US attorney general unlikely to open criminal investigation of Signal leak, report says – live

Rubio says he has already revoked hundreds of visas from student protesters

Speaking to reporters in Guyana on Thursday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio defended his decision to revoke the visa of a Turkish student at Tufts, who co-wrote an opinion article critical of the school for not divesting from Israel, and said that he has already revoked hundreds of visas from student protesters he characterized as “lunatics”.

Asked about reports that 300 student visas had been revoked, Rubio replied: “It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”

US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke to reporters in Guyana on Thursday.

Asked what specifically had triggered the detention of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts graduate student who was snatched off the street outside her home on Tuesday, Rubio pivoted to his general claim that any student who applied for a visa to study in the US would not have been allowed in to the country if they had said that wanted “to participate in movements that are involved in vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus.”

“I don’t care what movement you’re involved in”, Rubio added, “if we’ve given you a visa and you decided to do that, we’re going to take it away. I encourage every country to do that.”

“If you come into the US as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country,” Rubio added.

Ozturk is from a country, Turkey, where protests have been banned after the leading opposition candidate to run for president was suddenly arrested. Turkey’s state-run news agency, Anadolu, noted in its report on her arrest that the doctoral student had co-authored an opinion article in which the authors called on the university to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.

Updated at 15.43 EDT

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Trump withdraws Elise Stefanik’s nomination as UN ambassador

Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of his staunch supporter and New York representative Elise Stefanik as the US ambassador to the UN.

Citing the necessity to “maintain every Republican seat in Congress”, Trump took to Truth Social to explain his decision on Thursday, saying:

“As we advance our America First Agenda, it is essential that we maintain EVERY Republican Seat in Congress. We must be unified to accomplish our Mission, and Elise Stefanik has been a vital part of our efforts from the very beginning. I have asked Elise, as one of my biggest Allies, to remain in Congress… With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat. The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day.”

Trump went on to say that “there are others that can do a good job at the United Nations”.

Elise Stefanik joins Trump during a campaign rally on 19 January 2024 in Concord, New Hampshire. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Updated at 15.07 EDT

Lisa O’Carroll

Ireland is bracing itself for targeted tarrifs in addition to those threatened against the European Union, after Donald Trump again singled out the US pharmaceutical sector in the country.

But business chiefs have warned that the uncertainty and Trump’s policy by press release and cycle of threat and cancellation of threat is going to see the US punished by investors and particularly bond holders.

“He is really putting the United States at risk primarily, and then by a knock on consequence the rest of the world,” said Danny McCoy, chief executive of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation.

He told RTE that while Trump may be trying to lure pharmaceutical giants back from Ireland and force the EU to buy more American cars through tariffs, the uncertainty was increasing the risk of investing in the US, something that would be translated into potential downgrading of its credit rating.

“The checks and balances that the United States have, even from their judiciary or from Congress just seem to be bypassed right now, and that’s not a good place for business … But I think (it is) outside, where he will get disciplined, in time, through the bond markets,” he said.

Trump claimed Ireland had stolen the US pharmaceutical sector when he met the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, earlier this month in the Oval Office. On Wednesday night, the US president returned to his threat to impose tariffs on medicines coming from Ireland.

“We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharma, in order to bring our pharma back, …. its in other countries, largely made in china, a lot of made it in Ireland. Ireland very smart, we love Ireland, but we’ll have that,” Trump said.

Ireland cannot retaliate but along with the EU it is hoping that in the weeks after his annoucenment and the introduction of counter tariffs in Europe a space will be created for negotiation.

Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Harris, said on Thursday the EU wanted to “sit down with the US and reach agreement on a trade relationship that works for everyone because trade is good for jobs, growth and all our economies”.

He will attend an emergency meeting of EU trade ministers on 7 April where tariffs will be central.

Joseph Gedeon

The Trump administration has terminated 69 international programs aimed at combating child labor, forced labor and human trafficking, potentially undermining decades of progress in protecting vulnerable workers globally.

The Washington Post obtained an email detailing how the US Department of Labor’s bureau of international labor affairs (ILAB) will immediately end grants totaling more than $500m that supported labor standard enforcement across 40 countries, including critical initiatives in Mexico, Central America, south-east Asia and Africa.

John Clark, a Trump-appointed official, in the email justified the cuts by citing a “lack of alignment with agency priorities and national interest”.

The department’s spokesperson, Courtney Parella, echoed this sentiment, telling the Post that the administration wants to prioritize “investments in the American workforce”.

Full story:

Martin Pengelly

The Associated Press isn’t Donald Trump’s favorite news outlet, largely because it won’t play ball over his attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Chances are his staff won’t be printing out and presenting its new story about an analysis of the likely effects of Trump’s tariffs policy on cities across America.

