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Vice Media, Once Valued at $5.7 Billion, Is Shutting Down Vice.com and Laying Off "Several Hundred" Staff
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Vice Media plans to lay off several hundred employees and no longer publish material on its Vice.com website, the company’s CEO said in a memo to staff Thursday.

Vice, which filed for bankruptcy last year before being sold for $350 million to a consortium led by the Fortress Investment Group, is also looking to sell its Refinery 29 publishing business, CEO Bruce Dixon said in his memo to staff.

It’s the latest sign of financial problems buffeting the media industry.

Digital sites the Messenger, BuzzFeed News and Jezebel have all shut down in the past year, and legacy media outlets like the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have also seen job cuts.

Once a swashbuckling media company geared to a younger audience with an immersive storytelling style that encompassed digital, television and film outlets, New York-based Vice was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017.

Dixon offered no specifics about the layoffs, other than saying hundreds of people will be affected and will be notified early next week.

The New York Times reported that the company currently has about 900 people on staff.

“I know that saying goodbye to our valued colleagues is difficult and feels overwhelming, but this is the best path forward for Vice as we position the company for long-term creative and financial success,” Dixon said.

He said it was no longer cost-effective for Vice to distribute its digital content, including news, the way it has been.

He said Vice would put more emphasis on its social channels and look for different ways to distribute its content.

As part of its strategic shift, Dixon said Vice would follow a studio model.

Before filing for bankruptcy protection last year, Vice canceled its “Vice News Tonight” television program as part of a round of layoffs then.

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Qatar Tells Hamas Leaders to Leave

The U.S. has told Qatar that the presence of Hamas in Doha is no longer acceptable in the weeks since the Palestinian militant group rejected the latest proposal to achieve a ceasefire and a hostage deal, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday.

The tiny Gulf state Qatar, alongside the U.S. and Egypt, has played a major role in rounds of so-far fruitless talks to broker a ceasefire to the year-long war in Gaza. The latest round of talks in mid-October failed to produce a deal, with Hamas rejecting a short-term ceasefire proposal.

“After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner. We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas’s rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal,” the senior official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Qatar then made the demand to Hamas leaders about 10 days ago, the official said. Washington has been in touch with Qatar over when to close the group’s political office, and it told Doha that now was the time.

Three Hamas officials denied Qatar had told Hamas leaders they were no longer welcome in the country.

It was unclear if the Qataris provided a specific deadline to the Hamas leaders to leave the country.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been preparing to make a final push to end Israeli assaults in Gaza and Lebanon. Republican Donald Trump’s election this week as the next U.S. president has significantly diminished Biden’s leverage during his last weeks in office.

In previous rounds of ceasefire talks, disagreements over new demands that Israel introduced about future military presence in Gaza obstructed a deal, even after Hamas accepted a version of a ceasefire proposal that Biden unveiled in May.

Hamas at the time viewed Israel as having moved the goal post for a deal “last-minute,” and worried any concessions it made would be met by more demands, a source close to the talks told Reuters in August.

Last November, this negotiation track in Doha led to a seven-day truce in Gaza, permitting the release of dozens of hostages held there in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Humanitarian aid also flowed into the shattered coastal strip but hostilities swiftly resumed and have continued ever since.

“End Hospitality to Hamas”

Qatar, an influential Gulf state designated as a major non-NATO ally by Washington, has hosted Hamas’ political leaders since 2012 as part of an agreement with the U.S.

Following last year’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 250 others, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told leaders in Qatar and elsewhere in the region that there could be “no more business as usual” with Hamas.

Qataris told Blinken they were open to reconsidering the presence of Hamas in the country when the time comes.

Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, reduced the enclave to a wasteland and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

Doha has come under criticism from U.S. lawmakers over its ties with the group.

On Friday, 14 Republican U.S. senators wrote a letter to the Department of State asking Washington to immediately freeze the assets of Hamas officials living in Qatar, extradite several senior Hamas officials living in Qatar and ask Qatar “to end its hospitality to Hamas” senior leadership.”

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said repeatedly over the last year that the Hamas office exists in Doha to allow negotiations with the group and that as long as the channel remained useful Qatar would allow the Hamas office to remain open.

It is unclear how many Hamas officials live in Doha, but they include several leaders touted as possible replacements for leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israeli forces killed in Gaza last month.

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Biden to Meet Trump Wednesday in Oval Office

President Biden and President-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House announced on Saturday.

The meeting will be held at 11 a.m. local time, according to the statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Mr. Biden extended the invitation for the meeting.

Such a meeting is customary between the outgoing president and the incoming president and is meant partly to mark the start of a peaceful transfer of power under America’s democracy.

However, Mr. Trump did not host Mr. Biden for a sit-down after the 2020 election, when Mr. Trump lost his reelection bid.

Mr. Trump, who served as the 45th president of the U.S., will become the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms when he also becomes the nation’s 47th president.

The other was Grover Cleveland, who was both the 22nd and 24th president.

Mr. Trump won the presidential election on Tuesday with at least 301 electoral college votes, surpassing the threshold of 270 over Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a speech Thursday, Mr. Biden said he had assured Mr. Trump “that I would direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve.”

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DeSantis, House GOP Investigating FEMA After Official Told Relief Workers to Skip Trump Supporters

Lawmakers across the country are calling for investigations after whistleblowers told The Daily Wire they were instructed to skip Trump supporters’ homes when surveying a Florida town in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington directed government employees working in Lake Placid, Florida, to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed the area to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid, internal messages reviewed by The Daily Wire reveal. A FEMA spokesman confirmed the incident to The Daily Wire, saying the agency was “deeply disturbed” and “horrified” by the employee’s actions, and that it has “taken extreme actions to correct this situation.”

In response to the report, federal and state lawmakers called for an investigation into FEMA, promising to find answers about the guidance, which led disaster relief workers to skip at least 20 homes in the Lake Placid community.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the state’s Division of Emergency Management would be investigating the incident.

“The blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists in the federal bureaucracy is yet another reason why the Biden-Harris administration is in its final days,” DeSantis posted on X.

“At my direction, the Division of Emergency Management is launching an investigation into the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump,” DeSantis added. “New leadership is on the way in DC, and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired.”

The House Committee on Homeland Security also promised to find answers.

“If these reports are true, they represent a gross failure to fulfill FEMA’s mission, and more importantly, to care for fellow Americans,” House Homeland Security posted on X. “We will be investigating, and we expect answers.”

Republican Senators James Lankford (OK) and Marsha Blackburn (TN) said Friday evening that their offices had independently confirmed The Daily Wire’s report. Reactions from other congressional Republicans also poured in.

“Whistleblower reveals FEMA officials in Florida were instructed to bypass hurricane-damaged homes that showed support for President Trump!” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said.

“This is unconscionable discrimination, and Congress MUST INVESTIGATE!”

“FEMA discriminated against American’s for their political beliefs. Whoever ordered this better start looking for a job. You are going to be FIRED,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna posted on X.

“This is the bureaucratic state weaponized against Americans citizens,” Rep. Michael Cloud said. “Accountability is coming.”

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) said the report showed that the government had been “weaponized” against “roughly half of all Americans.”

FEMA told The Daily Wire that it would ensure the homes that were skipped would receive visits from the agency.

“We are horrified that this took place and therefore have taken extreme actions to correct this situation and have ensured that the matter was addressed at all levels,” it told The Daily Wire on Friday afternoon. “Helping people is what we do best and our workforce across the agency will continue to serve survivors for as long as it takes.”

Other lawmakers also weighed in on the story:

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FEMA Official Removed from Role After Telling Relief Workers to Skip Trump Supporters

A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official who instructed Hurricane Milton relief workers to skip homes with Trump signs has been removed from her role, a FEMA spokesperson tells Fox News, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is investigating the federal agency over the controversy.

The FEMA official, who has not been named by the agency, instructed workers canvassing Lake Placid in Florida to “avoid homes advertising Trump,” as they ascertained what residents could qualify for federal aid, according to internal messages first obtained by the Daily Wire.

The Daily Wire reports that government employees told the outlet that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were bypassed from the end of October and into November due to the “best practices” guidance from the official. The houses were skipped over by the workers, who wrote messages such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” in a government system, per the outlet.

A FEMA spokesperson tells Fox News that it is “deeply disturbed” by the employee’s actions and says it is an “isolated incident.”

“FEMA helps all survivors regardless of their political preference or affiliation,” the spokesperson said via a statement.

“While we believe this is an isolated incident, we have taken measures to remove the employee from their role and are investigating the matter to prevent this from happening ever again.”

