CBS News
Illegal crossings at U.S. southern border reach lowest point of Biden presidency
The number of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally at the southern border reached the lowest point of President Biden’s administration in September, three months into his crackdown on asylum claims, according to internal Department of Homeland Security statistics obtained by CBS News.
In September, U.S. Border Patrol agents recorded nearly 54,000 apprehensions of migrants who crossed into the country between legal entry points along the border with Mexico, the government figures show. It’s a smaller figure than the previous Biden-era low in July, when Border Patrol processed roughly 56,000 migrants who crossed the border without authorization.
Border Patrol’s tally of migrant apprehensions in September is the lowest number recorded by the agency since August 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic and the travel restrictions countries enacted in response to it led to a sharp decrease in migration to the U.S. southern border. It’s also a 78% drop from a record high in December, when illegal border crossings soared to 250,000.
U.S. immigration officials processed another 48,000 migrants in September at legal border entry points, known as ports of entry, according to the internal federal data. Most of them secured appointments to enter the U.S. via a phone app the Biden administration has transformed into the main gateway into the American asylum system.
September’s numbers show migration to the U.S.-Mexico border has plateaued following a precipitous drop at the start of the summer, when President Biden invoked sweeping presidential powers to disqualify most of those entering the country illegally from asylum. In July, August and September, Border Patrol agents at the southern border recorded between 54,000 and 58,000 migrant apprehensions each month.
Designed to be temporary, Mr. Biden’s move to sharply restrict asylum is likely to remain in place indefinitely after his administration made the policy’s deactivation threshold harder to meet last week. Vice President Kamala Harris has also vowed to continue the strict measure if elected president and make it even more difficult to lift.
The Biden administration’s support for drastic limits on asylum reflect a broader rightward shift on border policy by Democrats that would have been unthinkable in 2020, when the party faced pressure to reverse the Trump administration’s hardline immigration rules. It’s a shift that has occurred amid a marked increase in support for tough immigration measures among the American public.
The dramatic reduction in illegal border crossings this year, however, has given Democrats a much-needed political win on immigration ahead of the presidential election next month. Former President Donald Trump, who is pledging to carry out mass deportations if voters return him to the White House, has sought to make immigration a defining issue of the 2024 race for the president.
With September’s tally, fiscal year 2024 saw the lowest level in unlawful border crossings under the Biden administration. Border Patrol recorded over 1.5 million migrant apprehensions in fiscal year 2024, compared to a record high of 2.2 million in fiscal year 2022.
While the Mexican government’s efforts have also played a major role in the lower number of migrant arrivals along the U.S. border this year, American officials have credited Mr. Biden’s stringent asylum rules in June for the current four-year low in illegal immigration levels.
During its first three years in office, the Biden administration struggled to respond to an unprecedented migrant influx that was, in great part, fueled by arrivals from far-flung countries, including nations like Venezuela where the U.S. cannot deport migrants on a regular basis due to frosty diplomatic relations. In many cases, migrants were released into the U.S. with notices to appear in immigration court simply because the government did not have the resources and personnel to vet their asylum claims at the border.
But since Mr. Biden’s partial ban on asylum claims took effect, there has been an 80% drop in migrant releases, a senior Customs and Border Protection official told CBS News, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about migration trends. The U.S. government has long viewed migrant releases as a “pull” factor that fuels migration to the southern border, alongside economic conditions and other “push” factors in migrants’ home countries.
More than 70% of migrant adults and families apprehended by Border Patrol have been deported from the U.S. since Mr. Biden’s asylum crackdown began, up from 25% in May, according to DHS data. Since the policy took effect, the U.S. has carried out over 121,000 returns and deportations of migrants.
The asylum restrictions do not apply to unaccompanied children or those with acute medical conditions. It also exempts more than 1,000 migrants who enter the U.S. at legal border entry points each day under the phone app-power appointment system. The Biden administration has paired that process and other legal migration channels, including a program that allows migrants from four countries to fly to the U.S. if they have American sponsors, with the asylum restrictions to deter unlawful crossings through a carrots-and-sticks strategy.
While it has arguably been responsible for ending, at least temporarily, large-scale illegal crossings and chaotic images at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration’s asylum crackdown has been derided as an election gimmick by Republican lawmakers and a draconian policy by migrant advocates, who are challenging the policy in court.
In a conference hosted by the Migration Policy Institute last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas challenged those critical of the asylum restrictions to find an “alternative proposal,” calling the situation at the border before the policy change “unworkable.”
“We have to understand the fact that the American public does want, does expect and does demand the delivery of order,” Mayorkas said, adding later, “And I would respectfully submit that, at least in particular times over the past three years, we haven’t had order.”
CBS News
What’s the evidence against Luigi Mangione in the UnitedHealthCare CEO shooting, according to authorities?
Police have charged 26-year-old Luigi Mangione in the deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside of a New York City Hilton hotel earlier this month. They say a trail of evidence ties him to the crime, including the suspect’s fingerprints and handwritten notebook entries.
Mangione, a former prep school valedictorian and an Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland family, was arrested Monday in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and is being held without bond on charges of forgery and firearms violations. He appeared in court and contested his extradition back to New York, where he faces second-degree murder charges for Thompson’s killing.
Once Mangione is extradited, the New York City Police Department said he’s expected to be charged with premeditated first-degree murder, which is rarely filed unless an officer has been killed. The district attorney’s office has the final say on any charges.
Here is a look at the evidence authorities say they have gathered so far against Mangione.
His notebook entries
Authorities recovered a spiral notebook from Mangione when he was arrested, two law enforcement sources told CBS News. They said Mangione wrote that he considered using a bomb but decided on a shooting instead because it would be more targeted and would avoid endangering innocent people.
Mangione has not incriminated himself in statements to investigators, police said. But investigators are referring to the note as Mangione’s claim of responsibility, sources told CBS News.
Some of the notes in his notebook expressed disdain for corporate America and the health system in particular, according to the NYPD. That aligns with investigators’ working theory about the suspect’s possible motive for targeting Thompson, which is apparent animosity toward the health care industry.
Police have said Mangione suffered a severe back injury in 2023 that led to an emergency room visit and surgery to place screws onto his spine. He posted images of spinal X-rays on his social media.
Fingerprints and DNA
Authorities said they were able to identify Mangione as the suspect in Thompson’s killing relatively quickly because of forensic evidence allegedly tying him to the crime.
“We have DNA,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny as the investigation got underway. “We have fingerprints that’s being processed.”
Police took Mangione’s fingerprints when they booked him into jail in Pennsylvania, and those prints matched those left behind on a water bottle and a KIND bar found close to the scene of the shooting, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday. The bottle and protein bar wrapper were collected near the Starbucks where the suspect was seen on surveillance video minutes before the shooting.
Mangione is also a match for prints found on a cellphone recovered near the site, police said.
The weapon
Police said a 3D-printed gun and suppressor found in Mangione’s backpack at the time of his arrest was consistent with the weapon used to shoot and kill Thompson, and that they matched the gun in his backpack to three spent 9-mm shell casings found at the scene of the crime. Sometimes called a “ghost gun,” this kind of firearm can be made at home using a 3D printer and lacks a serial number, which makes tracking difficult. (Not all ghost guns are illegal, and not all firearms require serial numbers.)
The gun in Mangione’s possession had a loaded Glock magazine with six 9-mm rounds and a 3D-printed silencer, according to the criminal complaint filed in Pennsylvania.
Earlier in the investigation into Thompson’s death, NYPD sources told CBS News that several words were meticulously written in Sharpie onto shell casings and bullets recovered from the crime scene. The words were “delay,” “deny” and possibly “depose,” which investigators believed could reference “the D’s of insurance” coined by critics of the industry. The original alliterative list — “delay, deny, defend” — comments on tactics that insurance companies’ opponents say they use to reject claims.
Face mask, clothing, fake IDs
Clothing, including a face mask, and fraudulent identification cards similar to the ones used by the shooter were found in Mangione’s possession when he was arrested, police said.
