David Edwards

Court watchers reacted with shock after a federal judge found that former officials in President Donald Trump’s administration knowingly spread false accusations against a fired official at a federal disaster agency.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick cleared the name of Mary Comans, the former chief financial officer of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in a written ruling Tuesday after a rare “name-clearing hearing” run by the court.

The judge found that officials including former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Elon Musk, then head of the Department of Government Efficiency, “engaged in a coordinated public relations campaign” to damage her reputation....

A federal judge ordered an additional two-week ban on cutting trees at a Washington golf course after President Donald Trump’s administration cut down hundreds despite her warnings.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes granted a temporary restraining order on Tuesday barring the government from felling any more trees at East Potomac Golf Course through Oct. 26, just a day after saying she could not trust the government.

The order also requires officials to give the court and the plaintiffs three business days’ written notice before making any permanent changes to the course....

New press secretary Katie Zacharia had a rough start at the White House this week as she landed in a small corner office while President Donald Trump’s enforcer kept the large office press secretaries traditionally use.

Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, is “the current occupant of the large office in the White House West Wing traditionally occupied by the press secretary,” CBS News reporter Jennifer Jacobs wrote on X Tuesday.

Zacharia “is in the small corner office in that suite of rooms,” Jacobs wrote. The arrangement added to a tough first day for Zacharia, who now shares that suite with an aide known for insulting reporters....

The Supreme Court granted a Justice Department request to review an order that could expose how much power the White House’s cost-cutting office wielded over firings and spending cuts across the government.

The justices granted the petition Tuesday, according to the court’s docket. The government is fighting a lawsuit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington seeking records from the Department of Government Efficiency, officially known as the U.S. DOGE Service.

CREW argues the office wielded enough independent power to fall under the Freedom of Information Act. It’s the second time the case has reached the justices, who last year reined in an earlier order, the Associated Press reported....

U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle lavished praise on President Donald Trump after his White House asked her to resign.

Guilfoyle’s praise came in a lengthy statement she posted on X Tuesday, the same day White House press secretary Katie Zacharia announced the request at her debut briefing. The move came amid scrutiny of Guilfoyle’s conduct before and after she became ambassador, CNBC reported.

“Serving as the United States Ambassador to Greece has been the honor of a lifetime. I will forever be grateful to President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for entrusting me with the extraordinary privilege of representing the greatest country in the history of the world,” Guilfoyle wrote....