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特朗普：没人知道谁在掌管伊朗

2026-10-07 07:23 / 联合早报

9月27日，伊朗德黑兰街头，数枚导弹旁悬挂着印有伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴肖像的宣传横幅。 （路透社档案照片）

美国总统特朗普周二宣称，在美国与以色列对伊朗的战争进入第八个月之际，没有人知道究竟是谁在掌管伊朗。

特朗普星期二（10月6日）说：“他们的领导人没了，第二批领导人也没了。我现在面临的最大问题是，根本没人知道到底是谁在治理这个国家。”

伊朗外交部发言人巴盖伊星期天（4日）在新闻发布会上说，特朗普政府非常清楚美方在伊朗的对话方是谁，也了解伊朗的决策机制是如何运作的。“问题恰恰相反，症结在于美国官员立场矛盾且信息混乱。”

在美以空袭中身受重伤的伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴一直未公开露面。

穆杰塔巴的父亲哈梅内伊在美以联军2月28日的大规模空袭中遇袭身亡，穆杰塔巴3月9日当选为新最高领袖，但他至今未公开露面，仅发表书面声明，引发外界对他的健康状况和是否已经死亡的猜测。

路透社4月11日报道，穆杰塔巴核心圈的三名消息人士披露，穆杰塔巴在美以对伊朗的袭击中遭毁容，单腿或双腿受重伤。

Biden conspicuously absent from campaign trail as Obama, Harris step up for midterm push

October 6, 2026 1:36pm EDT / Fox News

The former president, battling advanced prostate cancer at 83, has made few political appearances this year

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Former President Joe Biden has been largely absent from the campaign trail as Democrats fight to win back House and Senate majorities in November, even as former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris step up efforts to boost the party’s candidates.

Biden, 83, has kept a limited public schedule while battling advanced, metastatic prostate cancer. He has endorsed candidates and is helping Democrats raise money, according to a source in Biden’s political circle. But the former president has made few political appearances this year.

The contrast is increasingly visible with four weeks to go until Election Day.

Obama is cutting ads for Senate and gubernatorial candidates, helping the party fundraise and preparing to hit the trail during the closing stretch of the midterm campaign. Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee, is also campaigning across key battleground states, including a recent stop in Michigan with Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

MIDTERM MATH: THE THREE FORCES THAT COULD STOP A DEMOCRATIC BLUE WAVE

Former President Barack Obama during a campaign event on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Biden has appeared at just a handful of political events this year. He spoke in February at a reception honoring his 2020 South Carolina primary victory, which propelled him toward the Democratic nomination and eventually the presidency. In June, he addressed a Maryland Democratic Party event.

Longtime Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso told Fox News Digital that some in the party’s elite and fundraising class are concerned that “if Biden were to be pushed out there in any sort of way for virtual or in-person opportunities, he could be a liability.”

Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona had a different take, telling Fox News Digital, “There are still a ton of Americans who love Joe Biden.”

Biden did weigh in on a handful of Democratic primary showdowns this cycle. The former president endorsed former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor. Bottoms, who served as a senior advisor in the Biden administration, won the Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The former president also backed Dan Koh, another Biden administration veteran, who captured the Democratic nomination in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District.

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Former President Joe Biden speaks to a crowd during a fundraising event with the South Carolina Democratic Party at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina, on Feb. 27, 2026. The event marked the sixth anniversary of Biden’s presidential primary win in South Carolina.(Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Biden is also advocating on behalf of efforts to secure democracy.

“American democracy begins and ends at the ballot box. There is no more important civic duty nor fundamental right to be defended,” the former president wrote on social media last month, as he cast his ballot in his home state of Delaware’s primary. “Voting defines our freedom and makes everything possible.”

But mostly, Biden has served as a foil for President Donald Trump, who Biden ousted from the White House in the 2020 election. Four years later, Biden ended his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in their 2024 rematch.

Trump and fellow Republicans are repeatedly blaming Biden for high prices at the gas and diesel pumps, even though public opinion polls indicate most Americans now point fingers at Trump and his administration.

Biden left the presidency with poor approval ratings, as he faced high inflation, foreign policy divides, and lingering questions about his ability to serve in office. He stood at 42% approval and 57% disapproval in January 2025, in the final Fox News poll during his White House tenure.

