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Three senior appointees at the Department of Defense were fired Friday after being placed on leave for an alleged unauthorized disclosure, according to people familiar with the matter.
In joint statement Saturday, those officials claimed the Pentagon “have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”
The statement, posted on X by Dan Caldwell, senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, comes after Caldwell was investigated over an alleged unauthorized disclosure, CNN previously reported. Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, Darin Selnick, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg’s chief of staff, Colin Carroll, who were also fired this week, signed on to the statement.
“At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with,” the trio wrote. They added: “All three of us served our country honorably in uniform — for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it.”
Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, announced in March that the department would be carrying out a wide-ranging leak probe, complete with polygraph tests, after a planned classified briefing for Elon Musk at the Pentagon was leaked to The New York Times.
The three fired officials said they will continue to support the administration, writing, “While this experience has been unconscionable, we remain supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration’s mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through strength. We hope in the future to support those efforts in different capacities.”
CNN has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
President Donald Trump’s administration is telling the Supreme Court it wants the authority to remove a group of Venezuelans detained in Texas by using laws other than the controversial Alien Enemies Act while litigation over that 18th century wartime authority continues.
Responding for the first time since the Supreme Court handed down an early morning order today temporarily barring the removal of certain migrants, the Justice Department first argued that the justices should deny the request to halt removals under the sweeping wartime authority.
But as a backup argument, the Trump administration told the high court it wants clarity that it may remove at least some of the same migrants under less controversial immigration laws.
The Supreme Court’s order today did not distinguish between deportations under the Alien Enemies Act and other laws that require normal due process before removing people from the country.
More background: US Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s latest brief lacked much of the bluster of previous written arguments the Trump administration has submitted to the Supreme Court and was relatively straightforward.
The tone may reflect the unusual step the high court took in its order early Saturday shutting down the administration’s effort to quickly remove a group of immigrants who officials appeared to be targeting under the 1798 act.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued to pause action after a group of Venezuelans received notice, now required by the Supreme Court, that they were subject to removal under the act. Attorneys for the migrants said their removals appeared to be imminent and suggested the Trump administration might be skirting the habeas review that the Supreme Court required in separate case earlier this month.
Though lower courts denied the ACLU’s request, the Supreme Court put those potential removals on hold.
Protesters gathered outside the White House today to rally against what they described as executive overreach by President Donald Trump, including deportations without due process, the dismantling of federal agencies and threats to higher education.
The rally was part of a national day of action by the so-called 50501 movement, which aimed to build off the nationwide “Hands Off!” protests that drew large crowds earlier this month. 50501 stands for “50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement.”
Bob — a 64-year-old demonstrator who asked to withhold his last name out of fear for his job at the Department of Defense, where he has worked for 35 years — said that while he is “fiscally conservative but socially liberal,” the Trump administration’s cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs drove him to rally for a political cause for the first time in his life.
“Veterans that come to serve our country earn benefits. They deserve to have those benefits provided for them,” he said.
Bob also blamed Trump’s whiplash tariff policies for the loss of “a lot” of money in his 401K, saying that’s part of the reason he’ll take on an additional job rather than retiring soon.
Emily Yanisko, an education professor at American University, said she was inspired to join the protest by Harvard University’s refusal to comply with recent demands by the administration.
Another demonstrator, Gihad Elgendy, expressed outrage over the “genocide happening in Palestine” and what he described as a clampdown on First Amendment rights. He also criticized the Trump administration for the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying he believes Trump “could easily pressure El Salvador to bring him back.”
Elgendy was not the only protester rallying around Abrego Garcia’s cause outside the White House today. A man named Paul, who held a sign reading “End Illegal Deportations,” criticized the administration for flouting a Supreme Court ruling ordering it to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, calling it a “constitutional crisis.”
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer and Jenna Monnin contributed reporting to this post.
The Trump administration expressed optimism following the high-stakes second round of nuclear talks with Iranian officials in Rome today, pointing to “very good progress.”
“Today, in Rome over four hours in our second round of talks, we made very good progress in our direct and indirect discussions,” a senior administration official told CNN.
“We agreed to meet again next week and are grateful to our Omani partners for facilitating these talks and to our Italian partners for hosting us today,” the official added.
The talks were led on the US side by special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, who participated in last week’s discussions in Oman, as well. Oman’s foreign minister served as a mediator, essentially shuttling messages between the two sides during the course of the talks.
A third round of discussions is expected in Oman next Saturday, and talks between technical experts from both sides will begin on Wednesday, according to an Iran foreign ministry spokesperson.
Some background: The two countries have had decades of animosity and have long been in dispute about Iran’s nuclear capabilities. US President Donald Trump has insisted on striking a new nuclear deal within a matter of weeks.
The Trump administration offered some mixed messaging in the lead-up to today’s talks on exactly how much uranium it would agree to allow Iran to enrich.
Witkoff ultimately sought to clarify in a statement: “Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration — grew up in Los Nogales, a quiet middle-class neighborhood southeast of San Salvador, the Central American country’s capital.
