博客

Appeals court upholds block on immigration arrests at certain houses of worship

August 18, 2026 / 12:25 PM EDT / CBS News

By Melissa Quinn

Washington — A federal appeals court on Tuesday continued to block a Department of Homeland Security policy allowing immigration officers to conduct enforcement actions at certain houses of worship for Quakers, Cooperative Baptists and Sikhs.

A unanimous panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit left in place a district court’s preliminary injunction while the case continues. That order, issued last year, barred the Trump administration from applying its 2025 policy to the plaintiffs in the case: houses of worship from the Quaker, Sikh, and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship religious traditions.

In a decision written by Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, the 4th Circuit panel ruled that the houses of worship showed that the Department of Homeland Security’s policy substantially burdens the free exercise of their religion.

The new guidance, she wrote, “is having a chilling effect on their congregations and already has caused declines in attendance among members of [Cooperative Baptist Fellowship] and the Sikh Plaintiffs.” That drop in attendance and the increased threat of immigration enforcement at the plaintiffs’ houses of worship “already has imposed a substantial burden on the ability of all the plaintiffs to express their religion through communal worship,” Keenan wrote.

She was joined by Judges G. Steven Agee and Pamela Harris. Keenan and Harris were appointed to the 4th Circuit by President Barack Obama, and Agee was named by President George W. Bush.

The dispute dates back to the first days of President Trump’s second administration, when DHS rolled back a policy issued under the Biden administration that barred immigration enforcement actions at or near protected areas like places of worship, schools or hospitals.

Under a new policy, the Trump administration said immigration officers should use their discretion and a “healthy dose of common sense” when deciding whether to conduct immigration enforcement actions in those sensitive locations.

blob:https://www.cbsnews.com/8f590ae1-e261-4a25-a761-cff52ab5c278

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which serves roughly 750,000 Baptists; the Gurdwara Sahib West Sacramento, serving 30,000 Sikhs; and six Quaker Meetings filed their lawsuit challenging the new policy allowing immigration arrests at houses of worship last year. They alleged it violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment.

They argued that the new policy chilled immigrants’ attendance at their services and other ministries and led to a decline in attendance.

In its decision in favor of the houses of worship, Keenan cited a DHS statement from January 2025, in which a department spokesperson said that under the new policy, “criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”

“For the plaintiffs, who welcome immigrant worshipers and have locations in or near immigrant communities, DHS’s statement emphasizing the rationale for this policy change shows that the threat of immigration enforcement at their houses of worship is real and substantial,” she wrote. “The evidence showed that this increased threat of immigration enforcement at the plaintiffs’ houses of worship has resulted in substantial pressure on the plaintiffs to violate numerous beliefs.”

The plaintiffs cheered the decision and vowed to continue working to protect religious freedom.

“This decision reaffirms a fundamental promise of religious liberty: every person should be able to gather, worship, pray, and serve their community without fear that immigration enforcement will unlawfully disrupt sacred spaces,” the coalition said in a statement.

Republican AGs working together to investigate Fauci explain how states can possibly bypass Biden pardon

Biden’s federal pardon does not shield Fauci from state prosecution, Louisiana AG Liz Murrill says

August 18, 2026 12:36pm EDT / Fox News

By Robert McGreevy

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403639267112

West Virginia attorney general reveals why he joined investigation into Fauci

West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey reveals to Fox News Digital the reason he decided to join Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

A trio of Republican attorneys general — Florida’s James Uthmeier, Louisiana’s Liz Murrill and West Virginia’s John McCuskey — opened a joint investigation into former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci in an effort to hold Fauci accountable at the state level despite his federal pardon.

“Americans need to have confidence that the medical professionals that are giving them information during medical catastrophes like COVID, that that information is sound… Rebuilding that trust begins with holding accountable the people who caused it to be lost,” McCuskey told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Uthmeier initially announced his office would launch an investigation into Fauci on July 29, shortly after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions about his role in the COVID-19 pandemic response 111 times while testifying before a Senate committee.

“In light of recent reports exposed by Sen. Rand Paul, we will investigate any and all potential violations of Florida law involving Anthony Fauci,” Uthmeier previously told Fox News Digital.

FAUCI REFUSES SENATE APPEARANCE AFTER INVOKING FIFTH AMENDMENT MORE THAN 100 TIMES IN COVID PROBE

Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on July 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Our inquiry will focus on what Fauci knew, when he knew it, and how he misled the American people. We will examine the physical and monetary harms to Floridians that may have resulted from his deceptions and determine whether his conduct exposes him to liability under state law,” Uthmeier concluded.

