Evening Wire: Bolton Surrenders & ICE’s Application Spike | 10.17.25

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John Bolton turns himself in after being indicted.

Trump takes legal action against Antifa and sparks fly during the New York mayoral debate.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley.

It's Friday, October 17th, and this is Evening Wire.

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton surrendered to federal authorities today, one day after being indicted for mishandling classified information.

Bolton faces 18 counts of unlawfully retaining and transmitting sensitive national security documents.

Prosecutors say the 76-year-old sent top-secret materials from his personal AOL account to his wife and daughter, neither of whom were cleared to receive them.

The FBI later found more classified files at his home and office.

If convicted, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison per count.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News the evidence against Bolton is damning.

I mean, this is the type of information that, if it gets out, can reveal sources and methods that represent really threatening consequences for national security.

And keep in mind that in an earlier case, a federal judge said that he could not force Bolton to bring back and destroy all of the books that he had published with this company.

But he said, you did undermine national security.

Meanwhile, John Bolton isn't the only one getting extra attention from the Trump administration.

Former special counsel Jack Smith is facing calls for investigation and disbarment after revelations he obtained phone records from Republican lawmakers.

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has the latest.

A letter led by Senator Marsha Blackburn accuses Smith and the Biden Justice Department of secretly subpoenaing cell phone logs of congressional Republicans following the 2020 election.

The lawmakers say Smith's team access call data from January 4th to 7th, 2021, part of what they call a weaponized witch hunt against Trump supporters.

The group is urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to refer Smith to the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility and to state bar panels in Tennessee and New York.

Senator Chuck Grassley called the surveillance worse than Watergate, saying it violated constitutional protections for Congress.

Smith has not commented on the allegations.

The Trump administration filed its first terrorism case against Antifa after a cell of militants shot up a Texas immigration detention center in a summer ambush.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted two alleged members of Antifa, Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evitz.

The charges providing material support for terrorism, attempting to murder federal and assisting officers, and discharging firearms during attempted murders.

Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed the charges Thursday, saying, quote, as POTUS has made clear, Antifa is a left-wing terrorist organization.

They will be prosecuted as such.

The U.S.

carried out another strike on Thursday that targeted a boat carrying suspected drug traffickers in the the Caribbean.

And multiple people survived.

Daily Wire assistant editor Andy Valdez has the details.

There were two to three survivors after the U.S.

carried out a strike targeting a big drug boat that was partially submerged underwater.

That's what an American official told Fox News after Reuters reported on the incident.

A search and rescue helicopter was sent out to the site of the strike in international waters.

This follows several other strikes on drug traffickers ordered by the Trump administration.

So far, at least 27 suspected drug traffickers have been killed in the previous strike.

The IRS could soon see a major shakeup.

Daily Wire D.C.

Bureau Chief Tim Rice has more.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a top Treasury advisor is drafting plans to overhaul the IRS's criminal investigation division.

The move could give the administration more control over probes into left-leaning groups and Democratic donors.

Officials say a list of potential targets, including billionaire George Soros, has already been compiled.

Critics warned the move could politicize the IRS and weaponize federal investigations against dissenting groups.

However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, who also serves as acting IRS commissioner, says the initiative aims to track violent domestic networks, comparing it to post-9-11 counterterrorism efforts.

New York mayoral candidates, Democrats Andrew Cuomo and Zoron Mamdani, and Republican Curtis Sliwa met on stage for the first of two general election debates on Thursday night.

Throughout the fiery two-hour affair, candidates went at each other on on policy and personally and argued with moderators over favoritism and time.

Cuomo and Sliwa focused most of their fire on frontrunner Mom Dani, who has maintained a double-digit lead in every general election poll.

The two underdogs attacked Mom Dani over his inexperience, costly social and economic policies, and passed remarks about Hamas and Israel.

Here's former New York Governor Cuomo going after Mom Dani's thin resume.

He literally has never had a job.

On his resume, it says he interned for his mother.

This is not a job for a first-timer.

And here's Sleewa on Mom Dani's relationship with New York City's Jewish community.

Jews don't trust that you are going to be there for them when they are victims of anti-Semitic attacks.