In this small neighborhood in the San Marcos district, where brick houses form four small pasajes (blocks), just a few of the neighbors that are still living there said to CNN yesterday that they really remembered him.
CNN’s team spent around four hours in Los Nogales speaking with six neighbors who said they were familiar with his family, which had a small business selling tortillas out of their home.
All six said they didn’t recall that he was involved in any gang activity when he lived there as young person. Just two said they remembered the teenaged Abrego Garcia as rambunctious, sometimes involved in arguments or even fights with other teenagers.
Others told CNN they remember Abrego Garcia playing soccer and basketball on the small concrete court at the end of one of the blocks.
Neighbors said Abrego Garcia’s family moved out at some point during the 2000s, but did not know the motives behind their move. Abrego Garcia left Los Nogales when he was a teenager around 2011, according to US court records.
Neighbors did not want to be identified because they said they didn’t want to become involved with Abrego Garcia’s case. They said they were aware of the controversy over his deportation from media reports.
The big picture: Abrego Garcia — who was not in the US legally, but who a judge had ruled could not be deported to El Salvador due to fears for his safety — has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Catch up more on the case here.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a brief Easter ceasefire in his war with Ukraine, saying “all hostilities” will pause for a two-day period.
Russian fighting will halt between 6 p.m. Moscow time today (11 a.m. ET) and midnight on Monday (5 p.m. Sunday ET), Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed immediate skepticism about the move, calling it “yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives.”
Sirens sounded in Kyiv soon after the announcement. “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life,” Zelensky added.
The Ukrainian leader’s post did not make it immediately clear whether Kyiv will accept the truce. If it does accept, this will be the first pause in the conflict since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. CNN has asked the presidency for comment.
The latest from the Trump administration: Russia’s announcement comes a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the US was ready to “move on” from efforts to bring peace to Ukraine within days if there were no tangible signs of progress.
Rubio’s comments point to mounting frustration within the Trump administration at the lack of progress at bringing the war to a halt and come as the US has proposed a framework to drive an end to the conflict that includes the administration’s readiness to recognize Russian control of Crimea, according to an official familiar.
Yesterday, President Donald Trump said Rubio was “right,” but he didn’t provide a timeline for the US to walk away when pressed. “No specific number of days, but quickly, we want to get it done,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance’s office has released its own readout of his meeting with a top Vatican official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
“The Vice President and Cardinal Parolin discussed their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world, and President Trump’s commitment to restoring world peace,” Vance’s office said in a statement today.
The release included photos of Vance smiling while greeting Parolin, Vance laughing at a table with Vatican officials, and Vance and his children walking through the Vatican alongside its iconic Swiss Guards.
Recent tensions: The readout from the Vatican side on today’s meeting said the two men had an “exchange of opinions” regarding the treatment of migrants, refugees and prisoners.
Pope Francis has been sharply critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, and after Catholic bishops criticized the Trump administration’s actions earlier this year, Vance suggested they were motivated by their “bottom line,” as the Catholic Church receives government money to help resettle immigrants.
Ahead of today’s talks, Parolin told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the “current US administration is very different from what we are used to and, especially in the West, from what we have relied on for many years.”
CNN’s Christopher Lamb contributed reporting to this post.
A second round of high-level talks between US and Iranian delegations on Tehran’s nuclear program has concluded in Rome, amid tempered optimism about a diplomatic way forward.
Today’s negotiations came a week after an initial round was held in the Omani capital of Muscat. Although the talks are in Italy, Oman was again acting as mediator between the US team, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff, and the Iranian one, led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Araghchi signaled that the talks had been positive, telling reporters they lasted about four hours.
“I can say that there is movement forward. We’ve reached better understanding and agreement on some principles and goals in these Rome negotiations,” he said.
A third round of talks is expected in the coming days, according to Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson.
Some background: The two countries have had decades of animosity and long been in dispute about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Washington wants Iran to stop production of highly enriched uranium, which it believes is aimed at building an atomic bomb. Iran this week doubled down on its right to enrich uranium, but has suggested it is willing to negotiate some compromises in return for sanctions relief to ease the pressure on its hard-hit economy.
A packed week of political news continued overnight when the Supreme Court temporarily halted deportations under President Donald Trump’s use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act.
Over in Europe, US and Iranian officials are holding their second round of high-stakes nuclear talks today, and the Trump administration is ramping up pressure on negotiators to strike a deal on the Russia-Ukraine war.
If you’re getting up to speed this morning, click on the links below for more of the latest:
• Kilmar Abrego Garcia: The Trump administration is escalating its efforts to portray the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador as a gang member with a violent history. Meanwhile, a Democratic senator who visited Abrego Garcia this week is leading the charge to bring him home.
• Vance at the Vatican: Vice President JD Vance met senior Vatican officials today in the wake of sharp criticism by Pope Francis on the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The Vatican said there was an “exchange of opinions” regarding migrants, refugees and prisoners.