On Aug. 5, Uthmeier officially subpoenaed Fauci for documents related to awards he won, any financial incentives related to his pandemic response recommendations, and “documents concerning vaccine efficacy and boosters, natural immunity, potential adverse events including myocarditis risks, messaging strategies, and communications with vaccine manufacturers.”

Both McCuskey and Murrill have joined Uthmeier’s investigation. They each explained to Fox News Digital how the partnership came about and why it was so important to them and to their constituents.

FAUCI’S FIFTH FUELS VOW TO HAUL HIM INTO COURT ‘EVERY DAY’ DESPITE BIDEN PARDON

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403642504112

“West Virginia and Florida and any other Republican states that want to work with us will be able to better overcome if we work together so that we can pool our resources and we can wade through a lot of this material,” Murrill told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Murrill also revealed that her young son had an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine.

“My own son developed myocarditis from the Pfizer vaccine and was hospitalized in a pediatric ICU for a week,” she told Fox News Digital.

McCuskey echoed similar sentiments.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued subpoenas for records pertaining to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID-19 response.(Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

“My plan here — and the reason that I jumped in — is to use the teamwork that the Republican Attorneys General Association gives us to work with General Murrill and James Uthmeier in Florida. I want my office to support them in any way that we can so that when these subpoenas come back and this investigation is completed, I can recommend to prosecutors here in West Virginia to take the same kind of actions that some of my AG colleagues can do on their own,” McCuskey told Fox News Digital.

The West Virginia attorney general told Fox News Digital that pandemic restrictions forced his family retail store to shutter for four months, nearly bankrupting them.

“It is very hard to explain to somebody what it means to have built something that is essentially your entire livelihood and have the government tell you you’re not allowed to open your doors,” he told Fox News Digital.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks on a panel at CrimeCon in Las Vegas on May 29, 2026.(@RenownedPhotos)

“At the exact same time, my daughter, who was turning 5, was prevented from going to kindergarten. My daughter is an incredibly loquacious and energetic child who loves being around other people. She loves school and she was so excited to get started. Instead, she spent her entire kindergarten year with me in the state auditor’s office by herself doing online school. Every day, I had to watch her and my wife essentially cry because of the restrictions that these COVID mandates were causing,” McCuskey added.

CAN FAUCI HIDE BEHIND THE FIFTH? GAME-CHANGING BIDEN PARDON MAY NOT PROVIDE COMPLETE COVER, EXPERTS SAY

Former President Joe Biden, on his last day in office, doled out a sweeping federal pardon to Fauci which covered “ANY OFFENSES against the United States which he may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014” until the day it was issued.

The pardon, however, does not protect Fauci from state charges, Murrill explained.

West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey speaks outside the Supreme Court.(Oliver Contreras/Getty Images)

“It doesn’t shield him from state prosecution. The president doesn’t have the power to issue a pardon for state crimes. It’s that simple. The president only had the power to pardon him for what might be federal criminal activity,” Murrill told Fox News Digital.

Murrill will be looking specifically into whether Fauci lied during testimony she participated in when her state, along with Missouri, deposed him for Murthy v. Missouri, a case in which Missouri and Louisiana sued the government for allegedly collaborating with social media platforms to censor Americans’ views related to COVID-19.

LEGACY MEDIA IGNORES MASSIVE ANTHONY FAUCI DOCUMENT RELEASE ALLEGING HE MISLED CONGRESS ON COVID ORIGINS

“We did discover in the very beginning of the case that the federal government was pressing its own narrative. Different agencies were taking down truthful speech under threats from the federal government. Dr. Fauci was very much involved in all of that, and we deposed him for seven hours during which he mostly said, ‘I don’t recall,’” Murrill told Fox News Digital.

“And so we then find out that there’s a diary, and there are now going to be contemporaneous phone and text messages. I think that it already shows that he was lying. Of course, many of us thought he was lying anyway, but I think the public is now seeing the full extent of his lies and how he said one thing privately and then turned around and said other things publicly that directly contradicted what he was saying privately,” she added.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she will be considering the viability of fraud and perjury charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci.(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

In light of the revelations coming from Fauci’s text messages and internal writings released by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Murrill said she will be considering the viability of fraud and perjury charges against Fauci.

“Here, I think we’d be looking at: did he lie? And if he did lie, is it actionable under our state law? The pardon would not cover that. Perjury is a crime, and the statutory penalty for perjury is probably similar to that for obstruction of justice. It could be anywhere up to five years in prison,” she told Fox News Digital.

McCuskey, for his part, said he does not have direct prosecution power due to a quirk in state law that grants that power to prosecuting attorneys in each of West Virginia’s 55 counties. However, he said he is still using his position to investigate and provide citizens with information for any potential civil cases as well as arm his state’s — and other states’ — prosecutors with potential ammunition for criminal prosecution.

“The way that this would work here in West Virginia is that I would take the information gleaned from Florida and Louisiana — and there’s almost no chance that information would be specific just to those two states — and go to any of the county-level prosecutors that we work with every single day and say, ‘Hey, here’s what we got. It’s your job to handle these prosecutions. I’m going to hand you a ready-made prosecution against somebody that we think needs to be held accountable.’ My office would then be able to help them in that prosecution in a whole bunch of ways,” he explained to Fox News Digital.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

McCuskey also told Fox News Digital that whether his office finds incriminating information or not, “it’s important to make sure that if this happens again, we have learned every single lesson we can learn so that our response will be swifter, better for the American public, and free from the mistakes made during the crisis.”

Uthmeier’s subpoena gave Fauci until Aug. 31 to comply.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear quips that he’d name a term limit bill after GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell

2026-08-18T18:21:28.961Z / CNN Politics

By Pamela Brown, CNN

Published 2:21 PM EDT, Tue August 18, 2026

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear quips that he’d name a term limit bill after GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, discusses the prolonged absence of GOP Senator Mitch McConnell from his post as he recovers from his hospitalization. Beshear floated the idea of naming a bill after McConnell that would establish term limits for members of Congress.

2:06 • Source: CNN

Ossoff calls Trump a ‘draft-dodging, crook president,’ intensifying his feud with White House

2026-08-18T18:51:18.394Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/18/politics/jon-ossoff-trump-kelly

Sen. Jon Ossoff stood next to Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly on Tuesday and delivered the kind of anti-Trump broadside that has become a campaign signature, marking the latest round in an escalating feud with the White House.

“I don’t think anything illustrates the times more aptly than that the draft-dodging, crook president, who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win, tried to imprison this man, who embodies American heroism,” Ossoff said, referring to Kelly’s clash with the administration over his involvement in a video calling on military members to reject illegal orders.

For months, Ossoff has followed a consistent pattern: hold one large campaign rally each month, tear into President Donald Trump and his GOP opponent with easily digestible soundbites, and let those barbs ricochet around the internet.

Ossoff, who says he doesn’t have social media apps on his own phone, has learned how to capture the attention economy in ways few other Democratic politicians have – aside from perhaps the viral videos of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It’s part of what’s thrust Ossoff to the fore of conversations about the 2028 presidential race – even though he insists he has no interest in pursuing that higher office and is instead focused on keeping his Senate seat.

Ossoff has railed against Trump on corruption, high costs, and the war in Iran. His most viral critiques have typically focused on the president, but he’s also painted his GOP opponent, Rep. Mike Collins, as a “puppet” of Trump, referring to him on Tuesday as a “scandal pinata.”

The Democratic senator’s most recent viral speech, which referenced close Trump aide Natalie Harp, set off a new political feud with the White House. The moment has drawn millions of views on the social media platform X.

“While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings, he golfs, and trades stocks,” Ossoff said at a campaign rally Sunday.

He continued: “He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” referring to Harp, the president’s executive assistant. Ossoff did not mention Harp during his event on Tuesday.

The initial comments drew swift backlash from the White House. Asked on Monday about Ossoff’s remark regarding Harp, the president referred to the Georgia senator as “Pee Wee Herman,” and White House communications director Steven Cheung called him “a radical, extremist Dumocrat” on social media.

On Tuesday, Ossoff appeared alongside Kelly, who has captured national attention amid his own clash with Trump and Kelly’s wife, Gabrielle Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt in 2011.

While focused on Ossoff’s reelection, the joint appearance by the prominent Democrats in Columbus, Georgia, also served as a window into what some Democrats might want as a future presidential ticket, even as Ossoff has repeatedly denied interest in a White House bid.