It is unclear if the official was fired from the agency altogether.

“The employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes and we are reaching out to the people who may have not been reached as a result of this incident,” the spokesperson said, adding that the agency has helped more than 365,000 households impacted by both Hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida and provided nearly $900 million in direct assistance to survivors.”

“We are horrified that this took place and therefore have taken extreme actions to correct this situation and have ensured that the matter was addressed at all levels.

The FEMA agents were ordered not to help houses with Trump signs in Highlands County, a deep-red area located in south central Florida that was hit with tornadoes, torrential rain and flooding when the Category 3 Hurricane slammed into The Sunshine State in October. President-elect Trump won nearly 70% of the vote there on Tuesday.

DeSantis slammed the federal agency Friday after learning about the official’s actions and announced his administration will investigate FEMA over the incident.

“The blatant weaponization of government by partisan activists in the federal bureaucracy is yet another reason why the Biden-Harris administration is in its final days,” DeSantis wrote on X.

“At my direction, the Division of Emergency Management is launching an investigation into the federal government’s targeted discrimination of Floridians who support Donald Trump. New leadership is on the way to D.C., and I’m optimistic that these partisan bureaucrats will be fired.”

U.S. House Oversight Committee and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., also took aim at the agency, in particular for not firing the official.

He said it comes despite the IRS trying to force whistleblower Gary Shapley out of that agency. Shapley, an IRS supervisory special agent, brought claims of political influence in the Hunter Biden investigation to Congress, along with Joseph Ziegler, IRS criminal investigator.

“FEMA hasn’t fired this person… But the IRS has been trying to force IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley out for blowing the whistle! We must hold these unelected bureaucrats accountable,” Comer wrote on X.

“FEMA admits this happened but doesn’t say if the bureaucrat responsible has been fired,” the House Oversight Committee wrote on X. “Democrats relentlessly defend the rules that insulate unelected bureaucrats from accountability and make it nearly impossible to fire bad employees. This is why we need President Trump’s reforms to make bureaucrats accountable.”

Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, also blasted the agency.

“This is outrageous even for the democrats in charge and should be criminal,” Trump Jr wrote on X. “These people should be ousted from FEMA, Government and society! A full investigation is in order!”

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Trump’s Ambitious Tax Agenda

President-elect Trump could put more money in Americans’ pockets with a raft of tax code changes, insiders and experts said.

On the campaign trail Trump repeatedly promised to slash taxes on tips and social security benefits, and suggested the total elimination of income taxes with the hope or replacing the revenue with tariffs.

With the signature tax cuts of Trump’s first term set to expire in 2025, and the high likelihood Republicans will have full control of Congress, extending and even expanding tax changes are high on his agenda.

Chief among the wish-list items of an expanded tax cut program would be lowering corporate tax rates.

In 2027, Trump slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% — and now wants to bring it down even more to 15%.

“When you reduce the corporate rate by 2% wages go up 1%, corporations have more money to invest for workers,” Grover Norquist, and activist and president of Americans for Tax Reform, told The Post.

Norquist, a longtime insider in GOP tax circles, said he expected House and Senate leadership would be completely on board with the reduction.

Trump has also promised to walk back a product of his 2017 tax law: the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT.

The cap overwhelmingly targets residents of high-tax blue states where soaring state and local taxes support bloated state bureaucracies, and Trump’s promise to repeal it has the potential to be an early bipartisan win.

“I take President Trump at his word and will hold him accountable for his promise to eliminate the SALT cap. I will work with him and anyone to get things done on behalf of the people,” said Long Island Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, an avowed enemy of the cap.

Insiders, however, say the repeal will be a significantly heavier lift.

“The major problem is it pits high tax states against low tax states. Certain states like New York and California and New Jersey have really high and state and local tax rates, and it gives people who live there an advantage in their deductions over people who live in [low-tax] places like Florida or Texas,” said Phil Magness, an economic historian at the Independent Institute.

Far-left progressives may also find themselves loathe to support what amounts to a tax cut for the rich. Socialist Squad Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has blasted past efforts to remove the SALT cap as a “gift to billionaires.”

Norquist said he wasn’t so sure Trump could get the cap totally lifted, but that raising the deduction could be a compromise solution.

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Soros-Funded DA and Bernie-Backed Mayor Indicted on Federal Bribery Charges

A Mississippi district attorney backed by Democratic megadonor George Soros and a Mississippi mayor endorsed by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) have been indicted on federal bribery charges.

The Justice Department alleges that Hinds County district attorney Jody Owens and Jackson mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, both Democrats, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from two FBI informants posing as real estate developers seeking projects in downtown Jackson, Miss.

According to prosecutors, Owens solicited $115,000 in bribes from the informants and directed them to pay bribes to Lumumba. The mayor accepted $50,000 in bribes in exchange for “exerting his influence and taking official action relating to the Developers’ proposed project in downtown Jackson,” prosecutors allege.

Owens and Lumumba ascended to their offices with the help of Soros and Sanders, respectively. Owens, who was elected in 2019 on a platform of providing “alternatives to incarceration,” received $500,000 that year from Soros’s Mississippi Justice and Public Safety PAC, according to the Capital Research Center. Owens, a former attorney for the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, was accused during his race for district attorney of sexual harassment. While in office, he has been accused of pulling a gun on a man at the home of his chief of staff.

Sanders endorsed Lumumba, who has called himself a “revolutionary” who aimed to make Jackson “the most radical city on the planet,” in 2021.

“I’m proud to endorse Mayor Chokwe Lumumba for reelection because he is a consistent fighter for the working families of Jackson, Mississippi,” Sanders wrote at the time. “As Mayor, he has been a strong advocate for justice, progress, and equity.”

Owens and Lumumba each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. They pleaded not guilty on Thursday.

“Officials who abuse their positions of authority to enrich themselves undermine public confidence in government. The Justice Department is committed to restoring that confidence by working with its law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute public corruption,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division.

According to prosecutors, Owens discussed the bribery scheme in a series of conversations with the undercover FBI agents from October 2023 to May 2024.

According to prosecutors, Owens told informants he would have to launder their bribery payments through a company he owned. He also bragged about his power as district attorney to blackmail Jackson City Council members.

“I don’t give a shit where the money comes from,” he said. “It can come from blood diamonds in Africa, I don’t give a fucking shit. I’m a whole DA. Fuck that shit. My job, as I understand it, with a little paperwork, is to get this deal done, and get it done most effectively.”

The charges against Owens mark another embarrassing turn for a Soros-backed prosecutor. Soros has poured millions of dollars into district attorney races to elect prosecutors running on platforms to reform the criminal justice system, either through initiatives to defund police, eliminate cash bail, or end prosecutions for drug offenses, shoplifting, and other crimes.

Soros funded the campaign of former St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner (D.), who resigned in May 2023 over her handling of a case in which an armed robbery suspect, who had violated his bond dozens of times, paralyzed a teenage girl in a car accident.

Other Soros-backed prosecutors have faced successful recall efforts or been voted out of office amid concerns about soft-on-crime policies. Voters in Alameda County, Calif., which encompasses Oakland, this week recalled District Attorney Pamela Price (D.). Los Angeles district attorney George Gascón (D.) lost in a landslide to former federal prosecutor Nathaniel Hochman (I.).

In 2022, former Tallahassee, Fla., mayor Andrew Gillum (D.), endorsed by Sanders and backed by Soros, was indicted on federal wire fraud and conspiracy charges for allegedly diverting campaign donations to the firm of one of his advisers.

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WATCH: Bill Maher Urges Dems to ‘Look in the Mirror’ After Kamala’ Election Loss

Bill Maher slammed the Democratic party as “losers” and urged them to “look in the mirror” following Kamala Harris’ presidential election loss to President-elect Donald Trump.

Maher, who once predicted that Harris would win the election, revealed that he “did not vote for the winner,” but accepted the election results — unlike his late-night counterparts earlier in the week.

“We had an election,” Maher said during his “Real Time” monologue on HBO Friday night. “I did not vote for the winner, we’ll see what the winners do now. They won, now they have reality they have to deal with. We’ll see what they do.”

Maher switched his aim toward Harris and the Democrats, telling them they must reevaluate their party and platform after their embarrassing loss.

“My message to the losers: losers look in the mirror,” Maher said as the audience sat in stunned silence. “No? Well, maybe you should. Well, that’s my feeling. Losers look in the mirror.”

“For months Democrats have been saying, ‘How is this even close?’ and they’re right, it wasn’t,” Maher said of Trump’s historic election night victory.

