A Biden-appointed judge dismissed former CIA Director John Brennan’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump and senior administration officials, ruling that his concerns about the potential destruction of evidence needed for a future criminal defense were too “speculative.”

The dismissal comes as Brennan faces two federal investigations, including a Justice Department probe into whether former intelligence officials conspired to violate Trump’s civil rights through investigations into alleged ties between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. 

A separate investigation is examining whether Brennan made false statements during 2023 congressional testimony about the Steele dossier’s role in a 2017 intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the presidential election.

FORMER CIA DIRECTOR BRENNAN SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY IN FEDERAL TRUMP CONSPIRACY CASE

Trump has repeatedly accused Brennan, President Barack Obama and other former intelligence officials of orchestrating the “Russia collusion hoax,” but they have rejected those accusations, claiming that the administration is attempting to discredit legitimate intelligence findings about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

While Judge Jia Cobb called Brennan’s allegations that the Trump administration was targeting him for opposing the president “deeply concerning,” she ruled that he lacked standing to sue because he had not shown that officials were likely destroying records relevant to a potential defense, and the injury he feared depended on a series of events that had not yet occurred.

“For Brennan’s constitutional injury to actually accrue, a series of dominoes must fall, and Defendants’ deletion of records is just one of those dominoes,” Cobb wrote. 

“There is no dispute about this: Defendants describe this domino chain in their motion to dismiss … and Brennan accepts it in his response.”

Brennan has been identified as a target in two federal investigations that have involved three grand jury inquiries — two in the Southern District of Florida and one in Washington, D.C. — but he has not been charged with a crime. The former CIA director was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, Oct. 15, though his scheduled appearance was postponed.

Brennan filed his lawsuit naming Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other officials July 1, 2026. The 46-page lawsuit accused the Justice Department of handling its investigation into Brennan with “unprecedented, irregular conduct” that was driven by the “president’s retribution agenda.”

DELETED EMAIL DETAILS ALLEGED TRUMP-TARGETING PUSH INSIDE LETITIA JAMES’ OFFICE: ‘FIND AND PURSUE CRIMES’

Brennan argued that key evidence could disappear before he had a chance to challenge any future indictment. He pointed to deleted social media posts, the administration’s use of Signal and other messaging tools with auto-delete features, unpreserved texts and direct messages, AI queries, Microsoft Teams chats and alleged failures to preserve discovery in other cases, including the prosecution of Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J. 

He said the loss of those records could make it harder to determine whether the investigations were based on legitimate law enforcement concerns or political retaliation.

“With this lawsuit, Director Brennan has served notice that the government’s conduct and its document preservation will be carefully scrutinized in the event of any future indictment,” Brennan’s lawyers, Ken Wainstein and Dan Gelber, told the AP.

“Director Brennan will continue to vigorously defend himself against these baseless investigations, and he will challenge any attempt to use the criminal justice system for personal and political retribution.” 

The lawsuit also pointed to what it described as irregularities in the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation.

It cited the removal of longtime DOJ prosecutor Maria Medetis Long, who was reportedly taken off the Brennan investigation in April 2026 after expressing doubts about the strength of the case, as evidence of what it described as irregular conduct. She was replaced by Trump ally Joseph diGenova, who later resigned from his role overseeing the investigation amid reported internal disagreements over the handling of the case.

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL NOMINATE ACTING AG TODD BLANCHE TO PERMANENTLY LEAD JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Brennan’s attorneys accused the Justice Department of “judge-shopping” by trying to steer grand jury proceedings toward Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida, rather than allowing the case to proceed through the court’s normal assignment process. They also questioned why prosecutors were pursuing the investigation in Florida when much of the allegations occurred in Washington, D.C.

The complaint also accused DOJ and FBI leaders of improperly discussing details of the investigations publicly, raising questions about whether officials disclosed information that should have remained confidential.

It cited Attorney General Todd Blanche’s statements that DOJ had issued “200 grand jury subpoenas” and was investigating a “pattern of behavior” to “destroy” Trump, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel’s public discussion of the investigations and their targets.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

Michele Tafoya, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Minnesota and a former broadcaster, aggressively sought to put her opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, on the defensive during a debate Friday afternoon over the billion-dollar fraud schemes that drew national attention to the state earlier this year.

Early in the debate, Tafoya pressed Flanagan on her qualifications for federal office, pointing to her record as lieutenant governor.

“My opponent has been second in command in this state for eight years, drawing a taxpayer-funded paycheck. And what do we have to show for that? We have massive fraud, historic fraud. We have test scores down. We have crime spiking. We have a massive surplus turned into a deficit,” Tafoya said.

