A federal court ordered the release of disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein's alleged suicide note on Wednesday, according to reports.
The alleged suicide note has been a contentious topic of debate since Epstein died in 2019. A former cellmate of Epstein's claimed he found the note in a graphic novel in their cell.
The release of the document stunned CNN's chief legal correspondent, Katelyn Polantz. She discussed the court order with Jake Tapper on "The Lead" on Wednesday.
"[This is] one of the most sought-after documents that you could imagine in the situation around Jeffrey Epstein," Polantz said. "At a moment of transparency, this is an apparent reported suicide note. Now, there isn't full authentication of this. And just this document has been unsealed by a judge in the case of the man who was in a cell with him."
Leaks exposing White House-peddled lies about the Iran War's toll are "forthcoming," a journalist warned Wednesday as he predicted it will also cost a Trump Cabinet member a job amid other botched cover-up efforts.
David Rothkopf, the chief global affairs columnist for the Daily Beast, wrote on Wednesday about "what seems to be a growing number of sources in the intelligence community and the military who are disturbed enough by the administration's actions" in Iran and at home to hide how bad it's going.
The intelligence community is so disturbed, in fact, that "they are taking the risk of leaking facts that tell the real story of Trump and Hegseth's clusterf---," Rothkopf added. "Journalists with whom I have spoken indicate that more such reports of administration misrepresentation of what's happening in and around the Iran War are forthcoming."
The newest revelations could be enough to finally force Trump to cut ties with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has struggled to sell Trump's falsehoods about how the war is going, Rothkopf pointed out.
Hegseth has tried to portray "a sweeping victory" by the United States in Iran, Rothkopf wrote. However, he pointed out how that was discredited by Washington Post reporting that found that Iran damaged more than 226 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites, which was more than publicly acknowledged.
The defense secretary also "asserted that Iran was the aggressor in this war," and "that, of course, as the world knows, is a bald-faced lie," Rothkopf wrote.
"Will these reports and the pattern of deception ultimately have consequences for Hegseth?" Rothkopf asked. "If this massive Iran cover-up doesn’t cost Pete Hegseth his job, nothing will."
Jesse Watters of Fox News instigated a full-blown shouting match on Wednesday after he told one of his Democratic colleagues that her party does not have any "standards of morality."
Watters sparked a clash with co-hosts Jessica Tarlov and Greg Gutfeld on "The Five" during a debate about why some people continue to support President Donald Trump despite his morally questionable actions. Tarlov claimed Trump is a "completely morally bankrupt person," which seemed to set off Watters and Gutfeld.
"Why should you care that I like him?" Gutfeld shot back at Tarlov.
"I have accepted that you like him, but I think it's hard for someone who cares about someone to say what about ..."
That's when the discussion got heated.
"Tell me why!" Gutfeld raged. "What's underneath?"
"Well, care leads to voting, and then voting leads to bad policy," Tarlov said.
Watters interjected by claiming that Tarlov had "misdiagnosed" why people are attracted to Trump.
"It has nothing to do with morality," Watters said. "You don't care about morality! Your party doesn't support standards of morality!"
Watters: Your party doesn’t support standards of morality.
Jessica: You guys got evangelicals to support a guy who cheated on every single wife he has had. pic.twitter.com/CbHpXqdCaq — Acyn (@Acyn) May 6, 2026
An activist was sounding the alarm over the Los Angeles mayoral race and how incumbent Mayor Karen Bass could be repeating a strategy for MAGA-approved former reality TV star Spencer Pratt — a similar move that ended up costing Hillary Clinton the election against Donald Trump.
Adam Conover, a comedian known for both his jokes and political commentary, offered his views of the upcoming election in Los Angeles and why the stakes were so high.
"There's something really dangerous happening in the LA mayor's race and a lot more people need to be talking about it," Conover said. "So you guys are familiar with how Hillary Clinton boosted Donald Trump's candidacy in 2016 in the primary because she thought it would help her win the general, right? We all know how that turned out. Well Karen Bass is doing the same thing in Los Angeles this year."
Bass, whose campaign has pitted her against current Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Rahman, has viewed Rahman as a top contender, Conover explained.
"Karen is catastrophically unpopular," he added. "She has a 24 percent approval rating because of her mismanagement of the fires and the city budget. And so she has drawn a strong progressive challenger named Nithya Rahman, who has been described in the press as the next Zohran Mamdani and who's running on a platform of housing affordability. So since Karen detects that she might lose, she has started promoting the candidacy of Spencer Pratt, a right-wing MAGA Republican who wants to let ICE invade the city, he vacations with Alex Jones, and he was literally inspired to run by watching Donald Trump on television."
