Pope’s one-word message to the United States goes viral

The case has deeply divided Americans. Many view the charges as an important step toward accountability, emphasizing that all citizens, regardless of position or influence, are subject to the law. Others see the prosecution as politically motivated and believe it unfairly targets a former president and leading political figure.

As the case proceeds through the courts, attention will focus on legal arguments, evidence, and testimony rather than political rhetoric. Whatever the final verdict may be, the proceedings are likely to leave a lasting impact on the nation. The case will influence future discussions about presidential authority, legal accountability, and public trust in America’s democratic institutions.

President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama were at odds again in public after elections in Hungary saw the administration’s preferred candidate, now former Prime Minister Victor Orban, defeated by a left-wing candidate, Peter Magyar.

Before the election, Trump dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Hungary for a last-minute boost of U.S. support.

But that didn’t seem to make much difference, and Magyar won comfortably, leading Obama to gloat online.

“The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world. Most of all, it’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the Hungarian people – and a reminder to all of us to keep striving for fairness, equality and the rule of law,” Obama wrote on X.

Orban governed Hungary for 16 years, and he won each time through democratic elections.

Meanwhile, Obama has been feuding with Trump and the MAGA movement in other ways, including supporting redistricting in Virginia and California after opposing it in Texas, Missouri, and other red states.

He also used the occasion of the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson to attack the Trump administration and Republicans in general with a fearmongering speech that even drew the rebuke of Jesse Jackson Jr., the late civil rights icon’s son.

Earlier this month, Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth both took Obama to task for gifting the Iranian regime with “piles” of cash that enabled Tehran to obtain the ballistic missiles and weapons that were used to target American and allied installations throughout the Middle East.

Their remarks come as the United States and Israel enter the fourth week of Operation Epic Fury, which aims to eliminate Iran’s military capabilities following Trump’s claim that the Iranian regime is rebuilding its nuclear weapons program.

During remarks at the FII PRIORITY Summit on Friday, Trump also lashed out at Obama for his ‘nuclear deal’ with Iran that the current president ended during his first term after revealing that Tehran was cheating and continuing to develop a nuclear weapons capability in secret.

Trump mentioned the $1.7 billion payment made to Iran during the execution of the Iran nuclear deal. He described the funds as cash delivered by airplane and expressed his dissatisfaction with this action, stating that it provided Iran with the means to finance hostile activities.

“That Barack Hussein Obama, did you ever hear of him? Barack Hussein Obama, he had the Iran nuclear deal. He went to Iran, he paid them,” the POTUS said. “Remember, he sent two Boeing 757 jetliners. They took the seats out and they piled it with cash, like 1.7 billion of cash.”

“That’s when I realized the president is very powerful. The presidency is a very powerful thing when you can do that. I haven’t done that yet. I haven’t found a reason to do that yet, but that’s big,” the Republican leader expressed.

At the time, Obama justified the massive payout by claiming Iran was owed the money over a legal claim related to a failed arms deal in 1979 after the Islamic revolution ushered in the ayatollah and deposed the Shah, taking dozens of Americans prisoner and holding them for more than 440 days.

“You know, there wasn’t a bank in DC, Virginia, or Maryland that had any money after that disaster,” Trump said.

“But they sent the cash to Iran, but more importantly, they signed an agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, which, if I didn’t terminate it in my first term, I terminated it almost immediately. If I didn’t terminate it, they would have had a nuclear weapon long ago, and they would have used it on the Middle East, Israel,” the commander-in-chief further stated.

Flanagan received a random case assignment on Tuesday after a grand jury indicted Comey on charges alleging that he threatened Trump by posting a photo on Instagram that featured seashells arranged in an “86 47” pattern in May 2025.

She has presided over thousands of cases throughout her tenure as an Article III judge. The U.S. Senate confirmed her as a federal district court judge in July 2003. Prior to this, she served as a federal magistrate judge and worked at the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Washington, D.C., before it merged with Dentons, the ABA Journal reports.

“Every case requires an investigation, and what you just showed is one part of that investigation. What you just showed is the Instagram post,” he told Fox News.

“Rest assured that the career Assistant United States Attorneys in North Carolina, the career FBI agents, the career Secret Service agents that investigated this case didn’t just look at the Instagram post and walk away,” he continued.

“That’s why you saw an indictment last week, notwithstanding the fact that it was last May that the post was made. So I am not permitted to get into details of what the grand jury heard or found, as you know, but rest assured that it’s not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted,” Blanche added.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have revived a dormant investigation into whether Comey illegally leaked classified information to a trusted media cutout, two people familiar with the matter said, creating a third active criminal front against the longtime Trump antagonist.

The case centers on Comey’s decision to hand over sensitive memos documenting his private conversations with then-President Donald Trump to Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman, who then fed the material to The New York Times. The disclosures formed the basis of a May 2017 front-page story that fueled the Russia collusion narrative early in Trump’s first term.

The probe, if it results in charges, would mark the Trump Justice Department’s third indictment of Comey since last fall — on top of a Florida review of a broader conspiracy case and a fresh North Carolina grand-jury indictment returned April 28 for an alleged social-media threat against the president.

Sources described active meetings in recent weeks between Blanche’s deputy office and a small team of EDVA prosecutors. The department has not yet decided whether to seek an indictment in Virginia, where Comey lives, or shift the case to New York, where Richman resides.

Timing remains unclear, but the renewed push reflects heightened pressure inside the Trump DOJ to reopen matters the president has repeatedly called out as examples of a politicized “deep state.”

The development carries particular irony. In the earlier Mar-a-Lago documents case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, the Justice Department and FBI insisted that any document they labeled “classified” was off-limits to judicial review or disclosure to the defendant. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ruling that classification status is whatever the executive branch’s national-security apparatus says it is.

That precedent now applies with full force to Comey’s memos. If the current DOJ and intelligence community deem the documents classified — because they memorialize the president’s discussions on ongoing national-security matters — Comey’s defense that the memos were never classified collapses under the same legal standard his allies once championed.

The comment came in the wake of Sunday’s announcement from Joe Biden’s office revealing that the former president has an aggressive form of prostate cancer. The disclosure has fueled speculation among many, including medical experts and physicians, who believe that Biden, his medical team, and close advisers may have concealed the diagnosis.

Among them is President Donald Trump, who said on Monday that “somebody is not telling the facts.”

Hours earlier, Leo Terrell of the DOJ went so far as to suggest that Jill Biden should – or at least could – be prosecuted.

Reposting a tweet from a conservative internet personality, Terrell wrote, “Elder Abuse! Criminal Charges??”

Several top physicians and medical experts have expressed astonishment that Biden’s prostate cancer was not found much sooner.

Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, according to a statement from his personal office on Sunday.

“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement noted.

It added, “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management.”

Biden and his family “are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” according to CNN.

Not long after the news broke, leading experts began posing questions about the diagnosis. Donald Trump Jr. posted a screengrab of a statement from physician Dr. Steven Quay, who called prostate cancer “the easiest cancer to diagnose when it first starts and to watch it progress to bone metastases.”

Quay noted that routine blood tests recommended for men over 50 indicate how rapidly cancer can grow.

“It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the Presidency,” wrote Dr. Howie Forman, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, public health management, and economics at Yale.

He pointed out that the prostate-specific antigen test would have indicated he had cancer “for some time before this diagnosis,” considering its aggressive nature.

Dr. Vin Gupta, an NBC News medical contributor, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough on Monday that Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush all have records confirming easily accessible prostate exams.

But there is no record of Biden receiving one, and his past medical records are not accessible — only vague summaries — leading to more speculation that his cancer, along with his diminished mental condition, was being hidden from Americans.

Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel also seemed to question the odd nature of Biden’s diagnosis announcement.

“This was found by physical examination by a prostate exam,” he said Sunday evening. “A lot of times, we find an elevation in prostate-specific antigen, PSA, and then we go after it.”

He further noted that he tests all of his male patients who are over the age of 45. Siegel explained that when a test shows elevated PSA levels, he typically orders an MRI immediately, followed by a decision on whether a biopsy is needed.

In Biden’s case, however, doctors proceeded with a biopsy only after he reported experiencing urinary symptoms — a development Siegel noted can indicate that the cancer has already begun to spread.

“I mean, he must have had the best possible care here,” Siegel said. “I’m a little taken aback that it’s this far advanced.”

Bob Packwood, a Republican from Oregon who served in the Senate for 27 years before resigning in shame due to accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct, passed away on Saturday at the age of 93.

His family sent media outlets an obituary announcing his passing. The cause of death was not revealed.

Packwood’s career followed a well-known pattern in Washington: a lengthy history of legislative success, followed by a dramatic decline brought on by personal wrongdoing that no amount of policy success could undo.

He was once a prominent member of the Senate Finance Committee, a supporter of comprehensive tax reform, and a moderate Republican who disagreed with his party on social issues.

In the end, none of it mattered.

Over two dozen women, both acquaintances and former employees, accused Packwood of making unwanted or uninvited sexual advances.

Two weeks after his reelection in 1992, the Washington Post published testimonies from accusers, bringing the accusations to the public’s attention.

By 1993, the Senate Ethics Committee had begun a formal investigation.

Packwood had left the chamber he had entered in 1968 as a 36-year-old upstart by September 1995.

Sen. Wayne L. Morse, a Democrat who had served in the Senate for 23 years, was narrowly defeated by Packwood in his first Senate contest.