“They could not conceive of a second Trump term, but they should’ve. When does America ever turn down second?”

The 68-year-old comedian said it was “the facts” that Trump “ran the table” and won all seven swing states – North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, not called yet.

Maher acknowledged Trump’s improvement in every voting demographic, especially in Latinos and Asians along with Black men, which helped add nearly 9 million more votes than what he received in 2016.

In the weeks leading up to the election, the HBO host and avid Harris supporter had made his reservations about the vice president’s chances because support for her among Black males was down.

“This is not a good sign, you know – when you have an African American candidate, you probably shouldn’t be having to shore up your support among black men, but that’s what’s going on,” he said during an October episode.”

Before Trump was declared the winner in Tuesday’s election, Maher confirmed a second presidential term for the Republican wouldn’t affect him as he would continue his show and making jokes.

He doubled down on his post-election plans as he continued to make jokes aimed at both political parties, “We’re gonna keep doing jokes here.”

Maher’s upbeat joking attitude was a stark contrast to the message his late-night peers showcased to their audiences one day after the election.

Jimmy Kimmel broke down in tears during the opening of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” as the liberal host called the election a “terrible night for everyone.”

“I spent a lot of time over the past 17 hours thinking about what I would say tonight, or even if there is anything to say tonight, and there’s nothing, goodnight everybody,” Kimmel said.

Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert took a different route for their post-election show, with the “SNL” alum sarcastically revealing he voted for Harris while Colbert was more somber and checked in on his fans.

“Hey there, how are you doing?” Colbert asked. “If you watch this show regularly I’m guessing you’re not doing great. Yeah, me neither.”

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House Democrat Targeted in Apparent Assassination Plot

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) announced Friday in a statement that a convicted felon armed with rifle, a suppressor, and body armor was arrested near his Florida home Monday with a manifesto and apparent plans to harm him.

The manifesto allegedly contained “antisemitic rhetoric” as well as a list of targets that included the 43-year-old.

In a statement he posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Moskowitz said, “Serving my constituents is a great honor, but it has put my family in danger.”

In a lengthier statement, Moskowitz added:

The day before the election, I was notified by the Margate Police Department, located in my Congressional District, about a potential plot on my life.

The individual in question was arrested not far from my home; he is a former felon who was in possession of a rifle, a suppressor, and body armor. Found with him was a manifesto that, among other things, included antisemitic rhetoric and only my name on the “target” list.

There are many other details that l will not disclose as I do not want to interfere with an ongoing investigation. I want to thank local law enforcement, the US Marshalls, the FBI, the US Capitol Police, and the US Attorney’s office. As someone who was appointed to the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, I understand the failures and importance of fixing the protection of our current and future Commander-In-Chief and Vice President.

At the same time, I am deeply worried about Congressional member security and the significant lack thereof when we are in the district. Regardless of our political affiliations or differences, we all have families we want to keep safe.”

Moskowitz was first elected to represent Florida’s 23rd congressional district in 2022. He won reelection on Tuesday after narrowly defeating Republican challenger Joe Kaufman.

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FBI Charges Man with Iranian Murder-for-Hire Plot Against Trump

One of the alleged would-be assassins hired by Iran to kill Donald Trump is a self employed pipe fitter from Staten Island and convicted murderer.

Carlisle ‘Pop’ Rivera, 49, was arrested on Thursday and charged with conspiracy to murder the president-elect and Iranian activist Masih Alinejad.

Rivera’s wife Margarita Vega did not answer the door at their two-storey home in Staten Island.

Neighbors told DailyMail.com Rivera moved out with his wife and their son three months ago. They were shocked to learn of his alleged involvement.

The father-of-two was allegedly hired by Farjad Shakeri, 51, and roped in his friend Jonathon Loadholt, 36, who was arrested and charged alongside him.

They were promised $100,000 to do surveillance on Alinejad and later kill her, and would have gone after Trump too if the plot wasn’t put on hold.

His brother Obed Rivera, also a felon jailed in 2002 for drug manufacture and distribution, living in South Carolina hung up when DailyMail.com called about his brother on Friday.

Shakeri, a Afghani who came to the US as a child before he was deported in 2008, was hired by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to orchestrate the hit on Alinejad for $1.5 million, and two Jewish businessmen living in the US.

Then in September he was told to focus on assassinating Trump instead, but by then had flipped to the FBI and sold out Rivera on Thursday.

Rivera was convicted of second-degree murder in 1994 and met Shakeri when they were both at Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, New York, in 2005 to 2007.

Shakeri told the FBI he met a senior member of the Revolutionary Guard through his work in Tehran in the ‘oil and fuel businesses.’

The man was referred to by others around him as Majid Soleimani, but Shakeri said he has no way of knowing whether the man is connected to late Iranian military officer Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated under Trump’s watch in 2020.

When Majid learned that Shakeri used to live in New York, he offered him a large sum of money to investigate – and ultimately kill – Iranian-American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad.

According to the criminal complaint seen by DailyMail.com, Rivera was waiting on a $100,000 payment from the IRGC to carry out the assassination.

But Shakeri said by mid-late September, this IRGC official had told him to ‘put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling, and ultimately assassinating, Donald Trump.

Shakeri told him would cost a ‘huge’ amount of money to pull it off, but was told ‘we have already spent a lot of money… so the money’s not an issue’.

The FBI believed this to mean Iran already spent money trying to kill Trump, so what was a little more if it got the job done.

He was given a seven-day deadline from October 7 to devise a thorough plan to carry out the assassination attempt.

He was told if he could not come up with a plan in this timeframe, the attempt would be put on the back burner until after the election, because officials in Iran assumed Trump would lose the election and then have less protection.

Shakeri finally admitted on October 28 he had people in NYC helping with the jobs, but refused to identify them.

He appeared to be brokering a deal to cooperate in exchange for the release of an unnamed person.

‘If these people gimme a green light… I’m gonna come pretty close so you guys can be convinced that [Individual-I] needs to get released,’ he said.

FBI agents confronted Shakeri on Thursday, accusing him of lying to them, and he finally gave up Rivera, and though he said there was a second person, he did not name them.

Rivera and Loadholt allegedly became involved in February when Shakeri paid them $1,000 to surveil Alinejad at a speaking engagement at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, on February 15.

Communications between the pair allegedly showed them discussing when they would be paid for the job.

The event was canceled at the last minute when the FBI warned Alinejad not to go, though it was unclear how they knew about a threat.

Shakeri’s next alleged job for them was to to keep watch on Alinejad at her home in Brooklyn in March, for which they were paid about $2,600 each.

Text messages allegedly showed Rivera and Loadholt coordinating their surveillance with plans to meet and where they were going.

The pair allegedly complained to Shakeri that Alinejad was hard to pin down and that assassinating her was not going to be an easy task.

‘This bitch is hard to catch, bro. And because she hard to catch, there ain’t gonna be no simple pull up, unless there the luck of the draw. Unless there’s the luck of the draw,’ Rivera allegedly said in a voice note.

Shakeri advised them that their target spent most of the time in a study on the third floor and a recording studio on the second floor.

‘You just gotta have patience and don’t, kicking, kick in the door is not an option because that’ s a fail, that’s a fail maneuver,’ he warned in a voice note reply.

‘You gotta wait and have patience to catch her either going in the house or coming out, or following her out somewhere and taking care of it. Don’t think about going in. In is a suicide move.’

Rivera allegedly complained in response: ‘We was here at night time, like 5.30 this morning, there was no f**kin’ lights on…. I already know kickin’ in doors only gonna to bring more attention. We already know that, that part.

‘That neighborhood is too quiet for that type of shit. Unless she’s on the first floor, and you kick that s**t in and then, then, you know, and let’s assume you kick it in on the first try.’

Rivera appeared to get increasingly frustrated with the assignment and how much the expenses were adding up.

‘What I’m sayin’ to you in a nutshell, bro. Is in order for this to get done? And I don’t give a fuck who is… You say, ‘f**k you, n***a, I want somebody else.’

‘Ok, your secret safe with me ’cause I ain’t no snitch n**a, and I sure ain’t no bitch n***a. So I can handle that, right.

‘By the same token, you not gonna find too many motherf**kers who willing to take the job with receiving next to nothin’ to start the job off with.

‘You sent me thirty-one fifty, right? That pays for some tools and fuels, right? Tools and fuels that’s being, the slammer, mostly, the slammer.

‘Um, toll bridge fee, going back and forth. Putting gas in the car. Rentin’ the car. Look, the car ain’t mine bromie, that s**t is bein’ rented. It’s funded by the thirty-one fifty.