• Student visa crackdown: For hundreds of thousands of people who dream of studying or researching in the United States, student visas represented a golden ticket. Under the Trump administration, they’re turning into a one-way ticket back to the students’ home countries.
• Culture wars in the classroom: The Supreme Court is set next week to consider its most significant religious appeal in years: A case over whether elementary schools can skip parental notice for the reading of books involving LGBTQ+ issues.
• Trade war ripple effects: At Asian American grocery stores across the country, Trump’s trade war with China is raising the cost of popular snacks and putting community ties under strain. Elsewhere, retailers are already looking ahead to the potential impact of tariffs on Halloween and Christmas traditions. Watch that report below:
@cnnFor years, vendors at the world’s largest wholesale market in Yiwu, China have been exporting Christmas and Halloween decorations to the US. But now, they’re in the middle of the escalating US-China trade war, forced to suspend or cancel orders. #cnn #news #tariffs #christmas #china #business #businessowner
Delegations from the United States and Iran are holding their second round of high-stakes nuclear talks today.
Officials from both countries met in Oman last weekend for talks mediated by the Gulf Arab nation. This round is being held in Rome, with Oman once again serving as mediator between the US team — led by special envoy Steve Witkoff — and the Iranian one, headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
How we got here: A nuclear deal was reached in 2015 between Iran and world powers, including the US. Under the deal, Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
Trump abandoned that deal in 2018, during his first presidential term. Iran retaliated by resuming its nuclear activities and has so far advanced its program of uranium enrichment up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade.
Back in the White House, Trump has given Tehran a two-month deadline to reach a new agreement.
What the US is saying: Trump has vowed a “stronger” deal than the original struck in 2015, and has threatened to bomb Iran if it does not come to an agreement with the US.
Since reporting that last weekend’s initial talks were “constructive,” Trump administration officials oscilated this week between a conciliatory approach and more hawkish demands to fully dismantle Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.
What Iran is saying: Iran this week doubled down on its right to enrich uranium and accused the Trump administration of sending mixed signals.
Iranian media has reported that Tehran had set strict terms ahead of the talks with the US, saying that “red lines” include “threatening language” by the Trump administration and “excessive demands regarding Iran’s nuclear program.”
The Supreme Court early this morning paused the deportation of immigrants potentially subject to the Alien Enemies Act, freezing action in a fast-developing case involving a group of immigrants in Texas who say the Trump administration was working to remove them.
The court’s brief order drew dissents from conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
Attorneys for the Venezuelans at issue in the case filed an emergency appeal at the high court yesterday, claiming they were at immediate risk of being removed from the county and had not been provided sufficient notice to challenge their deportation.
The court’s brief order today did not explain the court’s reasoning. The court ordered the Trump administration to respond to the emergency appeal once a federal appeals court in Louisiana takes action in the case. In the meantime, the court said, “The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court.”
In the appeal brought yesterday, lawyers for the migrants say they are “at risk of imminent removal” under the law and that officials haven’t provided the migrants with the sufficient notice the Supreme Court said must be given.
Remember: The emergency appeal marks the second time Trump’s use of the sweeping 18th-century wartime authority has landed at the high court. Last week, the court permitted Trump to use the authority, but said migrants being removed under it needed to receive notice that they are subject to the act and have an opportunity to have their removal reviewed by the federal court where they are being detained.
The Trump administration is ready to recognize Russian control of Crimea as part of a proposal to help end to the war with Ukraine, according to an official familiar with the framework. The proposal would also put a ceasefire in place along the front lines of the war, the source said.
The framework was shared with European and Ukrainian officials who met in Paris yesterday, the source said. It was also communicated in a phone call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
There are still pieces of the framework to be filled out. The US plans to work with Europe and Ukraine on that next week in London, the source said.
The Trump administration is simultaneously planning another meeting between President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian officials to get Moscow on board with the overall US framework, the source said.
Remember: Russian forces seized control of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and Moscow annexed the territory in a move considered illegal by a vast majority of the international community. The move presaged Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen arrived back on US soil yesterday to detail his Thursday meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The senator said the Maryland man, who was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration despite a court order not to do so, was “traumatized” by his time at the country’s notorious CECOT prison and has since been moved.
As a reminder: While Abrego Garcia had not been legally in the US prior to his deportation, a 2019 court order said he could not be returned to El Salvador due to the threat of gang violence .
His deportation to the country anyway, which the Trump administration initially acknowledged was due to a clerical error, has become a flashpoint in the president’s hardline deportation push.
More on Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia:
- Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia described his difficult conditions in CECOT, which he has since been moved from.
- The senator said he learned “the Trump administration has promised to pay $15 million dollars to detain these prisoners, including the illegally abducted Kilmar.”
- Van Hollen also addressed a social media post yesterday by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that Abrego Garcia had been “sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen.” Salvadoran government officials, the lawmaker said, had placed the glasses on the table and the two men did not take a sip.
Trump’s response to Van Hollen’s meeting:
