White House says some employees were fired by mistake

Two senior officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned Tuesday amid the Trump administration ordering employees to halt much of their work, writing in emails obtained by ABC News to staff that they could no longer perform their duties amid the Trump administration's orders, with one calling them unlawful.

Eric Halperin, assistant director for the Office of Enforcement, and Lorelei Salas, assistant director for Supervision Policy, informed staff of their departures in separate emails to their teams, according to the emails.

"As you know we have been ordered to cease all work. I don't believe in these conditions I can effectively serve in my role, which is protecting American consumers.," Halperin wrote in their email to staff. "Today I made the difficult decision to resign effective today. lam deeply grateful for your service and all that we accomplished together."

-- ABC News' Elizabeth Schulze and Will Steakin

"Today, President Donald J. Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are able to announce that Mr. Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia," the White House said in a statement Tuesday.

Fogel was one of the Americans believed to be seized by Russia as a hostage in recent years to use as a bargaining chip, similar to Brittney Griner and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. But he was left behind in the broad prisoner exchange by the Biden administration last summer that freed Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, along with 22 others.

The State Department designated Fogel as "wrongfully detained" in December, clearing the path for the U.S. to negotiate for his release.

Fogel was arrested in August 2021 when he landed at a Moscow airport, and accused of trying to bring in 11 grams of marijuana and eight grams of hash oil was reportedly found in his luggage.

The 14-year sentence was extraordinarily harsh, similar to those given to Griner and other suspected hostages, suggesting he was taken as a bargaining chip.

Less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump said he "would conceivably withhold aid" from Jordan and Egypt if they don't take in Palestinians, Trump now says, "I don't have to threaten with money."

"I don't have to threaten that, I don't think. I think we're above that. I do believe we're above that," he said.

"I don't want to say that because we've had such a good relationship and we're doing so well just in the short time that we've been talking. I mean, that the King just made a statement. I didn't ask him to do that about literally saving 2000 young children from the Gaza Strip. We didn't know about that," Trump said, despite moments earlier appearing to prompt the King to make an announcement.

– ABC News' Mary Bruce

When asked to clarify his statements that all hell will break out of the Israeli hostages are not released by Saturday, President Donald Trump emphasized the health of the hostages.

"They looked like Holocaust survivors. They looked -- they I mean -- they'll get better, but they -- they're in rough shape. They were treated really badly. And we've heard things from them since."

The president also speculated that Hamas wants "time" because "they don't want to send the least healthy people out."

"I don't want to do two, and then we do another two in another week, and then we do four in three weeks. No, no," Trump said in regards to the timing of hostage releases. "They either have them out by Saturday at 12 or all bets are off."

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