President Donald Trump has directed his national security advisers that if the United States were to take military action against Iran, it should be swift, forceful, and conclusive rather than devolving into an extended conflict, according to an NBC News report published Wednesday citing a U.S. official, two individuals familiar with internal discussions, and a source close to the White House.
“If he does something, he wants it to be definitive,” one of the people familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
At the same time, advisers have been unable to guarantee that a U.S. strike would result in the rapid collapse of the Iranian regime, the U.S. official and two of the sources said. That uncertainty has weighed heavily on the internal deliberations.
Officials have also raised concerns about whether the United States currently has enough military assets positioned in the region to effectively respond to what they anticipate could be a strong and immediate retaliation from Iran, according to the report.
As a result, those dynamics could push Trump toward approving a narrower initial strike while preserving the ability to escalate later — assuming he opts to take action at all, the U.S. official and one person familiar with the discussions said.
Those sources stressed that the situation remains fluid and that as of Wednesday afternoon, no final decisions had been reached.
When asked about the President’s thinking, a White House official pointed reporters to remarks Trump made earlier Wednesday from the Oval Office.
During those comments, Trump said, “We have been notified pretty strongly that the killing in Iran is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions or an execution.”
He added, “I’ve been told that in good authority. We’ll find out about it, I’m sure. If it happens, we’ll be very upset.”
Trump said the information came from “very important sources on the other side and they said that the killing has stopped and the executions won’t take place. There were supposed to be a lot of executions today, but the executions won’t take place. We’re going to find out. I’ll find out after this, you’ll find out.”
According to the U.S. official, two individuals briefed on the talks, and one person close to the White House, Trump continues to signal that he is willing to act on his repeated pledges to Iranian protesters that the United States would intervene militarily in support of their efforts to overthrow the regime.
Addressing Trump’s overall posture, a White House official said: “All options are at President Trump’s disposal to address the situation in Iran,” adding that U.S. military actions in Iran last year and in Venezuela this month demonstrate that “he means what he says.”
{Matzav.com}
By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The first posuk in this week’s parsha states that Hashem appeared to Moshe and reminded him of how He had revealed Himself to the avos and promised them Eretz Yisroel (6:2). He told Moshe that just as He remembers His bris with the avos, so does He hear the cries of the Bnei Yisroel and will act to redeem them. Hashem instructed Moshe to tell the Jewish people that their suffering would soon end, and that He Himself would free them from the shackles of Mitzrayim.
Rashi explains that this was in direct response to Moshe’s question at the end of last week’s parsha (5:22), when he asked, “Lomahharei’osahla’amhazeh— Why have You made things worse for Your people, and why have You sent me to speak to Paroh?” Hashem’s reply reassured Moshe that His promises are unfailing, and that Moshe’s mission was part of the Divine plan to fulfill the covenant He had made with the avos.
Moshe’s mission was never random or accidental. Every step of his journey — from his hidden birth to his upbringing in Paroh’s palace, from his golus in Midyan to the moment he encountered the burning bush — was part of Hashem’s plan. Each challenge, each hardship, was preparing him to lead the Jewish people out of bondage and into freedom. As we learn the parsha, we understand that the miracles of Moshe’s life were not just extraordinary events. They were signs of the Hand of Hashgocha, guiding him, shaping him, and preparing him to fulfill the promise made to the avos.
There are times in history when the world seems poised against us, when despair feels heavier than hope, and the night stretches endlessly before the dawn. In those periods we must remember that even when life is darkest, the flame of Hashem’s Hashgocha is never extinguished. From the very first cries of our people to the promise of redemption, the story of Klal Yisroel is one of survival, resilience, and faith.
In every generation, we have faced threats that seemed insurmountable. Empires sought our destruction. Tyrants demanded our silence. Even when our backs were against the wall, our spirits flickered, small, fragile, but alive. That flicker is what Hashem sees, what He nurtures, and what He calls upon us to protect and strengthen.
And so it was at the very beginning of the story of Moshe Rabbeinu. An infant, born in the shadow of death, placed in the Nile to float between life and death, became the instrument through which Hashem would reveal to the world that no oppression is final, no darkness is eternal, and no nation, however broken, is beyond hope.
Sometimes, a single act of courage, as small as placing a child in a basket, is enough to change the course of history.
At the time that Paroh decreed that every Jewish baby boy be put to death, Moshe was born quietly, hidden from the eyes of the Mitzriyim. His mother, Yocheved, understood the danger surrounding him. Every footstep, every knock at the door, carried mortal threat. Yet, she also understood that her child was not merely another infant. He was part of Hashem’s plan. With courage and deep emunah, she placed him into a small teivah and set it upon the waters of the Nile. His sister, Miriam, watched from a distance, ready to follow the teivah wherever the currents carried it, ensuring that her brother would survive.
That basket was more than a vessel for a baby. It was a declaration of faith and courage in a world determined to snuff out hope. In the midst of cruelty, Yocheved entrusted her child to Hashem, believing that life could triumph even in the face of imminent death.
Faith – emunah and bitachon– must come before understanding.
Paroh’s daughter found the basket, heard the baby cry, and felt compassion stir in her heart. She rescued him, bringing him into the palace, where he was raised as her own. There, in the very heart of Jewish oppression, the future redeemer of Klal Yisroel grew up.
Moshe was surrounded by wealth and power, yet his soul remained tethered to his people. When he left the palace and witnessed a Mitzri striking a Jew, he intervened, refusing to remain silent. That single act forced him to flee Mitzrayim, leaving the comfort of the palace for the uncertainty of exile. He arrived in Midyan, married the daughter of Yisro, and became a shepherd, tending his father-in-law’s flocks in the vast wilderness.
From the grandeur of palaces to the stillness of desert plains, Moshe’s life seemed to have taken a bewildering turn. Yet, it was in that quiet wilderness that Hashem would reveal Himself, teaching Moshe that even the most ordinary moments can harbor extraordinary purpose.
One day, Moshe noticed a sight that captured his attention: a bush continuously burning with fire, yet not being consumed. The flames danced upon its branches, blackening them, yet the bush remained whole. Moshe did not walk by. He stopped, turned aside, and stared. He recognized that this was not an ordinary fire. Something holy was unfolding.
The Medrash teaches that just as Avrohom Avinu studied the world and concluded that it could not exist without a Creator, Moshe perceived that Hakadosh Boruch Hu was announcing His Presence. The burning bush was a message: Jewish history may be scorched, battered, and surrounded by flames, but it will never be destroyed. Even when circumstances appear hopeless, Hashem’s providence is always present, sustaining life, guiding events, and preparing redemption.
Sometimes, the smallest spark carries infinite meaning.
From that bush, Hashem spoke to Moshe and entrusted him with a mission that would shape the course of history: to return to Mitzrayim and redeem His people.
Moshe, in his humility, asked what he should tell the Jewish people when they inquired who sent him. Hashem replied, “EhkehasherEhkeh– I will be with them.” Not only at that moment, but in every suffering, every exile, and every trial that lay ahead. Hashem was telling Moshe that even when the world seems most hostile, He is present, guiding and sustaining the Jewish people.
Moshe was no longer merely a shepherd. He had become the messenger of redemption, tasked with announcing that hope exists even in the darkest of times.
One might imagine that such news would be received with overwhelming joy. A nation crushed under whips and chains would surely leap at the promise of freedom. Yet, when Moshe delivered Hashem’s message, the Torah recounts something striking: “Velo shomuel Moshe mikotzer ruach umei’avodah kasha – The people did not listen to Moshe because of shortness of spirit and crushing labor.”
They wanted to hear him. But they couldn’t. Their suffering had not only exhausted their bodies. It had crushed their souls. They were too dispirited and fragile to absorb hope. Even when salvation is imminent, the weight of despair can make it impossible to hear.
Sometimes, we must learn patience as well as hope.
This posuk teaches that suffering is not only physical. It can shrink the soul. When people are beaten down for too long, even good news sounds unreal. Even hope can feel unreachable.
This is not only history. It is the story of our time.
We live in a world of waiting. People are glued to their devices, scrolling endlessly, waiting for good news. Just over the past couple of years, we waited for the Gaza war to end. We waited for the hostages to come home. We waited for airlines to resume flights to Eretz Yisroel. We waited for a real president, for economic stability, and for interest rates to drop so we could afford homes. We waited for justice to be restored. Though at times it felt as if we were waiting in vain, our waits were answered.
And still, we wait. We wait for America to become great again. We wait for peaceful brotherhood to be restored to Eretz Yisroel. We wait for an end to the Gaza mess. We wait for a total end to the wicked leaders of Iran and the threat they represent to Israel. We wait for an end to progressive nonsense and a return to common sense. We wait for an end to the recent rash of anti-Semitic hatred.
And of course, above all, we wait for Moshiach.
We know that he will soon come and bring us what Moshe brought to the suffering people in Mitzrayim: the announcement that suffering has an end and redemption is near.
Yet, the danger of our age is not only the bad news we hear too often from within and beyond our community. The danger of our age is exhaustion. People become overwhelmed by fear, uncertainty, political instability, social hostility, and personal struggles. Instead of remaining optimistic and hopeful, too often, people become depleted mikotzer ruach. Their spiritual lungs shrink. They can no longer breathe in hope, and they cannot hear the message of redemption. Their predicament weakens them as they see no way out, no rising sun on the horizon.
Sometimes, strength must be renewed by noticing small sparks of light.
Each headline reminds us that golus is real and that safety is fragile. But even amidst fear, there are sparks of light. Even amidst darkness, Hashem’s presence is manifest.
We know that nothing happens by accident. Wars, upheavals, and economic crises are all chapters in a Divine story. The nevi’im spoke of such times, and we pray that these upheavals are the footsteps of Moshiach.
Yet, waiting is difficult when people are exhausted.
During World War I, Jewish life in Eastern Europe was decimated. Entire towns emptied. Families wandered with nothing. Yeshivos moved from place to place, surviving on crumbs. Young men were drafted into armies they would never return from.
A bochur once approached the Chofetz Chaim, broken and despairing. “Rebbe,” he cried, “ich ken nit oishalten– I can’t go on.” The Chofetz Chaim told him about Adam Harishon. On his first day in this world, when Adam saw the sun set, he thought the world was ending. He cried, believing that his sin had destroyed it all. But the next morning, he awoke and the sun rose. Adam then realized that this is how Hashem made the world. There is night, and then there is day.
The Chofetz Chaim told the boy who thought he could not hold on, that this is the way of the world. There is night, and then there is day. There is darkness, but it is always followed by light. Hold on just a little bit longer, and you will merit seeing the light.
We saw that truth after the Holocaust. Six million Jews were murdered. Communities were wiped out. Yet, from the ashes arose families, yeshivos, and flourishing Torah life. The sun rose again.
Those survivors had ruach, spirit. They believed that darkness was not the end.
The Ohr Hachaim explains that the Jews in Mitzrayim could not hear Moshe because they were not bnei Torah. Slavery had crushed them so completely that they could no longer hope or breathe freely.
We, who have been given the Torah, must not allow ourselves to become overwhelmed mikotzer ruach. When we study Torah, it connects us with Hashem and strengthens us, for we are fulfilling our purpose.
Studying Torah restores our bitachon, which allows us to widen our perspective and appreciate that the light of redemption – personal and communal – will soon shine.
That is the message of the burning bush. A Jew may be scorched, blackened, and battered, but never consumed. Within every neshomah burns a hidden flame, waiting to be ignited.
Ever since the terrible attacks of October 7th and the subsequent anti-Semitic hatred those attacks spawned, we have seen that flame awaken in Jews around the world. People who felt distant from Torah and mitzvos began feeling the pull of identity, destiny, and purpose. Pain shook something loose. Hearts opened. The fire began to burn again.
We must never give up on any Jew. And we must never give up on ourselves.
So many people suffer not only because of their difficulties, but because those difficulties erode their self-confidence. When people begin to doubt themselves, when they feel powerless against life’s trials, even small obstacles can feel insurmountable. To remain trapped in a cycle of sadness and defeatism is to prevent oneself from discovering the inner strength that Hashem has placed within every soul.
Everyone must believe in themselves – in their resilience, in their capacity to endure, and in their ability to rise above the challenges they face. A nisayon, a test or challenge, is not meant to crush us. It is meant to refine us. It calls upon us to confront adversity with courage, to grow through it, and to emerge stronger, wiser, and more faithful than before.
When we see our hardships as temporary, when we embrace them as opportunities for self-improvement and spiritual growth, we reclaim the power to shape our lives. Even the darkest moments contain sparks of potential. But if we allow despair to dominate, those sparks remain hidden and we deny ourselves the chance to overcome, to shine, and to fulfill the purpose Hashem has set before us.
Faith in oneself, combined with faith in Hashem, is what transforms challenge into triumph. It allows a person to move forward when the world feels heavy and unyielding, turning every difficulty into a steppingstone toward strength, courage, and ultimate redemption.
When despair takes hold, it can distort everything we see. We begin to view the world through a shadowed lens, noticing only failure, conflict, and loss. Every piece of news, every personal setback, and every interaction feels magnified into a threat. The economy seems hopeless, relationships appear broken, communities feel fractured, and the world itself can seem hostile and unwelcoming.
But this perspective, as powerful as it feels, is not the full truth. Even when our hearts are heavy and our minds are clouded by pessimism, there is much goodness around us. There are people willing to lend a hand, communities ready to support, and opportunities for renewal waiting to be embraced. Often, all it takes is a shift in focus, and a willingness to open our eyes and hearts, to allow that help and kindness to enter.
Despair isolates, but hope connects. It reminds us that we are not alone. Even in the depths of hardship, we can find allies, encouragement, and light. When we lift our gaze above the shadows of our own suffering, we discover that the world contains far more warmth, generosity, and potential than we could have imagined.
The moment we allow ourselves to see that truth, even a small spark of hope can grow into a flame, guiding us toward action, renewal, and the strength to rise above our challenges. It is in those moments – when faith in ourselves intersects with faith in Hashem, when hope begins to shine despite darkness – that we begin to reclaim our ruach and our capacity to change our circumstances.
Just as Moshe stood before the burning bush, unsure and humble, yet chosen to lead Klal Yisroel out of darkness into freedom, so are we called to rise above our own doubts and despair. Hashem has placed within each of us a spark, a flame of potential, a neshomah capable of strength and resilience even when the world feels overwhelming. If we embrace that spark and nurture it with emunah, bitachon, faith, courage, and action, we can overcome every nisayon, break free from every cycle of sadness, and open ourselves to the light of redemption.
Let us remember that even when the darkness feels endless, the flame of Hashem’s providence is always present. Just as Moshe was sent to bring hope to a people weighed down by suffering, each of us has the capacity to rise, to act, to believe, and to see the good that surrounds us. In doing so, we participate in the eternal story of our people, a story in which despair never has the final word and redemption always awaits.
May we be zoche to experience the ultimate redemption very soon with the coming of Moshiach.
{Matzav.com}
By Jonathan S. Tobin
The silence from the chattering classes, Hollywood elites, and university students and faculty has been deafening. The same people who have been conducting mass demonstrations and virtue-signaling about their devotion to the cause of human rights and their abhorrence of civilian casualties when it came to the war in Gaza have been largely silent about what is happening in Iran.
That isn’t because no one knows exactly what’s going on.
Despite attempts by the Islamist regime to black out the internet and halt the flow of information about events inside the country, the scale of the conflict has grown so large that it has been impossible to cover up. Some 2,500 deaths have been confirmed by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, though reports on mass killings of protesters by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have raised the potential death toll to anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000.
While the liberal mainstream media was slow to pick up the story, it can no longer downplay it. While it has had to compete with its overwraught coverage of the controversy about the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce immigration laws, the Iran protests have been the top story on The New York Times website for multiple days, and have also received extensive coverage in The Washington Post and on NPR. Even leftist human-rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been posting about it.
Apathy about Iranian victims
But the statistics about casualties and images of military forces shooting peaceful protesters in cold blood haven’t moved the audiences of these outlets in the way they normally do about another conflict in the Middle East. In fact, the same audience that turned out in the tens of thousands to protest the war in the Gaza Strip or to broadcast their identification with Palestinians has zero interest in the Iranian struggle for freedom or the many victims of the Islamist regime.
This apathy makes itself felt on a number of different levels.
No mass street protests, demonstrations or tent encampments can be found in U.S. cities or on college campuses dedicated to supporting Iranian protesters. The opinion columnists at major outlets who have been churning out articles falsely accusing Israel of “genocide” while parroting grossly inaccurate Palestinian casualty figures are mum about Iran. At the Golden Globes awards ceremony, actors and others in past years have shown off their support for the Palestinian war against Israel via lapel pins or biting words. At the event held this past weekend, the cause de jour was protests against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). Not a single person—either on stage or in the audience, as can be seen from the media coverage—was standing in solidarity with the people of Iran.
That’s not surprising.
Concern about the way the Islamist theocracy oppresses the people of Iran has never been among its priorities. Or even a subject about which they were even minimally concerned.
The question is why—given everything heard from the crowd about how terrible it is for the innocent to be killed in conflict—they have nothing to say about Tehran? They’re all very vocal about the backing of a “Free Palestine.” Not so much about a free Iran.
It’s true that not as much attention has been paid to the conflict in Iran as there has been for the two-year war in Gaza; however, a good number of Iranians have been fighting against the mullahs since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Another reason may be that the State of Israel is supported by the United States. It’s true that even when Washington was most sympathetic to Iran, and seeking to appease its government during the Barack Obama administration, and to a lesser extent, when Joe Biden was president, America didn’t formally support the government of Iran.
If anything, the fight for freedom there ought to be generating a lot more foreign support than the Palestinian cause. After all, the Palestinians have rejected compromise, peace and a two-state solution to end the Arab-Israeli conflict for nearly a century. And the recent war in Gaza wasn’t an Israeli attempt to stifle democratic protests. It was a morally justified response to a cross-border invasion by Palestinian Arabs on Oct. 7, 2023, which resulted in an orgy of mass murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and wanton destruction.
The main impetus for those rallies, however, wasn’t focused on ending ties between Washington and Jerusalem, though most of the protesters were surely in favor of that idea. Nor was the motivation for the protests simply a matter of backing a ceasefire in the fighting that followed the Oct. 7 massacre in Jewish communities in southern Israel. The ceasefire reached last October didn’t really dampen the ardor of the anti-Israel crowd. It was also not a matter of genuine sympathy for victims; if that were the case, they wouldn’t have been indifferent to the plight of Israeli hostages and would still be out advocating for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Rather, as the chants of the pro-Hamas mobs made clear, it was their support for the desire of the Palestinians to see Israel eradicated (“From the river to the sea”) and for violence against Jews wherever they lived (“Globalize the intifada”) that lured them to join the cause.
Despite their loud proclamations that the anti-Israel protests were rooted in concern about human rights—something that would surely cause them to speak out about Iran—that just doesn’t pass muster. Nobody who actually cares about human rights can support a cause that aims at the slaughter of an entire people, no matter where they live.
Racialist myths
The reason for this can partly be explained by simple ideology. The indoctrination of a generation in the toxic ideas of critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism has led many young people to believe that all conflicts are essentially about race.
As such, they have come to believe that the world is divided into two groups perpetually at war with each other: oppressed “people of color” and their “white” oppressors. In that essentially Marxist formulation, Jews are, despite their history of persecution and the persistence of antisemitism, too Western and too successful to merit sympathy, and so must be defined as “white” oppressors. That makes the Palestinians the oppressed racial minority. They believe this myth, even though Jews and Arabs are the same race, and the majority of Israelis are people of color since they trace their origins to the Middle East and North Africa.
The struggle of Iranians to end the rule of tyrannical Islamist theocrats and their terrorist henchmen is irrelevant to this framework because neither side can be identified as “white.” That makes it irrelevant at best, and at worst, a distraction from more interesting battles like the one against Israeli Jews.
It’s equally true that those influenced by these ideas also can’t identify with any struggle against a government that regards itself in conflict with the West, which the intersectional left considers to be irredeemably racist. As historian Niall Ferguson sagely pointed out in The Free Press, because the Iranian protests are an attempt at a “counterrevolution,” rather than one against a pro-Western government, they are indifferent to it. In this way, the reactionary Iranian regime—which, like Hamas, oppresses women and considers gays to be worthy of the death penalty—gets a free pass.
That’s as illogical as it is absurd since it leads people who would be hanged or thrown off rooftops in Gaza or Tehran to march with “Gays for Palestine” placards. Yet it does make sense to those who consider the West, the United States and Israel to be inherently evil, and their opponents, even when they are Islamist murderers, to be somehow sympathetic.
It’s the same reason why far larger and bloodier conflicts, such as the decade-long Syrian civil war—when hundreds of thousands died, and millions were made homeless—never motivated anyone on the left to take to the streets demanding action to stop the fighting. The same was true for what is a real genocide going on in Sudan right now.
The left and right unite in their antisemitism
Still, there’s more to it than just that stale and intellectually vapid ideological construct. The “horseshoe” effect, in which the far left and the far right unite in their antisemitism, is at play when it comes to Iran as much as it is about Gaza.
Anti-Israel extremists on both the left and right are speaking out against any help for the protest movement in Iran. The likes of journalists Max Blumenthal, Glenn Greenwald and Ali Abunimah say they oppose the protests because the demonstrators’ foreign sympathizers just want a pro-Israel government in Tehran. That misses the point. Of course, many people in the West would prefer a government that wasn’t the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. But apologists ignore the fact that one of the reasons why Iranians want to overthrow their Islamist tyrants is because the regime has squandered its country’s resources in its frenzy to build a nuclear bomb to obliterate the Jewish state. And that’s despite the fact that Israel and Iran have no real reason to be in conflict other than because of the mullahs’ antisemitic obsessions.
As seen in recent months, the obsessive hatred for Israel on the part of a certain segment of right-wing opinion also leads those who take this position to be supportive of anyone who claims to be an anti-Zionist, even if that leads them to back some of the most anti-American regimes and people in the world.
It’s no accident that former Fox News host and current podcaster Tucker Carlson has been adamant about opposing American efforts to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon or efforts on the part of the Trump administration to support anti-regime protesters. The same is true of former Trump staffer turned extremist podcaster Steve Bannon and neo-Nazi “groyper” leader Nick Fuentes.
Though these people claim to be American patriots and believers in an “America First” or “America Only” foreign policy, they oppose efforts by the Trump administration to rein in and stop a regime that has killed Americans and views the United States as the “great Satan,” regardless of its position on Israel.
The only thing that brings them into agreement with the left on Iran is the fact that the Tehran theocrats hate Israel.
There’s no way to look at this issue that doesn’t inevitably lead back to an age-old hatred.
As with other global struggles, antisemites on both ends of the political spectrum are never going to care about a conflict in which neither side is Jewish. As for Iran, its radical oppressors not only support efforts at Jewish genocide but spend enormous sums on terrorist groups and a nuclear program with which that evil objective could be accomplished—money its population never sees.
Under those circumstances, it is to be expected that the same crowd who write, rally and virtue-signal their anguish about Palestinians will be utterly indifferent to the plight of Iranian victims at the hands of Islamists. The explanation isn’t merely ideology or hypocrisy. It can be summed up on one basis: Jew-hatred.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate).
{Matzav.com}
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More than 300 official records documenting presidential pardons and sentence commutations disappeared during the Biden Administration, a lapse that is now prompting renewed questions about how one of the presidency’s most consequential authorities was administered and safeguarded, The Sun reports.
The missing materials vanished while the pardon office was overseen by Elizabeth Oyer, a senior official who later appeared before Congress, authored a New York Times opinion essay, and spoke in an interview on “60 Minutes,” all sharply criticizing the Trump Administration’s handling of clemency — the same process she had previously overseen.
Internal records obtained exclusively by the Sun describe an “internal investigation” that was “conducted into missing clemency documents, namely approximately 301 original, signed, and sealed clemency warrants (‘clemency warrants’) from the last three presidential administrations.” A source within the current administration told the Sun that although duplicate copies exist, the original signed paper warrants have never been located.
Those findings were detailed in a confidential memorandum dated November 2022, sent by Ms. Oyer to a Justice Department official, Jaclyn Paolucci. According to the memo, the probe into the vanished records “included review of pertinent emails, Teams chats, and memoranda, as well as interviews” with Department of Justice staff.
The unaccounted-for warrants precede the most controversial clemency actions of Mr. Biden’s presidency — including grants involving Hunter Biden, General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of the House January 6 Committee — issued near the end of his term. They also predate his decision to commute the sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row convicted of murder. Republicans, along with President Trump, have closely examined Mr. Biden’s reliance on an autopen to sign those later documents.
In the memorandum, Ms. Oyer explains that “the clemency warrants are the official records of presidential grants of clemency in the form of pardons and commutations. Each is on long parchment paper, bearing an official seal in gold and the original signature of the granting president.” She cites the Constitution’s provision that the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States.”
The Sun also obtained a May 2023 termination notice sent to the pardon office’s Records and Information Manager, Malawi Welles, by deputy pardon attorney Kira Gillespie. Ms. Welles was dismissed after investigators concluded she was “the last person known to be in possession of the warrants” before they disappeared.
Ms. Oyer, who assumed the role of Pardon Attorney in April 2022 — a position not subject to Senate confirmation — was herself dismissed by the Trump Administration in May 2025. She has said the firing came after she declined to recommend restoring Mel Gibson’s gun rights. Since then, she has become an outspoken critic of the 47th president, telling Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” that “all of the traditional rules and procedures pertaining to pardons have been thrown out the window. This administration appears to be working around the Justice Department rather than with the Justice Department.”
After her removal, Ms. Oyer, a longtime public defender, testified before Congress about what she described as “the ongoing corruption” within the Trump Justice Department. Mr. Gibson, whose gun rights were revoked following a domestic violence conviction later vacated, was subsequently appointed a “Hollywood Envoy” by the 47th president. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche responded by saying Ms. Oyer’s public statements constituted a “direct violation of her ethical duties.”
The internal report authored by Ms. Oyer states that clemency records “are secured through the use of safes, locked file cabinets, and/or restricted access to the space in which they are located.” She wrote, however, that “these instructions do not appear to have been followed by Ms. Welles, as the records do not appear to have ever been placed in the safe.” Investigators noted that Ms. Welles “effectively declined to provide information” during the inquiry and “does not recall ever seeing the records.”
The investigation also found gaps in staff training. Some employees were never instructed on “records maintenance systems, nor its procedures for handling, storing, and securing clemency warrants and other documents in the Executive Case File records system.” Instead, guidance was conveyed informally, on an “ad hoc basis,” only when staff were required to handle physical records.
Ms. Oyer concluded that “the clemency warrants appear to be missing because procedures and instructions for securing the documents were not followed by Ms. Welles.” She emphasized that Ms. Welles was “the designated custodian of the records” and had been told to place them in a safe, yet later claimed she had never seen them. Ms. Oyer acknowledged that “their current whereabouts are not known.”
One case highlighted in the report traces the disappearance of a specific warrant. On June 14, 2022, Ms. Welles received a commutation warrant signed by Mr. Biden for Brittany Krambeck, who had served more than 12 years of an 18-year sentence for “maintaining drug-involved premises” and was already on home confinement. Because Ms. Welles was “working from home,” the document was slid under the door” of her “locked office.
The following day, Ms. Welles asked a supervisor, “Where am I supposed to put this document? In the file?” She was instructed to “start her own filing system.” On June 16, she reported that she “created a file in [her] office for this warrant as well.” After that date, the trail for the Krambeck warrant — and for roughly 300 others after June 28 — disappears. Ms. Oyer reiterated that “at this stage, the clemency warrants appear to be missing because procedures and instructions for securing the documents were not followed by Ms. Welles.”
In her termination letter, Ms. Gillespie wrote that Ms. Welles was “the last person known to be in possession of the Warrants” and accused her of being “abjectly derelict in the performance of one of your most fundamental duties and that you failed to safeguard important and quintessential presidential clemency records.” The letter added that “no supervisor could conceivably have confidence in your ability.” Ms. Welles’ dismissal took effect on May 18, 2023.
After leaving government service, Ms. Oyer launched a Substack newsletter in May. Her opening post begins, “Hi everyone, I’m Liz Oyer — rhymes with lawyer, which is apt, because I’ve been a practicing lawyer for more than 20 years.” She ends by writing, “Now is the time to be brave and try new things. For me, that means speaking out and speaking up in ways I haven’t before.” She has also built a TikTok following of roughly 200,000 users.
{Matzav.com}
A violent confrontation between federal immigration agents and an illegal Venezuelan migrant escalated into a shooting Wednesday night in Minneapolis, after authorities say the suspect fled a traffic stop, attacked an officer, and was joined by others who assaulted the agent with makeshift weapons.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the incident began around 6:50 p.m. local time when federal immigration officers attempted to stop a vehicle driven by the suspect. The man allegedly tried to flee, but the attempt ended when his car slammed into a parked vehicle.
DHS said the suspect then ran from the scene and became involved in a physical struggle with an officer, during which he allegedly “violently assault[ed] the officer” as they grappled on the ground.
As the struggle continued, DHS said two additional individuals emerged from a nearby apartment and allegedly launched a brutal attack on the agent, striking him with a snow shovel and a broom handle.
Amid the chaos, authorities said the Venezuelan migrant managed to break free from the officer’s grip and allegedly began striking him as well.
DHS said the officer, “fearing for his life,” fired his weapon, striking the suspect in the leg.
Both the injured migrant and the federal agent were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. DHS said the two individuals accused of joining the attack were taken into custody.
Federal officials said the man at the center of the incident is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who entered the United States in 2022.
Earlier Wednesday evening, multiple sources told the Minnesota Star Tribune that a series of gunshots were heard during what appeared to be a car chase moving through parts of the Twin Cities.
KARE reported that federal agents converged near North Lyndale Avenue and 25th Avenue, close to a 21-acre park, shortly before 8 p.m. local time. A photographer at the scene observed at least one ambulance departing the area.
Later, a crowd of protesters gathered at the site of the shooting but was held back by police tape, which some in the crowd attempted to tear down, according to the Star Tribune.
The paper reported that law enforcement officers deployed chemical irritants to disperse the crowd, while protesters responded by throwing chunks of ice at federal agents.
The City of Minneapolis said in a post on X that it was “aware of reports” of a “shooting involving federal law enforcement” and was “working to confirm details.” The Minneapolis Police Department released a similar statement, saying it was “aware of reports of a shooting involving federal law enforcement in North Minneapolis” and was “working to confirm additional details.”
Wednesday’s shooting occurred just one week after Renee Nicole Good, 37, was fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross. Authorities said Good was killed after she allegedly attempted to “weaponize” her vehicle against federal agents during a protest near her Minneapolis home.
That incident took place at 34th Avenue and Portland Avenue, a location just over six miles from the scene of Wednesday night’s confrontation.
{Matzav.com}
It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of the longtime gabbai of the Gerer court, Reb Mendel Binke z”l, who was niftar at the age of 94. He passed away in Yerushalayim after a life devoted entirely to the service of the Rebbes of Ger and the Gerer kehillah.
Reb Mendel was born in the city of Kalisz, Poland, on 28 Cheshvan 5692 (1931), to his father, Reb Yehoshua Nach Binke z”l, the first gabbai of the Gerer beis medrash in Eretz Yisroel, and to his mother, Mrs. Ita Leah a”h. In 1935, while still a young child, his family immigrated to Eretz Yisroel and settled in Yerushalayim, where his lifelong bond with the Gerer court would take root and flourish.
He studied in his youth at Talmud Torah Chayei Olam, where he absorbed Torah from his rabbeim, Rav Moshe Chaim Schmerler and Rav Chaykel Militzky. Throughout his life, Reb Mendel vividly recalled the powerful and emotional days when the arrival of the Imrei Emes, the Rebbe of Ger, in Eretz Yisroel was announced, moments that left a lasting impression on him as a young talmid.
Approximately half a year before the outbreak of World War II, his father was appointed gabbai of the Gerer beis medrash in Yerushalayim, which at the time was housed within Yeshivas Sefas Emes. With the arrival of the Imrei Emes in Eretz Yisroel, the daily rhythm of the Gerer community changed dramatically, and Reb Yehoshua Nach became a central and stabilizing figure within the beis medrash.
During those years, Reb Mendel learned in Yeshivas Sefas Emes and was deeply involved in serving the needs of the Rebbe and the chassidus. He frequently entered the private room of the Imrei Emes, seeking guidance and counsel. Until his final years, he spoke with reverence and emotion about the moments he spent in the Rebbe’s presence, cherishing the Rebbe’s words, brachos, and direction.
Following the histalkus of the Imrei Emes on Shavuos 5708 (1948), and the assumption of leadership by the Beis Yisroel, Reb Mendel merited a particularly close relationship with the new Rebbe. He was shown warmth and affection and would often accompany the Rebbe during the early morning hours, receiving words of chizuk and guidance that he carried with him for the rest of his life.
In due time, Reb Mendel married Leah Skolsky, the daughter of Rav Yosef Dov Skolsky, one of the distinguished members of the kehillah. His wife, a respected mechaneches, stood at his side throughout the decades of his communal service. She passed away just last year.
For his livelihood, Reb Mendel initially worked in the welfare department and later served as a clerk in the offices of Chinuch Atzmai, all while continuing his unwavering devotion to the Gerer court.
A new chapter began in his life in 2008, following the passing of the previous gabbai, Reb Chanina Schiff, when Reb Mendel was called upon to assume the role of gabbai and meshamesh of the Gerer beis medrash. Despite his natural modesty and humility, he accepted the responsibility, standing at the helm of the beis medrash, calling mispallelim to the Torah, delivering announcements, and faithfully carrying out all the duties entrusted to him.
Reb Mendel served the current Rebbe of Gur with complete dedication and accompanied him on visits and at gatherings, remaining a trusted and familiar presence within the court.
In recent years, his strength waned, and he gradually stepped back from some of the burdens of the gabbai’s role. He endured a profound personal tragedy with the untimely passing of his beloved son-in-law, Reb Shmuel Dovid Weiss z”l, a distinguished talmid chacham who served as a rebbi at the Ner Yisroel Gerer yeshiva ketanah.
Reb Mendel leaves behind a wonderful family deeply rooted in Torah and chassidus.
Yehi zichro baruch.
{Matzav.com}