TAFOYA MAKES ‘COMMON SENSE’ PITCH TO DISAFFECTED DEMOCRATS AS SHE VOWS TO FIGHT MINNESOTA’S ‘SOCIALIST LURCH’

“This election is about Peggy Flanagan.”

Local and federal investigators have uncovered myriad fraud schemes involving daycare centers, food programs, health clinics and other operations accused of defrauding the state of up to $9 billion. Investigators say fraudsters either inflated the number of people they allegedly helped or fabricated their services altogether — all while receiving government dollars.

When the issue resurfaced later in the debate, the moderator asked Flanagan directly whether, in her view, she had “any ownership over the fraud.”

Flanagan sought to distance herself from the issue, pointing to Walz’s acknowledgment that responsibility for oversight rested with him.

“The governor has been very clear that the buck stops with him,” Flanagan said.

“He was the one who had oversight here. I’ve led on issues like paid family and medical leave, nation-leading child tax credit, making sure that kids get breakfast and lunch at school. Those are the things and those are the areas where I took the lead.”

When Flanagan then redirected the conversation to criticism of President Donald Trump, Tafoya went on the attack.

DAVID MARCUS: PEGGY FLANAGAN’S DEI RECORD AND FRAUD SCANDAL PUT MINNESOTA SENATE RACE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

“Peggy, Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot. You and I are on the ballot, and only one of us let $9 billion walk out the door to fraud to suggest that we that she somehow is going to be a fraud czar all of a sudden,” Tafoya said.

“My goodness, she was second in charge in this state, and she’s just going to point her finger at Gov. Tim Walz when she demanded to be in the room where everything happened. But, suddenly, she has nothing to do with this. Again, sell it to someone else,” she added.

Flanagan has served as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor for nearly eight years, taking office in 2019. By the time Walz announced that he would not run for re-election as governor amid political scrutiny for the fraud, Flanagan had already announced her bid for U.S. Senate.

Responding to Tafoya, Flanagan doubled down on her criticism of Trump, noting that the president had recently endorsed Tafoya.

“Donald Trump doesn’t just endorse anybody. In fact, he endorses against people in his own party if they dare to take him on. Michele Tafoya passed his litmus test with flying colors,” Flanagan said.

Tafoya then laid out her own proposals for combating fraud, including tougher consequences for noncitizens who defraud Americans.

“No. 1, if you’re a guest of this country, and you defraud Americans, you must leave. You must leave, and you should have no pathway back,” she said.

FRAUD EXPERT EXPOSES HOW HIDDEN NETWORKS DROVE MINNESOTA FRAUD, OTHER MAJOR SCAMS: ‘CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE’

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“No. 2, if you’re an American and you defraud your fellow Americans, we should be talking about mandatory prison minimums. Tough sentences, not an easygoing slap on the wrist. 

“And No. 3, if you’re a state like Minnesota who cannot keep your financial house in order, why would the federal government release billions and billions of dollars to you, only to see it go to fraud?”

After securing their respective parties’ nominations earlier this year, Flanagan and Tafoya will face off in the state’s Nov. 3 general election.

Katie Zacharia is leaving her role as White House press secretary after only seven days following a rocky first week on the job, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump told Zacharia to “reconsider” the role, revealing to members of the press on the South Lawn on Friday that he told her: “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to… I think you should reconsider.”

A senior White House official tells Fox News that Katie is now “transitioning out” of the role. 

It comes as her one-week tenure was marked by mounting scrutiny over her legal credentials and a rocky debut before the White House press corps on Tuesday.  Critics have taken aim at Zacharia over her recent interviews attempting to recover from the bumpy start. 

Zacharia was named to the role Oct. 9 and stepped behind the White House podium for her first press briefing just days later on Oct. 13. The briefing lasted 14 minutes and Zacharia took only three questions.

“Maybe it’s not for her,” Trump acknowledged in his brief remarks outside the White House on Friday.

TRUMP NAMES LEAVITT SUCCESSOR AFTER WEEKS OF SPECULATION — AND SHE’S NO STRANGER TO MAGA 

When pressed if this update meant that Trump fired Zacharia, the president walked back. “No no. I want her to have a good life,” he said. 

“She’s been brutalized by the media,” Trump added. 

During an appearance on “Hannity” Thursday night, Zacharia was pressed over whether she could refer to herself as an attorney. Zacharia admitted she did not pass the bar exam and never obtained a law license in the United States.

“I had already pre-registered for the bar exam, and basically during the summer, I knew I would be living in China and the result of the bar would be inconsequential. I sat for it because I didn’t want to have a withdraw status,” she said.

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS WIDELY PRAISE KAROLINE LEAVITT AS SHE ANNOUNCES EXIT FROM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Zacharia was also pressed on her fumbled briefing. 

