job.

Darline Graham had the endorsement of Trump, who campaigned for her before the runoff with U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman. A stumble over a question related to U.S. policy in Taiwan, in which Graham admitted she was “not that informed on national security,” prompted questions over her readiness.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is from South Carolina and spoke ahead of Trump on Wednesday, said Graham was driven by the same kind of hope for America that her brother was.

“As long as Donald Trump is in the White House, and Darline Graham is in the Senate, we can all hope for a better country," he said.

Waiting for her at a weekend event in Mount Pleasant, Nanette Tumbleston said she felt strongly Graham should win, shuddering to think of what might happen if the seat fell to Democrats.

“I hope that everybody’s eyes will be open and we’ll have a Republican win," Tumbleston said, adding that she feared progressives' influence in the Democratic Party. “I just can’t see how they can see that the world’s going to be a better place with those policies.”

Andrews pivoted from Lindsey Graham to Darline Graham

Andrews launched her campaign more than a year before Lindsey Graham's death. She pivoted to criticizing Darline Graham as “Trump-endorsed and unqualified.”

Andrews argues that Republican policies have weakened not only the broader U.S. economy but also the financial situations of children and families, centering her message on “building a South Carolina that we can all afford,” as she said last week in Columbia.

As the pediatrician seemed to gain steam this fall, Republican groups infused millions of dollars into the race, characterizing the spending as an insurance policy for Graham. Trump attacked Andrews on social media, saying the Democrat doesn’t represent “the Values of the Great People of South Carolina.”

Some Andrews supporters acknowledge that while Democrats might ultimately break through in South Carolina, it might take more time.

Paul Davis, of Aiken, said “people are really angry and fed up, and they can’t afford things.” However, he said a Democratic victory “may be a cycle or two away.”

The candidates accuse each other of being unqualified

At their only debate, Graham and Andrews disagreed on issues including healthcare but primarily accused each other of inexperience.

“It is nothing personal, but she has shown time and time again that she is not up for the job,” Andrews said, calling Graham's interim appointment “a nice gesture."

Graham said serving while processing her brother's death showed “just how strong I am,” adding that ”I’m just as qualified as you are.”

At the Columbia rally, some of Andrews' supporters said they were hopeful, despite Democrats' years of Senate losses in the state. When Lindsey Graham last ran in 2020, he defeated Democrat Jaime Harrison by 10 percentage points in a contest that turned into South Carolina’s most expensive ever.

“It’s definitely frustrating," said Emily Glenham, a Columbia copywriter. "It’s definitely been disappointing, but you can’t not have hope.”

Sandra Martin, of West Columbia, agreed Andrews had “a good chance” but looked more toward the future.

“Georgia did it,” she said. “If Georgia can do it, there’s no reason we can’t, someday.”

___

Price reported from Washington.
]]> Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in Big Bend Border Wall Case https://www.washingtonsun.com/immigration/big-bend-border-wall-trump-supreme-court Manuela Silva The administration seeks to overturn a block on their construction plans on a 500-mile stretch of land at the southern border. Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:38:42 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/immigration/big-bend-border-wall-trump-supreme-court Immigration Border Wall Big Bend

Big Bend National Park, Texas, is seen, Sept. 19, 2026. (Rebecca Santana/AP) Rebecca Santana/AP

The Trump administration on Wednesday filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to overturn a federal judge’s temporary block on its plans for a border wall and other construction in the Big Bend region.

At the center of the case is more than 500 miles of the southern border that make up the Big Bend region, which includes both state and national parks.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone instructed the Department of Homeland Security to reverse course and follow a slew of environmental and historical preservation laws the department had waived earlier this year. On Wednesday, Cardone denied DHS’ appeal that sought to allow the agency’s Big Bend region border plans to resume, leading the administration to bring the matter to the Supreme Court — arguing that the government would otherwise suffer irreparable harm.

“The district court found jurisdiction by flagrantly misreading this Court’s major-questions precedents; proceeded to find a major-questions problem where none exists; then rewrote IIRIRA to hamstring the Secretary’s waiver analysis,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the appeal, referring to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, a Clinton-era law that expanded border enforcement.

“Those errors are so obvious that this Court can swiftly correct them on the merits without further briefing or oral argument,” Sauer wrote.

Landowners and local leaders have pushed back on the administration’s plans for the region for months, citing concerns about construction’s potential to impact the natural environment and questioning the need for additional border wall infrastructure.

