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A man reportedly showed up at acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba's offices in Newark with a baseball bat Wednesday. He attempted to enter the federal building, but he was turned away by security, according to CNN.

The unidentified man returned later without the bat and was let into the building by security officers. He went to Habba's office and entered a waiting room.

One trail runner just wrapped the wildest marathon of his life ... and the finish line came courtesy of Donald Trump, who swooped in with a surprise presidential pardon after a record Grand Teton trail run somehow morphed into a federal fiasco.

Michelino Sunseri hopped on TMZ Live Thursday and reflected on the saga ... telling us how he was taking on a Grand Teton trail in Wyoming last year -- a historic path that’s been around since the '30s, leading to the 13,775-foot-high peak -- in an attempt to break the speed record ... when one switchback somehow turned him into Public Enemy No. 1, with record-keepers tattling to the feds.

Catch the clip, ’cause Michelino lays out the absurdity ... describing how there were more than 20 feds, some decked out in body armor with assault rifles, during his 2-day trial. An attorney visiting in support of his team -- a prosecutor who’s spent years going after actual murderers and rapists -- told him he’d never seen a circus like this!

Lindsey Halligan could end up having a bit more free time on her hands in the near future ... because her appointment as an acting U.S. attorney is being challenged in court.

FYI ... Halligan was appointed interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September by President Donald Trump, who handpicked her for the role, according to The New York Times.

She subsequently obtained indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James -- two of Trump's political opponents.

8:12 PM PT -- President Donald Trump late Wednesday signed a bill to reopen the federal government, officially bringing an end to the bruising 43 day shutdown ... the longest the country has ever seen.

The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history is about to come to an end.

After GOP leaders presented a federal funding bill Wednesday, the measure has now been passed by the legislative branch and now it just needs to be signed by President Donald Trump, effectively reopening the government.

Trump is likely to sign off within the hour.

The full extent of the damage caused by the shutdown is difficult to measure, but this deal comes after millions of Americans reportedly missed food assistance benefits, and many federal employees missed out on paychecks, whether they were working or not.

Disclosure may finally be coming when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein ... the House will vote next week on a resolution demanding the Dept. of Justice release the Epstein Files.

Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday he would put the bill on the floor for a full vote.

The bill is from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna ... and on Wednesday, they got the required 218 signatures needed to force a vote.

Representative Lauren Boebert is one of four Republicans demanding the Dept. of Justice release the Epstein Files ... and it's apparently ruffled a few feathers with the higher-ups in Donald Trump's administration.

The Colorado Congresswoman met with Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at the White House Wednesday morning, according to ABC News.

The meeting was reportedly organized in an effort to convince Boebert to remove her name from a House of Representatives discharge petition pushing for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who killed himself in jail in 2019.

Boebert's one of just four House Republicans who've signed the petition -- which has the full support of House Democrats -- the others are Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Nancy Mace.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Hill the Boebert meeting was set up to ensure transparency between the Trump administration and Congress.

Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury says it's clear the White House is trying to cover up Donald Trump's involvement with Jeffrey Epstein ... pointing to a specific eyebrow-raising email as evidence.

We caught up with the Democratic representative from New Mexico on "TMZ Live" Wednesday ... and, we asked her about the emails from Epstein Democrats released Wednesday morning -- including several that mention the 47th President of the United States.

Representative Stansbury says she thinks one particular email -- allegedly sent to Ghislaine Maxwell -- reads, "I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [VICTIM REDACTED] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc.  im 75 % there" -- is especially damning ... since it begs a ton of questions.

President Donald Trump is big on hospitality ... because he sprayed down Syria's president with his own cologne during a White House visit Monday.

Trump was hosting Ahmed al-Sharaa in the Oval Office and insisted on showing off his Victory 47 cologne during the meeting ... by spraying it on himself, al-Sharaa, and a translator, as seen in a video released on Wednesday.

Trump then gifted the bottle of cologne -- which retails for a cool $249, according to Trump's fragrances website -- to al-Sharaa, and told Syria's president there was another bottle of the stuff for his wife (there's also a women's perfume with the same name).

POTUS then asked al-Sharaa about how many wives he had, and when he replied he only has one wife, Trump slapped him on the shoulder and quipped, "With you guys, I never know."

Al-Sharaa appeared to take the comment in stride, and Trump made a reference to the remark later in their conversation, stating al-Sharaa only had one wife "right now."

FYI ... Trump dropped Victory 47 fragrances for both men and women earlier this year, and he wrote the scents are "all about Winning, Strength, and Success" in a Truth Social announcement.

Singer Tish Hyman got into one fiery face-off with California State Senator Scott Wiener over her viral run-in with a trans woman in a women’s locker room in L.A. that got her booted from Gold's Gym entirely ... and things got so tense, she ended up storming out Tuesday night.

Tish declared her stance is not rooted in homophobia -- reminding everyone she’s a lesbian -- as she grilled Wiener -- who’s gay and running for Nancy Pelosi’s seat -- at a San Francisco forum ... wanting to know how he plans to protect women’s safety in the wake of her experience.