Bass' decision could ultimately put Pratt in a power position, considering that Los Angeles has a nonpartisan primary system, and that on her website she has even called the former "Hills" star a "strong contender for the second spot," Conover argued. He said the maneuver could work in the short-term to boost Pratt's recognition but called it "risky," citing the current mayor's unpopularity among voters.
"All the Republicans and Democrats run against each other and then the top two finishers go to the general election in November," he said. "And in a normal year, LA is so blue that that means that a centrist Democrat usually goes up against a progressive Democrat. Unless the centrist Democrat can get a right-winger to win that second spot. And so that is what the Bass campaign is doing."
A GOP heavyweight tore into President Donald Trump in a new op-ed on Wednesday after he helped the Indiana GOP defeat itself.
On Tuesday, four of Indiana's high-profile GOP lawmakers lost their reelection bids to candidates endorsed by Trump. The endorsement followed months of pressure exerted by Trump on the Indiana state legislature to redraw its congressional election map to help the GOP preserve its majority after the 2026 midterm elections.
Rove argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the Indiana lawmakers had "incensed" Trump by resisting his redistricting demands. But that doesn't excuse Trump pushing for F"intraparty payback" using money the GOP could have spent to defeat vulnerable Democrats instead.
"The stunt did reinforce Mr. Trump’s reputation for being willing to get even if he doesn’t get his way," Rove wrote. "Indiana’s Gov. Mike Braun and U.S. Sen. Jim Banks aided the effort to knock off the legislators. Maybe that makes all three of them stronger, maybe it doesn’t. Either way it will leave scars among Indiana Republicans."
"This president likes calling all the shots," he added. "But attempting to dominate so many of his party’s choices carries risks. Mr. Trump hasn’t learned he can get more with honey than vinegar, doesn’t need to make every pick in every contest and can achieve more by focusing on important stuff and letting GOP voters make up their own minds sometimes. If he keeps up what he did in Indiana, Mr. Trump could further damage his party and presidency."
Another federal appeals court has ruled against President Donald Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement mass detention policy — putting further pressure on the Supreme Court to take up the matter.
A divided 2-1 three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit, with Trump-appointed Judge Barbara Lagoa being the lone dissenter, rejected the Trump administration's policy of mass denying bond to unauthorized immigrants arrested in the interior of the United States — which, the court noted, is supported by three decades of case law.
Trump officials offered up a reinterpretation of a statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), under which unauthorized immigrants arrested inside the country are "applicants for admission," and therefore cannot be released on bond without a high bar of evidence that they are eligible for admission into the country.
The judges rejected this interpretation, noting that the law applies to a completely different category of people.
"We are unpersuaded by the Government’s re-interpretation of § 1225(b)(2)(A)," wrote the majority. "That provision limits no-bond detention to applicants for admission who are 'seeking admission,' and on the facts of this case, neither Petitioner was seeking lawful entry into the United States after inspection by an immigration officer when he was arrested, nor was either Petitioner taking any cognizable step to obtain the rights and privileges of lawful entry. In fact, neither Petitioner was pursuing any object, let alone 'lawful entry,' when he was detained following a traffic stop."
The judges' ruling, noted Politico legal reporter Kyle Cheney on X, "deepens the split among federal circuits and continues likely path the SCOTUS. 425 district courts have rejected the administration’s detention push — backed now by the 11th and 2nd circuits. 49 have endorsed it, backed by the 5th and 8th circuits. The 7th circuit deadlocked."
One of the most classic cases in which the Supreme Court intervenes in an issue is when multiple appellate courts have heard cases about it and ruled in different ways, as is the case here.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito dropped a surprising hint about the court's actions during the Louisiana v. Callais case in his "frosty" response to a dissent written by one of his colleagues.
The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board noted on Tuesday that Alito included a footnote stating that the "constitutional question" the court was asked to decide in the case had been decided on Oct.15. The editorial board appeared to find that surprising, given that the court waited about six months to release its opinion.
"He’s calling unusual attention to the fact that the Justices privately discussed and decided the constitutional issue in Louisiana v. Callais shortly after they heard the oral argument on Oct. 15, 2025," the editorial board wrote in a new editorial.
"We don’t know, but it’s a relevant question given that the later the decision was announced the more states would have passed their primary election deadlines under the unconstitutional map," it continued. "In their concurrence last week, Justices Thomas and Gorsuch said they would have preferred a much more straightforward analysis that the Voting Rights Act bans all racial gerrymanders."