Bob Kreumanker, the chair of Keep Big Bend Wild and a former superintendent of Big Bend National Park, said the Supreme Court should “reject this government overreach.”

“The secrecy, the shifting stories, and the refusal to work with local landowners and businesses have angered West Texans and people across the country, and that opposition crosses party lines,” Kreumenaker wrote in a statement. “This is the epitome of government overreach and a betrayal of Texas’ Gift to the Nation.”]]> Many of the United States’ Oil and Gas Giants Aren’t Lobbying on Venezuela https://www.washingtonsun.com/energy-environment/united-states-oil-gas-lobbying-venezuela Anna Kramer New lobbying disclosures show more interest from smaller firms despite Trump’s pledge to usher in investment from the biggest companies. Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:19:16 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/energy-environment/united-states-oil-gas-lobbying-venezuela Venezuela US Trump Oil

ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum didn’t include Venezuela on their extensive lists of lobbying issues in their third-quarter lobbying disclosures. (Pedro Mattey/AP)

Some of the United States’ largest oil and gas companies have been sitting out the growing lobbying wars over Venezuela’s resources.

ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum didn’t include Venezuela on their extensive lists of lobbying issues in their third-quarter lobbying disclosures, nearly a year after Trump pledged that “our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money.”

The exception is Chevron, which was already operating in Venezuela before the U.S. captured former President Nicolás Maduro. Chevron was among the three largest companies that listed Venezuela as one of many lobbying issues over the past several quarters, alongside Baker Hughes and Honeywell. Baker Hughes is an oil-field services company, and Honeywell is an industrial manufacturing company.

In place of the oil and gas giants, an increasing number of small and midsize companies spent millions of dollars this summer lobbying on Venezuela, with the majority of the money flowing through Trump-linked lobbying firms that have grown significantly since the beginning of his second term.

After months of pressure from Trump administration officials and multiple visits to Venezuela by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the administration’s push to increase American investment in Venezuela has only secured a handful of larger commitments.

A few larger companies have signed memorandums of understanding to explore investment in the country and support development projects, including Halliburton and Baker Hughes. The two largest investment commitments so far have come from Chevron and the American government itself, which in August took a significant stake in the energy company owned by the Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt.

While large, permanent commitments from American companies are still scarce, interest in doing business in Venezuela is continuing to increase, especially from smaller companies. Venezuelan-affiliated companies are also starting to lobby in the U.S., according to lobbying records.

Between July and September, at least 15 of those smaller and midsize companies spent more than $2 million in total lobbying the federal government just on Venezuela issues, according to The Washington Sun’s analysis of the records.

Ballard Partners, a firm with deep ties to Trump administration officials, added three more clients this summer and fall lobbying exclusively on Venezuela, bringing its total list of new clients focused on Venezuela to at least seven since Maduro’s ouster. Micah Ketchel, the head of Ballard’s critical minerals division, left the Trump administration in the fall of 2025 after serving at both the State Department and as a Trump aide.

In July, Ballard opened an office in Caracas, and in September, Ballard added a Venezuelan oil-field services company called Servicios Petroleros del Sur, C.A. as a new client lobbying in the U.S., according to the lobbying disclosures.

Another of Ballard’s new clients is also tied to Venezuela: Calistoga Energy Reserves, a small, Texas-based oil and gas company that was purchased by the Brazilian company Alvorada this summer. Alvorada began expanding its Venezuelan operations after the U.S. eased sanctions this spring, Bloomberg reported, and Calistoga hired Ballard in early October.

Two more firms that have grown extensively over the course of the second Trump administration, Continental Strategy and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, also brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars from energy companies lobbying exclusively on Venezuela in the third quarter.

Helmerich and Payne, one of the United States’ largest drilling companies, hired Continental Strategy in March to lobby the White House on “U.S. energy security and commercial engagement/compliance in Venezuela” and spent $135,000 with the firm in the third quarter. The drilling company is embroiled in a lawsuit against PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company, in an effort to try to force PDVSA to pay the company for expropriating its equipment and property in 2010.]]> Russia Frees American Prisoner During Visit by Steve Witkoff https://www.washingtonsun.com/foreign-policy/russia-frees-prisoner-stephen-hubbard-steve-witkoff The Associated Press Stephen Hubbard was sentenced in 2024 to nearly seven years in prison following a closed trial. Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:25:11 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/foreign-policy/russia-frees-prisoner-stephen-hubbard-steve-witkoff

Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine against Russia, shows up in a video link as he stands in a glass cage during a court session in the Moscow City court in Moscow. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

By Dasha Litvinova and Eric Tucker

Russia on Wednesday freed an American who had been jailed for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, in a deal completed during a visit by a top U.S. envoy and at a time when President Donald Trump has taken a series of actions meant to benefit Moscow.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call last week to free Stephen Hubbard, and that, unlike previous releases, his had not required the U.S. to give up anyone in return.

