At least five senior FBI leaders reportedly demoted or moved as Trump’s nominee is grilled by senators – live

Several senior FBI leaders demoted or reassigned – report
At least five senior FBI leaders who were promoted by the bureau’s former director, Christopher Wray, have been notified they are being demoted or reassigned, CNN reports.
The senior officials are at the executive assistant director level and include those who oversee cyber, national security and criminal investigations, the outlet writes, citing sources.
The report comes after the firing of more than a dozen federal prosecutors at the justice department, across the street from the FBI headquarters, earlier this week.
Key events
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Donald Trump just insisted that Egypt and Jordan, which have refused to cooperate with his proposal to “just clean out” the entire population of the besieged Gaza Strip, by resettling Palestinians in their countries, will eventually agree.
Asked if there is “anything you can do to make” President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan accept that population transfer, Trump replied: “They will do it. They will do it.”
“What makes you say that?” the reporter asked.
“They’re going to do it, OK?” Trump replied. “We do a lot for them, and they’re going to do it.”
Trump did not elaborate on what kind of pressure he plans to exert, but the recent freeze of US foreign aid made exceptions for military assistance to Israel – whose longstanding major arms packages from the US have expanded further since the Gaza war – and Egypt, which has received generous US defense funding since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Jordan, which also has a peace deal with Israel, and controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem until they were seized by Israeli forces in 1967, is also a major recipient of US aid.
Trump’s first impeachment was over his demand that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “do us a favor” in return for military assistance.
Donald Trump has said the US will put a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, Reuters reports.
Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, reportedly said he would decide probably by tonight whether or not those tariffs would apply to oil.
Trump has previously pledged to sign an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all products coming in to the US from Mexico and Canada, two of the country’s biggest trading partners.
Lauren Gambino
Joining Democratic congressional leaders at the press conference, Altadena resident Jackie Jacobs described the moment she realized it was time to evacuate.
The 88-year-old said she received a message telling her and her husband to “get out” and they did just that, carrying with them only the clothes that they were wearing.
The Eaton fire tore through Altadena,a historically Black town in the San Gabriel Valley, claiming nearly every house on their street, including their home.
“Everything now is in ashes,” she said. The houses on their block were only identifiable by their chimneys.
Officials say nearly 9,500 structures have been burned and at least 17 people lost their lives in the fire, which is 99% contained. A new study published by UCLA found that Black residents in Altadena were 1.3 times more likely to have experienced destruction or major damage than non-Black households.
Jacob’s husband, David, said the couple is staying in an Airbnb. They have had friends and family urge them to move back to Alabama. But they want to stay in their beloved Altadena.
“We’re just asking God to guide us,” he said.
Hearings conclude today for Trump’s nominees
The Senate judiciary committee has concluded the confirmation hearing of Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI.
That concludes today’s Senate confirmation hearings, which also saw Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard face questions over their nominations.
Democrat alleges Patel is happy to ‘lie’ for Trump in tense questioning

Hugo Lowell
Hours into Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing to be FBI director, we are getting into his witness testimony before a grand jury in the Trump classified documents case – and it has become awkward for Patel.
During the documents investigation, Patel was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury about whether Donald Trump declassified the documents he had retained at his Mar-a-Lago club, after he publicly represented that Trump was authorized to have those documents because he had declassified them before leaving office.
Patel initially declined to appear, citing his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, the Guardian reported at the time. He later testified after the chief US district judge in Washington authorized Patel to have limited immunity from prosecution, which forced his testimony.
Under oath and under close questioning from Senator Cory Booker, Patel clarified that while he had heard and witnessed Trump issue a declassification order for some documents, he did not actually know whether they applied to the documents the FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago.
Booker is seizing on this to say Patel is happy to “lie” on behalf of Trump in public to support him, which he said was disqualifying. “He is refusing the transparency he claims to adhere to,” Booker adds.

Lauren Gambino
House Democratic leaders on Thursday came to Altadena to survey the damage from the Eaton fire that burned through historically Black neighborhoods, vowing to fight for more federal aid without conditions.
“There’s no Democratic way or Republican way to respond to a crisis in an extreme weather event like these horrific wildfires, there is an American way,” House leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said at a press conference after touring the devastation. “We want to make sure that Congress and the American people stand with the people of this amazing community.”
Donald Trump and Republicans have threatened to impose conditions on federal disaster aid for Los Angeles to rebuild after the wildfires, though on a visit to the region last week he told residents and officials: “We have to work together to get this really worked out.”
Led by congresswoman Judy Chu, who represents the fire victims of Altadena, Jeffries toured the area with House Democratic whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and House Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar of California.
House Democratic leaders are in Altadena today to tour the devastation from the fire.
“We cannot condition any assistance to the people of Altadena, the people of Pasadena, the people of Los Angeles County, the people of California,” Jeffries said. pic.twitter.com/Me1IJbS0em
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) January 30, 2025
“There is enough Fema money to last us up until March but we will need supplemental money, as has happened in every major disaster in this country,” Chu said, adding that it is unprecedented for Congress to attach partisan conditions to federal disaster aid.
Chu and Jeffries also warned that the Trump administration’s now-paused freeze on federal grant and loan funding threatened to impact communities like Altadena as they recover from disaster.
Jeffries added: “California has sent more money to the federal government year after year after year than they ever get back in return. The people of California are simply asking for some of those tax dollars to come back to the state to help the people in need.”
Several senior FBI leaders demoted or reassigned – report
At least five senior FBI leaders who were promoted by the bureau’s former director, Christopher Wray, have been notified they are being demoted or reassigned, CNN reports.
The senior officials are at the executive assistant director level and include those who oversee cyber, national security and criminal investigations, the outlet writes, citing sources.
The report comes after the firing of more than a dozen federal prosecutors at the justice department, across the street from the FBI headquarters, earlier this week.

Sam Levin
Transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons have been placed in isolation, told they will be transferred to men’s prisons and advised they will lose access to gender-affirming medical treatments in response to Donald Trump’s executive order “defending women from gender ideology extremism”, according to civil rights advocates and people behind bars.
The executive order on “gender ideology” was announced on Trump’s first day in office, and is part of a flurry of executive actions targeting trans rights and LGBTQ+ education.
Staff at Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell, a US women’s prison in Texas that houses people with special medical needs, took actions within days of the order, according to attorneys and one resident. Officers went to trans women’s cells one by one and ordered them out, according to one incarcerated resident, a trans man housed with the women.
“The officers yelled at these women: ‘Come right now, leave your things. You don’t have time to pack,’” the man said in Spanish. “The officials were degrading them and saying disgusting things, like: ‘We don’t have to call you women anymore. Where you’re going, you’re going to be a man.’”
As one trans woman was trying to pack her bra, an official laughed at her and said: “You won’t need that where you’re going,” he recalled. “The women were screaming and crying, saying: ‘Where are you taking us?’ It was so humiliating.”
LGBTQ+-rights lawyers say the moves will have major consequences for the health and safety of trans people in federal custody, and blatantly violate federal laws and a range of constitutional protections.
Read the full story here:
Alice Herman
Democrats on the Senate budget committee boycotted Thursday’s vote to advance Russell Vought’s nomination to head the office of management and budget.
Calling Vought a threat to democracy, Senate Democrats on the committee said they refused to “vote for someone so clearly unfit for office”.
Senate Democrats had urged a delay on Vought’s confirmation hearings after the office Donald Trump nominated him to lead ordered a freeze on federal grant funding.
Issued on Monday by the acting director of the office of management and budget and rescinded on Wednesday, the order would have potentially impacted critical programs that receive federal aid, including Head Start and Meals on Wheels.
But Republican lawmakers have plowed ahead with Vought’s confirmation, and Republican members of the Senate budget committee held the vote anyway on Thursday without any Democrats present.
Vought’s confirmation will move to the full Senate after the 11-0 committee vote.
‘Leading not lying’: ex-transportation secretary Buttigieg slams Trump
Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, has condemned Donald Trump’s “despicable” comments during a Thursday press conference on the deadly mid-air collision near Washington DC.
Trump, at a White House briefing, took aim at Buttigieg and claimed Democrats were responsible for declining standards in air traffic control and that the disaster “could have been” caused by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at the Federal Aviation Administration.
“He was a disaster,” Trump said of Buttigieg. “He was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his city into the ground, and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bullshit.”
Trump also said Buttigieg, who is gay, ran the transportation department into the ground “with his diversity”.
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” Buttigieg said on X.
We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.
He said one of Trump’s first acts as president was to “fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe,” adding:
Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.
“Look at them, I want you to look at them if you have the courage,” Democratic senator Adam Schiff declared, asking Trump’s nominee to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel, to look at Capitol police officers in the room during his Senate confirmation hearing.
During the hearing, Patel decried violence against law enforcement that occurred at the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.
Schiff questioned him about his comments on an episode of Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast apparently claiming partial credit for producing Justice for All, a recording of January 6 defendants singing the national anthem from prison.
“There have been, as I understand it, dozens of studies done all over the world that make it very clear that vaccines do not cause autism,” said Senator Bernie Sanders during Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Senate confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The evidence is there, that’s it – vaccines do not cause autism. Do you agree with that?” asked Sanders. “I asked you a simple question, Bobby.”
“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion,” said Kash Patel in response to a question from Vermont senator Peter Welch about whether the nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation believed that former joint chiefs of staff chair Mark Milley should be tried for treason.
The Trump administration has stripped Milley – who clashed with Trump during his first term and rejected his attempts to overturn the 2020 election – of his security detail.
The day so far
Some of Donald Trump’s most controversial picks for his cabinet and key administration roles are facing Senate confirmation hearings today. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s pick to lead the country’s top health agency, attending a second straight day of bruising hearings on Capitol Hill. Appearing before the Senate health committee, Kennedy dodged direct questions about whether he still believes vaccines cause autism and whether Covid-19 vaccines saved the lives of millions. He pledged to hire “pro-life” deputies in his office, if he is confirmed. Kennedy faced tough questions from Democrats before the Senate finance committee on Wednesday.
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Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), insisted he did not have an “enemies list” and that the bureau under his leadership would not seek retribution against the president’s adversaries. Patel, appearing before the Senate judiciary committee, said he did not agree with shortening sentences for people who assault law enforcement, a week after Trump’s sweeping pardons for people charged in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
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Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, faced sharp criticism over past comments sympathetic to Russia, her meeting with Syria’s now-deposed leader, Bashar al-Assad, and her past support for government leaker Edward Snowden. Appearing before the Senate intelligence committee, Gabbard said Snowden had broke the law but refused to answer whether the whistleblower was a traitor.
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Trump said there were no survivors in the midair collision of an American Airlines jet and a military Black Hawk helicopter near Washington DC. At a briefing in the White House, Trump questioned the role of the helicopter pilot and air traffic control, as well as faulted Joe Biden as he injected politics into his crash response.
Alexandra Villarreal
Mass deportation – at least in theory – is apparently popular among the American people.
So over and over again, Trump and his allies have loudly touted their plans to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, initially focusing on those with criminal records. In doing so, they’ve redirected the US public’s attention toward their “shock and awe” tactics that led to thousands of arrests across the country in less than a week.
But as all eyes turn to these high-profile enforcement efforts, the new administration from its very first moments has also been relentlessly, if more quietly, targeting people trying to come to the US legally, systematically dismantling safety nets meant to protect the world’s most vulnerable individuals and families, who are already suffering because of it.

Martin Pengelly
Donald Trump is still historically unpopular compared with other new US presidents, a new poll showed.
“At 47%, President Donald Trump’s initial job approval rating for his second term is similar to the inaugural 45% reading during his first term, again placing him below all other elected presidents dating back to 1953,” wrote Megan Brenan, a senior editor for Gallup, which carried out the poll.
“Trump remains the only elected president with sub-50% initial approval ratings, and his latest disapproval rating (48%) is three percentage points higher than in 2017.”
John F Kennedy remains the most popular modern president at the start of his term, according to Gallup polling. In the first month of his presidency, in 1961, the Democrat enjoyed 72% approval and just 6% disapproval.
Dwight Eisenhower (1953) and Barack Obama (2009) enjoyed the next-highest approval ratings, at 68%. Jimmy Carter, who died last month aged 100, scored 66% approval in February 1977, at the start of his single term in office.
Robert F Kennedy Jr was asked if he would rescind a Biden administration rule requiring physicians who receive federal funding to perform gender-affirming care.
“Yes, I will,” Kennedy said in response to a question by Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri. “That rule is anti-science.”
Kennedy added:
Do you really want somebody performing surgery on you who is morally opposed to that surgery? It doesn’t make any sense.
Kennedy said that “we need to embrace diversity in this country” and not “force people to do things that are against their conscience”.
Trump, without evidence, appears to blame DEI for plane crash

David Smith
Donald Trump continued to turn what might have been a sombre briefing into a baseless rant against DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs despite no evidence of a link with Wednesday night’s plane crash.
The president was backed to the hilt by his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who said “we can only accept the best and the brightest” in positions affecting passenger safety, and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who echoed: “The era of DEI is gone at the defense department and we need the best and brightest.”
Then came Vice-President JD Vance, who claimed “we want to hire the best people” who are “actually competent enough to do the job”.
Trump returned to the lectern to claim that “very powerful tests” for competence in air traffic control were “terminated” by Joe Biden.
CNN’s Kaitlin Collins asked: “Aren’t you getting ahead of the investigation?” Trump replied: “No, I don’t think so at all … I don’t think that’s a smart question. I’m surprised, coming from you.”
Another reporter asked why Trump believes DEI is responsible. He said: “Because I have common sense and unfortunately a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level.”
RFK Jr says he would hire ‘pro-life’ people in his office
Tim Scott, the Republican senator from South Carolina, said that he and Robert F Kennedy Jr had some “serious conversations about the importance of life”.
“You assured me that your deputies were going to be pro life. Is that still the case?” Scott asked Kennedy. Kennedy replied:
I will implement President Trump’s policies. I serve at his pleasure, but I share President Trump’s [belief] that every abortion is a tragedy.
Pressed on whether he will hire deputies within his Department of Health and Human Services who will be pro-life, Kennedy said: “I am.”