Today in One Sentence. The Supreme Court temporarily allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to “third countries” where they have no connections; former special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stood by his decision to charge Trump and “will not be silenced” by threats of prosecution; Sen. Eric Schmitt accused Jack Smith of perjury after he confused the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team; a lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election resigned from the Justice Department’s “grand conspiracy” investigation; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the military to use “advanced intelligence and cyber capabilities to identify, disrupt, and neutralize foreign interference” in the November midterm elections; the Trump administration has spent at least $1.7 million on taxpayer-funded advertisements promoting Trump and his policies ahead of the midterms; consumer confidence fell to its lowest level since 2014; and Trump and the leaders of the largest AI companies signed a “morally binding” set of voluntary safety standards to “self-police” their AI models after Anthropic warned investors that AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” and OpenAI delayed the release of its next-generation AI model after internal tests showed it was more deceptive.

1/ The Supreme Court temporarily allowed the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to “third countries” where they have no connections. The unsigned order paused a lower-court ruling that said migrants were entitled to notice and a meaningful chance to raise fears of torture or persecution before deportation. More than 25,000 people have been deported to third countries under the policy. The justices will hear arguments in December on whether the policy is legal. (NBC News / New York Times / CBS News / Associated Press / Bloomberg / Washington Post / Reuters / Politico / NPR)

2/ Former special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stood by his decision to charge Trump and “will not be silenced” by threats of prosecution. “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Smith said. He added that he would’ve prosecuted any former president on the same facts “regardless of whether that President was a Republican or a Democrat.” Smith’s investigations led to criminal indictments against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election and his mishandling of classified documents. Both cases were dropped after Trump’s 2024 election win under Justice Department policy barring prosecution of a sitting president. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, meanwhile, called Smith’s investigation “a partisan weapon that broke the rules,” while Sen. John Kennedy told him, “You make me want to throw up in my mouth.” (ABC News / Associated Press / New York Times / Reuters / CNN / NBC News / CBS News / Washington Post / Bloomberg)

  • Sen. Eric Schmitt accused Jack Smith of perjury after he confused the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team. Schmitt, citing text messages about a basketball game, suggested that Smith must’ve secretly traveled to Atlanta in February 2024 to meet with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. “I think you’ve already perjured yourself,” Schmitt said, calling Smith a “dirtbag.” Smith, however, had attended the Iowa game in Maryland that day. (Washington Post / New York Times / CNN / Politico)

3/ A lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election resigned from the Justice Department’s “grand conspiracy” investigation. Kurt Olsen, a Trump ally and election denier, worked on the investigation into former federal officials. His departure follows the resignation of Joseph diGenova, who had been overseeing the investigation trying to establish that Obama- and Biden-era officials had engaged in a long-running criminal conspiracy Trump to keep him out of office. The investigation produced no charges. (CNN / CBS News / Washington Post / Reuters)

  • FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey resigned after just over a year on the job. His last day is Friday. Bailey helped oversee election-related investigations and was present in January when agents seized 2020 ballots from an election office in Fulton County, Georgia. The FBI, however, never produced evidence supporting Trump’s false claims that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election. (Axios / Reuters / Washington Post / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / Politico / Associated Press)

4/ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the military to use “advanced intelligence and cyber capabilities to identify, disrupt, and neutralize foreign interference” in the November midterm elections. Hegseth called protecting elections a “no-fail mission” and ordered Cyber Command to work with the Department of Homeland Security to counter “potential cyber threats from foreign actors targeting our elections.” Trump, however, cut millions in funding for civilian election security operations. (Axios / Associated Press / CNN / The Hill / ABC News)

  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved plans to cut 20% of positions reserved for generals and admirals. The military has until Jan. 1, 2027, to complete the reductions, which double the 10% overall cut Hegseth ordered last year. (Fox News / The Hill / Wall Street Journal)

5/ The Trump administration has spent at least $1.7 million on taxpayer-funded advertisements promoting Trump and his policies ahead of the midterms. The funds came from the Department of Homeland Security and Trump reportedly personally pushed for the ads and helped select the imagery and videos used. Senate Republican Leader John Thune said the ads “shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.” The White House, meanwhile, defended the ads, saying “Don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv.” (Associated Press / ABC News / Wall Street Journal / CNN / Washington Post / Bloomberg / Politico)

6/ Consumer confidence fell to its lowest level since 2014 as Americans grew more worried about prices and jobs. The Conference Board’s index dropped 6.7 points to 81.9 in September, and consumers’ expectations for the next six months also declined. For the first time in the four years, more respondents rated their personal finances bad than good. (CNBC / Bloomberg / Washington Post)

The 2026 midterms are in 35 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 770 days.

✏️ Notables.

  1. British counterterrorism police found no improvised explosive devices in three vans, the base used by the U.S. Air Force for strikes on Iran. The five men arrested on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses were released on bail without charges. (NBC News)

  2. The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act that would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption to regulate college athletes’ pay, transfers, and eligibility. The bipartisan bill would protect athletes’ right to earn money from their name, image and likeness while capping how much schools can pay them, limiting them to one transfer before sitting out a season, and setting five years of eligibility. (NPR / CNN / Axios / New York Times / Politico)

  3. Trump announced America.gov, an AI-powered chatbot and portal for federal services, and ordered agencies to integrate public-facing services within 90 days. The new website “is one more example of why I will never stifle the growth of technology,” Trump said during the event. The AI chatbot, however, initially said “official government sources” didn’t show that widespread fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 election. It later responded it couldn’t answer “political questions” when asked again. (Associated Press / Politico / Bloomberg / Washington Post / ABC News / Politico)

  4. OpenAI delayed the release of its next-generation AI model after internal tests showed it was more deceptive, willing to mislead users, and sometimes pushed ahead on tasks without asking users for permission. (Wall Street Journal / New York Times / NPR)

  5. Anthropic warned investors in its IPO prospectus that AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” and said its models could exhibit “self-preserving behaviors,” including attempts to “resist shutdown,” to “conceal or manipulate information,” and behavior “resembling blackmail.” (Reuters)

  6. Trump and the leaders of the largest AI companies signed a “morally binding” set of voluntary safety standards to “self-police” their AI models. “It’s almost like a constitution, in a way,” Trump said. (CBS News / NBC News / CNN / CNBC / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)