"The footnote suggests some pique by Justice Alito about the Court’s long gestation on Callais, and understandably so since Justice Jackson is accusing the majority of playing politics," it added.
Alito's majority opinion included a rather terse response to the dissent filed by Justice Jackson. She argued that the court had become "unshackled" from its prior restraint and "gave way to power" in Callais.
Alito responded by calling Jackson's dissent "irresponsible."
The Atlantic revealed a startling new detail about FBI Director Kash Patel's drinking habits in an article published on Wednesday.
This comes after an initial expose of Patel from last month that detailed his frequent drunkenness, unexplained absences, and his increasing paranoia that he's going to be dismissed from his job.
"After my story appeared, I heard from people in Patel’s orbit and people he has met at public functions, who told me that it is not unusual for him to travel with a supply of personalized branded bourbon," wrote Sarah Fitzpatrick." The bottles bear the imprint of the Kentucky distillery Woodford Reserve, and are engraved with the words 'Kash Patel FBI Director,' as well as a rendering of an FBI shield."
"Surrounding the shield is a band of text featuring Patel’s director title and his favored spelling of his first name: KA$H," the article continued. "An eagle holds the shield in its talons, along with the number 9, presumably a reference to Patel’s place in the history of FBI directors. In some cases, the 750-milliliter bottles bear Patel’s signature, with '#9' there as well. One such bottle popped up on an online auction site shortly after my story appeared, and The Atlantic later purchased it."
This type of branding is not at all unusual for Patel, the article noted, as he has a history of creating and hawking merchandise of himself: "Merchandise for sale on a website he co-founded — still operating, nearly 15 months into his term — includes beanies ($35), T-shirts ($35), orange camo hoodies ($65), trucker caps ($25), 'government gangsters' playing cards (on sale for $10), and a Fight With Kash Punisher scarf ($25)."
Patel has sued The Atlantic for defamation over the first article, and a report earlier today indicated FBI agents are now investigating how information Fitzpatrick used in the article leaked from inside the bureau.
Former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt on Wednesday anticipated what might happen once President Donald Trump's term is up.
Schmidt had a scathing response on his Substack to Trump's attempts to leave his imprint on the White House and Washington, D.C. He argued that, despite Trump's desires to leave a lasting impression, most of his legacy designs would ultimately be removed.
"Donald Trump would make Marie Antoinette blush," Schmidt said. "He is our American Caligula. Nero. Look at what he's done to the Oval Office, outside on the portico, connecting the residents to the West Wing. All of this, obviously, will need to be torn down. It's awful."
He also mentioned the White House's rose garden, which was paved over for a courtyard with gaudy statues. He slammed the request to Congress for $1 billion for taxpayers to fund "Trump's gilded parties."
"At the beginning, it was simply a straight up shadowy corruption deal," Schmidt said. "The world's richest companies were going to make tribute. Trump was going to pocket some of it and build the ballroom, explicitly, the taxpayer wasn't supposed to be on the hook — but now they are."
"The price tag keeps climbing, and climbing, and climbing," he added.
And the next president will have to face a serious challenge in the wake of Trump's reign — the National Mall.
"The idea that the next president can ignore what Donald Trump has done, regarding his defacements to either the White House, or to the surrounding area in Washington, is dead wrong," Schmidt argued. "And more than that, it won't be accepted by a score of tens of millions of Americans who appreciate the White House belongs to us, not to Donald Trump."
"It is not a castle, nor is it a coliseum for bread and circuses, it's the executive mansion," he said. "What Donald Trump has done... is an embarrassment. It's vulgar, like Lauren Sanchez Bezos and the Met Gala. An abomination. And the next president will need to act to knock down whatever it is Trump has built, wherever it is he has built it."
He slammed the idea that Trump would have airports named after him, and that his name would be removed from them, adding that his Victory Arch would not happen. Schmidt also said that the airplane gifted by the Qataris would also be taken from him.
"Trust me, if I'm president, by the time he gets back to Florida, there will be a team waiting for him to take the airplane," Schmidt explained. "None of it is going to stand. We will have, as Americans, a lot of very, very hard things to do. This is not hard. This is as easy as it gets."
Schmidt warned it was time for Congress to "stop a vandal" — Trump — and made an urgent plea for Democratic lawmakers to take a serious approach to withhold funding and take back control.