“What I feel is I really stepped up to the plate with very little prep time,” Zacharia said. “Given the fact that I’d been on the job less than maybe eight hours and had a briefing book in the morning, I feel like I did my very best, Sean, to deliver for the American people that day.”

Zacharia’s debut drew scrutiny over several verbal stumbles, including a moment when she mistakenly referred to her husband as “my president” before correcting herself, as well as the briefing’s brevity, during which she took questions from just three journalists in 14 minutes.

Karoline Leavitt’s first White House press briefing lasted nearly 47 minutes, while Sean Spicer’s debut ran roughly 79 minutes. While Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first briefing as press secretary lasted about 23 minutes in 2017.

TRUMP’S NEW PRESS SECRETARY FACES FIRST MAJOR TEST AS WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING ROOM ENTERS NEW ERA

A White House official told MS NOW earlier this week that she could end up with a shorter tenure than Anthony Scaramucci, whose notoriously brief stint as President Donald Trump’s White House communications director lasted just 10 days before he was ousted in July 2017.

“Getting behind the podium is tough, but she got off on the wrong foot,” the unnamed White House official said. “She needs to get much better, fast, otherwise she’ll break Scaramucci’s record.”

Zacharia clearly did not recover enough in her short media sprint this week — where she attempted to clear up confusion about her lawyer credentials — and instead was pushed out of the job on Friday without another shot at the podium. 

The White House doubled down on supporting Zacharia Wednesday when asked by Fox News Digital for comment on the Scaramucci comparison reportedly coming from the White House.

“Katie is a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team. She is uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as Press Secretary,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital.

The White House X account @PressSec, formerly run by Leavitt before switching to White House Press Office, never switched over to Zacharia, and has still not posted since Oct. 7.

Zacharia, whom Trump described as an attorney when announcing her appointment, previously served as senior communications adviser to Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates the president’s social media platform, Truth Social.

She also served earlier this year as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs and a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security for just six weeks. 

Fox News’ Peter Doocy contributed to this report.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The older sister of embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is currently on a book tour promoting a memoir about her life as a Somali immigrant, skipped a scheduled event due to a “family emergency” amid the fallout from the raid on the congresswoman’s home.

As Omar faces a federal government probe related to potential immigration fraud as well as a separate investigation into her financial disclosures, Sahra Noor was scheduled for a book tour stop at the University of Minnesota Rochester on Thursday night.

Noor, who came to the United States as a refugee alongside Omar and other family members in the 1990s, was reportedly subpoenaed in relation to the immigration investigation into her sister. She currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya, according to her LinkedIn page, but is on a worldwide book tour promoting her recently-released “Salt in the Snow: A Somali Immigrant Story.”

ILHAN OMAR’S HUSBAND INSISTS HE HAS ‘NO CONCERNS’ AMID FEDERAL IMMIGRATION INVESTIGATION

Fox News Digital reached out to Noor for comment but did not hear back at time of publication.

According to a flyer, which was posted on Facebook by Rochester-based bookstore Garden Party Books, the event was scheduled for Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. It was set to be held at the Intercultural Student Center at the University of Minnesota Rochester.

When Fox News Digital arrived for the event, the space was completely empty. Fox News Digital had previously RSVP’d for the event via a QR code on the flyer and did not receive any communication that the event had been canceled, rescheduled or relocated.

Garden Party Books told Fox News Digital the event was canceled due to a Noor “family emergency.” 

Noor’s absence from the book tour stop comes amid rumors that Omar fled the United States following the raid earlier this week. While the congresswoman has not been seen in public since Monday’s raid, her husband snapped when asked outside the home on Wednesday whether he had a response to the rumors that she fled the country.

The flyer said that Garden Party Books, along with the University of Minnesota Bookstores and the Rochester Public Library, were “proud supporters” of the event.

It also described Noor as a “poet, storyteller and health system leader,” and said the book is a “story of migration, motherhood, grief and family.”

According to Noor’s website, her book was officially launched during an event in a Nairobi bookstore on Aug. 13, 2026. She appeared in early September at a festival in Cape Town, South Africa to promote her work.

OMAR RAID DRAWS OMINOUS WARNING FROM VANCE AS HE BLASTS PROGRESSIVE REP’S ‘RAGE’ TOWARD AMERICA

Now, she is touring in the United States. Noor held an Oct. 1 event in Minneapolis, and another five days later at the University of Minnesota. She hosted an event in St. Paul, Minnesota on Oct. 7. Her next scheduled event is at the Somali Community Cultural Innovation Hub in Seattle on Oct. 23.

Federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the leading investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), executed a search warrant on Omar’s home starting at around 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning.

ILHAN OMAR’S HUSBAND SNAPS OVER RUMORS SHE FLED US AFTER FEDERAL IMMIGRATION FRAUD RAID

Fox News Digital first reported Monday that the raid stems from an investigation into whether Omar or her late father, Nur Mohamed, fraudulently filled out her citizenship paperwork decades ago.

The investigation, two sources noted, could lead to the congresswoman’s denaturalization.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Omar’s phone, passport and computers were seized in the raid.

Omar has described the search as an “outrageous abuse of power” and called it an “unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.”

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is facing lingering frustration from inside his own political backyard over the cancellation of an event that was supposed to take place on Oct. 5 with a Black civic-service group.

The Central Texas African American Civic Engagement Symposium (CT-AACES) expressed deep frustration in an email, sent to the Talarico campaign and obtained by Fox News Digital, after the campaign cancelled an event – which had 325 confirmed registrants – during Talarico’s two-week absence from the campaign trail due to illness.

CT-AACES said the cancellation left them with “irrecoverable financial loss,” and that Talarico’s campaign had not engaged in rescheduling efforts

“While we understand Representative Talarico’s health required priority, we are deeply disappointed by the campaign’s decision to issue a flat cancellation rather than committing to a rescheduled date,” the email reads. “It was a missed opportunity for Representative Talarico to directly address community skepticism and demonstrate the sincerity of his commitment to Central Texas African Americans.”

The cancellation is the most recent instance of the tensions that Talarico’s campaign has faced with the Black community. It also casts doubt on the effectiveness of his efforts to reach Black voteBlack voters through a $25 million outreach pledge aimed at mobilizing black voters is fully reaching the ground.

TALARICO DISAPPEARANCE HAS DEM VOLUNTEERS WORRYING AND TRUMP ASKING, ‘WHAT IS GOING ON?’

The frustration isn’t isolated to CT-AACES.

At least one Austin-area Democratic operative who has met directly with Talarico told Fox News Digital that she remains frustrated by what she described as uneven follow-through on outreach to Black Democrats and candidates further down the ballot.

“Black voters aren’t a monolith,” the source cautioned, rejecting any blanket assertion that Black Texans distrust Talarico outright. “I think that there are pockets that do. There’s a pocket that doesn’t. And then there’s the pocket that’s really unsure,” she said.

The operative is particularly familiar with the nominee and the Democratic organizing landscape in the Austin region.

Asked about a $25 million investment to focus on door-knocking in Black neighborhoods, in-person community events and engagement with Black churches, the source said those investments haven’t manifested yet.

“We haven’t received the money, but we’re being told it’s coming,” she said of some accounts she has heard from the ground. “We received, you know, one or 2% of what we were told we were going to get. And then it’s been silence since,” she said.

DAVID MARCUS: HOW CROCKETT’S LAST STAND IN TEXAS COULD BRING DOWN TALARICO

The comments come after Talarico appeared on a Black voter coalition Zoom last week, delivering brief remarks about “put[ting] in the money … time … and effort to win” before his feed disappeared from the call reportedly without a public question-and-answer session. At the July Houston town hall where Talarico announced the $25 million pledge, nurse Kandice Webber confronted him as the event approached its scheduled end and demanded that he remain to answer questions. “Black people don’t trust you for this reason,” she said, according to the Texas Tribune .

“And you cannot win without us, so you stay here and you answer our questions, or you suffer the consequences,” Webber said.

During his primary, Talarico also encountered controversy over the black vote when reports surfaced the he had characterized rival candidate and former NFL linebacker Collin Allred as a “mediocre Black man.” “He had the audacity to say to a Black woman that he had signed up to run against a mediocre black man,” Allred said in a video response posted to X.

“We should say ‘thank you.’ Thank you for taking off the mask. Thank you for telling us who you really are and what you really think… keep my name out of your mouth while you’re at it.”

Talarico, for his part, described the wording as a mischaracterization, stating that he “described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre” and that he would “never attack him on the basis of race.”

Talarico also received criticism from Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, his primary opponent in the Senate primary, after she accused him of darkening her skin in campaign ads against her.

“And you know, I’ve been asked a couple of times about it. And you know, I look at this specifically as a civil rights lawyer, and I see when they’re sending out ads and they’re darkening my skin. And I’m just like, I know what this is, right?” Crockett said at a press conference.

The operative said she personally pressed Talarico during a June meeting to do more to endorse and support down-ballot Democrats after hearing from campaigns that donors had already exhausted their political giving on his Senate bid and were asking whether he had endorsed those candidates.

FOX NEWS POLL: IT’S A LONE STAR SENATE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TALARICO AND PAXTON

“He was very gracious. He said he understood,” she told Fox News Digital. “I followed up with his staff multiple times and to this day have still not heard anything, which has been really frustrating to me.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Talarico campaign for a response to the characterizations and comments.