Post-presidency, Biden held a 71% favorable rating among Democrats in a CNN poll conducted in May. But Biden’s favorable rating among Democrats was 25 points lower than Obama’s.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden depart after speaking on the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 15, 2025.(Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, some Democrats still blame him for Trump’s 2024 re-election, arguing that Biden did not get out of the race in time to allow Harris to mount a successful campaign.

Ceraso, a veteran of two presidential campaigns, pointed to the 2024 election and told Fox News Digital that Biden left a “bad taste with some Democrats, especially within the party’s elite and fundraising class.”

He added, “I do not think Biden has the same level of charisma as Vice President Harris and former President Obama, and if I’m organizing an event to get thousands of people to come out, I would not do that around Biden.”

Cardona, a Democratic National Committee member, said Biden’s health is stifling requests for campaign trail appearances.

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“I guarantee you no one would try to bother him to come campaign for them while, at 83 years old, he is battling cancer and in the toughest fight of his life,” Cardona emphasized.

Fox News Digital reached out to a Biden spokesman for comment, but did not receive a response at the time this story was published.

Paul Steinhauser covers the national campaign trail from coast to coast for Fox News

What to know about plague amid reports of Russian lab worker’s death

October 6, 2026 / 2:47 PM EDT / CBS News

By Kerry Breen News Editor

U.S. and world health officials are calling on Russia to share more information after Russian media reports said a scientist at an infectious disease research facility in Siberia died after possibly contracting plague during a lab accident.

The reports have caused concern, even as the World Health Organization says “the public health risk to the general population appears to be low,” based on the current information.

Dr. Céline Gounder, a CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, echoed that belief on “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday.

“The American public does not need to be worried,” she said.

Still, an official cause of death has not been made public and a lack of transparency from Russia has led some experts to question if the lab worker had the plague.

“The response doesn’t fit plague. It’s not congruent with plague,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told CBS News. “Plague is something, in the 21st century, that’s treatable with antibiotics.”

Here’s what to know.

Concern about situation in Russia

Russian media has reported that a female researcher, identified as Darya Shipilova, 28, died after being exposed to the plague in a lab accident at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. Initial reports said that Shipilova broke a test tube containing the plague bacteria Yersinia pestis in late September, came down with severe pneumonia and died of her illness.

The World Health Organization said Shipilova died of severe pneumonia overnight into Oct. 2.

Russian officials have since cast doubt on those reports. Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said there was no accident and that Shipilova had died of “pneumonia of unknown origin.”

A maintenance worker walks out of the headquarters of Russia’s consumer and health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, in Moscow on Oct. 5, 2026. Igor Ivanko/AFP via Getty Images

The WHO said it was told by Russia on Oct. 6 that no plague was detected. The global health agency said it asked Russian authorities to provide information about which pathogen caused Shipilova’s illness.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday called on Russia to be more transparent, and said the nation should “share more information with the world.” The WHO said it is following the situation closely and requesting further information from Russian authorities.

What is plague?

Plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. There are three main types of plague: bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic.

Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague. Infected people may have painfully swollen lymph nodes known as buboes, along with fever and chills, a severe headache, body aches and exhaustion.

Septicemic plague happens when the Yersinia pestis bacteria enters the bloodstream. Patients may develop fever, chills, extreme weakness, abdominal pain, shock and possible internal bleeding. Some skin may turn black and die.

A microscopic image shows the Yersinia pestis bacteria, which causes plague infections in humans. Ruslanas Baranuskas/Science Pho/Getty Images

Pneumonic plague typically occurs when the other forms of plague are not treated and the Yersinia pestis bacteria infects the lungs. Patients develop pneumonia and may show fever, headache, weakness, shortness of breath, chest pain, cough and bloody or watery mucus. The pneumonia could cause respiratory failure. This is considered the most serious version of plague, and is always fatal if left untreated.

Russian media reports indicated that Shipilova may have died of pneumonic plague.

How does plague spread?

Plague is most commonly spread through the bite of fleas carried by infected rodents. Animals, including cats and dogs, can also become infected from eating smaller animals that were carrying those fleas.

Pneumonic plague can be spread between people. In cases of pneumonic plague, droplets emitted when a sick person coughs can lead to others becoming infected.