Surveillance video and images of the suspect circulated widely in the aftermath of the shooting, capturing the moment the shots were fired as well as his earlier stops at a Starbucks store in Midtown and at the front desk of a hostel on the Upper West Side, where authorities believe he stayed. The suspect’s full face was only visible in surveillance footage from the hostel. Other images and video showed him wearing a black face mask and hooded sweatshirt.
Mangione had a fake New Jersey driver’s license on him when he was taken into custody in Pennsylvania, which was consistent with the false identification police say he used to check into that hostel in New York. That license was among multiple fraudulent IDs discovered in his possession, according to police. He also had a United States passport, $8,000 in cash and a handwritten note.
Mangione had been reported missing
Mangione’s mother reported her son missing to the San Francisco Police Department in the days before the Dec. 4 shooting, a person close to the investigation told CBS News.
She filed that report in the midst of seemingly broader concerns from Mangione’s friends and family over his whereabouts and wellbeing. Posts tagging him on social media indicated Mangione had lost touch with people to whom he used to be closer.
Pat Milton, John Doyle, Marcia Kramer, Dick Brennan and Anna Schecter contributed to this report.
CBS News
11 highlights from Trump’s Time Person of the Year interview
Washington — President-elect Donald Trump was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year on Thursday, the second time he has been awarded the designation after winning the White House.
“For marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America’s role in the world, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year,” Time editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs wrote to explain the selection.
As part of the process, Trump sat for an interview with Time journalists at Mar-a-Lago at the end of November. The sit-down covered a wide range of topics, from inflation and foreign affairs to abortion and transgender rights.
Time published the 11,345-word transcript of the interview on Thursday, along with a fact-check of many of Trump’s claims. Here are the highlights from Trump’s answers:
Trump on inflation: “It’s very hard” to bring prices down
Trump campaigned on bringing down prices for everyday Americans and taming inflation. In the interview, however, Trump acknowledged that lowering prices is likely to be an uphill battle:
Trump: We’ve had the inflation. [The Democrats] lost on inflation, they lost on immigration, they lost on — as a part of immigration, I think a very big part is the border, the border itself. You know, if you can self subdivide the word immigration. They lost on the economy. But it was a different kind of — it was the economy as it pertains to groceries and small things that are actually big things for a family.
Time: If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?
Trump: I don’t think so. Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken. It’s broken.
Trump says he’ll pardon Jan. 6 defendants on a “case by case” basis soon after taking office
Trump fielded questions about whether he would issue pardons for the more than 1,500 people who have been convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, when a mob of Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election:
Time: Have you decided yet whether you’re going to pardon all of the January 6 defendants?
Trump: Yes.
Time: You’re going to do all of them?
Trump: I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished. And the answer is I will be doing that, yeah, I’m going to look if there’s some that really were out of control.
Time: So you will not include those who committed violent acts?
Trump: Well, we’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. And a vast majority of them should not be in jail. A vast majority should not be in jail, and they’ve suffered gravely. And I say, why is it that in Portland and in many other places, Minneapolis, why is it that nothing happened with them and they actually caused death and destruction at levels not seen before? So you know, if you take a look at what happened in Seattle, you had people die, you had a lot of death, and nothing happened, and these people have been treated really, really badly. Yeah, it’s an important issue for me. They’ve suffered greatly, and in many cases they should not have suffered.
Later in the interview, Trump said he will be “looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes” after taking office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Trump says he didn’t think Matt Gaetz’s nomination was “worth the fight”
Shortly after the election, Trump announced Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as his nominee for attorney general. Gaetz was previously investigated for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old girl, which he denied, and it soon became clear that he was unlikely to win confirmation in the Senate. He withdrew from consideration a week later.
Trump told Time that he thought Gaetz would have eventually gotten the votes, but he didn’t think it was worth the effort:
Time: One of your nominees was effectively blocked by the Senate. There are other senators who have expressed doubts about some of your other nominees. What are you going to do if the Senate continues to balk at your choices for these key cabinet positions?
Trump: Well, I don’t think they will. And he wasn’t blocked. I had the votes if I needed them, but I had to work very hard. And you know, I’m not — there were numerous hard no’s, all of whom agreed with me to do it.
Time: So you decided to give up on Gaetz?
Trump: No, I didn’t give up on him. I talked to him, and I said, you know, Matt, I don’t think this is worth the fight.
Asked whether he would use recess appointments to name heads of agencies without Senate confirmation, Trump said, “I really don’t care how they get them approved, as long as they get them approved,” but also that it was “up to the Senate.”
Trump says Harris should have given more interviews during the campaign
Asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ missteps during the presidential race, Trump said she shouldn’t have agreed to replace President Biden in the first place. He also said she made a mistake by not sitting for more interviews, pointing to his own willingness to speak to a variety of outlets and hosts:
Time: Speaking of Kamala Harris. What do you think were her worst mistakes in the campaign?
Trump: Taking the assignment. Number one, because you have to know what you’re good at.
Time: Did she make any tactical mistakes you think that cost her?
Trump: I think that when she wouldn’t talk to anybody, it shone a light on her. In other words, if she would have gone out and just did interviews where they’re comparable to Steve [Cheung, Trump’s communications director], if there is anybody comparable, would say, could you do an interview here? An interview there? You know, she didn’t do anything. And people said, Is there something wrong with her? Why would they? I mean, I’m doing this interview with you. I did interviews with, if I had the time, anybody that would ask, I’d do interviews. I think the Joe Rogan interview, you know, that went on for almost three and a half hours.
After some back and forth, he continued:
Trump: But, but it’s an interesting question when you ask about [Harris]. I think they made a big tactical mistake by literally not talking to the press, even if a really friendly, I mean, and they had almost all friendly, somebody would come up with a really friendly — like you guys, maybe — but a friendly interview, and they turned everybody down. They wouldn’t do the basic. And people, including me, would start to say, is there something wrong with her? What’s wrong? Why wouldn’t you do some basic interviews? And then she had some pretty failed interviews, and maybe it was highlighted more than it would. In other words, if she did those same interviews, but she did another 15 interviews, you know, you wouldn’t have really noticed it that much.
Trump says releasing Project 2025 was “totally inappropriate”
During the campaign, Democrats hammered Trump and other Republicans over Project 2025, a conservative effort to lay out a blueprint for a second Trump administration. Trump tried to distance himself from the final product, but many of its contributors worked in his first administration, and several have been named to powerful posts in his second term.
Trump told Time he didn’t read the group’s work, and said its organizers shouldn’t have released it during the campaign:
Time: During the campaign, you disavowed Project 2025, but so far at least five people you’ve appointed to top positions in your Cabinet have ties to it. Doesn’t that undermine what you told Americans on the campaign trail?
Trump: No, look, I don’t — I don’t disagree with everything in Project 2025, but I disagree with some things. I specifically didn’t want to read it because it wasn’t under my auspices, and I wanted to be able to say that, you know, the only way I can say I have nothing to do with it is if you don’t read it. I don’t want — I didn’t want to read it. I read enough about it. They have some things that are very conservative and very good. They have other things that I don’t like. I won’t go into individual items, but I had nothing to do with Project 2025. Now, if we had a few people that were involved, they had hundreds of them. This is a big document, from what I understand.
Time: More than 800 pages.
Trump: It’s a lot of pages. That’s a lot of pages. I thought it was inappropriate that they came out with it just before the election, to be honest with you.
Time: Really?
Trump: I let them know, yeah, I didn’t think it was appropriate, because it’s not me. Why would they do that? They complicated my election by doing it because people tried to tie me and I didn’t agree with everything in there, and some things I vehemently disagreed with, and I thought it was inappropriate that they would come out with a document like that prior to my election.
Time: Did you express those frustrations with them?