"Donald Trump has a Marie Antoinette complex, to say the least," he added. "What he's doing is trailer park trash, that's what Trump is. And, in the end, when he's gone, all of it's going. It must. And no candidate running for president stands a chance without this position."
A local county commissioner in Utah was irate after he and his family received threats following a vote to approve a data center project, according to a new report.
Lee Perry, a commissioner in Box Elder County, Utah, told local news station KSL5 that he began receiving threats after he voted to approve a 9-gigawatt data center located on a 40,000-acre parcel of land. The project is supported by Kevin O'Leary, a Canadian businessman and co-host of the hit show "Shark Tank." Perry added that police officers have been stationed outside of his home because of the threats he received.
"I literally have police officers in front of my house, and that's not fair to me, but it's especially not fair to my family, and it's not fair to either of the other two commissioners, either," Perry told the news outlet. "And I have county employees who are nervous about their safety as well. And that is not the American way, certainly not the way of people in Utah."
The vote took place at a time when data centers have become a contentious topic in many towns and cities across the U.S. Perry noted that O'Leary's effort to include the Utah Military Installation Development Authority made the matter even more contentious. Doing so required the county commissioners to approve the project. They wouldn't have had to approve the project if it were located on unzoned land in the county, Perry added.
O'Leary, for his part, claimed without evidence that the protest against the project came from outside Box Elder County.
"We think over 90 percent of the protestors are actually not people who live in Utah or Box Elder County. They're being bussed in," O'Leary told the outlet.
President Donald Trump has a staffing problem as more MAGA moms are doing what he had requested them to do — have more babies, according to a Wednesday report from The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack.
The timing is difficult for the Trump administration, with key midterm races just six months away.
"Donald Trump’s plea to MAGA moms to bear more children is causing a crisis at the White House and Pentagon at a crucial time," The Swamp reported.
"Trump called himself the 'fertilization president' and urged a procreation push to uphold a long tradition of autocrats who seek to build a society in their own image. But the policy is backfiring, with key administration staffers taking maternity leave in the lead-up to the Republican Party’s make-or-break midterm elections," according to The Swamp.
Karoline Leavitt has stepped away for her maternity leave as she prepares to have a second child any day. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson has also started her maternity leave. These absences have prompted Secretary of State Marco Rubio — and other Trump cabinet members — to fill in for important press briefings, with Rubio taking fiery questions from a room full of shouting reporters on Tuesday, quipping, "This is chaos, guys."
MAGA isn't pulling any punches against a rebel Republican who lost his seat in the Indiana state senate after opposing Trump.
Outgoing Indiana State Senator Travis Holdman lost his seat to the Trump-backed real estate agent Blake Fiechter on Tuesday. Trump endorsed candidates to oust GOP state lawmakers who stood up to his push to redistrict Indiana.
"I have one lesson for people," Holdman told conservative journalist Scott Presler in a videoposted on X. "Revenge and retribution is not a Christian value. That's what this was all about. I'm not bitter about it. It's just the fact."
MAGA world was quick to defend Trump and justify his successful revenge campaign.
"Retribution — receiving what one justly deserves — is, in fact, a Christian value," responded Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) on X.
"What goes around, comes around in the MAGA GOP," wrote conservative journalist Eric Daughtery, calling Holdman a "RINO."
"The Bible speaks incessantly about revenge and retribution," MAGA personality Dinesh D'Souza posted. "This should hardly be a surprise, since revenge and retribution are the essence of justice."
"The pope is one of the few Christians elected for life," attorney Mike Davis chimed in. "The rest are held accountable by their constituents."
"It is REVENGE," podcaster Chris Salcedo blasted. "It's justice."
The campaign of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was targeted by a hacker who stole $3,000 from its bank account — and the campaign has yet to reclaim the lost money.
According to NOTUS, "The $3,092 unauthorized charge to American Express by an unknown person took place on Dec. 17, Booker’s campaign told the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. The committee opened a new bank account to 'prevent any future fraudulent activity' and disputed the transaction with its bank, but it hasn’t yet recouped the lost money, it wrote in a letter to the FEC."
Booker's communications director, David Bergstein, told NOTUS, “Last year our campaign became aware of a small amount of suspicious bank activity. We immediately reported the issue to our bank so they could follow the appropriate processes and implemented additional security protocols."
Bergstein further clarified that "no donor information was accessed and no unauthorized individual gained internal access to our account.”
Cybercrime is an issue campaigns constantly have to guard against in recent years, and not just for financial reasons; in 2024, both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harrissaw their campaigns targeted by Iranian hackers who may have had plans to weaponize the information for a political purpose.
