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As the search for fugitive Dezi Freeman hits the one-month mark, questions are growing about when police may draw “a line in the sand” and call it quits.

The suspected Porepunkah police killer, also known as Desmond Filby, has been on the run since 26 August, when he allegedly shot and killed two officers who were part of a group executing a search warrant at his residence in Victoria’s north-east.

About 450 officers have been scouring the Porepunkah area, and in early September more than 125 specialist officers conducted the country’s “largest ever tactical policing operation”, but have found no sign of the alleged shooter.

The Macquarie University criminologist Vince Hurley said it would be reasonable for the search to continue for another two months before being called off.

“The fact that they’re still out there, one would think that they either have a reasonable idea, or they’re not completely satisfied with the search,” Hurley said.

“They want to make sure that they’ve really covered everything, every possible lead, cave, everything.”

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But there would come a point when management would consider the hard decision to withdraw, the retired Victoria police detective senior sergeant Charlie Bezzina said.

Police resourcing for travel, accommodation and meals of officers redirected from other teams to Porepunkah and the cost of operating equipment would have put a huge dent in the force’s bottom line, he said.

By the time the search is completed the cost “may well be into the millions”, Bezzina estimated, causing “a major impact on the police operating budget”.

“It just cannot go on for infinitum. It has to have a line in the sand somewhere,” he said.

Hurley said there were three options: Freeman was dead, he was being assisted by members of the public, or he had escaped on his own.

Surviving by himself for that long in the wilderness would be hard, and although unlikely, it was not completely unheard of, Hurley said, citing the case of Malcolm Naden, who was captured in New South Wales in 2012.

“He was on the run for seven years,” Hurley said.

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Naden was captured after one of the biggest manhunts in NSW history. In 2013 he was imprisoned for life without parole for murdering two women.

Naden camped out in bushland around Nowendoc, and broke into nearby properties to steal food, clothing, alcohol and weapons.

In 2011, police closed in on him but Naden shot an officer from the tactical operations unit in the shoulder and escaped. He was captured a year later, hiding in a cabin west of Gloucester.

“The difference between him and Freeman is Naden had 48 hours head start on the police,” Hurley said. “The police didn’t know who they were looking for until 48 hours after he murdered the two women.”

Victoria police have offered a $1m reward and the possibility of indemnity for information leading to the capture of Freeman, the largest financial offer in the state’s history for facilitating an arrest.

Local businesses have pleaded for visitors to return to the region after travel restrictions were reduced for Porepunkah and nearby towns three weeks into the search, but Mount Buffalo national park remained closed.

Businesses that lost money during the search became eligible for $5,000 grants, as many missed out on a bumper snow season as the final stops for snow seekers en route to Mount Hotham and Falls Creek snow resorts.

The superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents on Friday, prompting shock among fellow educators.

Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Des Moines public schools (DMPS), was apprehended on Friday morning, according to the district’s board chair. “We have no confirmed information as to why Dr Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps,” said Jackie Norris in a press release on Friday. The district also named an interim superintendent.

Roberts appears to be held at the Pottawattamie county jail, about two hours west of Des Moines, according to the Ice online detainee database. The database lists Roberts’s country of birth as Guyana.

In a statement to the Guardian, DHS said that Roberts was arrested because he had “a final order of removal and no work authorization”.

“During a targeted enforcement operation on Sept 26, 2025, officers approached Roberts in his vehicle after identifying himself, but he sped away. Officers later discovered his vehicle abandoned near a wooded area. State Patrol assisted in locating the subject and he was taken into ICE custody,” the agency shared in a statement. “Roberts has existing weapon possession charges from February 5, 2020. Roberts entered the United States in 1999 on a student visa and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in May of 2024.”

Norris said a state board had granted Roberts a license to serve as superintendent in 2023 and that the district has been unable to verify Ice’s claims about his immigration status.

In a joint statement, the presidents of unions representing teachers and other school employees in Iowa said that Roberts had been a “tremendous advocate for students, families, staff, and the community” and expressed shock at his arrest.

“His leadership and compassion for all students, regardless of background, identity, or family origin, are a beacon of light in one of the state’s most diverse school districts,” said Joshua Brown, the Iowa State Education Association president, and Anne Cross, the Des Moines Education Association president, in a joint statement. “It is a dark and unsettling time in our country. This incident has created tremendous fear for DMPS students, families, and staff.”

Matt Smith, a Des Moines schools official who was appointed Friday to serve as interim superintendent, said members of the community felt “sad, outraged and helpless” after learning of Roberts’s detention.

In media interviews and biographies, Roberts has said he was raised in Brooklyn, New York, by Guyanese immigrant parents. A 2023 statement from the district announcing Roberts’s appointment said he was “born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn”. In 2023, he became the first person of color to be named to the position of superintendent in Iowa’s largest school district. He is a former Olympic athlete who competed as a middle-distance runner for Guyana in the 2000 Sydney games.

Court records in Pennsylvania show that Roberts pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a minor infraction for unlawfully possessing a loaded firearm in a vehicle, and was fined. The case stemmed from a citation in Erie county issued the prior month by a Pennsylvania game commission officer, who stopped Roberts as he was finishing a day of deer hunting on state lands.

Roberts said at the time he was a longtime licensed hunter and gun owner, and that he had left his hunting rifle on the seat of his vehicle in plain view to ensure the officer did not feel threatened during their interaction. He said that he was shocked when the officer cited him for doing so, but that he pleaded guilty to avoid any distraction. He questioned whether his dark skin may have played a role in the case.

“I may not appear to be the ‘type of man’ who would enjoy deer season in Pennsylvania, in fact, I am and have been hunting for more than 20 years,” Roberts wrote in a social media post then.

Earlier this year, after Donald Trump’s administration removed restrictions on Ice officers searching schools, churches and other sensitive locations, Roberts and the leaders of other regional school districts issued guidelines for parents and families enrolled in public schools.

In a letter to parents, Roberts said that schools would comply with warrants from immigration officers, and that agents seeking information about students would be directed to administrators.

“Everyday Des Moines Public Schools does everything we can within our legal and moral authority to support students, which is always our top priority,” he said.

The district said it was awaiting updates on Roberts’s situation. “We know you have many questions, and we will provide updates as we learn more confirmed information. We thank you and appreciate your support,” said Norris.

• This article was amended on 26 September 2025. An earlier version said Ian Roberts was born in Brooklyn, based on past interviews. However, a 2023 statement from the district says he was “born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn”.

Democratic lawmakers on Friday released documents from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein that may show interactions between the disgraced financier and prominent conservatives, including Elon Musk, Steve Bannon and Peter Thiel.

The six pages of documents made public with redactions come from a batch provided by the justice department to the House oversight committee, which is investigating how the sex-trafficking charges against Epstein, who died in 2019 in federal custody, were handled.

Copies of Epstein’s calendar released by the committee’s Democratic minority show a breakfast planned with Bannon, an influential Donald Trump ally, in February 2019. Other schedules mention a lunch with Thiel in November 2017 and a potential trip by Musk to Epstein’s private island in December 2014.

A manifest from 2000 for Epstein’s plane includes Prince Andrew, whose relationship with Epstein is well documented, while a financial disclosure the Democrats released shows Epstein paying someone listed as “Andrew” for “Massage, Exercise, Yoga” that same year.

Earlier this year, Musk accused Trump of being in the so-called “Epstein files” on social media after the tech mogul criticized Trump’s tax and spending legislation.

Then in July, Musk publicly said: “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?”

Pointing to the significance of the latest records’ release, Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for the oversight committee, said: “It should be clear to every American that Jeffrey Epstein was friends with some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world. Every new document produced provides new information as we work to bring justice for the survivors and victims.”

Meanwhile, Eric Swalwell, a Democratic representative of California, wrote on X following the records’ release, saying: “Trump OUTS @elonmusk as being in Epstein Files. Revenge for Elon outing Trump? Elon, what do you know about Trump’s involvement?”

In response to the latest release, the Republican-led committee took to X and accused Democrats of selectively deciding which records to publicize.

“This is old news. It’s sad how Democrats are conveniently withholding documents that contain the names of Democratic officials. Once again they are putting politics over victims. That’s all Robert Garcia and Oversight Dems know how to do. We are releasing them all soon,” the statement said, referring to Robert Garcia, the committee’s ranking member.

Garcia, a Democrat of California, pushed back on X, writing in a separate statement: “We don’t care how wealthy or powerful you are – or if you are a Democrat or Republican. If you are in the Epstein documents and files we are going to expose it, and bring justice for the survivors. Release ALL THE FILES NOW!”

The documents are the latest in the saga over the government’s handling of the Epstein case.

In the House, Democrats have joined with a small group of Republicans on a petition that will force a vote on legislation to compel the release of the Epstein files. The push needs 218 signatures to succeed, which it is expected to soon get after Democrat Adelita Grijalva this week won a special election to a New Mexico seat that became vacant when her father died.

However, any legislation that passes the House will also need approval by the Senate, whose Republican leaders have shown little interest in the issue. Trump, who has called the furor over Epstein a “Democrat hoax” would also need to sign the bill.

The Guardian has requested comment from Musk and Thiel.

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that 20 US soldiers who took part in the 1890 massacre of hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee will keep the Medals of Honor that were awarded to them.

The move is the latest in a number of contentious actions taken by the Trump administration to reinterpret US history.

The long debate over the events at Wounded Knee includes a dispute over its characterization as a “battle” given that, according to historical records, the US army killed about 250 Lakota Sioux people – many of whom were unarmed women and children – despite fighters in the camp having surrendered.

“We’re making it clear that [the soldiers] deserve those medals,” Hegseth said, announcing the move in a video on social media on Thursday. Calling the men “brave soldiers”, he said a review panel had concluded in a report that the medals were justly awarded. “This decision is now final, and their place in our nation’s history is no longer up for debate.”

Hegseth’s Democratic predecessor at the Pentagon, former defense secretary Lloyd Austin, ordered the review of the honors in 2024 after Congress called for it in the 2022 defense bill. Announcing the review, the Pentagon said Austin wanted to “ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation’s highest military honor”.

But in Thursday’s video, Hegseth – who has a history of Christian nationalist sympathies – said his predecessor had been “more interested in being politically correct than historically correct”. It is unclear if the report will be made public.

Hegseth’s move also halts a push from Democratic lawmakers to revoke medals tied to the massacre at a camp on what is now the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. For Native Americans, the massacre marked a devastating climax to the tragedy of Indigenous removals from their land.

“We cannot be a country that celebrates and rewards horrifying acts of violence against Native people,” senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement earlier this year after reintroducing the proposed Remove the Stain Act.

After the massacre, 19 soldiers from the seventh cavalry were awarded the Medal of Honor for their “bravery” and “gallantry” over actions ranging from rescuing fellow troops to efforts to “dislodge Sioux Indians” hiding in a ravine.

Native Americans have long pushed for revocation of the medals. As time has gone on, the isolated site has become a place of mourning for many tribes, symbolizing the genocidal history of brutality and repression they have suffered at the hands of the US government. While Congress issued a formal apology in 1990 to the descendants of the massacre, the medals were left in place and no reparations offered.

Thursday’s announcement is the latest move to sanitize the nation’s history taken by the Trump administration since Donald Trump signed an executive order in March titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”.

In recent months, Hegseth has reverted the names of several US army bases back to Confederate-linked names, monuments to the Confederacy and Confederate figures have been restored, and he renamed a US navy ship that honored gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

The Trump administration has also gone after cultural institutions like Smithsonian museums for exhibits it considers “unpatriotic”, purged and rewritten federal webpages related to topics including slavery, diversity and discrimination (some of which were later restored), and cut funding to grants to institutions that honor the lives of enslaved people.

Some historians took to social media to denounce the administration’s latest move.

“Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a ‘battle’ rather than what it truly was,” Columbia University history professor Karl Jacoby posted on Bluesky.

Jacoby added: “Fortunately, history does not work as Hegseth seems to believe. It is never “settled” and the government cannot (at least for now!) impose its interpretation of events on the rest of us.”

Donald Trump asked Rolex executives if he would have been invited to watch this month’s US Open final from the luxury watchmaker’s VIP box had he imposed steep tariffs on Swiss exports weeks earlier.

The US president’s remarks were made “in jest”, stressed Jean-Frederic Dufour, the Rolex CEO, in a letter to Elizabeth Warren, the US senator who had raised questions about the decision to invite Trump – including whether the conglomerate was seeking to “curry favor” with the administration.

Warren, a Democrat for Massachusetts, said: “Corruption is not a laughing matter.”

Trump’s 39% tariff on Swiss exports to the US – significantly higher than his 15% rate on the European Union, or 10% on the UK – threatens to pile pressure on Rolex, one of the world’s leading watch manufacturers.

Dufour claimed that the invite to Trump, and other senior figures in his administration, was part of a broader focus on “the values of sport, sportsmanship and international friendship”, rather than any “capitulation” to the US president. “Rolex is not, nor has it ever been, engaged in any negotiation with the US government regarding tariffs,” he wrote.

But Dufour described how Trump brought up the tariffs he had imposed on Switzerland, and Swiss exporters like Rolex, weeks earlier.

“President Trump, never one to miss a rhetorical opportunity, did ask in jest whether he would have been invited had it not been for the tariffs – a moment that brought a round of laughter all around and, as you can imagine, a swift return of attention to the unfolding excitement on court,” Dufour wrote.

“No substantive discussion” took place “regarding tariffs, trade policy, or any other official matter” during the US Open final, or since, he claimed.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“While families are getting crushed by Trump’s chaotic tariffs, Donald Trump and his rich friends are laughing about tariffs in a fancy box sponsored by a luxury watch brand,” said Warren. “How much more out of touch can Trump be?”

Trump was gifted “a golf sweater and a sports gilet” as “a token of appreciation for attending the event”, said Dufour.

Local TV conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group said its ABC-affiliate stations will start airing Jimmy Kimmy Live! again on Friday night, ending its preempting of the show.

Sinclair, along with fellow station owner Nexstar Media Group, continued to preempt Kimmel’s late-night talkshow even after ABC had put Kimmel back on air.

Together, Sinclair and Nexstar’s preemption of the show left about 25% of TV viewers in the US unable to watch it, with the two companies owning 70 ABC-affiliate stations combined.

The two companies are the largest owners of local TV stations in the country. Sinclair currently owns more than 185 TV stations across 85 markets, while Nexstar owns 200 stations across 116 markets.

In a statement, Sinclair said it received “thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives”.

“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience,” the firm said.

The company said that it had “ongoing and constructive discussions” with ABC where Sinclair proposed measures to strengthen accountability and viewer feedback, including having a “network-wide independent ombudsman”. ABC and Disney have not agreed to the measures, and Sinclair noted that it “respects their right to make those decisions under network affiliate agreements”.

The announcement leaves Nexstar as the only TV station owner still preempting the show.

Much of the Kimmel controversy started when Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), threatened regulatory blowback to broadcasters if Kimmel’s comments on Charlie Kirk’s killing were not addressed.

Nexstar is seeking FCC approval for a merger with Tegna, another owner of local TV stations. The merger would require the FCC to change limits on the percentage of the national audience that it reaches, which essentially caps the number of TV stations a single company can own.

Nexstar was the first to announce it would preempt Kimmel’s show, followed by Sinclair. Shortly after, ABC announced it would pause production of Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” – a hiatus that lasted almost a week, and prompted widespread criticism.

On Truth Social, Donald Trump praised ABC for taking Kimmel off the air, saying it had “the courage to do what had to be done”, before criticizing the company for reversing the decision.

“I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do,” Trump wrote on Tuesday. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars,” he said, referring to Disney’s controversial payment to Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit in December.

After ABC announced Kimmel would come back Tuesday, Nexstar said in a statement that it would continue to evaluate the status of the show.

“We are engaged in productive discussions with executives of the Walt Disney Company, with a focus on ensuring the program reflects and respects the diverse interests of the communities we serve,” it said.

In recent days, Sinclair has stressed that its decision to continue preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! “was independent of any government interaction or influence”.

“Free speech provides broadcasters with the right to exercise judgment as to the content on their local stations,” the company said, adding that it “is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding broadcasters air specific content.”

Labour has restored the party whip to the former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and the Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum, 14 months after they lost it for rebelling over the two-child benefit cap, the Guardian understands.

The pair had the whip reinstated after a conversation on Friday with Jonathan Reynolds, who became Labour’s chief whip in a reshuffle earlier this month.

The pair were among seven MPs to lose the whip in July last year for supporting an amendment to the king’s speech, tabled by the SNP, calling for an end to the cap, which has been blamed for a rise in child poverty.

Four of the other MPs suspended at the time, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Richard Burgon, had the whip restored in February.

The last of the seven, Zarah Sultana, has cut ties with the party and is attempting to launch a new leftwing party alongside Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who was re-elected at the 2024 election on an independent ticket.

Both had been hopeful of having the whip back earlier. Begum was first elected in 2019, while McDonnell has held his west London seat of Hayes and Harlington since 1997. He was shadow chancellor throughout Corbyn’s time as leader.

There are still a series of other former Labour MPs who are without the whip. In July, after a widespread rebellion over changes to welfare, Rachael Maskell, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff were told they had lost the party whip for repeatedly rebelling.

The four MPs had been openly critical of several government policies. Maskell and Duncan-Jordan spearheaded opposition to the cut to the winter fuel allowance and welfare reforms. Hinchliff organised a rebellion over the government’s planning bill, voicing concerns about its effect on nature.

Separately in July, Diane Abbott, who was shadow home secretary under Corbyn, was suspended for a second time after saying she did not regret her past remarks on racism, which had cost her the whip for a long period in the last parliament.

Abbott lost the whip then for writing that people of colour experienced racism “all their lives”, which was different from the “prejudice” experienced by Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers. She was re-suspended for telling the BBC that her comments “were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept”.

Nineteen people detained at an immigration detention center that the Trump administration opened within Louisiana’s infamous Angola prison were entering their fifth day on hunger strike on Sunday, according to advocacy groups.

Those striking at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) processing center set up at Angola’s former Camp J are demanding access to medical and mental health care – including prescription medications, according to the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition (SEDND) and the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG).

A statement from both groups says that detainees at the facility the Trump administration has dubbed “the Louisiana Lockup” are also asking for basic necessities such as toilet paper, hygiene products and clean drinking water. Further, they seek visitation from Ice officers to raise concerns about conditions inside the facility.

People with chronic health conditions are not receiving prescribed medications, according to the SEDND and NIPNLG statement, and there is no access to services such as a law library or religious programming, which are required under federal detention standards.

Angola’s official name is the Louisiana state penitentiary. The strike there comes after Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, declared a state emergency in July to address what he said is a lack of capacity to house offenders at the prison.

Advocates say that the reopening of what was formerly known as Camp J for immigration detentions and deportations has subjected detainees to unsafe and degrading conditions.

“The real emergency is what’s happening inside: people are being denied life-saving medication, and some may die as a result,” SEDND said in a statement. “These hunger strikers are bravely speaking out, risking retaliation from Camp J guards and putting their own lives on the line to ensure those around them receive the medical care they need.”

Louisiana now holds the second largest population of immigrant detainees in the country, after Texas. A small airport in Alexandria has become the nation’s leading departure point for deportation flights during Donald Trump’s second presidency.

The Louisiana state penitentiary has a history of being used for purposes beside housing state prisoners. In 2022, dozens of juvenile detainees were moved to a renovated former death row facility on the prison grounds, which led to litigation from youth advocates.

Reports from inside described abuse by guards, lack of education and extended isolation. A judge eventually ordered the youths transferred, and called the conditions at the camp “intolerable”. Camp J itself was also briefly used in 2020 to house pre-trial detainees with Covid-19.

Camp J, once notorious enough to be shut down in 2018, has now been rebranded. Beside “the Louisiana Lockup”, that particular facility is now also referred to as “Camp 57”, a homage to Landry, the state’s 57th governor. Advocates warn that what made Camp J so brutal before, including the guards’ culture of abuse, violence and desperation, still remains intact.

“The fact that Angola cannot provide even the most basic medical care and supplies is yet another reason this facility should be shut down,” said Bridget Pranzatelli of the NIPNLG.

“These false allegations about detention facilities vilify our brave Ice law enforcement,” the Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in part in a statement. “For the record: During hunger strikes, Ice continues to provide three meals a day, delivered to the detained alien’s room, and an adequate supply of drinking water or other beverages.”

Homeland security has previously published a list of more than 50 Ice detainees it said were already being held at the Angola facility and who allegedly have prior criminal convictions for serious charges.

For Donald Trump, the indictment of former FBI director and longtime foe James Comey was,“justice in America”. Legal observers and lawmakers see something far more troubling.

A former Republican appointed to lead the bureau by Barack Obama and kept on by Trump until he fired him in 2017, Comey was indicted Thursday on charges related to allegedly lying to Congress five years ago during a hearing on the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.

The charges were filed in the eastern district of Virginia only after Erik Siebert was forced out as US attorney for reportedly finding no grounds to indict Comey. The justice department replaced him with Trump loyalist with little prosecutorial experience, Lindsey Halligan, and shortly after, a grand jury indicted Comey on one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

The indictment is the latest sign that the president is making good on his promise “to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics”, said Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee.

“This kind of interference is a dangerous abuse of power. Our system depends on prosecutors making decisions based on evidence and the law, not on the personal grudges of a politician determined to settle scores,” Warner said.

Democratic senator Adam Schiff, a former federal prosecutor who played a lead role in Trump’s first impeachment, said on X he had “never witnessed such a blatant abuse of the” justice department, calling it “little more than an arm of the president’s retribution campaign”.

Mike Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union, said Trump “has yet again proven his disdain for the principles that have actually made America great”.

“By undermining the rule of law at each and every turn, threatening individuals who speak out against him, and arresting, investigating, and prosecuting elected officials of the opposition party and others who displease him, the president and his administration have corrupted our system of justice to turn his campaign of retribution into reality,” he said, adding that Trump’s public push to indict Comey amounts to “a grotesque abuse of presidential power”.

Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell, a member of the House judiciary committee, told CNN: “I promise you, when Democrats are in the majority, we are going to look at all of this, and there will be accountability, and bar licenses will be at stake in your local jurisdiction if you are corruptly indicting people where you cannot prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt on.”

Norm Eisen, executive chair of pro-democracy group Democracy Defenders Fund, warned the indictment puts “the safety of every American and our national security itself in danger. This indictment has all the hallmarks of a vindictive and meritless prosecution, worthy only of the totalitarian states the United States used to oppose.”

“This matters far beyond James Comey. It’s about every citizen’s right to live free from persecution by their own leaders. Criticizing our leaders is a fundamental right, regardless of how much our leaders don’t like it,” he said.

Trump has spent the hours since Comey’s indictment was announced insulting him on Truth Social, calling him “One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to” Thursday night and “A DIRTY COP” Friday morning.

His allies have taken up his argument, if not his tone.

“Comey demonstrated complete arrogance and unwillingness to comply with the law,” said Republican senator Ted Cruz, whose exchange with the former FBI director at a 2020 hearing is the subject of the allegations.

Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the Senate judiciary committee, said: “If the facts and the evidence support the finding that Comey lied to Congress and obstructed our work, he ought to be held accountable.”