According to the AP, “The US cities most vulnerable to a trade war with Canada turn out to largely be in the states that helped return Donald Trump to the White House – a sign of the possible political risk he’s taking with his tariff plans.

A new analysis released Thursday by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce detailed the areas most dependent on exports to Canada, with San Antonio and Detroit topping the list of 41 US metro areas. The findings show that the United States’ 25% tariffs on Canada and Canada’s retaliations could inflict meaningful damage in key states for US politics.

“The analysis was conducted before the Republican president announced Wednesday that he was placing additional 25% tariffs on imported autos and parts starting on 3 April.

Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, tells the AP: “The consequences of today’s escalation in this destructive tariff war will not be contained to Canada, as much as the US administration would like to pretend.

“Throwing away tens of thousands of jobs on both sides of the border will mean giving up North America’s auto leadership role, instead encouraging companies to build and hire anywhere else but here. This tax hike puts plants and workers at risk for generations, if not forever.”

US attorney general unlikely to open criminal investigation of Signal leak – report

The New York Times reports on remarks by Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, who the paper said “signaled” that there will be no criminal investigation of “Signalgate” – the scandal over the sharing of sensitive information about airstrikes in Yemen on a group chat which contained a top Washington journalist.

“It was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released,” Bondi told reporters in Virginia “while praising the military operation that ensued”, the Times said.

“What we should be talking about is, it was a very successful mission.”

Bondi also said: “If you want to talk about classified information, talk about what was in Hillary Clinton’s home. Talk about the classified documents in Joe Biden’s garage, that Hunter Biden had access to.”

People have indeed been talking about such episodes, particularly the saga over Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state between 2009 and 2013, which Republicans notably including Donald Trump used as a bludgeon against Clinton when she ran against Trump in the presidential election of 2016.

Observers have also noted Trump’s own problems regarding the handling of classified information after leaving the White House in 2021, which resulted in criminal charges only laid aside after he won the election last year.

Biden also faced scrutiny over his handling of classified information after leaving office, in his case as vice-president between 2009 and 2017. Unlike Trump, Biden was not charged though a scathing report did real political damage. The former president’s son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty on tax and guns charges before his father pardoned him on his way out of office.

Updated at 13.02 EDT

Summary of the day so far

As we’re halfway through the day in Washington and other places affected by what goes on in Washington, here’s a brief rundown of significant stories in US politics today:

“Signalgate”, the scandal over how a journalist was added to a group chat about US airstrikes in Yemen, drags on. Two senators have demanded a Pentagon investigation into the affair, while Guardian reporting from Hugo Lowell suggests Donald Trump does not plan to give his political opponents or the media a scalp, whether Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who set up the chat and added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to it, or Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host turned defense secretary who shared sensitive information.

In a related development, Waltz abruptly made his Venmo account private after Wired was first to report that it was public, showing contacts including White House officials and prominent journalists, and, experts said, exposing his account to malign actors.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said he will cut around 10,000 jobs at his department, saying: “We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”

Amid Trump’s blizzard of tariff announcements, newly released data shows airline travel between Canada and the US is “collapsing”, with flight bookings between the two countries down by over 70%.

Speaking of tariffs, here’s some further lunchtime reading:

Updated at 12.31 EDT

Away from “Signalgate”, in a hearing room on Capitol Hill, Paul Atkins, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has been facing senators in a confirmation hearing.

In prepared remarks, the chief executive of Patomak Global Partners said: “The current regulatory environment for our financial system inhibits investment and too often punishes success. Unclear, overly politicized, complicated, and burdensome regulations are stifling capital formation, while American investors are flooded with disclosures that do the opposite of helping them understand the true risks of an investment. It is time to reset priorities and return common sense to the SEC.”

Atkins is yet another Trump nominee drawn from the world of the extremely rich. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that he had disclosed “personal assets held jointly with his wife valued at more than $328m”.

Reuters went on: “The SEC is set to hemorrhage workers under voluntary buyouts offered by the White House, which come as officials say the agency was already stretched thin. Atkins, who was an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, a spokesperson for the Trump presidential transition said Atkins was in full compliance with ethics and disclosure requirements. If confirmed, Mr Atkins will consult with the SEC’s ethics officer and act in accordance with the governing regulations during his term at the SEC,” the spokesperson said.

Atkins’ disclosures revealed $6m in crypto-related assets – not something to please Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachussetts. In a letter to Atkins on Sunday, Warren posited “significant conflicts of interest” ahead, and said: “You … have served as an expert witness hired by Wall Street firms accused of engaging in Ponzi schemes and other misconduct that you would now be responsible for investigating as SEC chair. Furthermore, you have served as a Board Advisor to the Digital Chamber, a registered lobbying group for the crypto industry. In these roles, you and your firm were paid by the same companies that you would now be responsible for regulating.