“Welcome home, Stephen, it’s great to have you back,” Trump said.

Hubbard, a 74-year-old former teacher from Michigan, was on his way home following a visit to St. Petersburg by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who also held talks with Putin about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.

Hubbard was sentenced in 2024 to nearly seven years in prison following a closed trial. Prosecutors said he had signed a contract with the Ukrainian military after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and that he fought alongside Kyiv's forces until being captured two months later. The U.S. government under the Biden administration designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained.

The release came amid Trump moves to benefit Russia

Witkoff, a key Trump administration figure who has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement to end a war that will hit the five-year mark in February 2027, thanked Putin for releasing Hubbard, telling him, “Because of you, he's going home to his family.”

“You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir,” Witkoff said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media on Wednesday that Hubbard’s release was “raised by the American side for a certain time,” and Putin decided to free the man out of “humanitarian considerations.”

He added that general contacts "continue on a regular basis between the intelligence services.”

The release occurred at a dynamic moment in relations between the United States, Ukraine and Russia, with the Washington-Kyiv relationship being roiled by fresh tensions at the same time that the Trump administration has advanced policies that aid Putin.

Those include Trump's decision last week to waive sanctions on Russia imposed by a bill that Congress overwhelmingly passed to support Ukraine. Named after the late South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, the legislation targeted the flow of financial resources fueling Moscow’s war. That reversal followed Trump’s announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel fuel in a long-shot effort to curb high gas prices ahead of next month's U.S. midterm elections.

Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway on Tuesday. He was expected to exchange ideas from that meeting, as well as proposals from European and American colleagues, in his talks Wednesday with Russian leaders in St. Petersburg.

Other Americans remain jailed in Russia

Hubbard is the second American freed by Russia in roughly two months, following the release in August of Marine veteran Robert Gilman, who had been gravely ill and was imprisoned on disputed charges of assaulting a police officer.

Other Americans, including some with serious illnesses, remain jailed in Russia. Hubbard was the only one designated as wrongfully detained, although advocates say that label should be applied to other prisoners.

Global Reach, a group that works to free Americans detained abroad and currently represents five American held in Russia, praised the release but called for the other prisoners to come home as well.

“We are grateful to the Trump Administration for reuniting Stephen Hubbard with his family, but at the same time, we know that there are five other families of Americans held in Russia who are going to have a hard time understanding why their loved one was not included in the deal,” Eric Lebson, the group's chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

Hubbard had been imprisoned since 2022 on charges that Hostage Aid Worldwide, a hostage advocacy group, has called bogus.

The organization in August posted an open letter to Trump that it said was written by Patricia Hubbard Fox, Hubbard’s sister, in which she offered praise for Trump but also said her brother had been subjected to “constant beatings, torture and starvation” while in custody.

“Even so, everything that you’re doing isn’t going to matter to my kidnapped, American Veteran brother, Stephen James Hubbard (soon to be 74) if Putin won’t cave and let him come home and he dies up there in a Nazi prison (crying),” the letter said.
]]> The State Department Is Pushing Out Senior Foreign Service Officers https://www.washingtonsun.com/administration/state-department-pushing-out-foreign-service-officers Eric Katz The Trump administration is looking to replace long-tenured staff with more loyal personnel, current and former employees say. Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:04:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/administration/state-department-pushing-out-foreign-service-officers Marco Rubio

Many top-ranked career staff at the State Department have voluntarily headed to the exits as their careers are stalled. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

The State Department is aggressively trying to force out its most senior foreign service officers, according to nine current and former staff, who suggested that Trump administration officials are seeking to cast aside veteran personnel who they view as standing in the way of their agenda.

At the same time, the current and former employees said, State is recruiting and promoting new staff who they view as more politically loyal.

“The State Department is trying to get people to quit,” said one current foreign service officer, who was granted anonymity out of fear of retribution.

