(WASHINGTON) — The Coast Guard and FBI are investigating after two oil tankers bound for the U.S. were hit with suspected cyberattacks last month, prompting American authorities to launch investigations into both incidents, sources told ABC News.

On Aug. 21, one of the tankers, described as a “foreign-flagged commercial vessel” was boarded by a “highly specialized team” of U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement officers, cyber protection members and an FBI cyber team in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a joint statement from both agencies.

“The measures were designed to ensure integrity of the vessel’s operational and information technology systems following indications that the vessel’s network were compromised by foreign cyber actors,” the statement said.

That vessel was in the Strait of Gibraltar when it was hacked, according to sources, and lost communication for over 30 hours. 

The joint statement said the ship’s crew members cooperated with authorities and were “critical partners in helping to ensure the threats were mitigated” and concluded: “Currently, there are no reports of operational disruptions, vessel instability, physical danger to crews, or environmental impacts.”

Sources told ABC News that another tanker that was hit by a cyberattack was boarded by U.S. officials on Aug. 24. to conduct a similar assessment. 

Authorities are investigating the possibility that Iran or another actor — seeking to exploit the ongoing conflict between Iran and U.S. — was involved in attacks, according to the sources.

“Currently, there are no reports of operational disruptions, vessel instability, physical danger to crews, or environmental impacts,” the joint statement released by the Coast Guard and FBI said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie seized the House floor for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon, launching a long-shot effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stemming from his controversial administration over the Pentagon, including the war in Iran.

After sending a news release announcing his intent to impeach Hegseth, Massie quickly appeared on the floor where he stood for more than 67 minutes reading the sweeping 34-page resolution with eight articles of impeachment aloud.

“Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States of America,” Massie read from the resolution, contending that Hegseth will “remain a threat to civilians and the laws of war, the integrity of United States diplomacy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law.”

“Peter Brian Hegseth thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States,” the resolution states.

The Pentagon responded to Massie’s move, defending Hegseth in a statement to ABC News.

“Secretary Hegseth has been a transformative leader for the Department of War,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in the statement, later adding that the “entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first.”

The articles of impeachment against Hegseth include ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties, administering an “unlawful war” in Yemen, ordering extrajudicial killings, suppressing free speech and kidnapping a sovereign leader — alluding to the U.S. capture of Nicolas Maduro early this year.

“Frankly, I was concerned that Mike Johnson would end Congress again, like shorten even our already truncated work period if he found out I was doing this. So I shared the idea with nobody,” Massie said.

Massie, a conservative who has gained a reputation as a constitutionalist through his seven terms in the House, lost a primary earlier this summer after Trump endorsed his opponent.

It’s unclear whether the vote will succeed, given Republicans’ narrow majority in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson can lose two Republican votes before a third defection upsets the majority.

Unless GOP leaders change the floor schedule again, the House must hold a vote on the resolution within two-legislative days — by Thursday, which would force Republicans to go on the record defending Hegseth ahead of the high-stakes midterm elections. GOP leaders could offer a motion to table the resolution or cancel the legislative session scheduled for Thursday to avoid the vote.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Massie explained that he introduced the articles of impeachment to place a “marker” in history on what he said was both President Donald Trump’s and Hegseth’s “illegal” conduct.

“Doing this wasn’t predicated on whether it could succeed or not; there needs to be a marker in history,” Massie said. “The president has exceeded, and Secretary Hegseth specifically, in many ways himself, and sometimes directed by illegal orders from the president, they have exceeded all norms for rules of engagement for how you use or misuse our military, to take oil from another country, to kidnap a foreign leader, like somebody needs to put a marker in history, and that’s what this is. Hopefully, it passes, and they can litigate this in the Senate.”

Massie also told ABC News he had waited until Tuesday because it presents the last possible time to force consideration of a privileged resolution Congress before the midterms.

Massie added he felt he had exhausted all other legislative ways to stymie the war in Iran as well as other foreign military interventions.

“Why today? Because Speaker Johnson has basically canceled the rest of Congress until the elections,” Massie explained. “Two days from now is the end of our session before we go on recess, and there can be a vote within two days. So I had to do it today.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security has allegedly directed hundreds of agents to attempt to access voter rolls, even if they must “misrepresent themselves” to do so, and “fabricate” evidence of voter fraud ahead of the midterm elections, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and California Sen. Alex Padilla said Monday, citing what they said was information from a whistleblower.

“A DHS whistleblower warns that the department is pulling hundreds, hundreds of federal agents from national security rolls and sending them on a wild goose chase,” Schumer said at a press conference. “The goal: to try and prove Trump’s sad, tired, and long-debunked election conspiracy theories.”

“The length Trump will go to cheat, lie, and steal in this upcoming election are simply beyond the pale,” Schumer said.

“Apparently, agents are being commanded to violate state laws to access private voter information and fabricate law enforcement records as part of DHS’s quote ‘Unlawful Voter Initiative,’” Schumer said, adding that DHS agents allegedly were “hunting for, or worse, manufacturing evidence of voter fraud claims.”

The allegations and the whistleblower claims were enumerated in a letter from Schumer and Padilla sent Sunday to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, in which the lawmakers demanded that DHS both explain the alleged actions and end them immediately.

The Department of Homeland Security has been ramping up efforts to look for voter fraud across the country through its investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), multiple sources familiar with the operation told ABC News earlier this month. The effort will include help from investigators from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the sources said.

“The Department accessed publicly available data from states’ voter rolls and cross referenced them with known aliens in our systems. It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections,” DHS said in a statement to ABC News, in response to the whistleblower allegations.

“While ICE Homeland Security Investigations is not able to comment on any active investigations, HSI is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found,” the DHS statement further said. “We have repeatedly demonstrated that aliens can and do vote in our elections. Under President Trump, HSI is committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders.”

“They’re even asking people to lie about their identities, so they can create this illegal scheme,” Schumer said Monday of DHS agents’ alleged activities. “We are weeks from the midterms. Americans should not have to fear being targeted by their own government because of how they’re registered to vote.”

Padilla also highlighted the allegation, saying Monday that the whistleblower claimed DHS agents were “ordered to misrepresent themselves to access state voter systems, systems explicitly warning that accessing another voter’s information without authorization is against the law.”

Padilla further alleged the federal government is taking this route to access voter data because states such as his have not complied with demands for them to provide those records.

“But even more troubling is that when officers have raised questions about the legality of this initiative, they’ve reportedly been told to proceed anyway and promise that they won’t be held quote personally liable,” Padilla said, citing the whistleblower claims. “That’s what’s coming from superiors in response to officers who are raising these concerns. If this effort is truly legal, then why does DHS leadership have to promise its officers that they’re not going to be held liable? That says a lot.”

Padilla alleged the Unlawful Voter Initiative is “pretext” for the Trump administration to use “manufactured evidence to intimidate voters, to disenfranchise eligible Americans, and even undermine or challenge this November’s election results.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The war with Iran has cost the United States at least $38 billion through the end of July and is expected to further push inflation higher for American households, according to a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assessment released Tuesday.

The CBO also warned that depleted weapon stocks could take a half decade or longer to rebuild, crippling the Pentagon’s ability to respond to another major conflict.

The assessment describes the financial and military consequences that will persist beyond the fighting, leaving the Pentagon with fewer weapons available for another major conflict while skyrocketing energy prices put pressure on household budgets.

The report notes that the Pentagon did not cooperate with the analysis or provide information requested by the Congressional Budget Office. The Pentagon did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the report.

The CBO serves as Congress’ scorekeeper, providing lawmakers with independent estimates of federal spending and the costs of legislation. Its reports noted it relied heavily on public information.

The budget office’s estimate covers direct costs from the U.S. and Israel launching their campaign against Iran on Feb. 28 through Aug. 1, excluding expenses related to U.S. bases devastated by Iranian bombardments.

Munitions account for most of the spending. CBO projects another $2 to $3 billion in monthly costs, but says the bill could climb during sustained fighting.

Americans will also bear what could be mounting costs adding to already inflation rates, with projections estimating the consequences of the war to add roughly a half percentage point to the inflation rate early next year, meaning the costs of goods, housing and food will continue to rise, driven largely by climbing energy prices stemming from supply disruptions in the Middle East.

Depleted weapons stockpiles

The war has significantly depleted U.S. inventories of missiles and anti-air defense weapons, leaving fewer munitions available for another major conflict.

“The shortfall would become especially problematic if a conflict arose with an opponent whose arsenal included large numbers of ballistic and cruise missiles,” the CBO said in its report.

Those concerns predate the Iran war. A congressionally mandated commission warned in 2024 that the U.S. could largely exhaust its munitions inventories within three to four weeks of a conflict with China. Some critical weapons, including anti-ship missiles, could run out within days.

“Missile defense interceptors are in short supply because they have been produced at relatively low rates; thus, DoD’s inventory of such missiles was limited,” the CBO said in its report.

A Pentagon inspector general report on Monday came to the same conclusion that the massive expenditure of munitions against Iran has “resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls,” which revealed significant issues with U.S. force’s ability to resupply, as missiles take years to build. Persistent bottlenecks include the complexity and daunting list of materials and the recruitment of skilled labor to build them.

Patriot and SM-6 interceptors, used to shoot down incoming missiles and drones, cost roughly $4 million each, according to the CBO. THAAD interceptors cost about $12 million apiece, while more advanced SM-3 interceptors can cost roughly $28 million each.

The stark warning on munitions shortages comes just days after Adm. Brad Cooper, the war’s top commander, said in an interview on CBS Sunday that he’s not concerned about munitions depletions.

“We’re armed and ready for any contingency,” he said.

President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed the Pentagon IG’s report. The administration has maintained the Pentagon can continue fighting with the arsenal it has.

Care for casualties, damage to bases will push up costs

The war’s ultimate cost is likely to be far higher once decades of veterans’ disability payments and medical care are included. More than 800 U.S. troops have been wounded, with traumatic brain injuries emerging as the conflict’s signature wound.

“Counting munitions expended while leaving veterans’ care and benefits is not a real war-cost analysis,” Rep. Mark Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee said in a statement to ABC News. “It is a bill sent to veterans and taxpayers later.”

CBO’s estimate excludes much of the costs associated with the damage to U.S. bases in the Middle East, including those in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, some of which have been devastated by Iranian bombardments. Pentagon planners have long anticipated shrinking the military’s footprint in the region to shift resources to the Pacific.

The analysis comes as Congress has not enacted funding to cover the costs of the Iran war. In July, the House passed a $95 billion budget blueprint to provide up to $60 billion for military funding. The plan would also provide up to $13 billion for intelligence costs, totaling $73 billion to cover the Iran war.

The Senate has no immediate plans to move on the budget blueprint to provide Iran war funding before the midterm elections. Historically, conflicts have had special supplemental funding as to not eat much into the military’s day-to-day operational needs in its $1 trillion budget.

ABC News was first to report that the Army has dramatically scaled down much of its training this year, partly to accommodate the enormous surprise expense of the conflict.

“Well, not before the election. No, I mean that’ll probably be a post-election push,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Tuesday.

House Budget Committee ranking Democrat Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania said the report “makes clear that the war has also cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting, while continuing to drive up costs.”

“Donald Trump and Republicans have spent years telling Americans that we cannot afford to help families here at home, but apparently they can find tens of billions of dollars, and potentially much more, for a reckless war that is leaving Americans to pay the price,” Boyle said in a statement.

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(WASHINGTON) — One month after the board of the Kennedy Center voted to add President Donald Trump’s name to the historic building, the board voted on Tuesday to immediately close the performing arts center’s main building, sources told ABC News. 

The vote came an hour after a federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center board from adding a tribute to Trump on the building or site. 

Last month, the Kennedy Center board members — who Trump last year replaced with his allies — voted to close the famed cultural institution for a two-year renovation.

Lamenting that the “drama at the Kennedy Center continues” despite a permanent injunction and laws to the contrary, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the board is engaging in “linguistic gymnastics” to place Trump’s name somewhere on the grounds. And Cooper poked holes in the argument that adding Trump’s name was necessary to secure the financial future of the center.

Judge Cooper, following a conference Tuesday morning, issued a written order blocking the attempt to add Trump’s name to the building, concluding it violated a previous court order and congressional statute. 

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted,” Cooper wrote. 

Judge Cooper previously blocked Trump from renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, but the board voted last month to add Trump’s name to the building nonetheless, in order to recognize him as the person who “renovated and restored” the iconic structure. 

“Linguistic gymnastics cannot extricate the Kennedy Center’s Board from an operative judicial order or the governing statute it was designed to enforce,” Cooper wrote in Tuesday’s ruling.

Judge Cooper’s ruling blocks the Trump administration from adding Trump’s name to the building — — along the lines of “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” — as well as renaming the site of the center “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” The judge did not decide about another proposal to say the Kennedy Center is “endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” because the money has not yet been raised for the fund. 

Cooper also pushed back on the assertion that the future of the Kennedy Center relies on Trump’s fundraising. He noted that Congress also already appropriated $257 million for the center’s renovation, and suggested that the president’s allies manufactured the Kennedy Center’s financial problems.  

“The renaming of the Center coincided with declines in revenue and contributions, as artists cancelled performances, the Washington National Opera ended its 50-year residency, and ticket sales and viewership of the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast dropped precipitously,” Cooper wrote. 

Judge Cooper also said that the Kennedy Center has failed to provide any evidence to demonstrate that “current or future donations hinge on President Trump’s name being on the building.”

“The Court may not license a violation of those authorities under threat that some unidentified donors will withhold their largesse if the Board is not allowed to have its way. It can even less reward a decision by Board members, including the Chair, to curb the Center’s fundraising efforts because they cannot abide statutory restrictions on displaying his name,” the ruling said. “Predictions of future actions by the Board in response to being told no therefore cannot concern the Court.”

The Board of Trustees was scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon, though the Trump administration overnight said the meeting would be “focused exclusively on the necessary closure” of the center, and not on additional ways to honor President Trump. Trustees were expected to vote on a measure declaring that the Kennedy Center’s main building is “unsafe for continued occupancy” and must be closed for a two-year renovation. 

