Trump says he hopes ‘there will be others’ after Comey indictment
Earlier, on the south lawn of the White House, Donald Trump took a few questions from reporters.
“It’s about justice, it’s not about revenge,” the president said with regard to James Comey’s indictment. “He didn’t think it’d be caught, and he got caught,” Trump said, referring to the former FBI director he fired in 2017. “He lied. He lied a lot.”
The president also said that he hopes “there will be others” who are prosecuted.
Without giving much detail, the president also said that he “thinks we have a deal with Gaza”.
“I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back. It’s going to be a deal that will end the war,” he said.
“That’ll be number eight,” he added, referring to his misleading list of conflicts that he’s resolved since he returned to the White House.
Key events
The chair of the House select committee on China has said he will conduct full oversight over a deal for Chinese-based ByteDance to sell the US assets of TikTok that was approved by Donald Trump under a 2024 law.
“The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm, as well as preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance,” said the Republican representative John Moolenaar.
He said he would host the leadership of the new TikTok entity at a hearing next year.
Immigrants with no criminal record now largest group in Ice detention
José Olivares
Immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention, according to data released by the government. The number of people with no criminal history arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and detained by the Trump administration has now surpassed the number of those charged with crimes.
Ice, the federal agency most heavily relied upon by Donald Trump to carry out his mass deportation campaign, released its latest numbers on Thursday.
According to the official data, 16,523 people in immigration detention with no criminal record were arrested by Ice, compared with 15,725 who do have a criminal record and 13,767 with pending criminal charges.
There are now a total of 59,762 people in Ice detention across the US. The remaining number of people in Ice custody were brought in by border officials.
The numbers released by Ice mark the first time under the second Trump administration that the total number of immigrants with no criminal history in detention has surpassed that of people convicted of a crime or with pending charges.
The agency’s data also contradicts Trump administration officials’ repeated narrative that the chief focus of the White House’s agenda and the Department of Homeland Security dragnet is dangerous criminals.
Read my full report with Will Craft below.
Comey’s son-in-law resigns as federal prosecutor – reports
James Comey’s son-in-law, Troy Edwards, has resigned as a federal prosecutor for the eastern district of Virginia, following his father-in-law’s indictment.
According to his resignation letter, seen by multiple outlets, Edwards sent his resignation notice to Lindsey Halligan – the newly minted US attorney for the district – and wrote that he was quitting “to uphold my oath to the constitution and the country”.
A reminder that Halligan was appointed after Trump fired her predecessor, Erik Siebert, after Siebert said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey and other Trump adversaries.
Edwards was on the team of attorneys who charged participants in the January 6 attack on the US capitol.
House Democrats call for Epstein victims to testify
Chris Stein
Democrats on the House judiciary committee are asking its Republican leader to allow victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates to testify about “the institutional failures that enabled these horrific crimes”.
The letter, signed by 17 Democrats and led by ranking member Jamie Raskin and congresswoman Deborah Ross, a leader in the Democratic Women’s caucus and longtime champion of sexual violence survivors, comes amid continued pressure for the Trump administration to authorize the release of more files related to the disgraced financier.
“The release of Justice Department files related to the sex trafficking ring led by Mr Epstein, while necessary, is not a substitute for the voices of these survivors,” the letter reads.
“The House Judiciary Committee has an important role to play in addressing the institutional failures that enabled these horrific crimes and failed to protect the women and girls he trafficked and abused.”
Testimony by the survivors – some of whom appeared at a press conference outside the US Capitol earlier this month – “will help Congress to better understand the systemic breakdowns and shortcomings that enabled Mr Epstein’s network to operate for so long, including potential gaps in law enforcement practices, prosecutorial discretion, victim protection protocols, reporting requirements, and institutional oversight.”
A spokesperson for the committee’s Republican chair, Jim Jordan, did not respond to a request for comment.
The demand comes as a petition to force a vote in the House on legislation to release the Epstein files draws near to receiving the 218th signature necessary for its success, after Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election for a vacant seat earlier this week.
Trump says he hopes ‘there will be others’ after Comey indictment
Earlier, on the south lawn of the White House, Donald Trump took a few questions from reporters.
“It’s about justice, it’s not about revenge,” the president said with regard to James Comey’s indictment. “He didn’t think it’d be caught, and he got caught,” Trump said, referring to the former FBI director he fired in 2017. “He lied. He lied a lot.”
The president also said that he hopes “there will be others” who are prosecuted.