‘S**t ain’ t, know what I mean, n***as ain’t just lettin’ you hold their car to do a drive by for nothin’, know what I mean, so.

‘But homie, how long you think that’s gonna last? How long can you expect two workin’ niggas, or one workin’ n***a, really me, but my man too, he a workin’ n***a too.

‘He not like, he’s gonna sit out here all night, all day, rain, cold, sleet, on a promise. Let’s be for real, we out here on a promise, from a n***a I know.’

Rivera appeared to make a veiled threat, pointing out it was good for both Loadholt and Shakeri that they knew as little about each other as possible, and that they were only connected through him.

The FBI alleged he used this to ask for more cash to finish the operation, as he had already bought weapons for the hit, paid for travel costs, and rented the car to kill the target in a drive-by shooting.

He allegedly claimed Loadholt only went along with the plan because he vouched for Shakeri, and would have refused if anyone else asked him.

The pair allegedly negotiated a $100,000 fee to ‘finish the job’ during April, and Shakeri had the cash laundered, with a delay that irked Rivera.

‘Finish the work, and pick up,’ Shakeri instructed his lackey, to which Rivera allegedly answered, ‘N**a I wish it was that easy but I ain’t no quitter’.

Shakeri later told them to ‘take care of it already’.

‘I wish you can take care of it already. I have everything covered. By the way send me a bill and don’t spend it, n***a,’ he wrote on July 16.

Loadholt and Rivera in texts to each other allegedly complained about the delay in receiving the $100,000 payment.

‘I’m so frustrated son I’m like ready to jump out the window,’ Loadholt wrote in one messages.

Their fortunes began to unravel when Shakeri had voluntary interviews with the FBI on the phone from Iran on September 30, October 8, October 17, October 28, and November 7.

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Jim Jordan Orders Jack Smith to Preserve All Documents Related to Trump Prosecution

The House Judiciary Committee is concerned that special counsel Jack Smith and prosecutors involved in the investigations of now President-elect Donald Trump will “purge” records to skirt oversight and is demanding they produce to Congress all documents related to the probes before the end of the month, Fox News Digital has reported.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., penned a letter to Smith on Friday, obtained by Fox News Digital.

“The Committee on the Judiciary is continuing its oversight of the Department of Justice and the Office of Special Counsel. According to recent public reports, prosecutors in your office have been ‘gaming out legal options’ in the event that President Donald Trump won the election,” they wrote.

“With President Trump’s decisive victory this week, we are concerned that the Office of Special Counsel may attempt to purge relevant records, communications, and documents responsive to our numerous requests for information.”

Jordan and Loudermilk warned that the Office of Special Counsel “is not immune from transparency or above accountability for its actions.”

“We reiterate our requests, which are itemized in the attached appendix and incorporated herein, and ask that you produce the entirety of the requested material as soon as possible but no later than November 22, 2024,” they wrote.

Jordan and Loudermilk are demanding Smith turn over information about the use of FBI personnel on his team — a request first made in June 2023 — and whether any of those FBI employees “previously worked on any other matters concerning President Trump.”

They also renewed their request from August 2023, demanding records relating to Smith and prosecutor Jay Bratt visiting the White House or Executive Office of the President; a request from September 2023 for records related to lawyer Stanley Woodward—who represented Trump aide Walt Nauta; a request from December 2023 for communications between Attorney General Merrick Garland and the special counsel’s team; and more.

The Justice Department is looking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Trump as he prepares to be sworn in for a second term in the White House — a decision that upholds a long-standing policy that prevents Justice Department attorneys from prosecuting a sitting president.

DOJ officials have cited a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel filed in 2000, which upholds a Watergate-era argument that asserts it is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine for the Justice Department to investigate a sitting president.

It further notes that such proceedings would “unduly interfere in a direct or formal sense with the conduct of the Presidency.”

“In light of the effect that an indictment would have on the operations of the executive branch, ‘an impeachment proceeding is the only appropriate way to deal with a President while in office,’” the memo said in conclusion.

Smith was leading an investigation into the alleged retention of classified records. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges stemming from that probe.

The case was eventually tossed completely by a federal judge in Florida, who ruled that Smith was improperly and unlawfully appointed as special counsel.

Smith also took over an investigation into alleged 2020 election interference. Trump also pleaded not guilty, but his attorneys took the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue on the basis of presidential immunity.

The high court ruled that Trump was immune from prosecution for official presidential acts, forcing Smith to file a new indictment.

Trump pleaded not guilty to those new charges as well. Trump attorneys are now seeking to have the election interference charges dropped in Washington, D.C., similarly alleging that Smith was appointed unlawfully.

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Chinese Citizen Arrested Again for Trespassing at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

An alleged serial trespasser who’s attempted to sneak into Mar-a-Lago multiple times was busted again at President-elect Donald Trump’s Florida compound Thursday.

Zijie Li, 39, was nabbed on Thursday on charges of trespass after warning after trying to reach the Palm Beach estate in a rideshare, NBC Miami reported.

His bond was set at $100,000 on Friday.

Li, of El Monte, has tried to break through security at Mar-a-Lago multiple times because he wanted to speak with Trump, according to authorities.

Li was first given a trespass warning on July 19 for trying to sneak into Mar-a-Lago, per NBC.

He returned to Palm Beach four other times – even driving up to a checkpoint – but did not attempt to enter, the outlet said, citing the arrest report.

Li put paperwork about Trump on cars around the area on July 30. He was arrested again for trespassing at Mar-a-Lago the following day.

Li, who is originally from China, allegedly told Secret Service that he had information that China was linked to the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.

A few months later, on Oct. 30, Li was put under Florida’s Baker Act – which allows for involuntary mental health treatment – when he tried to access Mar-a-Lago again with help from a resident.

He was released on bond, with the condition of being 500 feet away from Trump and Mar-a-Lago.

Li allegedly disobeyed that order when he attempted to reach the property in a rideshare on Thursday.

After two public attempts on his life and ahead of his return to the White House, Trump beefed up security at Mar-a-Lago with a Secret Service robot dog, photos showed on Friday.

The robotic canine was seen strolling on the grass among the palm trees outside the residence – with a large warning on the side cautioning “DO NOT PET.”

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FEMA Official Ordered Relief Workers to Skip Houses with Trump Signs

A federal disaster relief official ordered workers to bypass the homes of Donald Trump’s supporters as they surveyed damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida, according to internal correspondence obtained by The Daily Wire and confirmed by multiple federal employees.

A FEMA supervisor told workers in a message to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Lake Placid, Florida to identify residents who could qualify for federal aid, internal messages viewed by The Daily Wire reveal. The supervisor, Marn’i Washington, relayed this message both verbally and in a group chat used by the relief team, multiple government employees told The Daily Wire.

The government employees told The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance, meaning they were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance. Images shared with The Daily Wire show that houses were skipped over by the workers, who wrote in the government system messages such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership.”

It is unclear whether the same guidance was issued elsewhere in the country. The employees were part of a Department of Homeland Security surge capacity force team, meaning they volunteered from other DHS agencies to help an understaffed FEMA as it dealt with a second major hurricane in a span of just a few weeks.

“I know they’re short-staffed, I thought we could go help and make a difference,” one of the employees said. “When we got there we were told to discriminate against people. It’s almost unbelievable to think that somebody in the federal government would think that’s okay.”

The employee said it felt wrong to discriminate against Trump supporters when they were at their “most vulnerable.”

“I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them,” the employee said. “It didn’t matter if people were black, white, Hispanic, for Trump, for Harris. Everyone deserves the same amount of help.”

The guidance came as the Biden administration was criticized over its sluggish response to Hurricane Helene in rural areas across the country. In Roan Mountain, Tennessee, for example, locals told The Daily Wire it took nearly two weeks for FEMA to show up. The town is located in Carter County, which voted 81% for Trump on Tuesday.

The FEMA agents ordered not to help houses with Trump signs were operating in Highlands County, a deep-red area located in south central Florida that backed Trump by 70% on Tuesday. It was hit with tornadoes, torrential wind and rain, and flooding when Milton hit in October.

In the chat, Washington said that it would be “best practice” to “avoid homes advertising Trump,” according to photos of the messages viewed by The Daily Wire. No explanation was given for this guidance, which included other recommendations like telling the workers to “practice de-escalation and preventative measures,” and to “avoid high salt diets and coffee.”

