Gabbard Sends Criminal Referral for Key Figure in Trump Impeachment

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is once again helping President Donald Trump’s campaign of retribution. 

The ODNI’s general counsel on Wednesday referred the whistleblower who led to Trump’s first impeachment, and the inspector general who found the complaint credible, for criminal prosecution, MS NOW reported.  

The whistleblower, whose identity has not been made public, claimed that in July 2019, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in an attempt to pressure the foreign leader into investigating then-former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. 

Despite Trump’s insistence that his phone call was “perfect,” the president was impeached by the House of Representatives in 2019, and then acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate in early 2020. 

Earlier this week, Gabbard criticized how former intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson handled the whistleblower complaint, alleging that the watchdog had relied on “secondhand evidence.” 

She released a trove of documents related to Atkinson that she claimed revealed a “coordinated effort” by members of the intelligence community to “manufacture a conspiracy” to get Trump impeached. Ultimately, the documents did not demonstrate any criminal wrongdoing at all, CBS News reported.

It seems that Trump is after something specific with this latest attack against his perceived political enemies. Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday about the possibility of getting his impeachment “expunged.” If that’s really what he’s after, all of Gabbard’s efforts may be for nothing: Unfortunately for Trump, impeachment expungement is not really a thing. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is preaching from the Pentagon pulpit again.

In the midst of an Iran war briefing Thursday, Hegseth delivered a sermon from the Defense Department’s press room dais, scolding the American press for its “relentlessly negative” coverage of the Trump administration and comparing journalists to the biblical Pharisees.

“A note to the press corps, as I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage,” Hegseth said, referring to America’s myriad journalistic organizations as if they operate as some ubiquitous entity. “Sometimes it’s hard to figure out which side some of you are actually on. It’s incredibly unpatriotic.

“This past Sunday I was sitting in church with my family, and our minister preached from the Book of Mark, the third chapter. And in the passage, Jesus entered a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand.

“The Pharisees came to watch, and as the Scripture reads, they came to see whether He, Jesus, would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. You see, the Pharisees, the so-called elites of their time, were there to witness, to write everything down, to report. But their hearts were hardened,” Hegseth said.

“Even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda,” Hegseth continued. “I sat there in church, and I thought, ‘These press are just like these Pharisees.’ Not all of you, but the legacy, Trump-hating press.”

Hegseth then asked the press to “open their eyes” to the “historic goodness” of America’s military might, the recent developments in the war in Iran (which includes thousands of dead civilians, 13 dead U.S. service members, and internal reports that regional American bases were caught off guard), “historic recruiting numbers,” and two “miracle” search-and-rescue operations.

The Pentagon chief was apparently undeterred by recent backlash to the Trump administration’s explicit evangelical bent.

Over the weekend, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ to his Truth Social acount, setting off sparks among even some of his most ardent supporters. Several self-identified Trump voters interviewed by MS NOW said that they were “disgusted” and “ashamed” of the image, which depicted Trump as a haloed messiah. Trump deleted the image shortly afterward, telling reporters that he believed it illustrated him as a doctor healing people.

Federal employees across the executive branch have also complained about the administration’s hyperfixation on Christianity, claiming that the religious inclusions—which flagrantly defy the First Amendment and the Founders’ intention to separate church and state—have made the government a very uncomfortable place to work. Other, non-Christian staffers have expressed that the environment has made them fearful of potential retaliation within the workplace for failing to homogeneously identify as the same religion as their leadership.

Somehow, those aren’t the administration’s only recent Christian faux pas. The White House is also in the middle of a feud with Pope Leo XIV, who has apparently upset the president and a number of Trump’s underlings by advocating for world peace. Last week, reports emerged that the Pentagon had openly threatened a Vatican ambassador in January, days after the pope made antiwar remarks during his State of the World address.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday refused to rally behind twin resolutions sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders to block nearly $450 million in weapons sales to Israel.

Seven Democrats joined every Republican in the Senate to vote against a resolution blocking the sale of bulldozers to Israel, given their role in razing Gaza to the ground. The resolution failed by a vote of 59-40. Another resolution to block the transfer of 1000-pound bombs failed by a vote of 63-36, with 11 Democrats voting against.

Despite protests at their offices on Monday urging them to support the resolution, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand still voted against both resolutions.

This was the latest in a series of efforts by Sanders to halt weapons sales to Israel, which is bombing Lebanon and Iran with U.S. weapons and continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank despite a ceasefire, exacerbating an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Israel is also accused of encouraging ethnic cleansing against Shia Muslims in southern Lebanon.

“Under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, we’ve seen an expanded war in Lebanon that is putting innocent Lebanese civilians at risk, and ongoing violence against Palestinians and their homes being demolished in the West Bank,” said Senator Mark Kelly, who had voted against Sanders’s previous two resolutions against weapons sales to Israel. “All of this has undermined the path forward for peace.”

Last July, 19 Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blocked Sanders’s last attempt. This time, Kelly was among the Democratic senators who changed their minds and voted for the resolution, taking into account that the resolutions are intertwined with President Trump’s unpopular war in Iran. A vote to continue weapons sales, which include $150 million in 1,000-pound bombs and $300 million in bulldozers, could be seen by voters as an endorsement of the war, which has hurt the economy and caused gas prices to skyrocket.

Here is the full list of Democrats who voted to continue sending bombs to Israel, with those who voted against both resolutions in bold:

1. Richard Blumenthal (CT)
2. Chris Coons (DE)
3. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
4. John Fetterman (PA)
5. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
6. Gary Peters (MI)
7. Jack Reed (RI)
8. Jackie Rosen (NV)
9. Chuck Schumer (NY)
10. Mark Warner (VA)
11. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

* This article has been updated to clarify the number of resolutions and how Democrats voted on each one.

A Black former federal employee is suing the Trump administration, claiming he was fired because of his race.

Alvin Brown, a Democratic member of the National Transportation Safety Board nominated by President Biden, was fired from his post in May 2025. In his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Brown said that political differences couldn’t have been the main reason for his firing from the NTSB. Brown’s lawyers, who work for the Democracy Forward Foundation, also claim that 75 percent of Black officials at independent agencies have been fired under Trump.

“Mr. Brown’s removal from the NTSB cannot be explained by the fact that Mr. Brown is a Democrat and President Trump might have wanted to exert Republican control over the Board,” the lawsuit states. “At the time of Mr. Brown’s removal from the NTSB, there were two other Democrats serving on the Board.”

Since Brown’s firing was racially motivated, the lawsuit alleges, it “therefore violated Mr. Brown’s constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment.” The lawsuit also points to people of color being dismissed at agencies including the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the Library of Congress.

The lawsuit cited Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the fact that Brown’s replacement, John DeLeeuw, is white.

“President Trump has removed Black Senate-confirmed appointees; he has either nominated a non-Black individual for their replacement or has not formally replaced them at all,” the lawsuit states. “This trend fits with President Trump’s consistent messaging criticizing diversity and inclusion and his clear and demonstrable emphasis on hiring white people.”

Senate Republicans are allowing Donald Trump to continue to wage war with impunity.

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to block a resolution that would have stopped Trump from taking further military action in Iran without the express approval of Congress. The vote was 47–52, largely along party lines, with Senator Rand Paul joining the Democrats, and Senator John Fetterman siding with Republicans.

Some Republicans, however, expressed that they were nearing their breaking points. 

“I hope that we are arriving at an exit strategy here to bring this to a close to preserve our security interests and bring down the cost of gasoline. They’re very high. Very, very high,” said Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. 

Gas prices in the U.S. have surged beyond $4 a gallon as crude oil has climbed to more than $100 per barrel, placing a significant strain on Americans’ pocketbooks. Trump’s blockade of Iranian ports will only send prices higher.

It’s been 47 days since Trump first struck Iran. That means he has less than two weeks to acquire support from Congress. The War Powers Act states that the president can legally deploy armed forces in a hostile environment for a period of 60 days without congressional approval.  

South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds said that if Trump expects Congress to support the conflict beyond the 60-day window, then the administration should be prepared to “come in and give us a full description of it and sell the point and the plan.”

“We’ve got to start answering questions,” said North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. “The 60-day target is what I’m looking at.”

Earlier this month, Utah Senator John Curtis had warned Deseret News, “I will not support ongoing military action beyond a 60-day window without congressional approval. I take this position for two reasons—one is historical, and one is constitutional.”