NationalWatch

U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle may soon be fired amid reports she sought a six-figure credit card bailout from a Trump donor while offering access to administration officials, adding to mounting allegations over her conduct in Athens.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are “extremely pissed off” by Guilfoyle’s reported conduct and are weighing her removal, The Associated Press reported Sunday, citing a senior U.S. official.

The official told the AP that a decision on what action to take would likely come this week after Monday’s Columbus Day holiday. No departure has been confirmed.

Guilfoyle, onetime fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., came under scrutiny this week after The Wall Street Journal reported that she asked Trump donor Eric Deters to pay off a $100,000 American Express bill shortly before her Senate confirmation hearing.

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According to messages reviewed by the Journal, Guilfoyle urged Deters to wire the money directly to American Express, saying the transaction would not leave a paper trail, while offering to help him gain access to senior Trump administration officials. Deters said he never made the payment.

Guilfoyle’s attorney, Jesse Binnall, disputed the authenticity of the messages.

The allegations followed an earlier Journal investigation into Guilfoyle’s conduct in Greece, including claims that she promoted the interests of Greek construction and energy company Aktor Group and allowed its registered lobbyist, Christos Marafatsos, to accompany her to private diplomatic meetings with senior officials.

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The Journal also reported that Guilfoyle suggested at a dinner with Greek officials that the U.S. would undermine their government, citing political developments in Romania. Greece’s foreign minister has since said there was no need to summon Guilfoyle for an explanation because the country’s energy minister denied that any threat had been made.

Separately, the State Department‘s Office of Inspector General opened an investigation into allegations involving Guilfoyle’s treatment of embassy employees, private travel, acceptance of gifts and relationships with business interests, according to a report from the Daily Mail.

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Sources described a hostile workplace in which Guilfoyle allegedly threatened to fire employees. They also claim that she demoted members of her security detail over minor incidents, including an officer who reportedly failed to answer a 4 a.m. request for ice while she was vacationing in Mykonos.

The inspector general’s office declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. Binnall told the Daily Mail that “any implication of wrongdoing by the Ambassador is unsupported.”

The allegations have drawn scrutiny from congressional Democrats, including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., who have called for a review of Guilfoyle’s conduct. Meeks urged her removal if the allegations were substantiated.

Vice President JD Vance addressed the controversy Friday, cautioning against rushing to judgment while acknowledging that misconduct should carry consequences.

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“Let’s actually see what the facts are. Let’s see what the truth is,” Vance told reporters in Ohio. “And obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences for it.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who visited Greece this week and delivered remarks with the backdrop of Acropolis, declined to address the allegations directly.

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“You guys walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel,” Rubio told reporters Thursday.

Rubio had defended Guilfoyle’s performance a day earlier, saying, “Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here.”

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Trump nominated Guilfoyle to the diplomatic post in December 2024. A former California prosecutor and Fox News Channel personality, she previously served as a prominent surrogate and fundraiser for the president.

DONALD TRUMP JR AND BETTINA ANDERSON CELEBRATE PRIVATE WEDDING IN BAHAMAS, SHARE SWEET PERSONAL PHOTO

Guilfoyle was almost Trump’s daughter-in-law. She was engaged to Don Jr. for four years, but the two publicly split in Dec. 2024 — the same month the president nominated her to be the ambassador to Greece.

The president’s eldest son married Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson in May of this year.

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She was also previously married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, from 2001 to 2006, when he was serving as mayor of San Francisco.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is coordinating with federal agencies to monitor travelers entering the United States from Siberia amid concerns about a possible pneumonic plague outbreak in Russia, the agency’s director revealed Wednesday.

CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz said the Trump administration is working across multiple agencies to identify travelers arriving from the region following the mysterious death of a Russian laboratory worker, while emphasizing that the risk to Americans remains minimal.

“We are very confident that the threat to the United States is extremely low,” Schwartz said during a Wall Street Journal health forum Wednesday.

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The concerns stem from the Oct. 2 death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia, whose death has fueled speculation about a possible pneumonic plague infection.

Russian authorities have maintained that Shipilova died from pneumonia of unknown origin and have not confirmed that she was infected with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes pneumonic plague.

Schwartz said the CDC is working with the departments of Homeland Security, State and War, among other federal agencies, to track potential arrivals from the region.

“There are about 200 flights that come into the United States from Siberia, that region,” Schwartz said, adding that those flights typically arrive at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

“We have a port health station set up in JFK so that we can do appropriate surveillance and screening if anyone from that area comes into the United States,” she continued.

The CDC director stressed that while pneumonic plague is a serious bacterial infection capable of spreading between people through respiratory droplets, early detection and treatment can prevent deaths.