Russia’s health watchdog said that nearly 200 people who had come into contact with Shipilova before her death were tested, and none had plague.

This undated photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East shows the institute workers in a lab. The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East via AP

How is plague treated?

Plague can be successfully treated with antibiotics, health organizations and doctors say. Patients need to be treated as soon as possible.

Researchers who regularly work with plague can also be vaccinated for it, Gounder noted.

Plague outbreaks in the Middle Ages killed millions, due to widespread, common flea and rat infestations and less understanding of how to prevent disease from spreading.

About seven plague cases are reported each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 80% of the cases in the U.S. are bubonic plague, the agency said.

Most U.S. cases occur in the West and Southwest. Cases are usually treated successfully, according to CDC data. The last fatal case of plague in the U.S. was recorded in 2021.

Trump turns to emerging tech giant in multi-billion bid to ramp up US submarine production

October 6, 2026 12:17pm EDT / Fox News

The defense tech firm will invest $3.7B of its own capital in a 2M-square-foot facility at Sparrows Point

By Morgan Phillips Fox News

VP Vance promotes US shipbuilding in Texas

Fox News correspondent Brooke Taylor reports on Vice President JD Vance’s push to strengthen U.S. shipbuilding in Texas. She examines the broader effort to expand American maritime capabilities and counter China’s influence in global shipping and naval industries on ‘Special Report.’

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The Trump administration is turning to a defense technology giant in a $6.6 billion effort to speed production of submarines as the U.S. struggles to keep pace with China’s vast shipbuilding capacity.

The ramp-up in production brings a Silicon Valley-style manufacturer into one of the Pentagon’s most troubled industrial bases as they fall behind expected pace of two Virginia-class attack submarines per year.

Anduril will build a more than 2-million-square-foot shipyard at Sparrows Point shipyard just outside of Baltimore to manufacture critical submarine components, eventually scaling up to large sections of the vessels. A senior administration official said the facility could add roughly 9 million labor hours a year, equivalent to about a 15% increase in submarine production capacity.

President Donald Trump will visit the shipyard on Tuesday afternoon to formally announce the new initiative in Baltimore alongside Anduril leadership.

NAVY SECRETARY WARNS SHIPYARDS MUST ‘ACT LIKE WE’RE AT WAR’ AS CHINA’S AI-POWERED FLEET RACES AHEAD

The Trump administration is turning to defense technology giant Anduril in a $6.6 billion effort to speed production of Virginia-class attack submarines, bringing a Silicon Valley-style manufacturer into one of the Pentagon’s most troubled industrial bases.(Colin Murty via Reuters)

The investment takes aim at a problem the Navy has struggled for years to solve: shipyards are delivering roughly 1.3 Virginia-class submarines a year, well short of the Navy’s goal of two, even as demand for the nuclear-powered attack boats grows. The Navy currently projects reaching the two-per-year rate around 2032. It currently has 26 Virginia-class submarines and expects to add two more in the spring, according to a senior administration official.and

For the submarine project, Anduril plans to invest $3.7 billion of its own capital to build the facility, workforce and manufacturing capacity. The Navy could spend up to another $2.9 billion purchasing the resulting production.

The deal represents an unusual bet on a commercial model for fixing one of the Pentagon’s most stubborn industrial problems: Anduril will risk billions of dollars of its own capital building new submarine production capacity, while the Navy pays for what the company can successfully produce.

“I wouldn’t say that the government’s paying us back. We feel the government [is] buying the results of what we’re able to produce,” an industry official told reporters of the deal.

EMERGING TECH HAS NEW ARMY LEADERS WARNING TROOPS CAN’T ‘AI’ THEIR WAY TO VICTORY ON THE BATTLEFIELD

The deal also deepens Anduril’s growing relationship with the Pentagon just days after War Secretary Pete Hegseth tapped company founder Palmer Luckey, along with Elon Musk and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to launch Project Meridian — a 120-day study of how future wars will be fought and what weapons and technologies the U.S. military will need.

The arrangement puts Luckey in a position to help shape recommendations about the Pentagon’s future technology needs as the company he founded expands its own business selling weapons and other systems to the department. Project Meridian does not have procurement authority, and the Pentagon has said “appropriate” safeguards will be used to address potential conflicts of interest.

