Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani, other key figures allegedly involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump issued a sweeping pardon to key figures allegedly involved in the plan to arrange an alternate slate of electors and “expose voting fraud” during the 2020 election, according to U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin.
Trump pardoned high-profile individuals allegedly involved in his attempt to overturn the election, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Boris Epshteyn, John Eastman and Mark Meadows — and 72 other individuals allegedly associated with the effort to challenge the 2020 election results.
The pardon, which Trump appears to have signed on Friday, covers each of the president’s co-defendants who were charged in Georgia for a sweeping scheme to overturn election results.
Four of the pardon recipients pleaded guilty in the Georgia case.
“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” the pardon says.
The pardon language explicitly states that it does not apply to Trump himself. “This pardon does not apply to the president of the United States,” according to the pardon.
(NEW YORK) — For the first time in more than two decades, the Pentagon has begun sending conventional ground forces to Panama to train in the jungle there, returning U.S. soldiers and Marines to a three-week course once called the “Green Hell” because of its similarities to Vietnam.
The training program at Base Aeronaval Cristóbal Colón, formerly known as Fort Sherman, is relatively small in scope but is expected to ramp up over the next year, according to one defense official.
The program began earlier this year and is not intended to prepare troops for a potential mission, including inside Venezuela, the official said.
Still, the military’s interest in jungle warfare in Latin America is noteworthy given Trump’s heightened focus there. Since taking office, Trump has vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal and repeatedly threatened to attack Venezuela because of its alleged role in transiting illegal narcotics.
“If you can train and fight in one of the most difficult and challenging locations in the world, you build a really lethal, effective force,” the defense official said of the rationale behind the new training program.
Alex Plitsas, a former Pentagon official and senior fellow at The Atlantic Council, said the new training course wouldn’t likely play a role in potential operations inside Venezuela. The training effort appears to be more about building Panama’s capacity to handle security threats in the region.
But the move signals a shift in priorities by the Trump administration, he said.
“It’s an expansion of an existing military relationship, but it’s not happening in a vacuum,” Plitsas said. “It’s happening as a broader change in policy. There’s a renewed interest in South America, where the president sees the drug flow to the United States as a national security issue with the intention of potential military action.”
Jungle training hasn’t been a priority for the military since 9/11, when the nation’s focus shifted to counterterrorism operations in the Middle East. The Defense Department in recent years has relied on a smaller Army jungle training center in Hawaii and at a Marine Corps site in Okinawa, Japan.
During the Vietnam War, however, Fort Sherman was considered a prime location where most troops could hone their jungle survival skills before shipping off to war.
Conditions at the Panamanian training site are considered among the harshest in the world, including venomous snakes and several layers of thick, towering vegetation that can make it difficult to operate communications and night-vision equipment or evacuate wounded personnel.
By 1999, the training site shuttered and the last of the U.S. military departed Panama as part of an agreement ceding U.S. control of the Panama Canal.
Shortly after taking office, though, Trump expressed renewed interest in the region, declaring the U.S. would be “reclaiming” the Panama Canal. That effort has since been couched by Pentagon officials as a renewed “partnership” with Panama to prevent Chinese influence over the canal, which the U.S. relies on heavily for shipping.
Trump also has overseen an unprecedented buildup of U.S. troops to the region, deploying 10,000 troops and, more recently, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier. The public display of force appears to be a kind of pressure campaign aimed at forcing out Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
By August, the military had set up the “Combined Jungle Operations Training Course” with Marines and Panamanian forces training as part of a pilot program. A military spokesperson said there have since been 46 graduates of the three-week course: 18 Marines, one Army soldier and 27 personnel from Panama’s National Aeronaval Service, National Border Service and National Police.
According to the Defense official, the Army plans to ramp up training over the next year, eventually sending in platoons of some 40 soldiers at a time to train.
Steve Ganyard, a retired Marine Corps colonel and ABC contributor, said the renewed interest in Panama is likely a practical one, but it also can be used to send a message.
“From a practical perspective, it’s easier to get to Panama than Okinawa. And the jungles of Central and South America have their own unique challenges,” he said. “That said, no doubt a message is being sent to Maduro by conducting combat training in his neighborhood.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, as part of his push to combat crime.