“We are joined by these two extraordinary patriots and heroes,” Ossoff said, joking, “it’s our pleasure to introduce you, desert folk, to humidity.”

Kelly hit on many of the themes that have animated Ossoff’s reelection campaign, accusing the Trump administration of abusing its power.

“If you’re frustrated about them using the Department of Justice and weaponizing the government against its people, I really understand that. You probably saw I said something last November,” he said, referring to the administration’s pressure campaign over the military orders video.

And the two sat for an extended conversation, sharing their concerns, hammering Trump, and calling voters to action. “I would address the president’s few remaining supporters to contrast his promises with the results you’ve been delivered, and to vote accordingly,” Ossoff said.

Ossoff and his advisers have adopted a cautious, arms-length approach to 2028 speculation, attempting to distance him from those conversations. He’s repeatedly expressed “zero interest” in a potential run for higher office, saying his focus is on the Senate race under way.

In an interview on MS NOW Monday night, Ossoff said, “I have zero interest in running for president in 2028, and frankly zero interest in the 2028 fantasy football right now.”

Kelly – among those vetted as a contender to join the 2024 ticket with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris – has said more about his deliberations, acknowledging his interest in several public forums but maintaining that he’s undecided on whether to launch a bid. “I have not made a decision. I have thought about it, but no decision yet,” he told New Hampshire broadcaster WMUR during a visit to the key presidential primary state earlier this year.

But enthusiasm abounds within the party for both senators, who have drawn praise for their communications talent and who have won hotly contested races in once reliable red states.

And although he is attempting to tamp down 2028 speculation, a 2026 win by Ossoff in a battleground state like Georgia could boost his status as a contender for the White House.

“Too often, Democrats either drive conflict or drive message. Ossoff does both. He needles Trump constantly so he gets attention, but every jab lands on the consequences of corruption. You never get the punchline without the point,” said Jesse Ferguson, a veteran Democratic strategist.

Ossoff is the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a state Trump won in 2024, making him the most vulnerable incumbent Democrat in this cycle. He’s emerged on strong footing in his race against Collins, which Democrats are banking on as they hope to reclaim the majority in November.

A Fox News poll conducted in June showed Ossoff up 13 points over Collins, though strategists in both parties expect the contest to tighten in the closing months. Ossoff remains one of the Democratic party’s most prolific fundraisers. He’s hauled in a total of $77.2 million since the beginning of last year and ended June with a $42.6 million war chest.

Ossoff has carefully navigated the complicated debate playing out about the direction of the Democratic Party, even as Collins and Republicans have attempted to tie him to the democratic socialist movement.

“I don’t spend much time thinking about factional, Democratic politics,” he told CNN in June, saying that while the divide exists, “it exists more in those places and for those people and groups for whom the Democratic primary is the horizon of politics.”

The senator has also garnered support from across the aisle, with two Republican mayors in the state recently endorsing his candidacy over Collins. He referenced their backing on Tuesday, part of an extended critique of his GOP opponent.

“You may have seen the conservative Republican mayor of Valdosta is now on this team. The Republican mayor of Tifton, Georgia, is now on this team, and there will be more new bipartisan friends joining us in the weeks ahead because this is a campaign for everybody who longs for decency and sanity and competence and quality public service,” Ossoff said.

It’s a must-win race, both for Ossoff’s future and the Democratic Party’s hopes of retaking the Senate. Kelly framed it as such on Tuesday.

“This is ground zero for us winning back the majority. We do not win back the majority if Jon Ossoff is not reelected,” the Arizona senator said.

U.S. quietly deporting Mexican migrants to Guatemala and Honduras, angering Mexico

2026-08-18T14:07:00-0400 / CBS News

By Camilo Montoya-Galvez Immigration Correspondent
Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the Immigration Correspondent at CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple programs and platforms, including national broadcast shows, CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and the organization’s social media accounts.

Read Full Bio

Updated on: August 18, 2026 / 2:33 PM EDT / CBS News

The Trump administration has been quietly deporting migrants from Mexico to different countries in Central America despite the Mexican government’s willingness to accept the return of all its citizens, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News.

U.S. immigration authorities have been sending deportees from Mexico to Guatemala and Honduras, flying them around Mexican territory instead of returning them to their homeland, the DHS officials said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The officials said one of the objectives of the deportations, which have not been formally announced by the U.S. government, is to deter illegal immigration from Mexico by sending some of its citizens further south and farther away from the U.S.-Mexico border.