Infographic showing a US Virginia-class nuclear submarine, plus a delivery schedule to Australia under the 2021 AUKUS agreement, according to details set out in a US congressional research paper.(NICHOLAS SHEARMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Anduril will work under General Dynamics Electric Boat and alongside HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding, initially producing components that have become bottlenecks in the construction of new Virginia-class boats.

Among the first will be torpedo tubes , which a senior administration official described as a current “gating component” holding up production. The official said getting those tubes earlier could allow the Navy to move.

Anduril has already begun work on torpedo tubes at a facility in California and plans to shift that production to Baltimore as the new shipyard, dubbed Arsenal-2, comes online. The company eventually hopes to move from individual components to complex modules and large sections of submarines.

“We just need new production capacity,” an industry official said. “We need to grow the maritime industrial base, the submarine industrial base, so that we can produce more submarines.”

The company plans to build Arsenal-2 around software, automation and digital manufacturing to break historically complex shipbuilding work into simpler tasks that can be done without years of shipyard experience.

The deal also deepens Anduril’s growing relationship with the Pentagon just days after War Secretary Pete Hegseth tapped company founder Palmer Luckey, along with Elon Musk and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to help lead Project Meridian, a 120-day study of how future wars will be fought and what weapons and technologies the U.S. military will need.(Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The push comes as the Navy faces growing pressure to expand the attack-submarine fleet while also preparing to transfer Virginia-class submarines to Australia under the AUKUS security pact. Meeting those commitments will require the industrial base not only to reach the Navy’s longstanding two-per-year goal, but eventually move beyond it.

Arsenal-2 is expected to create 3,100 direct jobs and another 11,000 indirect jobs nationwide. Anduril expects the Baltimore facility to begin operations around 2030, though the company said production of some submarine components is beginning now in California.

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The approach will still have to clear the certification and safety requirements that govern nuclear submarine construction. Anduril acknowledged that it will have to prove it can meet those standards before graduating from individual components to increasingly complex sections of the boats.

California couple at center of surrogacy scandal arrested on child abuse charges

2026-10-06 3:53 PM EDT / CBS News

By Katrina Kaufman, Sari Aviv, Cara Tabachnick, Josh Boswell

A California couple at the center of a surrogacy scandal was arrested on Tuesday. A law enforcement source confirmed the arrests to CBS News shortly before officials held a news conference to announce the latest developments.

Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang are being charged with multiple counts including conspiracy to commit child abuse and dissuading a witness, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. He is asking for bail to be set at $100 million.

The couple drew national headlines last year after authorities raided their Arcadia mansion in July 2025 and took 21 kids, mostly surrogate-born, into state custody.

Tuesday morning, detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrested the couple at their residence. They were transferred to the Pasadena courthouse where they are currently being arraigned, Sheriff Robert Luna said.

“What has been publicly filed in the complaint today is incredibly disturbing. It involves horrific punishment and beatings and child abuse,” Hochman said at the news conference.

Melissa Brisman, an attorney for two of the surrogates involved in the case, told CBS News, “This is wonderful news that people will be held responsible for their actions and there will be consequences if you abuse the surrogacy system.”

Brisman added that it’s important surrogacy remains an option for those who need the help to become parents, but said there must “be adequate protections for those who enter the surrogacy system.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/testing-the-ethical-boundaries-of-surrogacy/

“We need to make sure bad actors don’t ruin it for everyone else,” she said.

A Los Angeles FBI spokesperson confirmed the FBI served a search warrant at the home, separate from a search conducted by the sheriff’s department.

A neighbor said helicopters and police could be seen at their mansion and the entire block is taped off.

Officials said the investigation began in May 2025 when Zhang brought a 2-month-old boy to the hospital with a head injury.

“She appeared to be untruthful with hospital staff about how the injury was sustained and the hospital staff notified law enforcement authorities,” Luna said, adding that when Arcadia police went to the home, “what they discovered raised even more serious concerns.”

In early September, the Arcadia Police Department requested assistance from the LA County Sheriff’s Department.

“We will continue to work together to pursue justice for all 21 children involved in this case,” Luna said.

Maria Castellanos, a surrogate who carried two children for Zhang and Xuan, said after learning of their arrest, “I’m mad that everyone involved couldn’t stop this so the kids wouldn’t go through everything they went through. I’m just mad with the whole process, the whole thing. It’s not just them.”