Kennedy Center leadership had previously argued that adding the president’s name to the structure would be necessary to save the center from “certain fiscal collapse within weeks.”

“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” said a resolution initially scheduled to be introduced today before it was delayed for a future meeting. 

In their late-night court filing, Justice Department lawyers included an email sent to the board at 7 p.m. Monday by Kennedy Center official Joe LaFauci, indicating that a separate draft resolution proposing ten new ways to honor Trump would not be considered, and that the board “stands by” its earlier vote to recognize the president.

LaFauci in his email said the update to Tuesday’s agenda was due “to the recently exacerbated structural emergencies” at the center, the court filing said.

Late on Monday night, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick separately posted security video of a partial ceiling collapse that occurred during a rainstorm earlier this month. The video shows a chunk of debris crashing onto an empty red carpet.

“If a performance had been underway, patrons could have been killed,” Lutnick said in his post on social media. “People cannot be allowed to go into this building any longer.”

The center voted in December to add Trump’s name on the outside of the building before a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, ordered its removal in May.

The board voted 23-3 last month on a resolution to close the facility for two years as part of a $285 million renovation plan, according to a court filing. The board, members of which were largely appointed by Trump, also voted to add Trump’s name back onto the Kennedy Center building as many as two more times, according to the filing.

While Congress already appropriated $257 million for the project, the board has argued that Trump would raise another $100 million for the center.

The board as it voted last month said it would re-add Trump’s name to the building as the man who “renovated and restored” the center, adding, if a fundraising goal is hit, that it had been endowed by the “Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

But Cooper is currently weighing whether that would violate a statute prohibiting additional memorials at D.C.’s only memorial to former President John F. Kennedy. Cooper is set to hold a 10 a.m. ET scheduling conference on the future plans for the center and the board is preparing to meet privately at 12:30 p.m. ET. 

Trustees are expected to vote on Tuesday afternoon on a measure declaring the Kennedy Center’s main building “unsafe for continued occupancy,” and ordering that it be “closed to patrons forthwith.”

Cooper is also positioned to eventually decide whether the board can move forward with its latest plans to close the center, plans that have taken on new urgency following the ceiling collapse and the new claim of center officials that the entity is quickly running out of money to remain operational. 

An attorney for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who has filed a lawsuit challenging the planned closure and renaming, praised the decision not to move forward with another resolution honoring the president.

“Trump & cronies back down on HALF of the crazy,” lawyer Norm Eisen wrote on social media on Tuesday. But Eisen added that the plan to immediately close the center amounts to “foolishness” that he said Beatty’s legal team will fight.

Programming at the Kennedy Center, which normally funds its operations, effectively ended in early July. Ticket sales had reportedly been dropping off for months prior, following the board’s vote last December to rename the facility. Cooper ruled that move unlawful in May.

Despite Congress-approve funding that’s already on the table, center officials last weekend again underscored the need to honor Trump so that he might be enticed to lead additional efforts at raising money and oversee the renovation.

“The Board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the Center,” read the text of a draft resolution that is — according to LaFauci — no longer up for consideration today. 

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(WASHINGTON) — FBI Director Kash Patel is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning for an oversight hearing, the first time Patel is testifying since he clashed with lawmakers over reports of job performance issues more than four months ago.

The hearing comes after the committee’s top Democrat called on Patel to be replaced following a report published in The Atlantic in May that alleged Patel had “bouts of excessive drinking” and job performance issues.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that Patel lacks “the experience, judgment, and temperament to lead the FBI” and should be “replaced immediately.” Durbin reiterated those comments in his opening statements on Tuesday morning.

The report in The Atlantic was a focus of several lawmakers’ questions when Patel last testified on Capitol Hill in May with several heated exchanges over Patel’s drinking habits and job performance.

Patel said earlier this year that he’s “never been intoxicated on the job,” following the report. Patel sued The Atlantic over the article, demanding $250 million in damages.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Patel is expected to tout decreased crime nationwide, according to a source familiar with his testimony. President Donald Trump has frequently promoted a decrease in crime, saying on Friday that crime is “under control.”

The director will tout the increase in violent crime arrests, which are up 90%, arresting violent gang members are up 31% and he is expected to say it is the “most prolific run of crime reduction in history,” according to a source. 

The FBI says violent crime is down 9.3% from 2024 to 2025.

Patel is also expected to discuss the FBI’s efforts to thwart major terrorist incidents and highlight information sharing among law enforcement partners, according to a source familiar with his testimony.

He is expected to talk about how he has made the FBI more nimble as director, accelerating the reduction of bureaucracy of the agency.

Patel’s time at the helm of the FBI has been marked by several controversies, which lawmakers may question him about. Earlier this year, Patel joined in on Team USA hockey’s locker room celebrations in Italy shortly after the team won the gold medal, which drew scrutiny about his use of FBI resources to attend. He was also grilled during a House hearing late last year about his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

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