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Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley revealed this week that special counsel Jack Smith's investigators used a 2023 subpoena targeting 87 White House phones to sweep up communications between nearly 50 journalists — including Fox News reporters — and Trump administration officials, while also collecting toll records tied to more than 40 members of Congress. Smith's team gathered the material without following normal safeguards meant to protect privileged records, and reportedly withheld reams of personal information from his final report. Grassley blasted the probe, noting Smith “indicted one person,” Trump, while “successfully mapped out the Republican apparatus.”
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history.
Seventy-seven years ago today, American and British pilots completed the last of 277,264 flights that broke a Soviet blockade of West Berlin, officially wrapping up the Berlin Airlift on September 30, 1949, after fifteen months of round-the-clock missions that delivered more than two million tons of food, coal and medicine to the isolated city. The operation began after Soviet forces cut off all ground access to West Berlin in mid-1948, hoping to force the Western powers out of the city; rather than fight, the U.S. and Britain instead flew supplies in and out around the clock until Moscow backed down. Historians still call it one of the greatest logistical feats of the 20th century — one that embarrassed the Soviets on the world stage without a single shot fired.
Baseball history was made on September 30, 1927, when Babe Ruth blasted his 60th home run of the season, a mark that stood as the single-season record for 34 years until Roger Maris finally broke it in 1961 on an expanded 162-game schedule. Ruth's home runs in just August and September alone matched the entire season output of the Cleveland Indians' roster, as his Yankees — the legendary “Murderers' Row” — rolled to a 110-44 record and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. The feat helped cement the term “Ruthian” in the American lexicon for accomplishments of almost unbelievable scale.
🏥 Bombshell Report: Healthcare Fraud Costs Taxpayers Up to $521 Billion a Year, GOP Unveils 14 Bills to Fight It
The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a bombshell report Tuesday estimating that fraud, waste and abuse across federally subsidized healthcare programs costs taxpayers between $233 billion and $521 billion every year, prompting House Republicans to roll out 14 new bills aimed at cracking down on the schemes.
Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie said “every dollar stolen by fraudsters or wasted on improper payments is a dollar that cannot support families in need,” while Rep. Jodey Arrington warned fraud costs “$1 million every minute”
Investigators flagged transnational schemes, including a Russian organized-crime ring that billed over $10 million through 30 fake medical supply companies, plus fraud attempts traced to Hong Kong, Georgia, Estonia and Pakistan
The 14 bills are grouped into three buckets — fraud identification, enforcement and state accountability — including a requirement that states designate a financial-controls officer and file annual fraud-vulnerability reports
🚨 ICE Agents Told Overnight to Stand Down on Non-Criminal Arrests, DHS Reverses Course Within Hours
Field ICE officers nationwide received verbal orders Saturday to stop arresting undocumented immigrants without criminal records or pending charges and to end so-called “collateral arrests” of bystanders — a directive DHS quickly disavowed as a “miscommunication,” insisting no policy had actually changed.
One furious agent told reporters the pause looked like an attempt to “calm things down before the elections,” while another hoped Trump would “find out about this ... and put an end to it”
DHS pushed back hard, saying “this is false. No one is off the table. We will continue to arrest any and all illegal aliens that come into our path”
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, citing Trump and nine ICE/DHS sources, reported that corrective guidance went back out to field offices reaffirming both direct and collateral arrests would continue
🏈 Senate Passes Protect College Sports Act 77-22, Setting First National Rules for NIL and Transfers
The Senate passed the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act 77-22 on Monday night, a Ted Cruz-Maria Cantwell measure that would establish the first national standards for how college athletes get paid and move between schools.
The bill sets uniform NIL compensation rules, transfer-portal restrictions, a five-year eligibility window, recruiting guardrails and revenue-sharing caps, plus new antitrust protections for the NCAA
Cruz called the current system “the Wild West” and said Congress had to act “because Congress screwed it up,” while Majority Leader John Thune called it a fix for a “mess” that “needs to be addressed”
Of the 22 “no” votes, 19 were Democrats — including Chuck Schumer — while Republicans Rand Paul and Rick Scott joined independent Bernie Sanders in opposition; the bill now heads to a House that's out until after the midterms
💰 Treasury Sanctions Sinaloa Cartel Kingpin ‘Mayito Flaco,’ Baja California Governor's Ex-Husband in Sweeping Corruption Crackdown
The Treasury Department sanctioned 21 individuals and 25 entities Monday tied to fugitive cartel leader Ismael “Mayito Flaco” Zambada Sicairos, targeting a fentanyl-and-corruption network that reaches into the Mexican governor's office overseeing the Tijuana and Mexicali border corridors.
Zambada Sicairos, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen born in Anaheim, took over the “Los Mayos” faction after his father's July 2024 arrest and remains a fugitive under a 2014 California indictment
Among those sanctioned: Carlos Torres Torres, ex-husband of Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda, accused of protecting cartel operations, and a former Mexicali security director accused of taking cartel bribes
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the action shows “no cartel kingpin, corrupt Mexican government official, or financial facilitator is beyond the reach of Treasury's authorities”
— Fox News
🕵️ FBI's ‘Operation Blackout’ Seizes $17 Billion From Overseas Scam ‘Cities’ Targeting American Seniors, Patel Says
FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that the bureau's international “Operation Blackout” has seized $17 billion and prevented another $660 million in losses by dismantling scam compounds across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa that specifically target elderly Americans.
Patel described the compounds as full “towns” and “cities,” including a roughly 200-acre site at Cambodia's O'Smach Resort where agents recovered 113 hard drives and 35 boxes of evidence from 28 buildings
The bureau has contacted more than 10,400 potential victims — 77% of whom had no idea they were being scammed — and referred 99 to suicide-intervention resources
Investigators say the criminal networks are now migrating operations toward central and sub-Saharan Africa, including Madagascar, where the FBI says it's positioning resources to follow
— Fox News