“This will raise serious concerns about your impartiality and commitment to serving the public interest if you are confirmed to serve as the next SEC chair.”

Some related reading:

Adam Gabbatt

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser who is at the center of the storm over a group chat that leaked highly sensitive military plans to a journalist, left his Venmo account open to the public, according to a new report.

The oversight represents a further security breach, days after the news that Waltz added the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic to a Signal chat in which operational planning for a US attack on Houthis in Yemen was shared.

A Venmo account with the name “Michael Waltz”, which bore a picture of Waltz, was visible to the public until Wednesday afternoon, Wired reported. Waltz’s 328-person list of friends included accounts that appeared to belong to Walker Barrett, a National Security Council staffer, and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff – whose account was also public.

Full story:

Leon Panetta, who served Democratic presidents as White House chief of staff, US defense secretary and CIA director, thinks someone should be fired over the “Signalgate” scandal:

“There’s no question that this is a serious breach of national security,” Panetta, 86, told CNN.

“For goodness sakes, this was an attack plan that carries, I think, the highest classification. It certainly did when I was secretary of defense, any kind of attack plan was top secret and had to be protected. And here it was not only put on a Signal commercial network, which is not cleared for confidential communications, but they also included a journalist in a list of very top national security officials who then was exposed to this kind of information.

“This is a serious breach. It needs to be investigated because it could have cost lives. It could have cost us a military mission, and it certainly costs us harm to our national security. It needs to be investigated, and the responsible individual who committed these offenses needs to be punished and fired.”

Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, set up the Signal chat and invited the Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, shared sensitive information. Donald Trump has backed both men. Both have denied wrongdoing and heaped abuse on Goldberg.

Panetta said he had “been around in Washington for a long time. The biggest problem in Washington, often times, is the truth, and when there are those that don’t want to acknowledge the truth, it will come back to undermine them in the future.

We have the truth here. We all know what happened here. There’s no mystery here. This is not rocket science. This was an attack plan that was leaked and could have potentially harmed our forces in the attack. There’s no question that this was an attack plan. There was talk of weapons, the talk of targets, timing, deployment. This is an attack plan, and it should not have been put on that kind of communication.

“Frankly, this is the kind of thing that ought to be handled in the National Security Council, a situation room, that’s where it should be handled. But it wasn’t. And now, I think what it does is it puts us in danger, because our enemies are going to be all over this. You know, they’ve seen us fail to protect our most sensitive information. They’re going to be all over the internet. They’re going to be all over Signal. They’re going to be trying to get the information that was available that put upon this mission, that that really does harm our national security. And it’s for that reason that, frankly, Republicans and Democrats ought to be concerned about making sure that this never happens again.”

Asked if he thought US allies would increasingly question whether to share information with the US, Panetta said: “One of the most important things when I was director of the CIA was our relationship with our allies and with those that we could share information with, because getting that kind of information helped us protect the country.

“I think, as a result of showing that we are careless in the way we’re handling highly classified information, that there are going to be a lot of countries that think twice about whether or not they’re going to share sensitive intelligence with the United States.

“That’s going to hurt us.”

Here’s a Guardian interview with Panetta from January with a headline that now seems somewhat optimistic:

A little more from Mike Rounds, the Republican senator from South Dakota who spoke to CNN about Signalgate and bipartisan congressional demands for investigations into how national security information came to be shared on a chat group containing a top journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic.

“We work together,” Rounds said, shortly after Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chair of the Senate armed services committee, and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat, demanded a Pentagon investigation.

“We recognize the seriousness of this indiscretion, and we’re going to get the inspector general’s report we’ve asked for … and that means the bottom line, we want as much information as we can get, and then we’ll do our own assessment.

“But right now, I think they screwed up. I think they know they screwed up. I think they also learned their lesson, and I think the president made it very clear to them that this is a lesson they don’t want to forget.”

Updated at 11.15 EDT

Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, is on the Senate armed services and intelligence committees. He just spoke to CNN about the “Signalgate” scandal about top national security officials’ sharing of sensitive information about air strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Earlier this week, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, testified before the Senate intelligence committee. Both denied breaking the law or revealing classified information.

Asked if he thought Gabbard and Ratcliffe had told the truth under oath, Rounds did not give a resounding yes:

“I think they were doing their best to try to get past the committee hearing,” he said.

Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, set up the Signal chat and invited the Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, shared sensitive information. Donald Trump has backed both men. Both men have angrily denied wrongdoing and heaped abuse on Goldberg.