Photos from the system used by federal relief workers to track what homes they visit showed that relief workers followed Washington’s guidance. Several addresses were marked “not able to access property” with listed explanations such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” “Trump sign,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership.”

“If they had damage or lost power for over thirty-six hours, it was my duty to inform them of benefits to which they are entitled through FEMA,” one team member wrote in a complaint filed to DHS about the guidance.

Washington is the Disaster Survivor Assistance crew leader for Highland County, a leadership chart reviewed by The Daily Wire shows. She did not respond to multiple phone calls or an email seeking comment on the guidance.

Chad Hershey, Washington’s FEMA supervisor, told The Daily Wire that the agency is looking into the situation.

“We are aware of it and we are taking proper action in this situation currently,” Hershey said.

Pressed to confirm the messages, Hershey said: “We are aware of it and we are taking action at this moment regarding the situation that you’re talking about.”

Hershey added that FEMA would be providing a fuller statement though none was yet provided by press time. He said that officials in Washington, D.C., would be reaching out to The Daily Wire.

After publication of this story, a FEMA spokesperson told The Daily Wire it was “deeply disturbed” and “horrified” by the employee’s actions, and that it has “taken extreme actions to correct this situation.”

“While we believe this is an isolated incident, we have taken measures to remove the employee from their role and are investigating the matter to prevent this from happening ever again,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes and we are reaching out to the people who may have not been reached as a result of this incident.”

“This is a matter that we take extremely seriously and we are doing everything we can to make sure all survivors receive support from FEMA. To date, we have helped over 365,000 households impacted by both Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the state of Florida and have provided over $898 million in direct assistance to survivors.”

“We are horrified that this took place and therefore have taken extreme actions to correct this situation and have ensured that the matter was addressed at all levels. Helping people is what we do best and our workforce across the agency will continue to serve survivors for as long as it takes.”

The guidance was first issued by Washington verbally on October 22, and again in the group chat on October 27, according to one of the federal employees. The Trump-related instructions were deleted from the chat a few days later, photos of the chat reviewed by The Daily Wire show.

By October 30, Washington had started walking back the instructions about skipping Trump supporters’ homes, one of the federal employees told The Daily Wire. The relief workers said Washington denied that homes were being skipped after a meeting with other FEMA administrators.

The employees say that Washington has not been punished for the guidance, but has been shifted to another county in Florida.

The whistleblower complaint says that the Trump guidance further undermines trust in FEMA and its response to the hurricanes.

“This behavior raises significant concerns of discrimination against United States citizens because of their political views,” a copy of the complaint obtained by The Daily Wire said. “These actions not only undermine the integrity of our agency and create a hostile work environment for those who may hold differing political beliefs but they also threaten the very democracy of our country.”

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Kamala’s Concert Series Leaves $20M Debt — Staff, Vendors May Not Get Paid

Finger-pointing has erupted over the Kamala Harris campaign blowing up to $20 million on swing-state concerts Monday night, hours before the VP’s spectacular election loss to Donald Trump — prompting concern that everyday staff and vendors won’t get paid amid reports the campaign is in debt by the same amount.

Members of the defeated Harris team tell The Post that the concerts had a ruinous effect on the Democratic campaign’s coffers and that fact was no secret — with one planned performance by ’90s alt-rock goddess Alanis Morissette getting scrapped to save money.

The seven swing-state concerts on election eve featured performances by Jon Bon Jovi in Detroit, Christina Aguilera in Las Vegas, Katy Perry in Pittsburgh and Lady Gaga in Philadelphia — with 2 Chainz joining Harris on Nov. 2, three days before the election, for an eighth concert in Atlanta.

Two sources said that Obama campaign alum Stephanie Cutter pushed the concert concept as a way to woo lower-propensity voters to the polls.

While the performers donated their time and talent, the sets still required an immense commitment of manpower and financial resources.

Cutter’s plan was supported by fellow Obama alum David Plouffe, one source said.

Harris added Cutter and Plouffe to her campaign shortly after replacing President Biden atop the party’s ticket in July, generating internal tensions with the existing Biden campaign team as the newcomers sought to replay the 44th president’s successful 2008 campaign.

Harris-Walz campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon ultimately approved the get-out-the-vote concert plans, but has since told colleagues — in response to significant internal criticism — that she didn’t want to do them and sat on the idea for weeks, one source told The Post.

If that was the case, another source pointed out, then O’Malley Dillon’s waffling led to increased production costs because “putting [concerts] together last minute makes [them] cost twice as much.”

The second source questioned whether campaign operations chief Dana Rosenzweig should have raised internal concerns earlier in the planning, though a third defended her and argued the campaign budget team would have had that responsibility.

“They said they were ‘spending to zero.’ I guess they overshot zero,” quipped the second source.

As it happened, the events hardly made a splash in the news cycle — with the exception of the Philadelphia rally, where Oprah Winfrey stole the show by claiming that Trump winning might mean “we will not have the opportunity to cast a ballot again.”

Voters in each of the seven swing states turned out the next day to elect Trump, the former president and Republican nominee.

“They had huge advance teams for these concerts, like 40-60 people in some cities,” said an insider who told The Post that they are concerned about the financial impact on people who worked to elect Harris.

“I’m sure vendors will start to get upset soon,” the source added, noting that staff payments do not seem to be impacted so far, though expense reimbursements are still pending.

In the week before Election Day, as campaign bosses became aware that nearly all of their more than $1 billion war chest was gone, there were efforts to scale back concert costs — which were expected to run between $15 million and $20 million, but in some cases experienced overruns.

“They definitely knew the budget crunch at the end because they cut talent from some cities because of cost,” the source said, adding that Morissette’s show got the ax just two days before the scheduled performance.

A different Harris campaign source said that finance staff currently are in the process of reconciling the balance sheets and that nobody has been stiffed.

Another source called the events “a real misuse of funds that could have been better spent on ads laying out economic policies” to voters angered about inflation and high interest rates.

“It didn’t matter to have a bunch of celebrities talking to no one because one, 75 million people already voted and two, people were concerned about their own financial issues, not Oprah telling them America won’t exist,” this source said.

Despite the enormous fundraising haul in the 107-day campaign spring, the Harris campaign ended the race at least $20 million in debt, Politico reported Thursday. Donation webpages remain active in the apparent hope of an after-the-fact trickle of funds to close the gap.

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Federal Judge Strikes Down Illinois ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban as Unconstitutional

A federal judge prohibited Illinois from enforcing its ban on assault weapons, marking a victory for Second Amendment activists and reversing a law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL).

U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn ruled Friday in favor of plaintiffs who argued that the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA) was “an unconstitutional infringement” of Second Amendment rights.

“Government may not deprive law-abiding citizens of their guaranteed right to self-defense as a means of offense,” McGlynn wrote in a 168-page opinion that suggested people use guns to defend themselves because “sometimes,” there is “no one” else to protect them.

The ruling, which will not go into effect for 30 days, will likely be appealed. It comes after Pritzker signed the assault weapons ban into law in January 2023, a move that affected more than 29,000 AR-15 gun owners in the state.

Several firearms, such as the AR-15, regularly referred to as “assault weapons,” are commonly used by people across the country. National surveys by Ipsos in 2022 found that roughly 16 million Americans own an AR-15.

An analysis by the Washington Post earlier this year determined that while 33% of assault rifle owners use the weapon for self-defense purposes, 15% use it for recreational use, and the same percentage use the firearm for target shooting.

Judge McGlynn’s decision marks a win for the National Rifle Association.

The pro-Second Amendment organization backed the lawsuit against Pritzker’s ban, arguing that it “enacted the most restrictive firearms law in the state’s 200-year history, banning the possession of more than 1,000 previously lawful semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns, including many of the most popular models in the country.”

However, the Illinois governor said in a statement, announcing PICA that the legislation was meant to prevent school shootings and “massacres like Highland Park, Sandy Hook, and Uvalde.”

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NYC Mayor Eric Adams Ends Debit Card Vouchers for Illegal Aliens

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday that the city is ending its controversial program that gave illegal aliens hundreds of dollars of taxpayer money every week for food.

Adams’ office said in a statement, “As we move towards more competitive contracting for asylum seeker programs, we have chosen not to renew the emergency contract for this pilot program once the one-year term concludes.”

The move comes after President-Elect Donald Trump promised mass deportations once he takes office in January.

The program gave debit cards to illegal aliens who were living in taxpayer-funded hotels, allowing them to buy whatever kind of food they wanted.

The city gave millions of dollars to thousands of illegal aliens through the program.

Local media reported that a typical family of four would get several hundred dollars a week to spend for food.