Wiener said women’s safety matters across the board ... including the safety of trans women, pointing out they’re brutalized nationwide at an alarming rate and deserve protection, too.

Arizona's Congressional Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva has traveled a long road to the House of Representatives ... and she's looking to confront the guy she holds responsible for her delayed swearing-in ceremony.

Grijalva won a special election to send her to the House in September ... but her formal swearing-in ceremony was indefinitely delayed, as the House has been out of session since September 19th.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has so far delayed swearing in Grijalva. She was elected on September 23 ... the House has been out of session since Sept. 19, and Johnson has kept it shuttered through the length of the government shutdown, which began on October 1. There's no requirement for the House to be out of session during a shutdown ... in fact, it's historically unprecedented.

The Senate agreed to a budget resolution this week, sending the bill back to the House for passage, which will then go to President Trump to sign ... which will finally the end the shutdown. Grijalva is set to be sworn in Wednesday so the House can vote on the resolution.

Grijalva told CNN she's planning to confront Johnson at her swearing-in ceremony ... she said she wouldn't be able to "move on" from the whole thing without asking him about the delay. She's called the delay "unconstitutional" and "illegal."

Jeffrey Epstein and author Michael Wolff were talking about coaching Donald Trump ahead of a 2015 CNN debate -- and in newly released emails, it seems they were trying to craft a response that would not fully disclose the relationship between Epstein and Trump. The White House is pushing back, saying "These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump's historic accomplishments."

According to a December 2015 email, Wolff said to Epstein, "I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you."

Epstein wrote back, "If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?"

A group of war heroes on an honor flight from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C. got quite the surprise when they landed in our nation's capital ahead of Veterans Day ... because former president Barack Obama was waiting for them.

Obama greeted the plane when it touched down and spent time with the vets, who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

The former prez shared video of the sweet interactions on social media, saying ... "Ahead of Veterans Day, I was honored to welcome a flight of veterans and their families as they arrived in DC."

Kevin Smith says traveling by plane for work was hell during the government shutdown ... and it sounds like his flight issues have him supporting Harvey Levin's 'OWTA' campaign.

We got the legendary director at LAX on Monday and our photog asked him what it was like flying during the shutdown ... and he told us he was basically stranded in Atlanta and couldn't get to New Jersey or even Orlando by plane.

Kevin says he feels for air traffic controllers who have been working for several weeks without a paycheck and tells us he totally understands why some of them stopped showing up for work ... even if it meant lengthy delays for some of his own flights.

Kim Davis has found herself at the center of some high-profile political situations ... one of which ended up reaffirming a monumental right of LGBTQ folks across the nation.

The former Kentucky county clerk was involved with a case that almost made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We're going to take a look into Davis' background and see what happened with one of her appeals filed several years after the case involving her was decided.

Davis was born in Morehead, Kentucky, and she's spent much of her life in Rowan County, Kentucky, where she formerly served as a county clerk.

Davis' mother served as Rowan County's county clerk for 37 years, and Kim worked for her mother for 27 years, according to CNN.

Kim has been married a total of four times. She remarried her second husband, whom she divorced in 2006, in 2009, according to Newsweek. She had two children during her first marriage, and she had two more kids out of wedlock.

Kim is a steadfast Christian -- she took up the faith in 2011 after her dying mother-in-law asked her to start attending church, reports NBC News.

Davis first encountered controversy in 2015, when she refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, stating her religious beliefs prevented her from doing so ... despite the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage and made state bans unconstitutional earlier that year.

Davis was arrested for contempt of court for refusing to issue licenses months after Obergefell was decided, and she spent five days in jail. The couple in question sued Davis.

She was subsequently ordered to pay just over $360,000 in legal fees and damages to the couple, according to The Guardian.

Davis appealed a loss to the couple ... and lost her appeal to 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March this year. She then petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the case, NBC News reports. She claimed the Obergefell decision is "legal fiction," according to ABC News.

Nancy Pelosi's leaving behind a sizable political legacy, and her daughter Christine's following in her mom's footsteps -- because Christine just announced she's running for California State Senate.

Christine announced the big news in a video on her social media accounts Monday. She said she's fighting for various causes, including women's rights and protecting immigrant communities.

Christine said as "our freedoms are under attack" ... "we speak up, we fight back and we organize power for the people" if she's elected, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

California State Senator Ben Allen says Hollywood is showing signs of life again ... and he thinks Governor Gavin Newsom has a delicate act to balance.

Ben joined us on "TMZ Live" Monday, and we asked him about what a lot of folks in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles are feeling ... that Hollywood is dead because of overregulation, and other places are luring productions away from California with tax credits and incentives.

The Democrat -- who represents Santa Monica, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Torrance and other cities in L.A. County -- says the concerns are valid ... but he says a new bill he passed to increase the state's film and TV tax credit program from $350 million to $750 million is already paying off.