John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor turned vocal critic, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday. Bolton is the third current or former federal official to face charges since Trump demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi more aggressively pursue his perceived enemies.
The indictment underscores how much Trump has turned the U.S. Department of Justice into a tool of personal retribution, as he pledged to do. Asked about a possible indictment of Bolton Thursday afternoon, Trump said his former aide was a “bad guy.”
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A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a lower court ruling blocking his attempted military deployment in Chicago, citing “insufficient evidence” to justify the takeover.
The ruling is a major win for Illinois and Chicago, both of which sued earlier this month arguing that the deployment infringes on the state’s sovereignty and its right to self-governance. The court’s ruling also marked the first time an appeals court officially blocked one of Trump’s National Guard deployments in a major U.S. city.
In a win for voters, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejected a GOP challenge to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM), which provides guidance to election administrators. The court sent the case back to an appeals court to consider several remaining challenges.
The Republican National Committee, along with state and local GOP groups, sued over the 2023 version of the EPM, seeking to block several pro-voting provisions on proof of citizenship, early voting, and mail-in voting.
A Missouri advocacy group said Republican state officials are throwing “a full-blown tantrum” after they sued the group over their pro-voting ballot measure that aims to give voters a chance to veto the state’s new GOP-backed congressional gerrymander.
After Missouri Republicans gave in to pressure from President Donald Trump to redraw the state’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections in September, pro-voting advocates explored various ways to fight the proposed gerrymander. In addition to lawsuits, they gathered more than 100,000 signatures to place a referendum on the ballot to block the gerrymander.
A challenge to Mississippi's ballot receipt deadline will be distributed for conference in the U.S. Supreme Court. Mississippi is asking the court to reverse a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion striking down the state’s extended ballot receipt deadline.
If the court takes the case, a ruling could have wide implications for states that, like Mississippi, accept mail ballots that arrive late if they’re postmarked by Election Day.
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