Feed aggregator

The Trump administration is preparing to announce that Medicaid programs in all 50 states will have access to international benchmark pricing for certain prescription drugs, expanding President Donald Trump’s effort to reduce the amount the United States pays for medications compared with other developed countries.

President Trump is expected to promote the initiative at the White House on Friday alongside the governors of South Dakota, Mississippi and Arkansas. The announcement comes as the administration has placed prescription drug costs among its major domestic policy priorities ahead of the November midterm elections. Semafor first reported details of Friday’s planned announcement.

According to estimates from the White House Council of Economic Advisers cited by Semafor, the initiative is projected to produce $27.6 billion in net savings for state governments over the next decade, in addition to $36.6 billion in savings for the federal government. Those figures are administration estimates and have not yet been independently demonstrated through the program’s results.

The administration’s approach is based on the idea that Medicaid should be able to obtain prices for certain medicines that more closely resemble the lower prices paid in selected foreign countries.

“This is a clear cut example of how you can save money in the Medicaid program in a way that strengthens the program as a whole,” a White House official told Semafor. “By getting lower drug prices, more people will have access.”

Reuters reported that the administration was preparing to make the announcement, although the news organization said it had not independently confirmed Semafor’s reporting.

At the time of that report, neither the White House nor the Department of Health and Human Services had immediately responded to Reuters requests seeking comment.

At the center of the initiative is the administration’s GENEROUS Model — short for GENErating cost Reductions fOr U.S. Medicaid — which was launched in January 2026. Under the program, participating drug manufacturers provide supplemental rebates intended to bring Medicaid’s net cost for selected medicines in line with prices paid in certain other countries.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says the five-year model is voluntary for both states and pharmaceutical manufacturers. States choose whether to participate and which eligible medicines they want covered through the program.

The initiative is part of President Trump’s broader push for what the administration calls “most-favored-nation” drug pricing, an approach intended to narrow the gap between prescription drug prices in the United States and those paid abroad.

The administration has also been reaching agreements directly with pharmaceutical companies. On Aug. 31, it announced another group of agreements involving nine midsize pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Teva Pharmaceuticals, Astellas Pharma and UCB. Those arrangements followed earlier agreements reached with other major drugmakers.

The ultimate size of the savings produced by the Medicaid initiative, however, remains uncertain.

One reason is that Medicaid already obtains significant discounts on prescription medications through federally required manufacturer rebates. States are also permitted to negotiate supplemental rebates of their own, raising questions among health-policy analysts about how much additional savings international benchmarking can generate. Semafor noted that experts have questioned whether the GENEROUS model will produce savings on the scale projected by the administration.

CMS has reported that gross Medicaid prescription drug spending exceeded $100 billion in 2024. After manufacturer rebates were collected, net spending was approximately $60 billion.

The administration nevertheless believes the international-pricing mechanism can drive those costs down further.

Under the GENEROUS system, CMS negotiates with participating pharmaceutical manufacturers, which report applicable international net prices. Participating states can then obtain supplemental rebates intended to reduce the net Medicaid price of eligible drugs toward the agreed international benchmark.

Friday’s announcement represents a nationwide expansion of access to that approach, giving state Medicaid programs across the country the option of participating as the Trump administration seeks to make lower prescription drug prices a prominent part of its domestic agenda.

{Matzav.com}

David Friedman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel during President Donald Trump’s first administration, came to the defense of current Ambassador Mike Huckabee on Friday, suggesting that Huckabee may not have been provided with all the relevant information before his controversial visit to Turmus Ayya earlier this month.

The controversy centered in part on Amishav Melet, a Jewish resident whom Huckabee filmed as Melet drove a security vehicle near the gathering in Turmus Ayya. Melet subsequently maintained that he was carrying out a routine security check and had not come to interfere with the ambassador’s visit. Friedman pointed to a recent interview with Melet and suggested that Huckabee’s Palestinian Affairs Unit may have failed to provide the ambassador with important background before arranging the trip.

“Gov. Mike Huckabee is an incredible US Ambassador to Israel – maybe the best ever,” Friedman wrote on X. “As occasionally occurred when I was Ambassador, I think his Palestinian Affairs Unit withheld some key facts in arranging his trip to Turmus Aya. Here’s an interview with the guy who the Palestinian residents of that town claimed was a terrorist – Amishav Melet – whose brother was murdered by residents of this community just 7 weeks ago. Take a look at this interview and decide for yourselves.”

Friedman had already publicly backed Melet earlier this month following the dispute over Huckabee’s visit.

“Enjoyed a cup of coffee this morning with Amishav Melet. He’s the guy who the residents of Turmus Ayya tried to portray as a terrorist when all he was doing was driving a security patrol and bothering no one.”

Two weeks ago, @GovMikeHuckabee filmed a security Ranger near Turmus Aya and called it “dangerous settlers.”

After Shabbat, the driver identified himself. Amishav Melet (@amishav_ ) — a 35-year-old farmer and father of six from the Shiloh Valley. Amishav explains why he was in… pic.twitter.com/jnZRTY7cQB

— Channel 18 Israel (@channel18israel) September 18, 2026

Friedman described Melet as “a vegan, a pacifist and a farmer,” adding, “He wants nothing more than to work the land promised to the Jewish people by God.”

“He says he harbors no hatred for the Palestinians, even though a Palestinian murdered his brother just six weeks ago,” Friedman continued.

“The Jew-haters will need to get another poster child for their ‘settler violence’ campaign. This one won’t work (neither will any other),” he concluded.

The dispute began after Huckabee traveled to Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, on September 5 to meet Palestinian Americans living in the town and listen to their accounts of violence, property damage and intimidation. During the visit, Huckabee publicly condemned violence and said those who commit attacks should face consequences.

At one point during the visit, Jewish residents drove near the area where Huckabee and the delegation were assembled. Video from the scene showed Huckabee taking out his cellphone and recording the vehicle as it passed.

According to Channel 12, people present at the gathering said Huckabee indicated that he planned to personally send the footage to President Donald Trump to show what was described to him as an effort by Jewish residents to “disrupt” the visit.

Following the visit, Huckabee wrote on X that he had traveled to Turmus Ayya “to hear disturbing stories of criminal & terrorist actions by a band of trespassers who brazenly roam through property of lawful property owners.”

At the same time, Huckabee made clear that his criticism was directed at those engaging in violence and illegal conduct, rather than Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria generally. He said he supports “Israelis living in Judea/Samaria where they have right to be,” while emphasizing his opposition to violence and lawlessness. During the visit, Huckabee also explained his preference for the biblical terminology Judea and Samaria.

After Shabbos, Melet publicly revealed that he had been behind the wheel of the security vehicle Huckabee recorded.

“Dear Mike Huckabee,” Melet wrote. “Well, that was me. I was the driver of the Ranger you filmed.”

Melet offered a sharply different account of what had brought him to the scene. He said a shepherd had alerted local residents after noticing dozens of vehicles gathering near Turmus Ayya, in an area where, according to Melet, Jewish residents had previously encountered attacks and arson.

Melet said he got into the local security Ranger to investigate what was taking place and simultaneously notified the IDF, as required under the security procedures followed by residents in the area.

“When we arrived and saw respectable people and media crews, we said hello and continued on our way,” he wrote. “Shortly afterward, the army informed us that this was a proper, coordinated visit.”

Melet insisted that neither he nor the others with him had gone there to confront Huckabee’s delegation.

“That is the entire story,” Melet added. “And yet, within minutes, we were portrayed in the media as ‘dangerous settlers.'”

Melet has also said that his brother, Bnayahu Melet, had been killed weeks earlier during a violent confrontation in Samaria, and that he himself had received threats. Those statements are Melet’s account of the events and circumstances surrounding his presence near Turmus Ayya.

Friedman’s latest comments appeared aimed not at criticizing Huckabee personally, but at questioning the information presented to the ambassador before and during the visit. By highlighting Melet’s account, Friedman argued that Huckabee may have been given an incomplete picture of why the security vehicle approached the area.

Huckabee, for his part, has continued to distinguish between Israelis living in Judea and Samaria and individuals who engage in violence or property crimes. During his Turmus Ayya appearance, he said that people who burn cars or mosques, vandalize homes or seize property should be treated as criminals and, in certain circumstances, terrorists, while reiterating his longstanding support for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

{Matzav.com}

A former Palestinian Authority cabinet minister has publicly identified himself as the mysterious intermediary who says he carried an extraordinary warning from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to Israel just weeks before the October 7 massacre — a warning that reportedly included the word “earthquake” and a threat that Sinwar was preparing a major surprise.

Dr. Sufian Abu Zaida, a former senior Fatah official and PA minister for prisoner affairs, revealed in a video posted to Facebook that he was the man previously identified only by the pseudonym “Coal Eyes” in investigative reporting about intelligence and warnings that preceded the Hamas invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

“I am ‘Coal Eyes,’” Abu Zaida said, according to Israeli media reports, confirming for the first time his role in the secret contacts that took place in the weeks before the attack. Abu Zaida said he intends to disclose additional details in the coming days about the contacts and the message Sinwar asked him to transmit.

His disclosure adds a new, named source to reporting published earlier this month by Israeli journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval concerning warnings that allegedly reached senior Israeli officials before October 7.

According to that reporting, Sinwar met privately with Abu Zaida in Gaza in September 2023, at a time when Hamas and Israel were engaged in indirect discussions over a broader arrangement concerning Gaza.

The contacts reportedly involved efforts to secure the return of four Israelis then held in Gaza — the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, along with civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed. In return, Hamas sought the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as well as steps involving the blockade of Gaza and the territory’s electricity and water infrastructure.

Those discussions apparently stalled in the weeks before October 7. Sinwar subsequently disappeared from the regular channels through which Israeli officials had been following the negotiations.

A senior Shin Bet official told Haaretz that Sinwar had “vanished from our radar, evaporated.”

But Sinwar had not disappeared entirely.

According to the investigation, he met privately with Abu Zaida and instructed him to transmit an ominous message to the Israelis.

“Tell the Israelis if they don’t advance, I’m preparing a huge surprise for them,” Sinwar was quoted as saying.

Sinwar also reportedly used the Arabic word “zilzal” — meaning “earthquake” — to characterize what was coming.

Abu Zaida, a longtime Fatah figure who speaks fluent Hebrew and had extensive contacts with Israelis, reportedly understood the message as an unusually serious threat.

But he faced a dilemma over how to pass it along.

According to the account provided by Eldar, Abu Zaida feared contacting the Shin Bet directly. He was concerned both for his personal safety and that direct contact with Israeli intelligence could expose him to accusations of collaborating with Israel.

Instead, the warning was relayed through a Palestinian contact close to the leadership of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Zaida is politically associated with the camp of Mohammed Dahlan, the former senior Fatah official who has lived in the UAE and developed close ties to its leadership.

The warning reportedly made its way to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

According to the earlier investigation, Mohammed bin Zayed subsequently spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu roughly a week and a half before October 7 and warned him that Sinwar was planning a major operation that could destabilize the region.

The UAE has not publicly confirmed the details of the alleged conversation. Asked about the reporting, the Emirates said it “does not comment on media stories or speculation regarding conversations between government leaders.”

Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, has strongly denied that the prime minister received such a warning from the UAE, making the question of what precisely reached Israel’s political leadership a matter of dispute. Abu Zaida’s newly released video identified him as the intermediary who received Sinwar’s message but, according to the Times of Israel, did not address the separate allegation concerning what Mohammed bin Zayed subsequently told Netanyahu.

There was reportedly another route by which the intelligence reached Israel.

Israeli reporting has said that information originating with the intermediary reached the Shin Bet in mid-September 2023. According to an N12 account of the investigation, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar recommended examining the possibility of preventive strikes in Gaza or substantially strengthening defenses along the Gaza border, but no operational decision followed from the discussions.

The information was also reportedly kept within a tightly restricted circle. As a result, senior IDF and Military Intelligence officials who were not privy to the intelligence could not combine Sinwar’s message with other warning signs that emerged ahead of October 7, N12 reported.

The precise meaning attributed to Sinwar’s “earthquake” warning at the time is also significant. Reporting by N12 said Israeli officials apparently misinterpreted some of the intelligence, believing it could relate to a possible transfer to Gaza of Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli-Russian researcher who had been kidnapped in Iraq, rather than an imminent large-scale Hamas assault.

Weeks later, on the morning of October 7, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel from Gaza, murdering approximately 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages in the deadliest terrorist attack in Israeli history.

Abu Zaida, 66, was born in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza and spent years as a prominent Fatah figure. He previously served as the Palestinian Authority’s minister for prisoner affairs and became well known in Israel because of his fluent Hebrew and frequent appearances in Israeli media. He is associated with Dahlan’s faction of Fatah and left Gaza for Egypt after the outbreak of the war.

His decision to reveal himself now puts a name and face to one of the more consequential claims to emerge from the continuing examination of the intelligence failures preceding October 7.

It also sharpens unresolved questions about how Sinwar’s warning was understood, who ultimately received it, and why the threat did not result in preparations sufficient to prevent the attack. Abu Zaida has said that additional details about his role in the secret contacts — including the message Sinwar personally asked him to convey to Israel — will be released in the coming days.

{Matzav.com}

Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked New York City’s 200,000th pothole repair of the year Thursday, using the milestone to promote his administration’s focus on delivering basic city services. But the celebration quickly drew criticism from political figures who accused the mayor of turning routine municipal work into a publicity event — while comparisons cited by the New York Post showed that the current pace of repairs trails a benchmark reached during Bill de Blasio’s tenure.

Mamdani joined Department of Transportation workers on Troutman Street in Bushwick, where he helped patch the pothole that City Hall designated as the 200,000th repaired in 2026. The mayor’s office said DOT crews are currently repairing roughly 3,000 potholes each week while simultaneously carrying out a major street-repaving effort.

The event gave Mamdani another opportunity to promote what his administration calls “pothole politics” — an emphasis on highly visible, everyday government services as evidence that City Hall is responding to residents’ concerns.

“Fixing the broken water fountain at the playground our kids love, upgrading the catch basin on the corner that always floods and, of course, making a bumpy road smooth again,” he said in a statement.

“That is what public service should look like.”

According to City Hall, Mamdani had previously participated in repairing the city’s 100,000th pothole in early April on Staten Island. The administration said that milestone represented the largest number of potholes repaired during the first 100 days of a year in more than a decade.

The latest appearance, however, was met with criticism from some veteran New York political figures.

Former Republican U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who earned the nickname “Senator Pothole” during his political career, had already dismissed the earlier April event when speaking to the New York Post.

Scott Stringer, the former New York City comptroller who competed against Mamdani in the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary, was similarly dismissive of Thursday’s event.

“Mamdani wouldn’t know how to fill a pothole if he fell in one,” he said.

Stringer argued that the mayor should devote greater attention to broader problems facing New Yorkers rather than staging events around individual repairs.

“Everywhere I go in this city people are bemoaning the dirty streets, the tragedy of homelessness. He’s got to figure out to do the work and not do this performative stuff. They didn’t believe under de Blasio, they won’t under Mamdani.”

The comparison with de Blasio also complicated Mamdani’s effort to highlight the 200,000-repair milestone.

De Blasio, whom Mamdani has identified as his favorite living New York City mayor, celebrated the repair of one million potholes during his first two years at City Hall. Based on the figures cited by the New York Post from contemporaneous Daily News reporting, that worked out to approximately 1,268 potholes for every day he had been in office.

By comparison, the Post calculated Mamdani’s 2026 pace at approximately 769 potholes per day. The periods are not directly identical, however: the de Blasio figure covered his first two full years in office, while Mamdani’s 200,000 figure represents repairs from January 1 through September 17 of this year.

City Hall has emphasized that pothole repairs are only one part of its street-maintenance work. The administration said DOT has paved 757 lane miles across the five boroughs so far this year, while describing repaving as the more effective long-term method of preventing potholes from developing.

Still, Thursday’s milestone offered Mamdani another chance to put his governing philosophy on display — and his critics another opportunity to argue that City Hall’s highly publicized pothole events amount to more show than substance.

{Matzav.com}

[Video and photos below.] Approximately 100,000 people gathered at the Kosel overnight for a massive and deeply moving Selichos gathering, joined by freed hostages and families of those who were murdered in Hamas captivity. The extraordinary event also connected the Kosel plaza with Hostages Square in Tel Aviv through a live broadcast, as thousands at both locations joined together in tefillah.

Rabbonim, government ministers, public officials and tens of thousands of mispallelim filled the Kosel plaza, while thousands more participated from Hostages Square. The connection between the two locations was especially poignant following the return home of the hostages after their ordeal in Gaza.

Among the freed hostages who attended were Bar Kupershtein, Matan Angrest, Rom Braslavski, Moran Stella Yanai, Agam Berger, Omer Wenkert, Nimrod Cohen and Eliya Cohen.

Also present were members of the families of Yonatan Samerano, Guy Iluz, Tamir Adar, Omer Neutra and Eliya Toledano, who were abducted on October 7 and murdered while being held by Hamas in Gaza.

The gathering opened with remarks from Mordechai “Soli” Eliav, director-general of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, who spoke about the special bond that developed between the Kosel and Hostages Square during the long period in which the hostages were being held in Gaza.

Eliav recalled that throughout the period of captivity, and particularly during last year’s Selichos gatherings, approximately 1.5 million mispallelim joined in tefillah for the hostages to return home. Now, with the hostages back, the two locations were linked live for an emotional tefillah of gratitude.

During the gathering, Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz, rov of the Kosel and the holy sites, offered a special tefillah of thanksgiving for the return of the hostages.

“Tonight, from the Kosel and Hostages Square, I want to say to You, Ribono Shel Olam: Look down from Shomayim and see how, during the most difficult time, we stood together,” Rav Rabinowitz told the enormous crowd.

Rav Rabinowitz continued by reflecting on the achdus that emerged during the long and painful period of captivity.

“We did not always agree on the path, but we all shared the worry, the tefillah and the hope,” he said. “For such a long period, the heart of all of us was held captive — until the last of the hostages returned. In the merit of this Kiddush Hashem, the brotherhood and the courage of the hostages, who sanctified Shem Shomayim in the darkest places and continue to sanctify Shem Shomayim even now — open for us the gates of Shomayim and send us a good and blessed year.”

Throughout the Selichos, the rabbonim led heartfelt tefillos for the safety of IDF soldiers and members of Israel’s security forces, for a refuah sheleimah for the wounded, and for peace, security and achdus throughout Klal Yisroel.

The massive turnout extended far beyond the Kosel plaza. With the area filled to capacity, thousands of additional mispallelim who could not enter gathered along the approaches to the Old City.

To allow the overflow crowds to participate, the Selichos were broadcast live on enormous screens erected along the walls of the Old City and at Shaar Yaffo. Thousands standing outside the Kosel area were thus able to join the tefillos together with the crowd inside the plaza.

The broadcast was arranged at the initiative of Yerushalayim Mayor Moshe Lion, together with the Yerushalayim Municipality, the Yerushalayim Development Authority and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.

Meanwhile, preparations have already been completed for the final major Selichos gathering of the year at the Kosel, which will take place this Motzoei Shabbos.

The gathering will begin at midnight with Hataras Nedarim and Hataras Klalos, followed by the recitation of Selichos.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation is urging the tens of thousands expected to attend to arrive early due to the enormous crowds anticipated and to follow the instructions of Israel Police and event personnel throughout the night.

VIDEO AND PHOTOS:

A 23-year-old Israeli tourist was killed Thursday in a paragliding accident in Colombia after the tandem paraglider he was riding in crashed into a wooded ravine. The local flight instructor accompanying him was critically injured and rushed to a hospital.

The fatal accident occurred at approximately noon in the San Félix area of Colombia’s Antioquia Department, along the Medellín-San Pedro de los Milagros road. The two-person paraglider reportedly lost control before plunging into a heavily wooded area.

According to local officials and witnesses, strong winds and difficult weather conditions were reported in the area at the time and may have contributed to the crash.

Emergency personnel, including firefighters, ambulances and rescue vehicles, were dispatched to the scene. Rescuers recovered the body of the Israeli victim and evacuated the badly injured instructor, who was reported to be in critical condition.

Colombian prosecutors opened an investigation and began collecting evidence at the crash site in an effort to determine precisely what caused the paraglider to go down.

Local authorities also inspected the paragliding company involved in the flight and reportedly found its operations to be in order. The investigation nevertheless remained ongoing as officials sought to establish the full circumstances surrounding the tragedy.

Following news of the accident, Rabbi Levi Vanunu, the Chabad shliach in the area, began working closely with the Israeli Embassy and Colombian authorities to assist with arrangements.

Rabbi Vanunu and Israeli diplomatic officials were working around the clock to expedite the necessary bureaucratic procedures and arrange for the victim’s aron to be returned to Eretz Yisroel for kevurah as soon as possible.

{Matzav.com}

A former senior official in Bashar Assad’s Syrian regime was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in federal prison for his role in the brutal torture of political prisoners, a punishment that will almost certainly keep the 74-year-old behind bars for the remainder of his life.

Samir Othman al-Sheikh, a retired Syrian brigadier general and former head of Damascus’ Adra Central Prison, is the highest-ranking Assad regime official to have been prosecuted and convicted outside Syria. A federal jury found him guilty on all six charges against him, including conspiracy to commit torture, three counts of torture, immigration-document fraud and attempting to obtain U.S. citizenship through fraud.

The federal judge in Los Angeles who imposed the sentence described al-Sheikh’s conduct as “despicable, cruel to a degree that is difficult to imagine, and so violent that there are almost no words to describe it.” Prosecutors had sought a sentence of at least 80 years, while al-Sheikh’s attorneys said they planned to appeal the conviction.

Al-Sheikh served as director of Adra Central Prison in Damascus from 2005 until 2008. The facility contained an underground punishment section known as “Wing 13,” where political prisoners and other inmates were subjected to severe abuse.

Evidence presented at trial, including testimony from former prisoners, showed that al-Sheikh ordered inmates sent to the underground section, monitored torture sessions through surveillance cameras and, on some occasions, personally participated in the abuse.

Former prisoners described being confined in filthy, freezing cells and shackled to pipes suspended from the ceiling. They testified that inmates were beaten with electrical cables and subjected to a notorious torture device known as the “flying carpet,” which folded victims’ bodies in ways that caused extreme pain and, in some cases, spinal fractures. In one incident described during the proceedings, al-Sheikh himself stepped on the device while a prisoner was restrained inside it.

Years after leaving Syria, al-Sheikh sought permission to immigrate to the United States. He applied for an immigrant visa in 2018, entered the country in March 2020 and subsequently obtained permanent-resident status.

Prosecutors said he secured that status by concealing significant portions of his past, including his position at Adra prison and his connections to Syria’s ruling Ba’ath Party.

His presence in the United States was uncovered in 2022 after a Syrian woman recognized al-Sheikh in a photograph posted on social media. She contacted Syrian human-rights activist Omar Alshogre, setting in motion the events that eventually led authorities to investigate him.

Federal agents arrested al-Sheikh in July 2024 at Los Angeles International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Beirut.

Four days after the Assad regime collapsed in December 2024, federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment adding the torture charges to the immigration-fraud case already pending against him.

The prosecution placed al-Sheikh among a very small group of defendants charged under a U.S. federal statute permitting American authorities to prosecute certain acts of torture committed outside the United States. He became only the fifth person to be prosecuted under the law.

Following the sentencing, the U.S. Justice Department said the case was intended to send a broader message to individuals accused of serious human-rights abuses around the world: perpetrators who conceal their pasts should not expect to find a safe haven in the United States.

{Matzav.com}

Former CIA Director John Brennan leveled a sweeping accusation against President Donald Trump and his administration on Thursday, claiming that what he described as corruption involving the President and his family had reached a level comparable to that of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Brennan made the comments during an appearance on MS NOW’s “Deadline,” amid renewed scrutiny of Donald Trump Jr.’s relationship with Russian businessman Umar Kremlev.

The discussion centered on recent reporting about Kremlev, the president of the International Boxing Association, who helped finance post-wedding celebrations for Trump Jr. and Bettina Trump in the Bahamas. Trump Jr. and his wife have confirmed that Kremlev hosted two nights of festivities for them, describing him as a friend and rejecting suggestions that the arrangement had improper political implications. Kremlev has ties to Putin and was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship in April.

Host Nicolle Wallace said, “If they’re not hiding a deep and intimate relationship with someone who is right now, this isn’t like an old-school Russian oligarch before the war with Ukraine started, this is someone who left Putin’s entourage to fly to Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding, what does that mean?”

Brennan responded by pointing to Kremlev’s connections with the Russian president and arguing that such a relationship would ordinarily attract scrutiny from American counterintelligence agencies.

“He clearly is very close to Putin. He was given the order of friendship, which is a very high order, two months ago and a month ago. And he traveled with Putin to China as part of his delegation. And he has publicly announced that he owes his wealth and his professional success to Vladimir Putin. So it would raise all sorts of counterintelligence flags for everybody, whether it be at the CIA or the FBI, and also at the White House. But clearly, Don Jr. didn’t really care about that. But I know that the Russians use individuals like this, again, to try to develop relationships and then to extract over time, either information or favors or whatever else. So yes, it raises so many questions.”

Reporting about the wedding festivities has said that Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for expenses associated with the Bahamas celebrations, including private-island accommodations and fireworks. Trump Jr. and his wife subsequently acknowledged Kremlev’s role, saying that he “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us after our wedding, for which we were and remain incredibly grateful.”

Kremlev’s connections to the Russian government have become a focal point of the controversy. Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship earlier this year, and Kremlev was reported to have been in China as part of a delegation accompanying Putin shortly before the wedding celebrations. Ukraine has sanctioned Kremlev, citing his ties to Putin and Russian security officials.

Trump Jr. and his wife have rejected suggestions that Kremlev’s involvement represented anything improper, characterizing the festivities as a personal gesture from a friend. Kremlev has likewise denied improper motives or political discussions in connection with his relationship with Trump Jr. President Trump has said he does not know Kremlev and did not attend the Bahamas festivities.

Brennan went considerably further during his television appearance, expanding his criticism beyond the questions surrounding Trump Jr. and Kremlev to make a broader accusation about the Trump administration and the President’s family.

“I think the extent of the corruption now that we see in this Trump administration, it’s on the scale of Vladimir Putin, it really is. I mean, it has reached such a level in terms of the wealth of the president himself as well as his family members.”

Brennan did not present evidence during the quoted portion of the interview establishing that the Trump administration’s corruption was equivalent to Putin’s government; the comparison was his characterization. His remarks came as Democratic lawmakers have called for investigations into Kremlev’s financing of the wedding-related festivities, while Trump Jr. and his wife have defended the relationship and denied that the arrangement carried the political significance their critics have attributed to it.

{Matzav.com}