Trump: Oh I did. It wasn’t a frustration, it was a fact. It’s totally inappropriate. They come up with an 800-page document, and the enemy, which is, you know, the other party, is allowed to go through and pick out two items, 12 items out of, you know, 800. No, I thought it was an open — I thought it was a very foolish thing for them to do.
Time: I understand, sir.
Trump: These are people that would like to see me win. And yet, they came out with this document, and they had some pretty ridiculous things in there. They also had some very good things in there.
Trump says transgender bathroom issue has “ripped apart our country”
During the campaign, Trump spent tens of millions of dollars on a television ad that highlighted Harris’ positions on transgender rights, specifically her support in 2019 for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery for inmates and immigrant detainees. “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you,” the ad said.
But in his interview with Time, Trump downplayed fights over transgender rights, particularly which bathroom transgender people are allowed to use, saying the issue has “ripped apart our country”:
Time: Can I shift to the transgender issue? Obviously, sort of a major issue during the campaign. In 2016, you said that transgender people could use whatever bathroom they chose. Do you still feel that way?
Trump: When was that?
Time: In 2016.
Trump: I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue. Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country, so they’ll have to settle whatever the law finally agrees. I am a big believer in the Supreme Court, and I’m going to go by their rulings, and so far, I think their rulings have been rulings that people are going along with, but we’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people.
Time: But on that note, there’s a big fight on this in Congress now. The incoming trans member from Delaware, Sarah McBride, says we should all be focused on more important issues. Do you agree?
Trump: I do agree with that. On that—absolutely. As I was saying, it’s a small number of people.
Asked whether he would reverse the Biden administration’s protections for trans children under Title IX, Trump said, “I’m going to look at it very closely.”
Trump on using military for deportations: “I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows”
Turning to immigration, the Time journalists noted that federal law prohibits using the military as law enforcement on U.S. soil. They asked Trump how that squares with his promise to use the military to facilitate his mass deportation plans:
Time: You recently said on Truth Social that you plan to use the military to deport migrants. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. What will you do if the military does not or refuses to carry out your orders?
Trump: Well, it doesn’t, it doesn’t stop the military if it’s an invasion of our country, and I consider it an invasion of our country. We have criminals coming into our countries that we’ve never seen, we’ve never seen before. We have people coming in at levels and at record numbers that we’ve never seen before. And I’ll only do what the law allows, but I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows. And I think in many cases, the sheriffs and law enforcement is going to need help. We’ll also get National Guard. We’ll get National Guard, and we’ll go as far as I’m allowed to go, according to the laws of our country.
Trump says he thinks Musk “puts the country long before his company”
Trump was asked about appointing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an advisory group aimed at recommending spending cuts across the federal government.
Musk’s various enterprises are regulated by or have contracts with federal agencies, raising the prospect that his work with DOGE would constitute a conflict of interest. Trump told Time he doesn’t think it does:
Time: You’ve put Elon Musk in charge of DOGE, giving him the power to —
Trump: Along with —
Time: Along with Vivek Ramaswamy, yes, absolutely. But on Musk specifically, giving him the power to oversee the agencies that regulate his companies. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
Trump: I don’t think so. Look, we have a country that is bloated with rules, regulations and with, frankly, people that are unnecessary to do. We are going to need a lot of people in a lot of other jobs. We’re looking to get people into private sector jobs where they can do better and be more productive. We’re going to see what happens. We have some interesting months coming up, at the beginning. We’re going to see what happens. But this country is bloated.
Time: I think everybody agrees that there’s waste in the federal government—
Trump: Waste, fraud, and abuse.
Time: But Elon Musk is talking about cuts that would directly affect NASA, which would then directly affect SpaceX, his company. Isn’t that the textbook definition of a conflict of interest?
Trump: I think that Elon puts the country long before his company. I mean, he’s in a lot of companies, but he really is, and I’ve seen it. He considers this to be his most important project, and he wanted to do it. And, you know, I think, I think he’s one of the very few people that would have the credibility to do it, but he puts the country before, and I’ve seen it, before he puts his company.