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

Republicans sound alarm over hidden midterm stakes that could reshape Supreme Court for decades

October 6, 2026 1:00pm EDT / Fox News

Sen Steve Daines warns ‘the Supreme Court’s on the ballot’

By Alex Miller, Fox News

Democrats are campaigning on court-packing, DC statehood: Rep James Comer

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., warns that Democrats would seek to expand the Supreme Court and grant statehood to Washington, D.C., if they regain control of Congress.

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Republicans are quietly warning that the true consequence of losing the Senate could be one that shapes the makeup of courts and the law for years to come.

While Republican candidates and surrogates on the campaign trail are warning of a rise in socialism and a return to Biden-era policy should Democrats flip Congress this cycle, some are pushing a different message: if Democrats win the Senate, they’ll block future Supreme Court nominees.

“I think the key over the next 34 days is bringing home Republicans. And I think it’s important to remind some of these Republicans who are not energized yet that the Supreme Court’s on the ballot,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital.

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Republicans are quietly warning that losing the Senate could have consequences that reshape the courts and the law for years to come.(Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Daines, who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in 2024, played a key role in flipping the Senate two years ago. That election was dominated by pocketbook issues, much like this midterm cycle, and Democrats have pounced upon that message.

But the Supreme Court and the implications of the balance of power in the Senate are a message Daines contended the GOP wasn’t pushing enough.

“I mentioned that to the White House. And it’s — that’s not a silver bullet, it’s a silver buckshot,” of several issues Republicans should be talking about, Daines said.

If Trump doesn’t have a GOP majority in the upper chamber, he said, “if we have a vacancy, Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, who knows — we could not, President Trump could not move through a Supreme Court justice.”

DEMS HAND GOP FRESH MIDTERM WEAPON BY OPPOSING WIDELY USED VOTER ID

Vance warns Democrats would pack Supreme Court
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The high court is aging, with conservative stalwarts on the bench, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, 78, and Samuel Alito, 76, nearing octogenarian status. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 72, and Chief Justice John Roberts, 71, aren’t that far behind.

“The Supreme Court as we know it would cease to exist under Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico, who are hell-bent on replacing it with a bloated, lawless body designed to advance Democrats’ socialist agenda,” NRSC spokeswoman Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital.

Speculation has swirled over Alito after NPR earlier this year published a report declaring his retirement before swiftly retracting it.

Alito added some fuel to that fire, however, during an interview with CBS earlier this month. When asked if he was considering retirement, he admitted to considering it earlier this year, and noted that “it’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term.”

DEMOCRATS THINK A BLUE WAVE IS BUILDING. HERE ARE 3 FORCES THAT COULD STOP IT

Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh share a laugh while waiting for their opportunity to leave the stage at the conclusion of the inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Chip Somodevilla/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Democrats haven’t been keen to support several of Trump’s nominees for a variety of positions throughout the government over the last two years. Notably, Republicans went nuclear last year to change the Senate’s rules to move through bundles of nominees that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats were blocking.

And Schumer suggested that a Supreme Court pick, should there be a vacancy, and other positions in the judiciary may suffer the same fate.

“The bottom line is one of the reasons that we want to make sure we do everything we can to take back the Senate is not let Trump put such horrible justices, MAGA justices on the Supreme Court and the lower courts,” Schumer said.

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Daines noted that sometimes voters look for a shortcut to head to the polls, and that the Supreme Court being a quiet issue on the ballot could very well be that path to energizing a Republican base to getting out and voting as the midterm cycle winds down.

“Without a Republican majority, President Trump will not be able to move his Supreme Court nominee through, and that’s a nominee that’ll be on the bench for 25 years,” Daines said. “We need Republicans to connect those dots. Disgruntled Republicans in Texas, come home and vote for Ken Paxton, because the Supreme Court’s on the ballot.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Attorneys for Olympian David Hearn ask internal watchdogs at DOJ, Interior Dept. to investigate potential misconduct

2026-10-06 12:00:05 EDT / CBS News

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October 6, 2026 / 12:00 PM EDT / CBS News

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Attorneys for Olympic canoeist David Hearn asked the internal watchdogs at the Justice and Interior departments on Tuesday to investigate the circumstances surrounding his arrest, indictment and the dismissal of the case, according to a letter seen by CBS News.