The deportations have been occurring for months and have sent hundreds of Mexican citizens to Honduras and Guatemala, one of the DHS officials said. It was not immediately clear what the precise number is.

In a statement to CBS News, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry voiced its opposition to the deportation of Mexican citizens to other countries.

“The Government of Mexico accepts the return of all its nationals. It therefore rejects the deportation of Mexican nationals to third countries and has no such agreement in place,” the foreign ministry said. “Mexico consistently takes the steps necessary to ensure the safe and dignified return of all its nationals to national territory.”

A DHS spokesperson said the Trump administration “is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President promised.”

Under Republican and Democratic administrations, the U.S. has deported Mexican migrants caught at the American southern border deep into Mexico, in an effort to discourage them from trying to enter the U.S. illegally again. But immigration policy experts said the move to send Mexican deportees to other countries in the region was unprecedented.

While the Trump administration has vastly expanded deportations to so-called “third countries,” or nations where deportees don’t hail from, it has mostly done so in cases in which migrants’ home countries, like Cuba, limit or reject U.S. deportations or when they have won legal protections from being returned to their homelands. Mexico, however, has historically accepted all U.S. deportations of its citizens, as well as of deportees from other Latin American countries.

“This is almost entirely punitive,” said Adam Isacson, a researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America who studies migration flows in the region.

Isacson said the U.S. accomplishes two goals by deporting Mexicans to Honduras and Guatemala. It makes it harder for them to try to cross the U.S. southern border. But it also sends a message of deterrence.

“It’s the same as the purpose of sending them to Ecuador or Africa or anywhere else: to broadcast the hardship, to make sure people know that this is a possible consequence of remaining undocumented in the United States and to encourage people to self-deport,” Isacson said.

CBS News contacted representatives for the governments of Honduras and Guatemala requesting comment on their deportation arrangements with the U.S. but has not heard back.

Trump administration moves to rescind rule that protects millions of forest acres

By Leah Douglas
August 18, 2026 5:04 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

A view of the area burned by the Old Trails Fire wildfire, in Spokane, Washington, U.S., August 4, 2026. REUTERS/David Ryder/File Photo

Summary

• Rule shields nearly 59 million forest acres from development, according to the USDA
• Proposal would shift roadless area authority to local national forest managers
• Environmental groups oppose rescission, arguing more roads ​would increase wildfire risk

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) – The Trump administration took a step ‌toward rescinding a decades-old rule that protects undeveloped forests on Tuesday in a move it says will help manage wildfire risk, but which environmental groups oppose, saying it would do the opposite.

President Donald Trump has ​rolled back environmental regulations and taken land out of conservation for purposes such as ​energy extraction.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

The proposed rule filed by the U.S. Forest Service would rescind ⁠the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which bans logging, roads and mining in undeveloped forests, ​and move authority to local national forest managers, according to a press release from the ​Department of Agriculture.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

The U.S. is suffering one of its worst years for wildfires, with 7.3 million acres (3 million hectares) burned in around 49,000 fires through August 17, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Agriculture Secretary ​Brooke Rollins said in the release that rescinding the rule would improve forest health and ​reduce wildfire risk.

“Today, we filed a proposal to restore authority to local forest managers who know the ‌land ⁠best, removing the barriers that have kept them from doing the work the land demands,” she said.

Environmental groups argue that rescinding the rule would increase wildfire risk by exposing more forest land to human activity. A 2025 analysis by the Wilderness Society found that wildfire density ​is lowest in wilderness ​and protected forest ⁠areas, and highest in the areas near roads.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Josh Hicks, the group’s director of conservation campaigns, said “too many communities, ecosystems, wildlife species and local ​economies depend on keeping these wild forests healthy and undisturbed.”

“Opening our ​backcountry forests ⁠to more roads and development, and therefore more ignitions, is also not a wildfire solution, and never will be,” Hicks said.

The Roadless Rule limits development on nearly 59 million acres (24 million hectares) ⁠of ​forest, about 30% of the National Forest System, according ​to the USDA.

The agency will take comment on the proposed rule until September 21.

Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; ​additional reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; editing by Timothy Gardner and Rod Nickel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Justice Department charges eight Iranians for allegedly hacking US government and colleges

2026-08-18T19:43:16.689Z / CNN

By Sean Lyngaas

PUBLISHED Aug 18, 2026, 3:43 PM ET

A a new banner featuring an image of US President Donald Trump is displayed on the facade of the US Department of Justice headquarters, in Washington, DC, February 20.

Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images

The US Justice Department on Tuesday charged eight Iranians for their alleged roles in a years-long hacking campaign to steal data from five federal and state government agencies as well as scores of US universities and companies.

Prosecutors accused the hackers of gaining access to government and private email accounts and stealing a large swath of intellectual property from US universities while often operating on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Among the hackers’ alleged victims were the Department of Labor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the United Nations.

The hackers allegedly breached about 8,000 email accounts belonging to professors in the US, Europe and other locations. The academic data and intellectual property the hackers targeted cost the US universities $3.4 billion to “procure and access,” according to the indictment. In some cases, the hackers sold the stolen academic data to Iranians who could then access the online libraries of American universities, the Justice Department said.

Among the hacked private US companies were 11 tech firms and two defense contractors, none of which the Justice Department named.

“Backed by the IRGC, this operation reflects a broader, organized effort to target U.S. institutions and global partners,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The activity began years, ago, but it’s the latest reminder of Iran’s cyber capabilities and the costs they might impose on US groups amid the US-Iran war.

In six months of the war, Iran has been a key suspect in cyberattacks on US water systems, tank readers at gas stations, a major medical device maker and FBI Director Kash Patel’s private email account.

Seventeen people have now been charged in the broader alleged hacking scheme that was the focus of Tuesday’s superseding indictment. The Justice Department announced charges against nine other people in 2018.

CNN has requested comment on the charges from the Iranian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

The indictment outlines the ecosystem of hackers-for-fire on which Iran’s intelligence services allegedly rely. For example, one alleged member of the hacking conspiracy also worked on a website project for Iran’s supreme leader. Another “worked on behalf of the Iranian military to conduct computer network attacks that targeted military systems, nuclear software systems, and Israeli infrastructure,” the indictment says.

Former DOJ lawyer alleges Trump administration abused investigative process to target Harvard, Brown and Columbia

2026-08-18T14:42:00-0400 / CBS News

Washington— The Trump administration pressured its career civil rights attorneys to investigate allegations of antisemitism at the university campuses of Harvard, Columbia and Brown even though there was no factual or legal basis to do so, according to a former Justice Department attorney.

Haley Van Erem, a longtime lawyer at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, accused political leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services and DOJ of improperly pushing staff to issue adverse findings against all three schools as part of a whistleblower complaint made public on Tuesday by Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin.

Before leaving the department, Van Erem was one of several DOJ attorneys who were involuntarily detailed to HHS to help investigate allegations of antisemitism on college campuses.

“Senior officials at DOJ and HHS departed from longstanding investigative practices designed to ensure due process, accuracy and legal compliance. Ms. Van Erem and her colleagues encountered compressed timelines to conduct investigations that compromised the ability to ensure that findings were justified and accurate,” her attorneys from the Government Accountability Project wrote in a letter to members of Congress that accompanied a copy of her complaint.

“For at least some of the investigations, there was little to no factual predicate justifying opening them. When they asked questions, raised legal concerns, or sought to document their objections, they were sometimes admonished and their concerns were often disregarded,” the letter said. “Taken together, these circumstances led the attorneys reasonably to believe that certain enforcement outcomes had been determined before the relevant evidence was collected and evaluated.”

A Justice Department spokesperson denied the allegations, and said that Van Erem was not involved in those specific investigations.

“While at the DOJ, Ms. Haley Van Erem did not work on university investigations. And for all matters, the Department stands behind the integrity of these investigations,” the spokesperson said.

CBS News has reached out to HHS for comment.

The whistleblower complaint was made public just days after a federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Harvard accusing the school of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Massachusetts found that instances of alleged discrimination cited by the government were “too isolated and episodic” to support federal civil rights violations of Title VI, which prohibits discrimination by entities that receive federal funding.

Unlike Harvard, which litigated the case, Brown and Columbia settled with the federal government to resolve similar Title VI allegations over antisemitism and have their federal funding restored.

Van Erem’s whistleblower complaint was submitted to the inspectors general for DOJ and HHS, as well as the Office of Special Counsel. It lays bare concerns that are widely shared by many longtime former Civil Rights Division attorneys about the politicization of civil rights investigations under the leadership of Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who leads the division.