Here's Mom Dani's plan to make bus fares free across New York, a plan he proposes to pay for by raising taxes.

And I've put forward two proposals.

The first is to raise taxes on the top 1% of New Yorkers by 2%.

That would raise $4 billion.

The second is to raise the state's top corporate tax rate to match that of new jersey which would raise five billion dollars

a striking moment came when momdani refused to endorse new york governor kathy hochul for re-election after she took a political risk to endorse the democratic socialist for mayor of new york city it's a decision that should be made after this general election despite the contentious affair it seems unlikely that either cuomo or sli-wa got the big breakout moments they needed to make a difference in the race or that momdani made enough serious mistakes to put him in striking distance of his two competitors and speaking of Dani's snub of Hochul, the New York governor has fallen within striking distance of her opponent, GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, after Hochul's endorsement of Mom Dani earlier this month.

According to the Greyhouse poll conducted just after Hochul's endorsement of Mom Dani last month, Stefanik trails Hokul by only five points, 43 to 48.

A polling memo states that Hokul is in a deeply vulnerable position that could grow worse should the Democratic socialist Momdani win as New York City's mayor next month.

The poll shows that should Mom Dani win, 47% of independent voters would be less willing to vote for a Democrat for governor.

Only 9% said it would make them more likely to vote for a Democrat.

ICE is being flooded with new applicants amid President Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown.

Daily Wire senior editor Virginia Kruda has the latest.

A whopping 175,000 Americans have applied to join immigration and customs enforcement.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin revealed the updated recruitment number.

The recruitment blitz comes as the Trump administration is offering up to $50,000 in sign-on bonuses to new recruits.

The agency has also solicited former agents to return to the force, and many have joined, retired agents who have jumped at the opportunity told the Daily Wire.

With the passage of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful bill, DHS has received a flood of cash to hire 10,000 new ICE agents.

In a direct rebuke of an effort in Hollywood to isolate Israeli film institutions, Warner Brothers Discovery has become the latest major studio to reject a boycott initiative.

The company says the campaign likely conflicts with its anti-discrimination guidelines.

Daily Wire Entertainment reporter Amanda Harding has more.

The studio said in a statement, our policies prohibit discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, or ancestry.

We believe a boycott of Israeli film institutions violates our policies.

The company added that while it supports free expression, it won't endorse actions that breach either its standards or the law.

This comes in response to a boycott pledge spearheaded by Film Workers for Palestine, a group of more than 8,000 film industry figures, including actors Olivia Coleman, Mark Ruffalo, Emma Stone, and Javier Bardem.

Their goal?

to refuse to work with Israeli film festivals, broadcasters, or production entities they claim were, quote, implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.

The White House is asking colleagues to sign a new academic excellence agreement in order to get more federal funding.

Daily Wire Reporters Act Jewell reports.

A 10-point memo called the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education lays out a set of terms that the Trump administration says will improve universities' academic standards and performance.

The schools that agree to it will have opportunities to receive substantial and meaningful federal grants.

The priorities include banning all race-based DEI DEI policies, requiring SATs or other standardized tests, putting a 15% cap on how many international students are allowed to enroll for undergrad, fostering a vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus, and making sure that conservative students aren't discriminated against.

And as the political season heats up, campaign ads are taking over the airways, and one ad in Maine specifically is turning heads.

Republican Senator Susan Collins appears to have found an unexpected ally, her Democratic challenger, Governor Janet Mills.

The ad features Mills praising Collins.

I appreciate everything she is doing.

The ad is from the group One Nation and was taken from a press event on September 8th.

It frames Collins as a bipartisan problem solver in what's become a tight Senate race, one the Cook political report now calls a toss-up.

Mills, meanwhile, has clashed with President Trump over federal policies, including her refusal to bar men in women's sports.

Those are your drive-home updates this evening.

To learn more about these stories, go to DailyWire.com.

And in case you missed it this morning, we covered some major stories, including DC bracing for the no-kings protests, two legacy media outlets facing dramatic overhauls, and the largest media convention in the country uninviting two prominent conservative journalists, including one from the Daily Wire.

Thanks for tuning in.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with a weekend edition of Morning Wire.

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