Hearn’s case garnered national attention, after he was falsely accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and subsequently indicted on a charge of felony destruction of government property.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, later moved to dismiss the case after she said new information had come to light showing the damage had been caused by a contractor’s “botched installation,” not vandalism.

“Because of the actions of various DOJ and DOI employees, Mr. Hearn was deprived of his liberty, indicted for a crime he did not commit, threatened with incarceration of up to 10 years, and endured the defaming of his name and reputation by high-ranking government officials,” Hearn’s attorneys wrote in the letter to DOJ Inspector General Don Berthiaume and DOI Inspector General Caryl Brzymialkiewicz.

Those officials, they pointed out, included Pirro, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and President Trump.

“The DOJ OIG and the DOI OIG must conduct detailed and comprehensive investigations to determine what happened inside their agencies that led to the shocking and indefensible treatment of Mr. Hearn,” they wrote. “Anything less than a full and fair review would be a betrayal of your mission and perpetuate the outrageous mistreatment of Mr. Hearn.”

Hearn was initially detained in jail for five hours on June 19, after he stopped by the Reflecting Pool during a bike ride. He put his hand into the water and touched a piece of the liner that had already come loose before he was asked by a member of the National Park Police to remove his hand from the water.

His lawyers said that during his five-hour detention, he was never read his Miranda rights or permitted to make a phone call, and that he only learned he was initially facing misdemeanor charges when he found two citations stuffed into a brown paper bag with his other belongings shortly after his release from custody.

A grand jury in the D.C. Superior Court later indicted him on the felony count on July 2.

Despite a request from Hearn’s attorneys to preserve the physical evidence in the case, his lawyers said the government fenced off the area around the Reflecting Pool in question and undertook repairs to the section of the liner that was at the heart of the indictment.

By the end of July, Pirro moved to dismiss the case altogether, alleging that the Interior Department had delayed producing materials to prosecutors that undermined the evidentiary basis for the case.

“The record reflects an indictment obtained through unusual haste and a prosecution shaped from the outset by political pressure and built on an inadequate investigation,” Hearn’s lawyers wrote in the letter to the inspectors general.

Pirro was later spotted toting a large box into the White House that sources later confirmed to CBS News contained evidence from the case that she presented to Mr. Trump, after he lashed out at her for dismissing the case against Hearn.

The White House has since held meetings with prosecutors to explore whether other charges could be brought. But a Superior Court Judge foreclosed that possibility on Oct. 1, after he ruled that the case had to be dismissed with prejudice — meaning it cannot be brought again.

“Should the Court dismiss this case in a fashion that allows the government to reinitiate prosecution in the future, the Court would be exposing him to the risk that, due to pressure from the President Of the United States apparently motivated at least in part by Mr. Hearn’s political views, he would again be charged with a crime that prosecutors have determined he did not commit,” the judge wrote in the opinion dismissing the case.

The letter alleges that prosecutors had exculpatory evidence in hand before they sought an indictment against Hearn. It also alleges that Pirro improperly approached one of the defense’s expert witnesses who was inspecting the Reflecting Pool and peppered the expert with questions.

“Defense counsel was given no notice that the encounter would take place and was not present for it, and the government has never produced any report, note, or record of the exchange,” Hearn’s attorneys wrote.

They continued, “A U.S. Attorney who personally interrogates a represented defendant’s testifying expert, in the field, surrounded by her own staff and without notice to counsel, is not gathering evidence—she is testing how the defense intends to prove its case.”

They also accused Pirro of running afoul of the rules of professional conduct for attorneys when she spoke publicly about the case during a press conference, and questioned whether the sole grand jury witness in the case had been recalled in order to “manufacture” a damages estimate to help support the felony charge.

Hearn’s lawyers also complained that Pirro’s statements announcing the indictment “extended well beyond the bare fact of the charge.”

“[S]he previewed anticipated witness testimony, vouched for the credibility of government witnesses, opined directly on Mr. Hearn’s guilt, and characterized the alleged conduct as ‘anarchy’ and ‘criminal behavior’ — conduct implicating the trial-publicity and prosecutorial-conduct constraints of D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct,” Hearn’s attorneys wrote.