Dhillon has upended many of the traditional approaches by the division to investigate discrimination against people of color, in favor of other priorities that have included cracking down on campuses that allowed pro-Palestinian protests, investigating the use of diversity, equity and inclusion policies on college campuses and establishing a section solely devoted to the protection of gun rights.

According to the whistleblower complaint, attorneys assigned to investigate Brown did not substantiate any violations of Title VI, instead determining the school had promptly and effectively responded to the handful of incidents that occurred. Despite this finding, the government nevertheless pressed for and entered into a settlement with the school, the complaint said.

In a statement to CBS News, Brown noted that its settlement “was not a result of any determination of fault by any government agency, and Brown denied any fault or violation of federal law.” The school added that “at no time was Brown informed of any finding that the University violated any law,” and that a freeze of federal funds that was lifted under the settlement “posed enormous challenges for Brown’s research mission and financial sustainability.”

In the Columbia probe, meanwhile, the complaint said staff were pressed to issue findings against the school on an accelerated timeframe and before the factual and legal review was complete. As a result, her lawyers said the government relied on “allegations that were unsupported” as well as “news reports or litigation filings” and activities that were protected by the First Amendment.

Finally, in the Harvard case, the complaint said that DOJ attorneys raised grave legal concerns after the government moved to cut off the school’s funding prematurely and sought a settlement before any investigation had been completed.

“The outcomes of the investigations were predetermined, without regard to the evidence,” her attorneys wrote in her whistleblower complaint. “Hundreds of millions of dollars were suspended from these universities prior to the completion of Title VI investigations and the investigative team’s conclusions were frequently disregarded.”

CBS News has also reached out to Harvard and Columbia for comment.

In a letter to Dhillon, Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, asked her to hand over certain communications and records related to the federal investigations into the three schools.

“Antisemitism at American universities and medical schools is real. It needs to be addressed seriously. But your ‘investigation’ into antisemitism was fake, a pre-baked frame-up operation thoroughly political in nature,” he wrote in his letter on Tuesday.

“Before an actual investigation took place and regardless of what you actually found, the whole project was designed to harass professors and administrators at major universities, to curtail their freedom of speech and academic freedom, and to strip targeted institutions of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants that they had already been awarded on the merits of their applications,” he added.

Alexis Posel contributed reporting.

Ralph Norman suggests special GOP primary runoff rival Darline Graham is the establishment’s chosen candidate

August 18, 2026 1:20pm EDT / Fox News

‘To suggest Donald Trump is part of the establishment is a joke,’ Graham campaign spokesperson Abby Zilch asserted

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403468952112

Ralph Norman outlines plan to tackle inflation and energy costs in SC Senate primary

South Carolina Senate candidate Ralph Norman discusses his runoff campaign against Darline Graham. Norman outlines his platform on grassroots issues, inflation, energy costs and his endorsement from Nikki Haley.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. — the candidate going head-to-head against Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., in the South Carolina special Republican U.S. Senate primary runoff — suggested in a campaign ad that his rival is the establishment’s candidate.

“The establishment has already” selected “their candidate,” he declared in the video, without naming Graham, his lone rival in the contest. “Same old playbook, same old insiders. I’m not their choice.”

“South Carolina needs a proven conservative with a record of fighting for you. You shouldn’t have to guess where your next senator stands: With me, you already know,” Norman said in the ad.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN SUGGESTS SEN DARLINE GRAHAM IS AN ‘ALLY’ FOR THE ‘SWAMP’

Rep. Ralph Norman, a U.S. Senate candidate, speaks during a special primary election night watch party in Rock Hill, S.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026.(Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Graham and Norman, who finished first and second respectively in the Aug. 11 special GOP U.S. Senate primary, will now face each other in the Aug. 25 runoff.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham last month to fill the Senate vacancy caused by the death of her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.

RUSSELL FRY ENDORSES EX-RIVAL DARLINE GRAHAM AFTER FAILING TO ADVANCE TO SPECIAL GOP US SENATE PRIMARY RUNOFF

Sen. Darline Graham departs after casting her ballot at a polling location inside Lake Murray Baptist Church in Lexington, S.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026.(Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The new senator is backed by President Donald Trump.

“To suggest Donald Trump is part of the establishment is a joke. Senator Darline Graham has built a broad coalition of conservatives across South Carolina. Ralph is a party of one: himself,” Graham campaign spokesperson Abby Zilch said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

“Ralph is a fiscal conservative when it is politically convenient. He voted no on a pay raise for our troops and benefits for veterans, but when COVID money benefited Ralph, all bets were off. Darline is a MAGA fighter who will help President Trump deliver. Ralph Norman will stand in the way,” she added.