This effort comes more than a year after the State Department carried out massive layoffs, hollowing out the United States’ international foreign service footprint. Those who have spent decades in the State Department have said the administration’s approach has weakened relationships abroad, and led to deficient leadership internally and less informed foreign policy decisions.

The department has shrunk the number of roles available to senior foreign servants by freezing positions or downgrading them to lower levels, the State Department personnel said.

Many top-ranked career staff have voluntarily headed to the exits as their careers are stalled. Top political staff at the department have directly asked some long-tenured personnel to retire, former employees said. They have reassigned other top career staff into the Administration Bureau, what employees consider to be a “purgatory” where employees' careers “go to die.”

“A whole lot of senior foreign service have left because there are no jobs for them,” a second current foreign service officer said.

The State Department, like the military, operates an “up-or-out” system, meaning staff could be forced out if they do not get promoted quickly enough.

The State Department laid off more than 1,300 employees last year. Senior foreign service officers were disproportionately targeted in those cuts.

Around 3,500 foreign service employees have left the State Department since President Donald Trump retook office, according to the American Foreign Service Association, and a majority of those were in the senior ranks or one level below. Departing employees who have gone through the mandatory retirement classes this year said their size had grown by orders of magnitude and the department has been forced to hold sessions more often.

Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said The Washington Sun’s reporting validated the agency’s efforts.

"Those bureaucrats who are complaining to the press prove the point that they shouldn’t have, and can’t be, trusted with sensitive information,” Pigott said.

The department is seeking out politically aligned staff through other means. It has increasingly leaned on the Ben Franklin Fellowship — which a Trump-aligned group of current and former State officials founded in 2024 — to identify individuals to hire and promote, current and former staff said. Individuals aligned with the group are disproportionately in senior roles. Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau is one of the Ben Franklin Fellows.

“There are people who are supportive of what is happening,” said Kelly Adams-Smith, who ended her 28-year foreign service career after the Trump administration withdrew her nomination to serve as ambassador to Moldova. “They are finding, much to their surprise, very senior positions in the department.”

One person said they participated in an interview panel for a senior-level position and were told by someone close to political leadership that the process was just for show and it had been predetermined the job was going to a Ben Franklin Fellow.

Earlier this year, State awarded a $1 million, no-bid contract to a recruitment firm whose CEO has said more Christians should serve in government and hiring at the department had become too “woke.” State also added a “fidelity” section to the performance evaluation process, requiring managers to assess employees’ commitment to “completely aligning oneself and one’s team to the most current [U.S. government] goals.”

Outside the favored circles, the administration has made it more difficult for foreign service officers to climb the ranks. This fall’s bidding cycles — the process through which a large swath of the diplomatic corps find new assignments each year — have left staff with fewer senior positions available than ever before.

Roles that were typically set aside for senior foreign service officers, such as an embassy’s deputy chief of mission, have been downgraded to a lower rank. For the second year in a row, embassies have also received directives to freeze a certain number of positions. Additionally, Trump is setting aside an unusually small number of ambassadorships for career staff — and nearly half of those roles remain vacant.

“It’s like musical chairs but taking chairs away faster so people wind up with nowhere to go,” said a State employee who recently left the department.

Even senior employees willing to serve in lower positions have been told they would not be selected for those roles, employees said.

The State Department confirmed that it was not prioritizing years of service for senior jobs.

The policy changes, political pressure and a wave of resignations are having a significant impact on U.S. diplomacy, the current and former staff said.

Employees now feel reluctant to offer their views on key matters, something staff described as historically fundamental to the nation’s diplomatic success. Doing so could endanger their chances of promotion or risk other efforts to sideline their careers, they said.

“People are afraid to speak out, to voice their opinions even if they believe their opinions need to be heard,” said one foreign service officer who recently left the department.

Newer employees with less experience and fewer relationships abroad are in critical positions, both because of who the Trump administration is selecting and more junior workers are less likely to feel financially secure enough to step down.

“Someone who can retire or is more economically secure is more likely to tell the emperor that the emperor has no clothes,” one of the recently departed foreign service officers said. “Junior people are more likely to just say yes.”

That will lead to less informed foreign policy decisions, the person said.

“Good policy depends on good information,” the former employee said. “If you’re not getting the good information because people are afraid to share, then you are likely to have bad policy.”

Adams-Smith noted that when experienced diplomats leave the department, the agency also loses their “networks of contacts” abroad.