Trump on Ukraine: “You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon”
Trump has said he wants to broker a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, and has harshly criticized the tens of billions of dollars of aid the U.S. has sent Kyiv since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Trump addressed fears from Democrats and European allies that he would abandon Ukraine or push the country to give up territory in any eventual peace deal:
Time: The question that many Americans and many people around the world have is, Will you abandon Ukraine?
Trump: I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon. You understand what that means, right?
Time: Right. Well, no, tell me.
Trump: Well, I just said it. You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon, in my opinion. And I disagree with the whole thing, because it should have never happened. Putin would have never invaded Ukraine if I were president for numerous reasons. Number one, they drove up the oil price. When they drove up the oil price, they made it a profit-making situation for him, the oil price should have been driven down. If it was driven down, you wouldn’t have had it wouldn’t have started just for pure economic reasons. But when it hits $80, $85, and $90 a barrel. I mean, he made, he made a lot of money. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, because he’s also suffered, but they are moving forward. You know, this is a war that’s been — this is a tragedy. This is death that’s far greater than anyone knows. When the real numbers come out, you’re going to see numbers that you’re not going to believe.
Trump on Netanyahu and the war in Gaza: “He knows I want it to end”
Trump addressed the volatile situation in the Middle East, specifically the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. He said the Middle East is “an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine” and “going to get solved.”
Trump declined to go into specifics about what he has discussed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but said he had made his position clear:
Time: Did Netanyahu give you assurances about when he would end the war?
Trump: Um, I don’t want to say that, but I think he feels confident that — I think he feels very confident in me, and I think he knows I want it to end. I want everything to end. I want, I don’t want people killed, you know? I don’t want people from either side killed, and that includes whether it’s Russia, Ukraine, or whether it’s the Palestinians and the Israelis and all of the, you know, the different entities that we have in the Middle East. There’s so many different entities. But I don’t want people killed.
Time: When you say productive things are happening, can you be more specific?
Trump: No, I can’t. I mean, I’d love to be, I would so love to be, but I can’t. I will be. We’re going to sit down in a period of time, hopefully soon, and I’ll tell you all the things that are happening. But there are some very productive things happening. I do think—okay, because I’m looking at two, two primary fronts, right? You have the Russia-Ukraine, and you have this, and there are other problems also. But look, when North Korea gets involved, that’s another element that’s a very complicating factor. And I know Kim Jong Un, I get along very well with Kim Jong Un. I’m probably the only one he’s ever really dealt with. When you think about it, I am the only one he’s ever dealt with. But you have a lot of very bad complicating factors there, but we’ll sit down and we’ll at the end of each of these, or both, maybe simultaneously, we’ll sit down and I’ll show you what a good job I did.
Time: You mentioned the Palestinian people. In your first term, your administration put forward the most comprehensive plan for a two-state solution in a long time. Do you still support that plan?
Trump: I support a plan of peace, and it can take different forms. When I did the Abraham Accords, that should have been loaded up with people, you know. I made a statement. I think they didn’t add one country. Think of it. They didn’t add one country to the Abraham Accords. We had the four countries, very important countries, but that should have been loaded up with Middle Eastern countries.
Time: Do you still support a two-state solution?
Trump: I support whatever solution we can do to get peace. There are other ideas other than two state, but I support whatever, whatever is necessary to get not just peace, a lasting peace. It can’t go on where every five years you end up in tragedy. There are other alternatives.
Does Trump trust Netanyahu? “I don’t trust anybody”
After some more discussion about the Middle East and Iran, Time asked Trump whether he trusts the Israeli leader. Trump gave a blunt response:
Time: Do you trust Netanyahu?
Trump: I don’t trust anybody.
Read the full interview with Trump here.
CBS News
FBI leadership said “basic step” was missed ahead of Jan. 6 Capitol breach, watchdog report reveals
A new report by the Justice Department inspector general found that the FBI failed to commission the dozens of FBI field offices across the country to gather information from its own confidential human sources ahead of the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, despite telling Congress that it had done so.