GOP super PAC pours $5 million into Darline Graham’s South Carolina Senate race, sources say

Updated on: October 6, 2026 / 2:40 PM EDT / CBS News

A key Republican Super PAC is putting $5 million to support Sen. Darline Graham in the South Carolina Senate race, sources familiar with the investment confirmed on Tuesday, as President Trump is escalating his attacks against her opponent, Democrat Annie Andrews.

The investment from the Senate Leadership Fund, the main Republican Super PAC, is a sign the party is concerned about the race, even though South Carolina is a solidly red state. President Trump won the state by 18 points in 2024 and Graham’s late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, won by 10 points in 2020, despite having a well-funded opponent in Democrat Jamie Harrison. Winning South Carolina has been at best a distant dream for Democrats since the end of the 20th century.

The $5 million investment was first reported by Axios.

South Carolina GOP Senate nominee Darline Graham was appointed to the seat in July after the death of her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Mr. Trump who had been in the Senate since 2003. Lindsey Graham had won a primary for the seat just weeks before his sudden death, and Darline Graham then won a subsequent special primary to be on the ballot in November.

Mr. Trump has campaigned heavily for Darline Graham, and posted an attack on social media against Andrews using an anti-transgender slur.

“Annie ‘Trannie’ Andrews is running against our wonderful Darline Graham for the Senate in South Carolina,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Monday.

Andrews, a pediatrician, has said she does not support gender transition surgery for minors, but she had in the past voiced opposition to a bill that would ban transgender athletes in sports. She told The New York Times last week that she does not “support biological men playing in women’s sports.”

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The most resonant campaign ad in 2024 seized on transgender issues as an emblem of the cultural divide in America: “Kamala is for they/them President Trump is for you.” This year, some Republicans are trying to replicate that effort and tie their Democratic opponents to transgender issues, although it’s unclear if it’s been as successful.

Andrews responded late Monday without mentioning Mr. Trump’s comments directly, but noted “if you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you.”

Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a Republican, told CBS News that Mr. Trump’s comments on Andrews were “such a disgrace.”

Biden-era FBI’s ‘Nixonian’ Trump family surveillance draws scrutiny from unlikely corner

October 6, 2026 1:09pm EDT / Fox News

Julian Epstein, ex-chief counsel for House Judiciary Democrats, says those in charge need ‘darn good explanations’

By Charles Creitz, Fox News

Records obtained from first-Trump White House phones included communications between government officials and journalists from Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC, Reuters and other major outlets, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

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Revelations that the Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel and top aide Susie Wiles’ phone records received a blistering rebuke from a former top Democratic official who compared the behavior to Nixon-era abuses of federal power that surfaced amid the Watergate scandal.

The FBI investigation codenamed “Plasmic Echo,” later taken over by special counsel Jack Smith, examined Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified and national-defense material and possible obstruction. Records show agents tracked first lady Melania Trump’s and Barron Trump’s travel while planning the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search and later logged metadata from now-Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ calls with attorneys, journalists and others.

Julian Epstein, the former chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic bench, compared the situation to the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.

JACK SMITH’S PROBE SWEPT UP FOX NEWS, OTHER MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT SOURCES

“It’s hard to think of good justifications for this. To me, it feels a little Nixonian,” said Epstein, who also served as staff director to Democrats on a second powerful panel, the House Oversight Committee.

“If this report is true, then it’s pretty bad. If true, then those in charge at the time better have some darn good explanations for surveillance of family members and advisors talking privately to lawyers or exercising their free-speech rights with the news media,” he said.

Nixon, a California Republican, maintained an “Enemies List” developed by White House aides around top adviser Charles Colson and later formalized by White House counsel John Dean. Dean – now a vocal critic of Republicans like Trump – once described it in a 1971 memo as intended to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”

Epstein questioned what legal justification investigators had for monitoring the contacts, particularly those involving lawyers and journalists.

VETERAN DEM BREAKS PARTY LINE AS JACK SMITH SPYING SCANDAL GRIPS CAPITOL HILL

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Barron Trump, son of US President Donald Trump, Viktor Knav, father of US First Lady Melania Trump on inauguration day 2025.(Getty Images)

“[That] seems like a stretch,” he said.