MARK LYNCH ENDORSES RALPH NORMAN AS CONGRESSMAN HEADS INTO RUNOFF AGAINST DARLINE GRAHAM

President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence on Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y.(Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Norman spokesperson Brittany Yanick said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “Ralph Norman is a businessman and the only proven conservative in this race. He has received wide support from conservatives including Senators Rick Scott and Mike Lee in Washington, D.C. to leaders across South Carolina, such as former Senator Jim DeMint and Former State Rep. Adam Morgan, among many others.”

“South Carolinians shouldn’t have to guess where their Senator stands on important issues; with Ralph, they already know,” Yanick added. “His resume is his record unlike his opponent who is unknown and backed by Democrat donors. Next week, South Carolinians will vote for Ralph Norman to represent the Palmetto State for the next six years.”

Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.

Who is Trump aide Natalie Harp? Loyal assistant suddenly in the spotlight

August 18, 2026 / 3:15 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington— Most Americans probably hadn’t heard of Natalie Harp before this week, but the close Trump aide has been in the political spotlight in recent days.

The 35-year-old’s official title is special assistant and executive assistant to the president, and she is frequently seen at President Trump’s side, by all accounts unwavering in her support and known for being quick to provide printouts of positive news coverage for his perusal.

It was Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat running for reelection, who focused attention on her role during a Sunday campaign rally. Ossoff said the president wants to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” rather than focus on his day job.

The remark prompted pushback from the president.

“You mean Pee Wee Herman? Pee Wee Herman look-alike?” the president replied about Ossoff when a reporter asked him about the comment Monday in the Oval Office.

She’s one of the president’s most trusted aides

Mr. Trump, 80, often dictates Truth Social posts for Harp to type out and post. She became known as the “human printer” during the 2024 presidential campaign, as the New York Times reported at the time, because she carried a portable printer to quickly get positive news to the president. Mr. Trump often prefers to read physical copies of social media posts and news stories, rather than off screens.

Harp, who worked for the Trump campaigns in 2020 and 2024, has been in Mr. Trump’s orbit for years. She started working at the White House as a presidential appointee when Mr. Trump took office in January 2025.

Mr. Trump has taken note of Harp’s loyalty. In their book “Regime Change,” New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported that the president remarked of Harp to staffers, “All of you will go off and make money. She’ll never leave me.”

President Trump and executive assistant Natalie Harp step off Marine One just outside the White House on Aug. 16, 2026. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

The White House has taken issue with Ossoff’s remarks, with White House communications director Stephen Cheung calling Ossoff the biggest “loser in politics,” among other things.

“Natalie Harp is one of the most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump’s team,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told CBS News in a statement, calling Ossoff’s rhetoric “cringeworthy.”

Harp was among the few aides who traveled with the president on a secret plane from Turkey

As CBS News reported earlier this month, Harp was among the few aides who were transported in a catering truck and then a secret plane with Mr. Trump as he departed Turkey in July.

Sources say the Secret Service adopted the ruse to protect the president after U.S. intelligence detected a possible Iranian plot to fire a missile at his plane as he left Ankara.

Only a few others joined the secret flight, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House aides Walt Nauta and Dan Scavino. Several top Cabinet members were left on the decoy plane along with other staff and the press corps.

Harp’s background before the White House

Harp worked at One America News Network in 2021 and 2022, hosting a TV show, after she’d worked on Mr. Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. On the pro-Trump network, Harp repeated Mr. Trump’s false claims that he had won the 2020 presidential election.

Harp delivered a laudatory speech at the Republican National Convention in 2020 about the president’s signing of the Right to Try Act, a 2018 federal law that lets patients with life-threatening illnesses try experimental treatments. Harp, a bone cancer survivor, credited Mr. Trump with saving her life.

“When I failed the chemotherapies that were on the market, no one wanted me in their clinical trials,” she said in her address. “They didn’t give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President. You did, and without you, I’d have died waiting for them to be approved.”

However, the Washington Post reported Harp has also spoken of being treated with an FDA-approved immunotherapy given off-label, which would not have required “right to try” since it was already approved for some uses.

Harp, a California native, earned her bachelor’s degree from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2012, and her MBA from Liberty University in 2015.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/ossoff-taunts-trump-about-white-house-aide-natalie-harp/