Had the FBI’s field office canvassed those sources, it “could have helped the FBI and its law enforcement partners with their preparations in advance of January 6,” the report said.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told investigators that not canvassing the nation for further information was the “basic step that was missed.”
The inspector general determined the FBI’s inaccurate reporting to Congress about the lack of field office coordination was not intentional.
“Our review of documented CHS reporting in FBI field offices as of January 6 did not identify any potentially critical intelligence related to a possible attack on the Capitol on January 6 that had not been provided to law enforcement stakeholders prior to January 6,” the inspector general said.
More than two dozen individuals utilized by the FBI as confidential human sources were in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol breach, but none were authorized by their handlers to illegally enter the Capitol building or join the riot that day, the inspector general’s report said.
No undercover FBI agents or employees were found to have attended the Jan. 6 protests or taken part in the attack, the report said.
The findings, released Thursday, revealed that federal investigators tasked just three of the 26 FBI sources in the city that day to gather information for domestic terrorism cases, and the remaining individuals were not directed to be there. In all, four confidential human sources entered the Capitol building during the riot and 11 were on restricted Capitol grounds.
According to the Justice Department, confidential human sources are those “believed to be providing useful and credible information to the FBI and whose identity, information, or relationship with the FBI warrants confidential handling.” Federal investigators conventionally utilize these individuals to report on members of criminal organizations and provide information that would be difficult to obtain otherwise. The use of confidential human sources around the time of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach has been a point of contention on Capitol Hill, and outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray has faced questions from Republican lawmakers about the practice.
In the days after the riot, questions surfaced about the intelligence gathered ahead of the attack and whether it was properly acted upon by federal investigators. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the FBI correctly identified a potential for violence as Congress was set to certify the results of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Donald Trump and took appropriate steps in preparation. The U.S. Capitol Police — not the FBI — led law enforcement efforts to protect the Electoral College certification that day, while other agencies provided support.
On the eve of the riot, the FBI’s field office in Norfolk, Virginia, issued a raw intelligence report warning of an anonymous social media thread threatening violence at the Capitol, CBS News previously reported. But, according to Capitol Police officials, that information was never shared with their agency. The FBI has defended its handling of the intelligence.
“Many of these 26 confidential human sources had provided information relevant to the January 6 Electoral Certification before the event and…a few CHSs also provided information about the riot as it occurred,” Horowitz wrote. The report revealed some sources were in contact or traveling with members of extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, organizations whose leadership has since been convicted at trial of seditious conspiracy as a result of the attack.
In response to the report, the FBI said it disagreed with “certain factual assertions…regarding the manner of specific steps, and the scope of the canvass undertaken by the FBI in advance of January 6, 2021.”
After the Capitol breach, the FBI launched one of the largest federal probes in American history, and prosecutors have since charged more than 1,500 defendants with crimes ranging from illegal entry into the Capitol building to assaulting police and seditious conspiracy.
Nearly 1,000 of those charged have entered into plea deals with the Justice Department and admitted guilt. Another 200 have been convicted at trial before a judge or jury.
Notably, the inspector general’s report revealed that none of the FBI’s confidential human sources who entered the Capitol or restricted grounds that day were among the hundreds criminally charged for doing so.
In response to the report’s findings, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., which has spearheaded the Capitol breach investigation, said, “The D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office generally has not charged those individuals whose only crime on January 6, 2021 was to enter the restricted grounds surrounding the Capitol, which has resulted in the Office declining to charge hundreds of individuals; and we have treated the CHSs consistent with this approach.”
Despite President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to issue pardons for some of the defendants, federal prosecutors have continued to charge individuals for alleged crimes tied to the Capitol attack in the weeks after the 2024 presidential election.
Some defendants and their legal teams have pushed for early release from prison or a pause in their proceedings ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Federal judges overseeing the cases have mostly denied those requests. Advocates on behalf of the defendants have urged Trump to issue pardons.
“I’m going to be acting very quickly,” Trump said earlier this week in an interview with NBC News. Trump has tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his nominee to lead the Justice Department. She and other department officials could be involved in the legal processes involved with any pardon decisions.