She had planned to continue serving at State, but reversed course after she realized the administration was “not interested in expert advice.”

“There was no place for me and it was clear my expertise was not going to be valued or welcome,” Adams-Smith said. “With the way they were handling things, it was clear it was time to go.”

Pigott, the department spokesperson, said State is willing to hear advice from “patriotic Americans.”

"Secretary [Marco] Rubio values candid insights from patriotic Americans who have chosen to serve their country,” he said. “What we will not tolerate is people using their positions to actively undermine the duly elected president’s objectives.”

Another recently retired foreign service officer said that replacing long-tenured staff with greener employees will lead to a “10-year gap where you don’t have seasoned expertise in bilateral, multilateral and interagency contexts. That will be detrimental to American interests.”

A diplomat who recently left the department said the administration’s approach could soon lead to a crisis.

“Honest advice is not being rendered,” the former employee said. “At some point, god forbid, something is going to come back and bite them, and maybe all of us, in the behind.”]]> CNN Vows Further Legal Action if Air Force One Ban Continues https://www.washingtonsun.com/media/cnn-vows-legal-action-trump-air-force-one-ban Jenna Monnin The network’s attorney said CNN has been blocked from traveling on the aircraft at least four times since Trump announced his initial press ban. Tue, 20 Oct 2026 18:38:48 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/media/cnn-vows-legal-action-trump-air-force-one-ban

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

CNN warned the Justice Department on Monday that the network may pursue additional legal action if the Trump administration continues to ban the network’s journalists from traveling with the president aboard Air Force One.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico are locked in a legal battle to restore their access to the White House after President Donald Trump banned the outlets on Sept. 18. The new legal threat comes a week after a federal judge extended the preliminary injunction blocking the administration from barring the outlets’ reporters from White House grounds while the lawsuit proceeds.

The Trump administration has continued to restrict CNN’s access to Air Force One, which is the official call sign for any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the president. The outlet contends that blocking CNN from traveling with the president greatly affects the network’s ability to fulfill its duties as the rotating representative of the White House television pool — a group of TV networks that have an agreement to share information and resources while covering the president each day.

In a letter sent to the Justice Department, CNN attorney Theodore Boutrous demanded written confirmation by 5 p.m. Thursday that the Trump administration will cease all restrictions on CNN access to the Oval Office and Air Force One.

“If these actions persist, CNN will have no choice but to return to the court to defend its rights, and it is prepared to fight as long as is necessary to secure them,” Boutrous wrote in the letter dated Monday.

CNN has been denied access to the aircraft at least four times, Boutrous said, including during Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 21 and as recently as Friday, when the network learned it would be excluded from traveling with the president to Georgia and Florida. The White House has not provided the network with any written notice or explanation for the denials, the letter said.

Politico, which is also represented by Boutrous, has also been denied access to Air Force One at least one time, preventing the outlet from serving as the primary print pooler on Oct. 5.

Boutrous argued that the Trump administration is continuing to “retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage,” but the White House has repeatedly pushed back on the notion that news outlets have an absolute right to access.

“No person and no journalist has a constitutional right to access to the President’s Oval Office, Air Force One, or other sensitive and private facilities,” a White House official wrote in a statement to The Washington Sun. “When publications lie, fabricate, and ignore the truth, proximity matters less and they can write their fiction from outside of these secure facilities.”

The Justice Department declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

CNN’s letter says that traveling on Air Force One has become an essential part of covering Trump because he often hosts impromptu press gaggles while aboard the aircraft and on the tarmac.

“Through September of this year, the President has appeared in the White House Briefing Room only 4 times and taken approximately 96 questions there. During the same time period, he has held 43 press events in the Oval Office where he fielded at least 741 questions. Aboard Air Force One and on the tarmac, President Trump has made himself available to the press 51 times and fielded no fewer than 865 questions,” Boutrous wrote.

CNN has argued in court and in the letter that restrictions on the network's ability to cover Trump have profound effects on the American public’s access to the president because CNN is part of a broader pool agreement between five television networks.

“CNN has invested significant financial and other resources to ensure the highest quality television pool coverage of the President, whether he is in the White House or traveling across the country or overseas — pool coverage that reaches millions of Americans as well as viewers across the globe,” Boutrous wrote. “Preventing CNN from performing its full White House Television Pool duties deprives the American public of a vital source of information about the President and his activities.”
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