Former CIA Director John Brennan sues Trump, others to preserve records from investigations

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans approved early on Thursday a blueprint for their budget bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after an all-night voting marathon.

The budget resolution, which kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions to ICE and CBP, was approved by a vote of 50-48. It needed a simple majority of votes to be approved.

Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, joined with the Democrats in voting against the resolution. All other Republicans voted in favor of it.

The Senate approved the resolution at about 3:36 a.m. after a vote-a-rama that lasted approximately 6 hours.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — The United States and Iran are sharing conflicting messages about the prospects of a meeting between key negotiators in Qatar this week, injecting even more uncertainty into a peace process that is supposed to be focused on addressing Iran’s nuclear program but has so far been dominated by the Strait of Hormuz.

Talks between the countries were originally scheduled to take place in Switzerland this week and center on nuclear issues, but the venue and agenda for the planned high-level and technical meetings changed following a fresh round of tit-for-tat strikes between the U.S. and Iran over the strategic waterway, a U.S. official and another source said.

While the Trump administration is pushing for direct talks, it is still unclear whether Iranian and American officials will meet face-to-face or communicate solely through Qatari mediators, they added.  

President Trump announced on Monday that a meeting would take place in Qatar’s capital on Tuesday at Tehran’s request.

“IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!” Trump said in a social media post on Monday morning.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later said the U.S. would be represented by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, adding that both high-level and technical talks with Iran were expected to take place.

Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, painted a different picture of the upcoming meetings. He said that while an Iranian delegation would travel to Doha to discuss the implementation of the interim deal between the U.S. and Iran, their trip bore no connection to Kushner and Witkoff’s visit.

“There are no negotiation meetings with the U.S. side at any level scheduled in the coming days,” Baghaei asserted.

The Iranian regime’s apparent hesitancy to resume in-person talks is a significant step back from the high-level talks that took place in Switzerland earlier this month following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the countries. After that meeting, Vice President JD Vance reported that lengthy conversations with senior Iranian officials had resulted in a “good foundation for a successful final deal,” and said they made progress towards the creation of a “mechanism” to ensure the Strait of Hormuz would remain open.

The interim deal stipulates that Iran should “make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days only from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa.”

But Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, and on Thursday, it attacked a container ship transiting the waterway–setting off a four-day exchange of strikes with the U.S. that stymied ship traffic.

Trump administration officials are eager to restore conditions in the Strait of Hormuz to their pre-war norm, but sources told ABC News that recent intelligence reports predict Tehran will continue threatening to resume its chokehold on the waterway — a reality that gives Iran significant leverage over the global economy.

The memorandum of understanding also calls for Iran and the U.S. to hammer out a sweeping agreement within 60 days. Almost a quarter of that time has now expired.

While the interim deal says that period can be extended by mutual agreement, Trump has repeatedly declared he wouldn’t let Iran draw out the negotiations.

“We’re negotiating from a position of pure strength, pure strength. They know that,” Trump said on Thursday.

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(WASHINGTON) — In a case with potentially major ramifications for the 2026 midterm elections and all federal elections going forward, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday is considering a Republican Party bid to prevent states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day even if they were postmarked on or before.

Thirty states plus D.C. and several U.S. territories have laws allowing tabulation of some late-arriving ballots provided that they were timely cast and received within a specified post-election timeframe, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The case before the justices centers on Mississippi’s acceptance of absentee ballots up to five days after Election Day so long as they were received by the Postal Service on or before.

The Republican National Committee, which brought the lawsuit, alleges the policy violates federal law establishing the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the day for election of members of the House, Senate, and presidential electors, in specified years.

Republicans argue that the term “election” means both “ballot submission and receipt” and that Congress intended that it be completed on a single day.

“Allowing states to count large numbers of mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day undermines trust and confidence in our elections,” said RNC chair Joe Gruters in a statement on the case. “Elections must end on Election Day.”

Mississippi and several voter advocacy groups defending the state law insist “election” has historically meant when voters make their “choice” by marking and submitting their ballots — not necessarily when they are received and counted.

“The weight of the law and the weight of the precedent is on our side,” said Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic election law attorney representing some of the parties defending the Mississippi law.

A Supreme Court decision in favor of the RNC could upend voting policies and procedures in dozens of states five months before voters head to the polls for the midterm elections.

Voting rights advocates also warn that an abrupt change in policy could lead to widespread rejection of ballots that were properly cast by well-intended voters but experienced unintended delivery delays by the Postal Service or other circumstances.

Hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots in the 2024 general election arrived after Election Day but were still legally counted that year across 22 states and territories with a post-election grace period, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Many states that accept late-arriving absentee ballots implemented their policies during the COVID-19 pandemic when vote by mail surged in popularity and Postal Service delays raised concerns about inadvertent disenfranchisement.

Extended ballot receipt deadlines have also been aimed at helping active duty military service members and other Americans living overseas who cast their ballots from afar.

Elias said he believes the RNC suit — against a Republican-led state with minimal absentee voting — was part of a broader effort on the part of President Donald Trump and his allies to make it more difficult to vote by mail under the belief the practice favors Democrats.

“I don’t suspect that spending millions of dollars to affect the handful of ballots in the state of Mississippi that only allows excuse absentee voting anyway to be counted after Election Day is what the RNC is really after,” said Elias. “This is just a partisan effort to undermine mail-in voting.”

In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order that attempted to cut federal election funding to states that have mail ballot receipt grace periods, but it has largely been blocked by federal courts for now.

The president later said on social media that he is leading a “movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” claiming, without providing evidence, that they lead to voter fraud.

Trump has also been pushing Republicans in Congress to approve the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which would — in part — outlaw voting by mail for anyone without a legitimate excuse, such as military service, illness, or disability, making it impossible to vote in person.

Data on which party would potentially benefit from changes to mail ballot rules is not clear.

Most Americans, 58%, support allowing any voter to cast a ballot by mail, according to a Pew Research Center survey late last year. But there is sharp division among parties, with 83% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters favoring mail-voting with 68% of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters opposed.

The Trump administration, which is not a party to the case, told the court in an amicus brief that it strongly supports a decision striking down Mississippi’s law and others like it.

“Ensuring all ballot boxes close on the same day eliminates incentives and opportunities for fraudulent abuse,” wrote Solicitor General John Sauer. “Leaving them open conflicts not only with the ordinary meaning of ‘election day,’ but also with the very integrity of the election.”

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, dismissed that claim in a filing with the court, arguing that neither ballot receipt nor ballot counting is part of the “election” and that both have historically extended beyond Election Day.

“Counting votes is not part of the election,” Fitch told the court. “That is why counting votes lawfully can and does occur after Election Day. So, too, with ballot receipt: it is vital — but it is not part of the election itself. So, states may do what the Mississippi legislature has done: make a ‘policy choice’ to require only that absentee ballots be mailed by election day.”

A decision is expected in the case by the end of June.

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