The Justice Department's criminal probe of ex-spy chief John Brennan hit a big roadblock after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard withdrew the security clearances of potential witnesses who could have testified against him, four Trump administration officials tell Axios' Marc Caputo.

• Why it matters: The witnesses, officials say, are key to prosecutors' efforts to prove that Brennan inappropriately biased a bombshell 2017 intelligence assessment about Russia favoring Donald Trump, and that he allegedly lied about it to Congress in 2023.

💡 Axios' sources said there were three problems created by cancelling the security clearances:

1. It could be harder for prosecutors to discuss classified matters with the witnesses.
2. Witnesses would be less willing to cooperate out of anger with the government that besmirched their names.
3. Brennan's defense lawyers could attack their credibility by citing Gabbard's claims they had "betray[ed] their oath to the Constitution" and "abused the public trust."

The other side: A senior intelligence official disputed the notion that the case is severely damaged. The official said the witnesses could still testify even after their clearances had been revoked, which happened during the Afghanistan War Commission investigation.

• Brennan, a former CIA director, has denied wrongdoing.

🔬 Zoom in: The Brennan investigation hit a snag after Gabbard announced last month that she was revoking the security clearances of 37 "current and former intelligence professionals who have abused the public trust by politicizing and manipulating intelligence" and "leaking classified intelligence without authorization."

• Many of them were involved in the Russia probe.
• Nearly a dozen were on the witness list against Brennan — including those who objected in 2017 to putting the discredited "Steele Dossier" in the intelligence report Brennan had quarterbacked.
• That assessment said Russian President Vladimir Putin had a "clear preference" for Trump in the 2016 election.

Friction point: When Gabbard's office canceled the security clearances, it didn't give a heads-up to the Justice Department or David Metcalf, the federal prosecutor in charge of investigating Brennan.

• "Some of these people are my witnesses and this is going to make it really difficult to prosecute now," Metcalf told a senior administration official, according to a source with direct knowledge of the conversation.
• "It's a major complication ... a self-inflicted wound," a second official said. "It's an unforced error if you want to talk baseball, an own goal if you want to use soccer."

🖼️ The big picture: The controversy underscores the ongoing tension between Gabbard's office and other departments as she makes sweeping changes to the intelligence community.

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MAGA activists are demanding real-world retribution for Charlie Kirk's assassination, dragging their allies in government down a rabbit hole of online conspiracy theories, Axios' Tal Axelrod writes.

• Why it matters: MAGA is hungry for a crackdown — but its enemy is ill-defined, and its definition of success is wholly unclear. A lack of answers from the Trump administration could leave vast swathes of the base deeply disappointed.

🔎 Zoom in: MAGA influencers aren't buying the idea that Tyler Robinson, the alleged 22-year-old assassin, acted alone.

• Some believe text messages with his partner and friends — including a batch released by Utah prosecutors — were staged to clear others of culpability for supposed knowledge of the shooting beforehand.
• Others have gone further, suggesting that a network of shadowy liberal networks financed the shooting — or at least incited it. Some top Trump officials have endorsed that theory.

No evidence has emerged to suggest any of that is true.

🎨 The big picture: The Trump administration is unusually responsive to pressure from the MAGA ecosystem, with conspiracy-fueled narratives and personnel flowing freely between the movement and the government.

• As a result, theories about sprawling "leftist" networks, accomplices at the scene of Kirk's slaying in Utah, or overseas involvement are being treated as live leads — even in the absence of hard evidence.

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Jimmy Kimmel teared up during his monologue as "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" returned last night, saying of the comments about Charlie Kirk that got his show suspended:

• "It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. ... Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group ... It was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. ... But I understand that to some, that felt either ill-timed or unclear, or maybe both."
• He didn't apologize.

Kimmel added: "What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. [Cheers, applause.] I've had the opportunity to meet and spend time with comedians and talk show hosts from countries like Russia, countries in the Middle East, who told me they would get thrown in prison for making fun of those in power — and worse than being thrown in prison. They know how lucky we are here. Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country."

• "And that's something I'm embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen [Colbert] off the air [in May 2026] — and tried to coerce the affiliates, who run our show in the cities that you live in, to take my show off the air. That's not legal. That's not American. That is un-American."

Robert De Niro joined Kimmel as a split-screen guest, impersonating FCC chair Brendan Carr. The famed actor, as Carr, said the FCC had a new motto: "Sticks and stones can break your bones."

• Isn't there more to the saying, Kimmel asked, that words can never hurt you?
• "They can hurt you now," De Niro replied. (AP)

Watch the monologue (28-min. YouTube) ... Keep reading.

President Trump warned last night on Truth Social: "I think we're going to test ABC out on this. Let's see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative."

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President Trump gestures after an escalator at the UN abruptly stopped shortly after he and First Lady Melania Trump stepped onto it yesterday.

• Trump joked during his speech before the General Assembly (which started with a teleprompter malfunction): "These are the two things I got from the United Nations — a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter."

The UN said a White House videographer traveling backward at the top of the escalator may have inadvertently triggered a safety mechanism.

• Read the UN explanation ... Go deeper.

More on Trump's day at the UN: "Your countries are going to hell" ... Ukraine can "WIN."

AI is supposed to make work easier. Instead, it has generated a new problem: "workslop," Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• Why it matters: The term, coined by researchers in the latest Harvard Business Review, describes low-quality AI-generated content — memos, reports, emails — that's clogging up employees' lives and wasting their time.

Keep reading ... Get Axios AI+.

An index that measures the confidence of small-business owners surged to its highest level since 2017, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• Why it matters: The index, out today from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is somewhat surprising given that other indicators are showing the labor market is deteriorating and inflation is worsening.

📊 By the numbers: Researchers surveyed 750 small-business owners and operators who run companies with 500 or fewer people.

• The index rose to 72 in the third quarter, up from 65.2 in the previous quarter, and just slightly higher than this time last year. (A higher score indicates more positive sentiment.)
• 40% of business owners said the U.S. economy is in good health, up from last quarter (34%) and this time last year (35%).

Zoom in: Small-business owners are liking the "big, beautiful bill" passed in July, says Tom Sullivan, vice president of small-business policy at the Chamber.

• They're particularly into a 100% bonus depreciation that lets owners write off all the costs of certain investments in the year they purchase them.
• Passage of the law removed some uncertainty that had been weighing down this group's outlook.

Reality check: Rising costs are still a drag on optimism. Inflation was a top concern for the 15th consecutive quarter, with 46% saying inflation is the top challenge. That's down from a year ago, when it was at 52%.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is planning to transfer land in downtown Miami for Donald Trump's future presidential library, Axios Miami's Martin Vassolo writes.

• Why it matters: DeSantis' announcement yesterday ended months of speculation over which South Florida property would be selected for the state's first presidential library.

The 2.6-acre site — currently a parking lot owned by Miami Dade College — is one of three state college properties that were reportedly under consideration for the library.

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The number of centenarians — people aged 100 or older — in the U.S. grew by 50% from the 2010 census to the 2020 count, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes from a new U.S. Census Bureau analysis.

• Why it matters: Centenarians, one of America's fastest-growing demographics, represent a triumph of medical and scientific advancements but also have unique caretaking needs.

🧮 By the numbers: The 2020 Census counted about 80,100 centenarians, up from around 53,400 in the 2010 version.

• Hawai'i (4.4 centenarians for every 10,000 residents), Rhode Island (4.0) and South Dakota (3.9) had the highest rates of centenarians.
• Utah (1.0), Alaska (1.3) and Nevada (1.4) had the lowest.

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