Without giving much detail, the president also said that he “thinks we have a deal with Gaza”.
“I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back. It’s going to be a deal that will end the war,” he said.
“That’ll be number eight,” he added, referring to his misleading list of conflicts that he’s resolved since he returned to the White House.
The president has just left DC to attend the Ryder Cup tournament in New York. He didn’t stop for questions as he boarded the plane.
Barbara McQuade, former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan, made a key point on social media today about the grounds for a Comey conviction.
She notes that while “probable cause is legally sufficient” in order to obtain an indictment, the justice department policy requires enough evidence to “obtain and sustain a conviction”.
“That means proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” she adds.
Netanyahu addresses the UN general assembly
Right now, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is speaking at the United Nations general assembly in New York.
According to my colleague Amy Sedghi, before he started speaking, dozens of delegates in the hall walked out. There were boos and cheers.
Netanyahu just thanked Donald Trump for his “his bold, decisive action against Iran” earlier this year.
As a reminder, that you can follow the latest developments at our dedicated liveblog below.
Robert Mackey
Donald Trump’s long public campaign to get someone in his administration to bring criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director he fired in 2017, finally succeeded on Thursday.
But the president has been so public about his loathing of the indicted man, and his desire to see him jailed, that it might be hard for prosecutors to convince a jury that the case was not brought for political reasons.
Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 after he reportedly refused a request to pledge his loyalty to the newly elected president, and then publicly confirmed to Congress that the FBI was conducting a counterintelligence investigation of Russian efforts to help Trump get elected in 2016.
Trump’s firing of Comey backfired, however, because it helped convince then deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, to, in his words, “oversee the previously confirmed FBI investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters”.
Although Mueller’s report, issued in 2019, concluded that his team “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities”, the investigation unearthed evidence that a Russian effort did take place and, in Mueller’s words, “established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome”.
Mueller added that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts”.
The indictment of Comey comes as Trump seeks to use the power of the justice department to punish a man he sees as a central figure in the Russia investigation he has continually described as “a witch-hunt” and “a hoax”.
Ahead of government funding expiring, House Democrats hold caucus meeting
The House Democratic caucus will meet virtually today at 2pm EST, ahead of a looming government shutdown just five days away.
Congressional Democrats have so far been united in their push-back on the Republican-written resolution to extend government funding until 21 November. For the president’s part, he cancelled a meeting with Democratic leadership that was scheduled for this week.
Democrats have also called the memo by the office of management and budget (OMB) – which told federal agencies to prepare for a reduction in force in the event of a shutdown – an intimidation tactic.
The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, called Russ Vought, the director of the OMB, a “malignant political hack” earlier this week, and told him to “get lost”.
“We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings,” Jeffries added.
ACLU calls Comey indictment ‘a grotesque abuse of presidential power’
In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that the indictment of former FBI director James Comey “represents a grotesque abuse of presidential power”.
“By firing his previously appointed U.S. Attorney and installing someone who would do his bidding and bring criminal charges at his direction. President Trump has yet again proven his disdain for the principles that have actually made America great,” said Mike Zamore, the ACLU’s national director of policy and government affairs. “The president and his administration have corrupted our system of justice to turn his campaign of retribution into reality.”
Donald Trump will leave the White House at about 9:50am EST to attend the Ryder Cup golf tournament in Bethpage, New York. We’ll keep an eye out for the president if he speaks to reporters en route.
He’ll spend the day at the competition before heading back to DC at 3:30pm EST.
President Donald Trump insisted South Korea will provide billions of dollars in investments “upfront”, despite Seoul’s assertion that it would suffer a financial crisis if it meets the US demands without safeguards.
In July, South Korea pledged $350bn toward US projects, but has balked at US demands for control over the funds and South Korean officials say talks to formalise their trade deal are at a deadlock.
Earlier this month, Trump formalised a trade deal with Japan, lowering tariffs on Japanese automobile imports and other products in return for $550bn of Japanese investment in US projects, and US officials have pressed Seoul to follow suit.
“We have in Japan it’s $550bn, South Korea’s $350bn. That’s upfront,” Trump told reporters on Thursday in the Oval Office as he touted the amount of money he said his sweeping tariffs have brought in.
South Korea, however, says it cannot afford to structure its investments in the same way as Japan, and president Lee Jae Myung told Reuters last week that without safeguards such as a currency swap, South Korea’s economy could be plunged into crisis.