Epstein appeared to be among the few prominent Democrats publicly criticizing the newly disclosed investigative tactics Tuesday, including the tracking of Melania and Barron Trump’s travel and the collection of Wiles’ call metadata.

SECRET PHONE-RECORD SEIZURE SPARKS PERSONAL LAWSUIT FROM GOP SENATOR

Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who just months ago similarly broke party-silence to object to prior revelations from Smith’s probe.

Blumenthal told Fox News Digital in July that Republicans were right to be upset that some of their communications were subpoenaed without their notice.

“I think we need to have more facts. Look into it. Republicans are rightly concerned about the possible breach of norms and improper access to email,” Blumenthal said at the time.

In a separate disclosure on July 14, the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee released records showing that Smith’s 2020-election investigation obtained and reviewed text messages exchanged between Trump White House officials and 44 current and former members of Congress, including Republicans and Democrats.

Theo Wold, a former acting assistant U.S. attorney general under Trump who later served as Idaho’s solicitor general, said the new disclosures involving Melania, Barron and Wiles vindicate Republicans who have long warned of a so-called “Deep State.”

“But now we know that DOJ, the FBI, and the wider intelligence community have targeted Catholics, homeschool families, pro-life prayer warriors, and even the then-leading Republican Presidential candidate and his family,” Wold said.

“The Deep State is real. They have abused their authority for political gain. They have wielded government power against innocent Americans to coordinate their attack on opposition political figures and dissident movements.”

The White House also condemned the newly disclosed tracking of Trump family travel and collection of Wiles’ call metadata.

“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power. Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”

On one day in March 2023, documents showed investigators logged metadata for 39 calls made or received by Wiles.

Calls to and from multiple campaign contacts, a lawyer and an extension associated with Melania Trump were among those logged in Wiles’ phone metadata.

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Former RNC official Elizabeth Pipko highlighted Wiles as someone that critics should be emulating, not celebrating the surveillance of.

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“She managed a historic and victorious presidential campaign and became the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. Her story should inspire young women. Instead, hatred from President Trump’s opponents teaches young people that if you work for the ‘wrong’ candidate, you and those around you can become targets,” Pipko told Fox News Digital.

The revelations come after Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital exclusively that Smith’s probe had also captured communications with dozens of journalists, including some from Fox News.

Fox News Digital reached out to counsel for Smith for comment.

Born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, worked in both the New York and Washington bureaus for Fox News since 2013.

Trump admin blocks Democratic Gov. Wes Moore from speaking at Maryland shipbuilding event

2026-10-06T18:53:28.676Z / CNN

By Kevin Liptak

PUBLISHED Oct 6, 2026, 2:53 PM ET

Maryland governor Wes Moore speaks during the National Action Network (NAN) National Convention in New York City on April 9, 2026.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters/FILE

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore said President Donald Trump blocked him from speaking at a Tuesday event near Baltimore meant to unveil a new multi-billion-dollar investment in submarine manufacturing.

A White House official did not dispute the account.

Moore played a role in negotiating the deal, which involved bringing the defense tech firm Anduril to a former steel plant on the Patapsco River to make components for Virginia-class submarines. The Navy is awarding the firm a $2.9 billion contract.

Trump is planning to visit the facility and give a speech on the investment Tuesday afternoon. But Moore and other Maryland Democrats won’t be in attendance after the administration blocked the governor from speaking.

“If the president of the United States wants to bring the circus in town and tell me that I’m not allowed to speak, despite the fact we were the ones that helped bring the deal, then I will let the circus be conducted while I go back to the work of the people of Maryland,” Moore told reporters Tuesday.

A White House official said Trump had “graciously” invited Moore to the unveiling event, but only as a guest.

“It’s unfortunate that the Governor is now making a multi-billion dollar announcement about himself by throwing a tantrum over a federal initiative that will bring sorely needed jobs back to his state thanks to President Trump,” the official said.

A spokesman for Moore said the governor “has always said he will work with anyone when it comes to delivering for Marylanders but bow to no one when it comes to standing up for them.”

“The Governor is proud to welcome Anduril to Baltimore County and the thousands of permanent jobs this investment is bringing to our state,” the spokesman said.

Trump and Moore have had an acrimonious history — the president tried to bar the Democrat from a governors dinner at the White House last year. Moore is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate.