The Latest: Ex-CIA Director seeks court order requiring records from investigations be preserved
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8:08 AM on Thursday, July 2
By The Associated Press
Former CIA Director John Brennan sued the Trump administration Wednesday, demanding a court order that would require officials to preserve records from investigations he says are targeting him for “what amounts to phantom criminal conduct.”
The lawsuit says the records would shed light on the motivations of government officials who are investigating Brennan.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump visited North Dakota on Wednesday to see the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the life of America’s 26th president, built in the rugged, lonely landscape where Roosevelt built his conservation values in the 1880s.
Here's the latest:
On Saturday, Trump’s administration plans to launch Trump Accounts, tying the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence to an effort to boost financial independence for American kids.
Under the program, parents can open investment accounts for any child born during Trump’s second term and automatically receive $1,000 from the government. Accounts can be opened on behalf of older children — as long as they don’t turn 18 before the end of the calendar year — but they won’t get the $1,000.
That money — and anything else deposited by employers, philanthropies and relatives — is invested in the stock market by private firms. Children can’t access the money until they turn 18, and then only for specific purposes, like paying for a home or school.
The administration is proposing the new rule Thursday to keep hospitals from charging markups on discounted drugs for Medicare patients and says that could save consumers $1.1 billion next year, according to estimates obtained by The Associated Press.
The rule would apply to hospitals that serve low-income patients under what’s known as the 340B program, which lets hospitals buy outpatient prescription drugs at discounted prices. But in many cases, hospitals can bill insurers at rates that exceed those costs, allowing hospitals to keep the difference and resulting in higher costs to patients.
Under the proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would change the formula for what hospitals participating in the program can get reimbursed, in an effort to cut costs for patients.
The Republican administration has sought to show during an election year that it’s tackling the challenges of affordability for U.S. families at a time when rising healthcare costs are driving financial strains for households and the government alike. While the administration has taken several steps it says will save money on medical treatment, it’s unclear how much savings might ultimately materialize based on the complexity of the country’s healthcare system.
President Trump and his fellow Republicans are reviving a line of attack against Democrats heading into the midterm elections: They’re communists.
In just the past week, Trump has issued dark warnings that members of the Democratic Party’s ascendant left are communists who want to “completely destroy the traditional American way of life” and even engage in assassinations. Vice President JD Vance has similarly called out communism as a political shift that is “something we haven’t seen in the U.S.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried “radical candidates” who are “self-described, self-identifying Marxists.”
The GOP’s ideological focus conflates democratic socialism, which often centers on securing universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter corporate regulation, with communism, under which private ownership is largely eliminated. It’s been building since Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor last year.
But it’s kicked into a higher gear recently after democratic socialists won several New York City congressional primaries last week.
For decades, all that separated the U.S. from Mexico was barbed wire.
Now, after a massive infusion of cash from Congress, Trump’s administration is swiftly building what it’s dubbed a “smart wall,” a combination of 30-foot-tall (9-meter-tall) steel fencing and an array of sophisticated technology like sensors, cameras and towers allowing Border Patrol to surveil the territory.
The wall is under heavy scrutiny for the billions of dollars being dedicated to it when border crossings are at their lowest in decades. Critics say the U.S. is militarizing the border as it increasingly deploys sophisticated surveillance technology to the area, impacting local communities.
“We are seeing a massive expansion of surveillance and surveillance technology across the borderlands,” said Ricky Garza, border policy counsel at the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an advocacy group. “The wall in all its forms is harmful to communities.”
Officials say the technology is complementary to the physical wall and frees up agents for other tasks.
“It’s a smart wall. It’s not just a barrier,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said during recent congressional testimony.
Trump’s latest financial disclosure report showed he took in about $1.2 billion last year from various crypto holdings, overshadowing a real estate business that brought him fame and helped propel him to the nation’s top office.
Whereas it took decades for Trump to amass his various properties, the rise of crypto in his portfolio was done in just over a year.
Running over 900 pages, the mandatory annual report showed Trump struck several other new veins of wealth last year, raising questions about whether he is profiting from his high office.
He took in tens of millions from new property holdings in foreign countries eager to please a man with power over where to deploy the U.S. military and how much to charge in tariffs. And he got tens of million more suing media companies worried they could lose their broadcast licenses or not get deals approved by his regulators.
Ever the salesman, Trump even made big money off the smallest of things, pulling in millions by slapping his name on Bibles, guitars and watches — the latter alone bringing in $4.7 million.
Trump visited North Dakota on Wednesday to see the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the life of America’s 26th president, built in the rugged, lonely landscape where Roosevelt built his conservation values in the 1880s.
During a tour of the 96,000-square-foot library and in a speech afterward, Trump spoke admiringly of Roosevelt and compared himself favorably to the former president, who he described as the embodiment of the American spirit, praising his toughness as a leader and outdoorsman.
“He had a freakin’ wild life,” Trump told an audience at a Western-themed amphitheater. “He didn’t want to be quiet. He wanted to be great.”
The official opening of the library on Saturday coincides with July 4th celebrations honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Former CIA Director John Brennan sued the Trump administration Wednesday, demanding a court order that would require officials to preserve records from investigations that he says are targeting him for “what amounts to phantom criminal conduct.”
The lawsuit says the records would shed light on the motivations of government officials who are investigating Brennan and would form the basis of defense efforts to dismiss any eventual indictment on grounds that the case constitutes a vindictive prosecution.
Such an argument, his lawyers said, would be supported by the more than 100 verbal or written statements that President Donald Trump has made since 2017 lambasting Brennan and by the Republican president’s directives to his Justice Department to initiate investigations of Brennan “without regard to factual or legal justification.”
Without an order, the lawsuit contends, the records are at risk of being lost or intentionally deleted.