Rounds continued: “Look, these folks made a mistake, and they’re having a very difficult time trying to explain how they made the mistake. They made a mistake. I just hope they’ve learned their lesson. I think the president probably took a number of them to the woodshed.”

Rounds said Trump “made it clear in his statement that he was not happy with the way this thing turned out, in part because in the middle of a mission that was hugely successful … to have that overshadowed because they started talking way too early about what was going on in the Middle East and doing it on Signal where they really should not have done that.

“And so I think the president probably made it clear to a number of them that this is not going to happen again in front of the committee. I think a number of my colleagues, on a bipartisan basis, kind of sent the same message, and I know that we’re going to have an inspector general look at this thing and give us a classified annex report as well, but on a bipartisan basis, Republicans and Democrats, we will have another meeting on this, and we will discuss it with them.”

The request to the acting inspector general for an investigation was made by the armed services chair, Roger Wicker, and ranking Democrat, Jack Reed, on Thursday morning.

Updated at 11.02 EDT

Bipartisan letter to Pentagon inspector general implores investigation into Signal group chat leak

The Republican chair and ranking Democrat on the Senate armed services committee have written to the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense, to demand an investigation of “Signalgate”, the scandal over how a journalist was added to a group chat in which top national security officials shared details of airstrikes in Yemen.

Addressing Steven A Stebbins, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Jack Reed of Rhode Island write: “On 11 March 2025, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, was reportedly included on a group chat on the commercially available communications application called Signal, which included members of the National Security Council.

This chat was alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen. If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.

The senators go on to demand an assessment of facts and circumstances, and of “any remedial actions taken as a result”; a summary of Pentagon policies regarding such breaches of policies and processes; an assessment of whether other departments’ have different policies on the subject; an assessment of whether classified information was leaked through the Signal chat; and “any recommendations to address potential issues identified”.

The senators also say they will schedule a briefing from Stebbins.

Stebbins is in the Pentagon inspector general role in an acting capacity because Donald Trump fired his predecessor amid a round of such terminations in January – a highly controversial move given the notionally independent status of such officials.

Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who set up the Signal chat and added Goldberg, and Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary who shared sensitive material, have denied wrongdoing and attacked Goldberg and the Atlantic.

The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that Trump is not minded to sack anyone over the scandal.

Another Republican member of the Senate armed services committee, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, just spoke to CNN. More to come.

Updated at 10.50 EDT

As Hugo Lowell reports (see post here and full story here), Donald Trump is sticking by his men in the “Signalgate” scandal, reluctant to give the mainstream media or his political enemies the satisfaction of claiming a scalp.

Today, the president’s schedule shows an intelligence briefing at 11am, an executive order signing session at 2pm, a White House session with a group of podcasters, and at 8pm the White House Iftar dinner, an annual celebration of and for Muslim Americans which Joe Biden had to cancel last year, when US support for Israel’s war in Gaza prompted many guests to decline invitations.

Trump hasn’t been particularly busy on social media – at least not since the small hours of the morning, when posts included a rant about James Boasberg, the federal judge Trump wants impeached, over rulings concerning the invocation of the Aliens and Enemies Act of 1798, in relation to deportations of alleged (but not proven) undocumented criminals.

Boasberg has been assigned to a lawsuit concerning the Signal leak. Trump wrote, in part: “How disgraceful is it that ‘Judge’ James Boasberg has just been given a fourth ‘Trump Case,’ something which is, statistically, IMPOSSIBLE. There is no way for a Republican, especially a TRUMP REPUBLICAN, to win before him. He is Highly Conflicted, not only in his hatred of me — Massive Trump Derangement Syndrome! — but also, because of disqualifying family conflicts.”

Trump, the likely direct author of the post, given its length, timing and extensive use of capitals, continued without identifying the alleged “family conflicts” he claimed. (Rightwing media has more.)

Trump also complained about NPR and PBS, which he wants Republicans in Congress to defund, and the European Union and Canada, targets of his newly announced automotive industry tariffs.

This morning, Trump heralded the arrest of “a major leader of MS-13”, a criminal gang with roots in El Salvador. Then he returned to attacking Judge Boasberg … and Politico and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Later, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, spoke to reporters about the MS-13 arrest, which she said involved a “top” leader of the gang in the US, “right here in Virginia, living half an hour outside of Washington, DC”. No name was given – court documents should show that later.

El Salvador has been the destination for US deportation flights at issue in Trump’s clash with Judge Boasberg. Here’s a heartbreaking report from the Dallas Morning News, about a deportee who insists on his innocence and his family’s grief.

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