Elon Musk’s America PAC highlighted the news story on X, writing: “NYC Mayor Eric Adams announces end to program that gave debit cards to illegal immigrants less than 48 hours after Donald Trump’s victory.”

“We obviously have to make the border strong and powerful and, and we have to — at the same time, we want people to come into our country,” Trump told NBC News on Thursday. “And you know, I’m not somebody that says, ‘No, you can’t come in.’ We want people to come in.”

On the subject of his deportation plans, Trump said: “It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”

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Man Arrested After 9 People Stabbed Over 2 Days in Seattle

A man has been arrested in connection with a spate of random stabbings over two days in Seattle, in which nine people were injured — five of them on Friday afternoon, police said.

“This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing random assaults,” Deputy Chief Eric Barden said at the scene Friday.

The stabbings on Friday afternoon took place in a roughly four-block area in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

Witnesses reported a description of the suspect and officers found him nearby and took him into custody, police said. A weapon was found near the person who was arrested, and a knife was lodged in one of the victims, police said.

Four of the victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and one victim was treated at the scene and released. A Harborview spokesperson confirmed four victims were at the hospital and said all were in critical condition. As of Friday evening, two of them remained in critical condition, one had been upgraded to serious condition and the other to satisfactory condition, the spokesperson said.

Barden said police suspect that the person arrested in connection with Friday’s stabbings is the same person involved with at least four other stabbings that happened starting early Thursday. He cited similar suspect descriptions and the randomness of the attacks, but added that the investigation is ongoing.

The Thursday stabbings in Chinatown started when a 52-year-old woman was found with multiple stab wounds, police said. On Thursday afternoon, a 32-year-old man was found after being stabbed multiple times and at about 8 p.m. a 37-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the back, police said.

Then early on Friday, police responding to an assault call found a 53-year-old man bleeding heavily from a neck injury. Police followed a blood trail to a nearby doorway and unsuccessfully used that as a starting point for police dogs to try and track a suspect.

“It is my understanding that everyone is alive,” Barden said of the victims on Friday afternoon.

Police said a 10th stabbing on Thursday night involved a cellphone robbery in which someone forcibly opened a vehicle door and tried to stab a 60-year-old man in the chest. The victim blocked the assault and was cut on his hand, police said. It was not clear that it was connected to the random attacks, police said.

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FBI Brass ‘Stunned’ and ‘Shell Shocked’ Over Trump Reelection

The brass on the seventh floor at FBI headquarters in Washington are walking around in a daze and wary of a housecleaning since President-elect Donald Trump won his reelection on Tuesday, according to inside sources.

The Washington Times learned through several anonymous bureau sources that senior executives who run the agency were “stunned” and “shellshocked” by Mr. Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

“You know the fit test? How they let the standards slack on the fit test?” the first FBI source said, referring to the agency’s physical fitness requirements. “Everyone’s going to have a real problem when they’re running for the door.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Director Paul Abbate have little chance of remaining at the bureau by the time Mr. Trump is sworn into office, sources say.

FBI employees also recall when Mr. Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey in 2017, five months after the president was sworn in.

“It’s a countdown for Wray because [people here] don’t think he will stay to get fired after what Trump did to Comey,” the first source said. “Trump will say, Yeah, ’fire his ass. Don’t let him take the plane home,” a reference to Mr. Comey finding out about his termination while flying to California on the bureau’s airplane.

Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Wray as FBI director in 2017 after firing Mr. Comey. The director’s term is for 10 years, but serving a full term depends on gaining the confidence of the president.

Others on the 7th floor of the FBI are so concerned about their own jobs that they are likely to flood the Washington, D.C., private security job market, sources say.

According to most of the sources, no one in the FBI at a GS-14 level or higher is safe from losing their job after Mr. Trump is sworn in, and they fully expect the president-elect to “smash the place to pieces when he gets in,” and that it will be a “bloodbath.”

The FBI and Mr. Trump have a tense history, dating back to the 2016 presidential campaign. Under Mr. Comey, the agency launched its “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation of the Trump campaign’s alleged links to Russia in July 2016.

Mr. Trump’s firing of Mr. Comey in 2017 raised suspicions in the Justice Department that the president was obstructing justice, leading to special counsel Robert Mueller’s long-running and costly probe, which eventually found no evidence that Trump campaign officials conspired with or were connected to Moscow.

A subsequent government watchdog investigation found that FBI officials made numerous errors or omissions in secret warrant applications for surveillance of a Trump campaign aide.

More recently, The Washington Times exclusively reported about an FBI whistleblower’s protected disclosure to Congress that alleged Mr. Comey launched an off-the-books undercover criminal investigation against Mr. Trump after he began his first campaign in June 2015. The operation was not predicated on any particular case nor had any connection to Russia.

Mr. Trump also clashed with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired in 2018 hours before his retirement. Mr. McCabe went on to become a cable news analyst who was highly critical of Mr. Trump.

In August 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida and seized documents, leading to criminal charges against him of mishandling classified materials. That prosecution is now in jeopardy due to Mr. Trump’s reelection.

Many at the FBI remembered when Chief of Border Patrol Mark Morgan, a longtime FBI official, resigned six months into 2017 after Mr. Trump was sworn in. Mr. Trump later hired him to head up Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

Additionally, many on the 7th floor of the FBI are concerned about billionaire tech executive Elon Musk, owner of X and Tesla, being brought into the Trump administration as head of a government efficiency commission.

“When he tries to do efficiency at headquarters, the place is going to have five people … if he’s talking about a lot of dead weight,” a second FBI source said.

“Try to find a person that’s actually working,” the source said. “That may be the biggest problem there—that there’s no efficiency. So that’s actually the bigger threat. If you’re going to try to make the government efficient, you would start with the FBI, because if you do politics all the time, you’re probably bloated.”

FBI agents spent much of their time during the Biden administration seeking out, investigating and arresting Jan. 6 defendants, whom Mr. Trump has pledged to pardon at the beginning of his second term.

A third FBI source said some bureau personnel who are tired of the Jan. 6 investigations are amused “at the fact that Trump [likely] pardons everybody involved Jan. 6.”

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Israeli Soccer Fans Attacked in Amsterdam in Antisemitic Incidents — Bibi Orders Rescue Planes

Israeli soccer fans were beaten and injured in violent clashes in Amsterdam overnight, which Dutch authorities condemned Friday as antisemitic.

Dutch police said they had launched a major investigation into multiple incidents following the Europa League soccer game Thursday night between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch side Ajax.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said criminals on scooters searched the city in search of Maccabi supporters in “hit-and-run” attacks. “This is a terrible moment for our city. … I am very ashamed of the behavior that was shown last night,” she said in a Friday news conference.

Amsterdam authorities said Friday morning that five injured Israeli soccer fans have since been released from the hospital, and 20 to 30 other people were lightly injured. In total, 63 individuals were arrested and 10 remain in custody, police said.

Tensions had been rising in the lead up to Thursday night’s match with multiple social media videos showing Maccabi fans chanting anti-Arab slurs, praising Israeli military attacks in Gaza and yelling “f**k the Arabs.” Other videos apparently filmed in Amsterdam show men ripping Palestinian flags off buildings. It is unclear when those videos were filmed.

After the game, hundreds of Maccabi fans “were ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam,” the Israeli embassy to the United States said on social media platform X, sharing video of the violence.

One video shows a man being kicked while he lies on the ground, while another video shows a man being hit by a man yelling “free Palestine” and “for the children, motherf***er.” CNN has not yet been able to verify those videos.

Another video shows a man shouting “I am not Jewish” as he is chased down street, thrown to the ground and beaten.

Police have said the atmosphere at the stadium was relatively calm and fans left without incident after Ajax won the game 5-0, but during the night various clashes in the city center were reported.

The mayor of Amsterdam added, “There can be tensions there are many demonstrations and protests and we are always prepared for them, and of course, they are related to the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing war. But what happened last night wasn’t a protest. … It was crime.”

“There is no excuse for the antisemitic behavior exhibited last night by rioters who actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them,” local authorities in Amsterdam said Friday, adding that police intervened several times to protect fans and escort them to hotels.

Police earlier said they had boosted their presence in the city center on Wednesday night, citing “tensions” in several areas, one day ahead of the game.

Officers “prevented a confrontation between a group of taxi drivers and a group of visitors who came from the adjacent casino” on Wednesday, the police said in a statement on X, noting another incident, in which, a Palestinian flag was torn down in Amsterdam’s center by unknown perpetrators.

On Thursday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to reach the Johan Cruyff stadium, though the city had forbidden them to protest there, Reuters reported.

Kobi Elyahu, an Israeli soccer fan returning to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday evening, described the attacks against Israelis as “very frightening” and “like the 1940s.” He described seeing people locking themselves in hotels to escape, people throwing water and others “driving” and “stepping on” victims.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the attacks “terrible” and “horrific” while talking to journalists on Friday.

“There are always problems around football matches, and football matches regarding the Israeli team also has special attention from the police, but the things that happened last night are just terrible, horrific,” he said, before adding that he was “utterly ashamed” that this had happened in the Netherlands.

“This is completely unacceptable. I am in close contact with all parties involved and have just spoken to (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu by phone to stress that the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted,” he said, adding, “The situation in Amsterdam is now calm once more.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was shocked by the violence in Amsterdam, adding that he condemns all forms of antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry, UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay said during a Friday news briefing.

Netanyahu on Friday received a briefing from the country’s Foreign Ministry regarding efforts to return Israeli citizens from Amsterdam. During the meeting, Netanyahu compared the antisemitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans to Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” when the Nazi regime attacked Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues and homes throughout Germany in 1938.

“Tomorrow, 86 years ago, was Kristallnacht – an attack on Jews, whatever Jews they are, on European soil. It’s back now – yesterday we celebrated it on the streets of Amsterdam. That’s what happened. There is only one difference – in the meantime, the Jewish state has been established. We have to deal with it,” Netanyahu said, according to a government statement.

In a separate statement from his office, Netanyahu urged Dutch authorities to “act firmly and quickly against the rioters and ensure the peace of our citizens.” He initially said he was ordering “rescue planes” to assist Israeli citizens, but his office later said it would focus on commercial flight solutions.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar traveled to the Netherlands in the wake of the attacks, which he condemned as “barbaric and antisemitic” and called them “a blaring alarm call for Europe and the world.”

Following a meeting with top Dutch officials on Friday, Sa’ar highlighted that Israel expected criminal proceedings to be taken against Thursday’s perpetrators. “We expect arrests, we expect a severe punishment,” Sa’ar said in a statement.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday that it “condemns anti-Arab chants by Israelis and attacks on the symbolism of the Palestinian flag in Amsterdam.” It also called on the Dutch government to “protect Palestinians and Arabs in the Netherlands.”

Israel’s National Security Council has urged citizens to avoid affiliated basketball team Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Friday night game against Virtus Bologna in Italy.

The Israeli foreign ministry is reviewing security for Israelis living abroad and for all future Israeli team sporting events in Europe, including enhancing cooperation with local authorities, an Israeli official told CNN.

Following the Amsterdam incident, some people in France have called for next week’s match between the French and Israeli national soccer teams to be relocated.

However, France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Friday: “France is not backing down, as this would be tantamount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and antisemitism.” Security arrangements are being put in place for the match at the Stade de France near Paris, he added.

Meanwhile, European soccer’s governing body UEFA announced Monday that a Europa League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Turkish football team Beşiktaş in late November will be moved to a neutral venue, following a decision by Turkish authorities.

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Who Could Trump Pick for His New Cabinet? Here Are Top Contenders

Donald Trump has begun the process of choosing a cabinet and selecting other high-ranking administration officials following his presidential election victory.

Here are the early picks and top contenders for some of the key posts overseeing defense, intelligence, diplomacy, trade, immigration and economic policymaking. Some are in contention for a range of posts.

SUSIE WILES, chief of staff

Trump on Thursday announced that Wiles, one of his two campaign managers, will be his White House chief of staff.

While the specifics of her political views are somewhat unclear, Wiles is credited with running a successful and efficient campaign. Supporters hope she would instill a sense of order and discipline that was often lacking during Trump’s first term, when he cycled through a number of chiefs of staff.

SCOTT BESSENT, potential treasury secretary

Bessent, a key economic adviser to Trump, is widely seen as a top candidate for treasury secretary. A longtime hedge fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, Bessent has a warm relationship with the president-elect.

While Bessent has long favored the laissez-faire policies that were popular in the pre-Trump Republican Party, he has also spoken highly of Trump’s use of tariffs as a negotiating tool. He has praised the president-elect’s economic philosophy, which rests on a skepticism of both regulations and international trade.

JOHN PAULSON, potential treasury secretary

Paulson, a billionaire hedge fund manager and major Trump donor, is another top contender for treasury secretary. The longtime financier has told associates he would be interested in the job.

A longtime proponent of tax cuts and deregulation, Paulson’s profile is broadly similar to that of other potential members of Trump’s economic team. He has publicly supported targeted tariffs as a tool to ensure U.S. national security and combat unfair trade practices abroad.

One high-profile fundraiser hosted by Paulson in April raked in over $50 million for the former president.

LARRY KUDLOW, potential treasury secretary

FOX Business Network personality Larry Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council for much of Trump’s first term, has an outside shot at becoming his treasury secretary and would likely have an opportunity to take a separate economics-focused position if he is interested.

While he is privately skeptical of broad tariffs, there is publicly little daylight between the policies Kudlow advocates and those of the president-elect.

ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, potential treasury secretary

A loyalist who served as Trump’s U.S. trade representative for essentially the then-president’s entire term, Lighthizer will almost certainly be invited back. Though Bessent and Paulson likely have a better shot at becoming treasury secretary, Lighthizer has an outside chance, and he might be able to reprise his old role if he’s interested.

Like Trump, Lighthizer is a trade skeptic and a firm believer in tariffs. He was one of the leading figures in Trump’s trade war with China and the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, with Mexico and Canada during Trump’s first term.

HOWARD LUTNICK, potential treasury secretary

The co-chair of Trump’s transition effort and the longtime chief executive of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick is in the running for treasury secretary.

A bombastic New Yorker like Trump, Lutnick has uniformly praised the president-elect’s economic policies, including his use of tariffs.

He has at times given elaborate, unvarnished opinions about what policies will be enacted in Trump’s second term. Some Trump allies had privately complained that he too often presented himself as speaking on behalf of the campaign.

RICHARD GRENELL, potential secretary of state

Grenell is among Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers. During the president-elect’s first four-year term, he served as acting director of national intelligence and U.S. ambassador to Germany. When Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in September, Grenell sat in on the private meeting.

Grenell’s private dealings with foreign leaders and often-caustic personality have made him the center of multiple controversies, though significant Republican gains in the Senate mean he could likely be confirmed. He is also considered a top contender for national security adviser, which does not require Senate confirmation.

Among the policies he has advocated for is setting up an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine to end the war there, a position Kyiv considers unacceptable.

ROBERT O’BRIEN, potential secretary of state

O’Brien, Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser during his first term, maintains a close relationship with Trump, and the two often speak on national security matters.

He is likely in the running for secretary of state or other top foreign policy and national security posts. He has maintained close contacts with foreign leaders since Trump left office, having met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in May.

His views are somewhat more hawkish than some of Trump’s advisers. He has, for instance, been more supportive of military aid for Ukraine than many of his Republican contemporaries, and he is a proponent of banning TikTok in the United States.

BILL HAGERTY, potential secretary of state

A U.S. senator from Tennessee who worked on Trump’s 2016 transition effort, Hagerty is considered a top contender for secretary of state. He has maintained solid relations with essentially all factions of the Republican Party, and could likely be confirmed with ease in the Senate.

He served as U.S. ambassador to Japan in the first Trump administration at a time when the president touted his warm relationship with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Hagerty’s policies are broadly in line with those of Trump. Earlier in the year, he voted against a major military aid package for Ukraine.

MARCO RUBIO, potential secretary of state

Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, is also a top secretary of state contender whose policies hew closely to those of Trump. Like Hagerty, he was a contender to be Trump’s 2024 running mate.

Rubio has long been involved in foreign affairs in the Senate, particularly as it relates to Latin America, and he has solid relationships throughout the party.

MIKE WALTZ, potential defense secretary

A former Army Green Beret who is currently a U.S. congressman from Florida, Waltz has established himself as one of the foremost China hawks in the House of Representatives. Among the various China-related bills he has co-sponsored are measures designed to lessen U.S. reliance on critical minerals mined in China.

Waltz is on speaking terms with Trump and is widely considered to be a serious contender for secretary of defense.

MIKE POMPEO, potential defense secretary

Pompeo, who served as CIA director and secretary of state during Trump’s first term, is considered a top contender for secretary of defense but could land in various slots involving national security, intelligence or diplomacy.

