Missouri attorney general appointed co-deputy director of FBI
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Photo Courtesy: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Andrew Bailey, who serves as the Missouri attorney general, has been appointed as co-deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Thrilled to welcome Andrew Bailey as our new FBI Co-Deputy Director,” according to Blanche’s post. “As Missouri’s Attorney General, he took on the swamp, fought weaponized government, and defended the Constitution. Now he is bringing that fight to DOJ.”
This marks the first time in FBI history that the agency has had two deputy directors. Last month, current Deputy Director Dan Bongino faced growing fallout over the Justice Department’s decision not to disclose any more records from its investigations into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Bongino was upset at the administration’s handling of the issue, according to sources.
“I am proud to announce I have accepted the role of Co-Deputy Director of the FBI,” Bailey posted on X. “I extend my thanks to @POTUS and @AGPamBondi for the opportunity to serve in the mission to Make America Safe Again. I will protect America and uphold the Constitution.”
“The FBI, as the leading investigative body of the federal government under the Department of Justice, will always bring the greatest talent this country has to offer in order to accomplish the goals set forth when an overwhelming majority of American people elected President Donald J. Trump again. Andrew Bailey will be an integral part of this important mission and I look forward continued fight to save America together,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday evening.
Members of the National Guard are seen standing near the Washington Monument, on September 02, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Army is extending orders for the Washington, D.C., National Guard to remain on active duty in the nation’s capital through Nov. 30, two U.S. officials told ABC News Thursday.
President Donald Trump could still cut the mission shorter than Nov. 30 if desired — or extend the deployment past that date, the officials noted. That essentially leaves the deployment open-ended for now.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll signed off on the plan on Wednesday, enabling Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard II, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, to update the initial orders.
The Nov. 30 plan for the estimated 950 members of the D.C. Guard, which has not been previously reported, does not apply to the other 1,300 troops deployed to D.C. from other states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Those troops remain under the control of their governors with many of them already under orders to remain through the end of December, one of the officials said.
Blanchard alluded to the plan in a video message on X released Thursday.
“Our mission is not complete,” he said. “I’ve made the decision to extend the encampment as we continue to work to ensure everyone that walks these city streets is safe.”
Trump mobilized the D.C. National Guard last month to address what he insisted was “out of control” crime.
Since then, troops have been seen hanging out around the National Mall and other low-crime areas, often posing with tourists or spreading mulch as part of Trump’s “beautification” project.
According to the latest update provided by the Guard, troops have cleaned roadways, collected more than 677 bags of trash and disposed of five truckloads of plant waste in coordination with the U.S. National Park Service.
The decision to extend the Guard through Nov. 30 was a practical one, sources told ABC News. Instead of reupping orders every 14 to 29 days as is typical, the troops can plan on the extended stay.
National Guard troops typically leave other full-time civilian jobs during the deployment, and this would allow their employers to make other arrangements, officials say.
The plan also ensures there would be no gap in pay or benefits, which can happen when tours of duty need to be reapproved several times.
A spokesperson for Joint Task Force-DC told ABC News that all Guards members who are deployed to D.C. have already been extended beyond initial orders — some which would have lapsed on Sept.10 — in order to secure their eligibility for benefits including pay and health care.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is once again upping the pressure on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to do away with a century-old Senate tradition that places some constraints on the president’s authority to appoint judicial nominees.
Trump is targeting the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, a time-honored Senate process that gives senators the right to approve or object to nominees nominated to serve as federal judges or U.S. attorneys in their home states.
Senators approve of a nominee by returning their blue slip to the Judiciary Committee Chairman. If a senator does not return their blue slip or returns it with objections, the nominee does not advance. In blue states like New York, some of Trump’s judicial nominees have stalled out because Democratic senators have not returned blue slips.
In a post on his social media platform on Sunday evening, Trump made his continued displeasure with this Senate tradition known.
I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” Trump said. “This is because of an old and outdated “custom” known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has gone after blue slips and Grassley. But Grassley has consistently committed to maintaining the Senate tradition.