The president said on “Fox & Friends” that he wanted to replicate the results of his deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
“Memphis is deeply troubled,” he said during the interview. “We’re going to fix that, just like we did in Washington.”
Trump said part of the crime crackdown could include federal forces, National Guard and even “the military, too,” if needed into Memphis.
“And anybody else we need,” Trump said of the forces he planned to send into Memphis.
Trump has said that local leaders across the country should ask for federal help and indicated that he has such backing from Tennessee officials.
“The mayor is happy. He’s a Democrat mayor, the mayor is happy. And the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy,” he said.
Representatives for the Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office and Democratic Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s office didn’t immediately return messages to ABC News for comment.
Memphis has seen a drop in crime over the last year, according to data from the city.
There have been 29,978 reported crime incidents in Memphis in 2025 as of Sept. 11, a roughly 44% drop from the same period in 2024 when there were 53,805 reported incidents, according to the data.
Homicides in the city dropped nearly 30% during the year with 182 reported incidents in 2025 so far compared to 261 during the same period last year, the data showed.
Trump’s comments on Friday come amid his push to crack down on crime nationwide — including his federal law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C.
However, before Trump began his deployment, the city had seen a two-year decline in crimes, according to police data. As of Friday, there have been 17,806 reported crime incidents in the city so far this year, compared to 19,501 during the same period last year — a nearly 8% drop, the data showed.
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit last week that sought to end the D.C. Guard deployment arguing it was a “military occupation.”
Critics have noted that the president has focused his threats of federal deployments on cities that are led by Democratic mayors.
For the last few weeks, Trump has made threats that he was going to send National Guard troops to Chicago, citing its crime rate, and was met with vocal protests from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“I want to help people, not hurt them,’ says the guy who just threatened an American city with the Department of War,” Pritzker wrote on X on Monday
The president continued to argue that federal intervention was needed in Chicago.
“You’re about to lose Chicago,” Trump said Friday. “I can fix Chicago, much bigger than D.C., but we can bring in the military. We can bring in the National Guard. We’ll do what we have to do.”
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. immigration authorities have detained a woman who is the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, according to a source familiar with the arrest.
A DHS spokesperson identified the woman as Bruna Caroline Ferreira.
A reporter with ABC New Hampshire station WMUR spoke with Leavitt’s brother, Michael Leavitt, who also confirmed the arrest and said she was detained a few weeks ago.
According to Michael Leavitt, his 11-year-old son has lived with him since he was born but says the child maintains a relationship with his mother, WMUR reported.
A DHS spokesperson described Ferreira, a Brazilian national, as a “criminal illegal alien” who has a previous arrest for battery and overstayed a visa that expired in 1999.
“ICE arrested Bruna Caroline Ferreria, a criminal illegal alien from Brazil. She has a previous arrest for battery. She entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa that required her to depart the U.S. by June 6, 1999. She is currently at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center and is in removal proceedings. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, all individuals unlawfully present in the United States are subject to deportation,” the spokesperson said.
Todd Pomerleau, an attorney for Ferreira spoke with Boston ABC station WCVB, and pushed back on claims that Ferreira has a criminal history.
“Bruna has no criminal record whatsoever, I don’t know where that is coming from. Show us the proof,” Pomerleau told.
Pomerleau also said Ferreira entered the country lawfully, previously held DACA status and is currently in the process of obtaining a green card. He said his client was arrested in her car in Massachusetts after being stopped with no warrant, adding that he now has to litigate her case in Louisiana thousands of miles away from her home. Pomerleau said he did not believe that his client’s connection to Karoline Leavitt could affect the case, adding that he believes it’s just “happenstance.”
The White House declined to comment.
An online fundraising campaign set up by a person claiming to be Ferreira’s sister says she was brought to the country when she was a child in 1998.
“Anyone who knows Bruna knows the kind of person she is. She is hardworking, kind, and always the first to offer help when someone needs it. Whether it’s supporting family, friends, or even strangers, Bruna has a heart that puts others before herself,” said Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues.
