By STEPHEN GROVES, MARY CLARE JALONICK and MATT BROWN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown faded Friday as Democrats refused to budge in a Senate vote and President Donald Trump readied plans to unleash layoffs and cuts across the federal government.
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department fired a top national security prosecutor amid criticism from a right-wing commentator over his work during the Biden administration, further roiling the prominent U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia after the ousting of other senior attorneys in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.
By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — James Comey was charged Thursday with lying to Congress in a criminal case filed days after President Donald Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies.
Both of the top federal prosecutors in Virginia resigning within a month of each other, reportedly after facing pressure from the Trump administration, is cause for alarm, Fairfax County’s Democratic supervisors say.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay and his Democratic colleagues urged Congress and judges in the Eastern District of Virginia to intervene after interim U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert resigned on Friday (Sept. 19) under circumstances they argued “appear politically motivated, and malicious.”
Uncertainty remains as county leaders and budget staff begin looking toward the fiscal 2027 budget process.
“Overall, we’re kind of sitting in the same place,” said Philip Hagen, director of the county’s Department of Management and Budget. He was briefing members of the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Policy Committee on Sept. 16.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Chantilly field office, typically used for administrative proceedings, is being turned into a “makeshift” detention facility, dozens of immigrant rights advocacy groups say.
With arrests surging during the ongoing federal takeover of D.C., ICE has begun detaining individuals for “several days at a time” in a holding room intended to keep people just for a few hours during processing, according to organizations in the Free Them All VA Coalition.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors went on record yesterday (Tuesday) supporting George Mason University President Gregory Washington as “a critical partner” of the county government and local residents.
The action, taken at the request of Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay, came amid scrutiny of Washington and the university he heads by the Trump administration.
George Mason University’s efforts to diversify its workforce violate a civil rights law intended to end segregation, according to the Trump administration.
Following a roughly six-week-long investigation of GMU’s hiring practices, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has found that the Northern Virginia-based university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race in public education.
The Trump administration has released a new list of localities and states it considers “sanctuary jurisdictions,” and Fairfax County is no longer on it.
The Justice Department identified some three dozen states, cities and counties as so-called sanctuary jurisdictions on Tuesday (Aug. 5), two months after the federal government quietly removed a much longer list that included many localities that support the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.
Fairfax County Public Schools has received millions in federal funding that was held up for nearly a month by the Trump administration.
FCPS spokesperson Julie Allen told FFXnow yesterday (Wednesday) that the school division has confirmed receipt of the $13.1 million in withheld funding.
