Trump News

Donald Trump’s obsession with proving that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him apparently has some limits, the Wall Street Journal is reporting

According to the Journal's report, the White House has been pursuing an elaborate investigation into alleged 2020 election improprieties, centered around campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen, who led Trump's failed "Stop the Steal" efforts four years ago. But when Olsen pushed a far-fetched Venezuelan vote-manipulation theory, even Trump officials couldn't maintain a straight face.

Olsen has briefed Trump on various allegations, demanded the declassification of documents, and requested up to $10 million in funding for his investigation. Prosecutors in Atlanta, Phoenix, and other cities have launched criminal investigations based on his theories. Yet Trump has resisted declassifying some documents and hasn't approved Olsen's full funding request — a potential sign of wavering confidence.

The breaking point came when DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin arranged a Palm Beach meeting between Trump officials and an unlikely duo: Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer known for hunting Osama bin Laden, and Martín Rodil, a Venezuelan fixer, Raw Story reported.

For nearly three hours, the pair presented a slideshow with diagrams, documents, and videos purporting to show that Venezuelan operatives could manipulate U.S. voting machines to alter 2020 election results.

The reaction was telling: Trump officials were left "speechless" by what they viewed as a waste of time.

"They looked at it in horror," Berntsen said.

Some White House and Justice Department officials have openly disagreed with Olsen's declassification demands and his pursuit of the Venezuela conspiracy theory. The Venezuelan allegations have been briefed to federal prosecutors in Florida and Texas and triggered an investigation in Puerto Rico.

After the U.S. captured Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro, Trump amplified the Venezuela vote-rigging narrative on social media — contradicting his own team's earlier dismissal of the theory.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are facing federal court action over a systematic campaign to purge the bureau of perceived political enemies, according to a lawsuit filed in D.C. District Court, reports CBS News.

Three seasoned FBI investigators — Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman, and Michelle Ball — have sued after being terminated for their work on special counsel Jack Smith's investigations into President Trump. But the litigation signals something far broader: a coordinated political purge affecting at least 50 FBI employees, with numbers expected to grow.

The lawsuit, filed against Bondi and Patel, is the second such case this month targeting the Justice Department over retaliatory firings connected to the 2020 election investigation, code-named "Arctic Frost."

"Defendants, the current Director of the FBI, Kashyap P. Patel, and Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi, have, since the beginning of 2025, embarked on a public campaign to oust Plaintiffs from federal service because Defendants perceived them to be political opponents—as if fidelity to the law and the proper execution of assignments were somehow hostile partisan acts," the complaint alleges.

The three named plaintiffs represent a proposed class action that could expand dramatically. The lawsuit estimates at least 50 former agents have been terminated in a similar manner, and that number is expected to grow.

"Defendants have fired more than 50 FBI employees on the basis of their perceived political affiliation, without providing them any modicum of due process, and while disparaging their reputations and service in public statements around the time of the firings," the lawsuit states.

The scope of alleged political retaliation extends far beyond Trump investigators. The proposed class encompasses employees fired for perceived support of Black Lives Matter, displaying LGBTQ pride flags, maintaining friendships with disfavored employees, being targeted by far-right media personalities, and having internal messages flagged by artificial intelligence reviews.

Several former agents have already filed separate complaints over their terminations, including a group of former agents who knelt during 2020 racial justice protests in an effort to prevent violence following George Floyd's death — actions now apparently deemed grounds for federal dismissal.