In a post on X on Monday, Grassley once again defended the Senate process.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv the votes to get out of cmte,” Grassley posted. “As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILUREThe 100 yr old “blue slip” allows home state senators 2 hv input on US attys & district court judges In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES.”
But Grassley’s pushback has not dissuaded Trump from trying to force modifications to the process.
While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump doubled down, saying he would file a lawsuit to challenge the use of blue slips, though he did not say who he intended to file suit against. He then blamed Grassley for a lag in the advancement of his appointees to be judges and U.S. attorneys.
“It’s a gentlemen’s agreement that’s about 100 years old, where if you have a president like a Republican, and if you have a Democrat senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or or U.S. attorney in particular,” Trump said. “And this is based on an old custom. It’s not based on a law … And I think it’s unconstitutional. And I’ll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon.”
The Senate has the authority to govern itself and typically retains authority to make its own rules and traditions. Blue slips are not codified in the Senate rules, but are rather a courtesy observed by the committee chairman.
The blue slip process goes back to at least 1917, according to the Congressional Research Service. Since the use of blue slips is not codified or in the committee’s rules, the chair has the discretion to determine whether a home state senator’s negative or withheld blue slip stops a judicial nomination from receiving consideration by the committee and whether it reaches the Senate floor.
Trump explicitly expressed his desire to advance nominees like Jay Clayton, who was appointed to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York by Manhattan federal judges earlier this month despite his nomination being stalled in the Senate by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s refusal to return a blue slip on the nominee.
“That’s the only way you get by. But generally speaking, you can’t do that because you’ll have judges from the other party. So, so Jay Clayton just got approved and he’s in, but he didn’t get approved by the senators, Trump said.
Trump said the blue slip process was a barrier for him to get any Republican judges through — that he can now “only get a Democrat U.S. attorney.”
“The only person that I can get approved are Democrats or maybe weak Republicans. But we don’t want that. But the only person I will be able to get approved in any of those states where you have a Democrat will I can’t get a U.S. attorney. I can only get a Democrat U.S. attorney,” Trump said.
Still, Senate Republicans are generally opposed to modifying the tradition.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who serves on the Judiciary Committee and announced earlier this year he wouldn’t seek re-election next year, said in a post on X Monday that getting rid of the blue slip is “short-sighted.”
“Chairman Grassley is a principled conservative who wants to keep radical liberals off the bench. Getting rid of the blue slip is a terrible, short-sighted ploy that paves the path for Democrats to ram through extremist liberal judges in red states over the long-term,” Tillis posted. “It’s why radical liberal groups have been pushing to get rid of the blue slip for years — Republicans shouldn’t fall for it.”
A number of Senate Republicans spoke out when Trump last called for changes to the Senate process in July.
At the time, Majority Leader John Thune expressed little interest in making modifications.
“I think that the blue slip process is something that’s been used for a long time by both sides, and neither side has violated its usage in the past,” Thune said in July. “So my view on it is and I’m happy to hear what Sen. Grassley and some of my colleagues say, “but no, I don’t think there’s any strong interest in changing that up here.”
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump kicked off his state visit to the U.K. on Wednesday by traveling to Windsor Castle to meet with King Charles III.
Trump is the first elected political leader in modern times to be hosted for two state visits by a British monarch, having already been hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.
The president and first lady Melania Trump will attend a state banquet with the royal family in Windsor on Wednesday evening.
Trump arrived at Windsor Castle aboard Marine One on Wednesday, having spent the night at Winfield House in central London. He and Melania Trump were greeted in the castle’s Walled Garden by Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton.
Thursday will see Trump meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence in Aylesbury. The two men are expected to hold a press conference before Trump begins his journey back to the U.S.
During a background call on Monday with reporters, White House officials said that this visit will highlight what they called the deep ties between the United States and the United Kingdom.
“This historic second state visit is set to highlight and renew the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. At the same time, the visit will recognize and celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States,” a White House official told reporters during a background call previewing the trip.
Trump will be greeted by a joint U.S.-British flypast of F-35 fighter jets. Around 1,300 members of the British armed forces accompanied by 120 horses will be involved in the ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle.
The guard of honor at Windsor will be the largest ever organized for a state visit to the U.K.
