Two of the month's biggest news stories just combined in the weirdest way possible.
Stephen Bannon, President Trump's former chief strategist, was arrested on Thursday on fraud charges after he allegedly put money from an online fundraiser to build a wall along the southern border to personal use. More details are starting to emerge about Bannon's arrest, including the fact that, according to CBS News, he was "taken into custody by agents from the U.S. Postal Service."
This bizarre development comes amid an ongoing battle over controversial changes to the Postal Service, and the United States Postal Inspection Service, the USPS' law enforcement arm, assisted in the investigation that led to Bannon's indictment, according to CNBC.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Making things even wilder, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, Bannon was arrested by these Postal Service agents "on a boat Thursday morning off the Eastern coast of Connecticut," which he had been on "for the last several weeks" while telling people he was "at sea." The Washington Post adds that it was "someone else's 150-foot yacht" that Bannon was on when he was arrested.
But wait, there's more: according to The New York Times' Evan Hill, the indictment mentions that one of the defendants used allegedly defrauded money to buy a boat — apparently the same boat defendant Brian Kolfage used in a Fourth of July Trump boat parade.
"So the border wall, the U.S. Postal Service and Boaters for Trump (!) all seem to converge in this Bannon story," The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez writes. And you thought Avengers: Infinity War was the most ambitious crossover event in history? Think again.
-
How the clock change could impact your financesThe winter months can be more expensive but there are ways to keep your costs down
-
‘This estrangement from death has beget euphemisms’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Political cartoons for October 30Cartoons Thursday's political cartoons include missing SNAP benefits, working without pay, and Graham Platner's terrible tattoo
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
