Washington
Trump administration moves to cut $100M in federal contracts for Harvard University
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is asking federal agencies to cancel contracts with Harvard University worth about $100 million, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
The government already has canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants for the Ivy League school, which has pushed back on the administration’s demands for changes to several of its policies.
A draft letter from the General Services Administration directs agencies to review contracts with the university and seek alternate vendors. The administration is planning to send a version of the letter Tuesday, the official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
The New York Times first reported on the letter.
President Donald Trump has railed against Harvard in an intensifying clash with the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, calling it a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism.
Harvard filed a lawsuit April 21 over the administration’s calls for changes to the university’s leadership, governance and admissions policies. Since then the administration has slashed the school’s federal funding, moved to cut off enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status.
The administration has identified about 30 contracts across nine agencies to be reviewed for cancellation, according to another administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly and provided these details on the condition of anonymity. The contracts total roughly $100 million, including executive training for Department of Homeland Security officials.
Agencies with contracts that are deemed critical are being directed not to halt them immediately, but to devise a plan to transition to a different vendor other than Harvard.
The letter applies only to federal contracts with Harvard and not its remaining research grants.
Virginia
Trump to pardon former sheriff convicted on bribery charges
President Donald Trump said Monday that he is pardoning a former Virginia sheriff who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury convicted him on federal bribery charges for deputizing several businessmen in exchange for cash payments.
Former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, 53, was found guilty on fraud and bribery charges and sentenced in March. But on Monday, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that Jenkins and his family “have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.”
“This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail. He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left “monsters,” and “left for dead,” Trump said in the post. “He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”
Jenkins is the latest pardon Trump has given to loyal supporters. In April, he pardoned Nevada Republican Michele Fiore, who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.
In January, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling drugs. Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after a high-profile prosecution that highlighted the internet’s role in illegal markets.
He also pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.
Jenkins was indicted in 2023 on 16 counts — including conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery — concerning programs receiving federal funds. In December, a jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery.
Jenkins took the stand in his own defense and said there was no connection between the payments he received and the badges he handed out, according to news reports. Testifying against Jenkins were two undercover FBI agents who were sworn in as auxiliary deputies in 2022 and immediately thereafter gave Jenkins envelopes with $5,000 and $10,000 cash, respectively.
Jenkins appealed his conviction in April.
Trump said Jenkins tried to offer evidence in his defense, but U.S. District Judge Robert Ballou, a Biden appointee, “refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade.”
Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said at the time that Jenkins violated his oath of office “and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable.”
New Mexico
Movie armorer completes prison sentence in fatal ‘Rust’ shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A movie armorer convicted in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western movie “Rust” was released from a New Mexico prison on Friday after completing an 18-month sentence.
Prison records show Hannah Gutierrez-Reed signed out of the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants to return home to Bullhead City, Arizona, on parole related to her involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Halyna Hutchins in 2021.
Gutierrez-Reed also is being supervised under terms of probation after pleading guilty to a separate charge of unlawfully carrying a gun into a licensed liquor establishment.
Baldwin, the lead actor and coproducer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
A jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed of involuntary manslaughter in March 2024. Gutierrez-Reed has an appeal of the conviction pending in a higher court. Jurors acquitted her of allegations she tampered with evidence in the “Rust” investigation.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Gutierrez-Reed carried a gun into a downtown Santa Fe bar where firearms are prohibited weeks before “Rust” began filming.
The terms of parole include mental health assessments and a prohibition on firearms ownership and possession.
An involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin was dismissed at trial last year on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.
The Western was released in theaters this month.
Trump administration moves to cut $100M in federal contracts for Harvard University
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is asking federal agencies to cancel contracts with Harvard University worth about $100 million, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
The government already has canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants for the Ivy League school, which has pushed back on the administration’s demands for changes to several of its policies.
A draft letter from the General Services Administration directs agencies to review contracts with the university and seek alternate vendors. The administration is planning to send a version of the letter Tuesday, the official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
The New York Times first reported on the letter.
President Donald Trump has railed against Harvard in an intensifying clash with the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, calling it a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism.
Harvard filed a lawsuit April 21 over the administration’s calls for changes to the university’s leadership, governance and admissions policies. Since then the administration has slashed the school’s federal funding, moved to cut off enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status.
The administration has identified about 30 contracts across nine agencies to be reviewed for cancellation, according to another administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly and provided these details on the condition of anonymity. The contracts total roughly $100 million, including executive training for Department of Homeland Security officials.
Agencies with contracts that are deemed critical are being directed not to halt them immediately, but to devise a plan to transition to a different vendor other than Harvard.
The letter applies only to federal contracts with Harvard and not its remaining research grants.
Virginia
Trump to pardon former sheriff convicted on bribery charges
President Donald Trump said Monday that he is pardoning a former Virginia sheriff who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury convicted him on federal bribery charges for deputizing several businessmen in exchange for cash payments.
Former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins, 53, was found guilty on fraud and bribery charges and sentenced in March. But on Monday, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that Jenkins and his family “have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.”
“This Sheriff is a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail. He is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left “monsters,” and “left for dead,” Trump said in the post. “He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”
Jenkins is the latest pardon Trump has given to loyal supporters. In April, he pardoned Nevada Republican Michele Fiore, who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.
In January, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling drugs. Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after a high-profile prosecution that highlighted the internet’s role in illegal markets.
He also pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.
Jenkins was indicted in 2023 on 16 counts — including conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery — concerning programs receiving federal funds. In December, a jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery.
Jenkins took the stand in his own defense and said there was no connection between the payments he received and the badges he handed out, according to news reports. Testifying against Jenkins were two undercover FBI agents who were sworn in as auxiliary deputies in 2022 and immediately thereafter gave Jenkins envelopes with $5,000 and $10,000 cash, respectively.
Jenkins appealed his conviction in April.
Trump said Jenkins tried to offer evidence in his defense, but U.S. District Judge Robert Ballou, a Biden appointee, “refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade.”
Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said at the time that Jenkins violated his oath of office “and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable.”
New Mexico
Movie armorer completes prison sentence in fatal ‘Rust’ shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A movie armorer convicted in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western movie “Rust” was released from a New Mexico prison on Friday after completing an 18-month sentence.
Prison records show Hannah Gutierrez-Reed signed out of the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants to return home to Bullhead City, Arizona, on parole related to her involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Halyna Hutchins in 2021.
Gutierrez-Reed also is being supervised under terms of probation after pleading guilty to a separate charge of unlawfully carrying a gun into a licensed liquor establishment.
Baldwin, the lead actor and coproducer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
A jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed of involuntary manslaughter in March 2024. Gutierrez-Reed has an appeal of the conviction pending in a higher court. Jurors acquitted her of allegations she tampered with evidence in the “Rust” investigation.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Gutierrez-Reed carried a gun into a downtown Santa Fe bar where firearms are prohibited weeks before “Rust” began filming.
The terms of parole include mental health assessments and a prohibition on firearms ownership and possession.
An involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin was dismissed at trial last year on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.
The Western was released in theaters this month.