While he flirted with a Republican primary challenge against Trump, Pompeo never pulled the trigger, and he is now back on friendly terms with the president-elect after a period of awkwardness. He stands out as possibly the fiercest defender of Ukraine among Trump’s close allies, a position that puts him at odds with most high-ranking figures in his potential boss’s camp.

KEITH KELLOGG, potential candidate for national security posts

A retired lieutenant general who served as chief of staff to the National Security Council under Trump, Kellogg has Trump’s ear and is a contender for several national security-related positions, though it is unclear precisely where he would land.

During the campaign, he presented Trump with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, which involved forcing both parties to the negotiating table and ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine for the foreseeable future, among other measures.

TOM HOMAN, potential homeland security secretary

Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a year and a half during Trump’s first term, is a contender for secretary of homeland security. Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration the central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations.

Trump frequently praised Homan during the campaign, and Homan often hit the trail to rally supporters. During Trump’s first term, Homan was a leading advocate of the administration’s controversial child separation policy, during which children of immigrants who had entered the country illegally were detained separately from their parents.

CHAD WOLF, potential homeland security secretary

Wolf, who served as Trump’s acting secretary of homeland security for roughly 14 months during his first presidency, may have a shot at heading back to DHS.

Wolf loyally carried out Trump’s hardline immigration policies, and he deployed federal agents to Portland, Oregon, to control protests during the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer.

He may have some strikes against him. He resigned on Jan. 11, 2021, just days after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump has expressed misgivings about bringing back those who resigned in the final days of his term. Wolf, however, cited the legal controversy around his appointment as DHS secretary – rather than the Capitol attack – when he stepped down. Multiple judges ruled that his appointment by Trump, which effectively circumvented the Senate, was illegal.

MARK GREEN, potential homeland security secretary

A former Army flight surgeon and the current chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Green is considered by some Trump allies in Washington as a contender for the top job at DHS. His supporters describe him as a Trump loyalist and immigration hardliner who also has significant legislative experience.

Green was nominated by Trump during his first term to serve as secretary of the Army, but he withdrew his name as past statements, which were widely seen as transphobic and Islamophobic, drew more scrutiny.

JOHN RATCLIFFE, potential attorney general

A former congressman and prosecutor who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s last year in office, Ratcliffe is seen as a potential attorney general, though he could also take a separate national security or intelligence position.

The president-elect’s allies view Ratcliffe as a hardcore Trump loyalist who could likely win Senate confirmation. Still, during his time as director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe often contradicted the assessments of career civil servants, drawing criticism from Democrats who said he politicized the role.

MIKE LEE, potential attorney general

A U.S. senator from Utah, Lee is widely seen as another top candidate for attorney general. Though the former prosecutor declined to vote for Trump during the 2016 election, he later became an unwavering ally, and he has become something of an intellectual hero among some factions of Trumpworld.

Lee was a key figure in attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, and has spread unfounded conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

KASH PATEL, potential candidate for national security posts

A former Republican House staffer who served in various high-ranking staff roles in the defense and intelligence communities during Trump’s first term, Patel has frequently appeared on the campaign trail to rally support for the candidate.

Some Trump allies would like to see Patel, considered the ultimate Trump loyalist, appointed CIA director. Any position requiring Senate confirmation may be a challenge, however.

Patel has leaned into controversy throughout his career. In an interview with Trump ally Steve Bannon last year, he promised to “come after” politicians and journalists perceived to be enemies of the president-elect. During Trump’s first term, Patel drew animosity from some more experienced national security officials, who saw him as volatile and too eager to please the then-president.

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Meet Susie Wiles — Trump’s White House Chief of Staff

President-elect Donald Trump made history twice this week, first by winning the White House for a second time as a former president, and then by naming Susie Wiles to be his chief of staff.

Wiles, a longtime GOP operative and advisor to Trump, will be the first woman to hold that coveted position in American history. By all accounts, she has earned it. Wiles is credited with tightening up Trump’s campaign operations after his 2020 loss and helping him win both the Electoral College and national popular vote in 2024 – an achievement that has eluded Republican candidates for president for 20 years.

“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” Trump said in a statement on Thursday, announcing her White House appointment.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud,” he said.

However, while Wiles is known, respected and even feared in Florida, she is not well-known in Washington, D.C., and certainly not nationally. So who is Susie Wiles? Here are five things to know about the next White House chief of staff:

Her father was a legendary NFL broadcaster, and she helped him overcome addiction

Wiles is the daughter of late legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall. Summerall was an NFL champion kicker and the lead color commentator alongside John Madden on CBS for more than two decades.

During his broadcast career, Summerall admitted to becoming an alcoholic. In his 2006 biography, he recounted how his daughter, Susie, staged an intervention for him and helped him break addiction.

“Dad, the few times we’ve been out in public together recently, I’ve been ashamed we shared the same last name,” Wiles said in a letter that was read during the intervention, according to Summerall’s 2006 autobiography, “On and Off the Air.”

Summerall wrote that the words of his daughter inspired him to take steps to address his addiction.

Her first job in politics was with her father’s old teammate

In the late 1970s, Wiles was hired as an assistant to Summerall’s old teammate on the New York Giants, someone who went on to have a long and successful career in the House of Representatives and later be nominated for vice president. That was none other than the late Jack Kemp, one of the chief backers of former President Ronald Reagan’s supply-side economics theories and architect of the Regan tax cuts.

Wiles went on to work for Reagan himself as a scheduler for his 1980 presidential campaign and later the White House. She left Washington, D.C., for Florida in the 1990s and served as chief of staff to John Delaney, the mayor of Jacksonville. She also worked as the district director for Rep. Tillie Fowler in Northeast Florida.

Delaney heaped praise on Wiles in an interview for Politico Magazine. “I’ve described her as a political savant — just otherworldly sort of political instincts,” he said.

Wiles continued to be a fixture of Florida politics for decades, eventually helping a health care executive named Rick Scott become governor in 2010. Scott is now Florida’s junior senator and this week is celebrating his re-election to a second term.

She once described herself as a ‘card-carrying member of the GOP establishment,’ but supported Trump

Wiles has worked for every stripe of Republican imaginable, from moderate to hard-line conservative. However, she surprised her friends and allies when, in 2015, she decided to become the Trump campaign’s co-chairwoman in Florida.

“As a card-carrying member of the G.O.P. establishment, many thought my full-throated endorsement of the Trump candidacy was ill advised — even crazy,” Wiles told the New York Times in a rare public statement.

Though faced with skepticism, Wiles explained to the Tampa Bay Times at the time that she believed no other Republican running for the presidency in 2016 was prepared to deliver the change she felt Washington, D.C., needed. She said national Republicans had developed “an expediency culture” and lost sight of core principles.

“I said, ‘I don’t want this to continue.’ I think it seriously will damage our republic and who among that group can really have the fortitude to shift what I’ve seen happening over all these years?” Wiles told the paper.

It turned out that her instincts were right. Trump won the primary and shocked the political establishment by defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in an upset.

She helped Ron DeSantis become governor before a falling out

In 2018, a young Florida congressman named Ron DeSantis decided to run for governor. He won a contested Republican primary thanks to Trump’s endorsement, but his campaign was struggling and behind in the polls.

With a little more than a month before the election, DeSantis hired Wiles to right the ship. Her guidance is largely credited with pushing DeSantis over the finish line in a narrow victory over disgraced former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.

However, a rift grew between DeSantis and Wiles after the election. Politico reported that state first lady Casey DeSantis was suspicious of Wiles’ growing influence and power in the governor’s orbit. Eventually, Wiles was edged out of DeSantis’ inner circle.

She wound up back in Trump’s orbit for his unsuccessful 2020 campaign and remained a close and valued advisor as he plotted a return to the White House in 2024. She was with the Trump campaign when DeSantis mounted his own campaign for president, and many suspect Trump’s team used Wiles’ insider knowledge of DeSantis to defeat the Florida governor.

In January, Wiles responded to a report on X that DeSantis had cleared his campaign website of upcoming events.

“Bye, bye,” she wrote.

She is a registered lobbyist

In addition to her work on political campaigns, Wiles is a registered lobbyist.

Federal disclosures filed in April show Wiles was a lobbyist for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the Trump campaign. The documents show she worked to influence Congress on “FDA regulations.”

WIles is the co-chair for the Florida and Washington, D.C., offices of Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm whose clients include AirBnB, AT&T, eBay, Pfizer, Tesla, and the Embassy of Qatar, although she is not a registered lobbyist for any of those clients.

Previously, Wiles worked for Ballard Partners, a Florida-based firm started by lobbyist Brian Ballard.

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