Packwood, who was the great-grandson of a participant in the 1857 Oregon Constitutional Convention, established himself as a Republican who was prepared to take on members of his own party.

After President Ronald Reagan publicly accused him of alienating women, African Americans, and Jews, the White House supported a primary opponent.

Organizations like Planned Parenthood praised him for his support of abortion rights, which was uncommon for a Republican at the time.

He was a key player in the comprehensive tax reform of 1986 that reduced the highest income tax bracket and did away with numerous itemized deductions.

He became chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 1980, and he even briefly contemplated running for president.

Investigators also looked into whether Packwood had used Senate employees to intimidate accusers into silence, asked lobbyists for jobs for his ex-wife, and interfered with the investigation by falsifying his personal diaries.

The diaries turned into the main arena of conflict.

They were subpoenaed by the Ethics Committee. Packwood declined to cooperate.

In 1993, the Senate debated the subpoena for two days before passing a resounding, bipartisan vote of 94 to 6 to enforce it.

Packwood lost the battle when it went to the federal courts.

Then he requested intervention from the US Supreme Court.

William Rehnquist, Chief Justice, declined. The scandal grew after the diaries were turned over.

Before the Ethics Committee could finish its work and the Senate as a whole could decide whether to expel Packwood, he resigned in September 1995.

In 1996, Democrat Ron Wyden won a special election to replace him.

Wyden, who still holds the seat Packwood vacated three decades ago, issued a statement that did not soften the diplomatic tone.

Wyden said, “His horrible history as documented in his own diaries will forever overshadow that public record. Simply put, historians’ first line about Bob Packwood must include those women who he abused and assaulted for years and years.”

Christine Drazan, an Oregon state senator and Republican candidate for governor, responded to the news on social media.

“From the Oregon House of Representatives to more than a quarter-century in the United States Senate, Bob Packwood was a consequential figure whose influence shaped generations of political leaders and public policy debates. As Oregon reflects on his life and legacy, I extend my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones,” she wrote.

Fox News host Will Cain sounded the alarm recently and called attention to seven high-profile scientists and others with connections to sensitive government research who have recently turned up missing or dead.

In a segment that aired on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show,” the host highlighted the “overlap” between those seven cases and why more people should be “very concerned” about these developments.

“There’s a story that caught our attention,” Cain said in a clip posted to the social media platform X. “We’re talking about a number of U.S. scientists — some connected to very sensitive research — who have died or disappeared. Let’s break down what we know so far.”

The host then walked to a nearby screen that featured photos of the dead and missing.

“I’m going to start with Carl Grillmair,” Cain said. “Carl Grillmair, pictured here, was an astrophysicist at Caltech. He worked on a NASA-supported space telescope project and infrared systems. Now, he was shot and killed at his home just two months ago.”

Next, the host turned to an unexplained death from two years ago.

“Then there’s Frank Maiwald,” Cain added. “He was a senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, focused on advanced satellite systems. And he died nearly two years ago, but his cause of death has never been made public.”

Cain then identified four individuals with similar connections who have all vanished.

“Meanwhile, Monica Reza — Monica Reza, also reportedly connected to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab project — she went missing last summer while hiking in California. No trace,” the host added. “It keeps going. There’s William McCasland, a retired Air Force general. He, too, is missing. He’s a former head of Air Force Research Lab, and oversaw advanced space and surveillance programs. He’s been missing since February. Reports say he once oversaw funding connected to a project that also included Monica Reza.”

Cain went on to say that two of the four missing people have ties to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which is well-known for its part in the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II.

“Now, there’s more,” the host continued. “To New Mexico: Melissa Casias. She has been missing since last summer. She worked at Los Alamos National Lab. She had an administrative role, but reportedly also had security clearances. Just months earlier, she went missing. So, too, did Anthony Chavez — also connected to Los Alamos, an engineer. He disappeared during a walk. No signs. No answers.”

WATCH:

Cain was talking about a chilling story published by the Daily Mail, which focused on Casias in particular.

“In a classified lab, or just a high clearance lab, they would basically be in the know on what’s going on,” former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said of Casias, whom he characterized as a prime target for kidnapping. “And it wouldn’t be the first time their administrative assistant has been targeted.”

“And then, finally,” Cain continued, “there’s Nuno Loureiro. You remember Nuno Loureiro — he was the MIT researcher focused on nuclear fusion and was shot and killed in his Massachusetts home last December. It was the case of the Brown shooter — it’s a separate case, with no confirmed links to others.”

Cain concluded by speculating about possible connections in these seven cases.

“But here’s the key point,” he said, “authorities have not connected these cases. But look at the overlap. The same handful of institutions: NASA, Air Force Research, Los Alamos Laboratory. So could they be connected? Or is this something else entirely?”