TRUMP RESPONDS TO CONCERNS OVER SUSPECTED PLAGUE CASE IN RUSSIA, SAYING US ‘WILLING TO HELP’

“The one good thing, if I could say there’s a good thing, is that it’s a treatable, highly treatable bacterial disease with common antibiotics that most physicians within the United States can utilize,” Schwartz said.

The illness is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is considered the most serious form of plague, according to the CDC. Symptoms can include fever, chest pain, coughing and rapidly developing pneumonia. Without prompt antibiotic treatment, the infection can be fatal, the agency warns.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has pressed Moscow for additional information about Shipilova’s death.

Russian authorities placed approximately 200 people who had contact with the deceased laboratory worker under quarantine, according to Euronews. On Thursday, Irkutsk Gov. Igor Kobzev said preventive measures had been completed and roughly 5,000 laboratory tests had detected no pathogens, according to the Associated Press.

RUSSIAN RESEARCHER’S MYSTERY DEATH COULD BE ‘FAR WORSE’ THAN THE PLAGUE, FORMER SENIOR TRUMP OFFICIAL WARNS

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However, Russian officials have not publicly identified the pathogen responsible for Shipilova’s pneumonia or definitively ruled out pneumonic plague as the cause of her death, according to The Associated Press.

Asked whether Moscow was being sufficiently transparent with American authorities, Schwartz indicated that the administration was still seeking answers.

“We are still having those conversations about what exactly happened in Siberia,” she said, adding that U.S. officials were working with information about an unconfirmed case of pneumonic plague.

The FlyDubai attempted hijacking shows the U.S. and its allies are still using outdated counterterrorism assumptions against increasingly sophisticated enemies, a U.S. rescue expert and 9/11 first responder warns.

“They’re good at chess,” Bryan Stern, chairman and CEO of Grey Bull Rescue, told Fox News Digital on Monday, saying the radical ideology behind the FlyDubai attack is a ringing “bell” for global aviation security and Western counterterrorism strategy.

“And we’re, if we’re lucky, playing checkers – if we’re lucky – and I would argue we’re not even playing checkers that well.”

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Stern, whose global nonprofit conducts evacuations from war zones and hostage situations, said the thwarted FlyDubai attack by “an angry, radicalized, Sunni bad guy” is showing just how far behind our enemies we are in this post-9/11 world.

“They understand us significantly more than we understand them,” Stern, who has been “hunting the bad guys” for 30 years, said. Stern said the U.S. has to understand the “asymmetric warfare” as well as the increasingly sophisticated enemy does.

“The reason why a football coach watches game tapes is not to watch his own team play, it’s to watch the bad guys play,” he said. “We gotta start watching some game tapes.”

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Stern is intimately in tune with the playbook on the ground in war zones, including the Middle East and Iran.

“We conduct these operations in these places still to this very day,” he said. “We’re actually on the ground, meaning I know people in Hezbollah, I know people in the Taliban. I know people in ISIS. I know people in ISIS-K. I’ve met with radical jihadi weirdos and whack jobs personally.”

United Arab Emirates investigators have described the incident aboard FlyDubai flight FZ1073 as an attempted terror attack after the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain and tried to hijack the plane, which was carrying more than 170 passengers and crew, most of them Israelis. Australian authorities have also said a counterterrorism unit is investigating the co-pilot’s links to Australia.

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“The bad guys are completely not afraid. They’re completely emboldened. They have got the whole world to hate Israel, the whole world to hate us,” he said. “It’s a tough problem.”

Since the incident, there has been renewed vigilance in aviation and foreign airline security. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his national security council to review security procedures for foreign civil aviation to Israel, while Vice President JD Vance said Monday that flight security procedures are also under review in the U.S.

IRAN COULD MOVE SHADOW WAR IN A DANGEROUS DIRECTION, EXPERTS WARN ON BACK OF TWO POSSIBLE TERROR ATTACKS

“I was asked years ago when I was still with the government,” Stern said. “A team was put together and the question before the court was, if you were al-Qaeda, what would you do?”

“What I came up with was … I would get 19 hijackers, and I would hijack four airplanes, and I would fly them into buildings in America, and then issue a communique that said: 20 years of war, you are no safer today than you were before – that for TSA, and Homeland Security, and Iraq, and Afghanistan and all the different things, you are actually no safer, America, today than you were before,” he said.

“We’re seeing, sadly,” he lamented, “that academic hypothetical situation has now become a reality, or certainly a possibility.”

Despite President Donald Trump and the War Department’s best efforts to rid the world of terrorist groups – and Iran of nuclear weapons aspirations – “you can’t bomb your way into peace,” Stern claimed.

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“They have been in holy war against us,” he added. “We have now engaged in a holy war against them.”

“On Ramadan, the holiest month of the year in Islam, on the first day, which is the holiest day, we detonated the leader of the Shia faith, the Ayatollah,” he said, likening it to “if somebody assassinated the pope on Easter Sunday while he’s giving mass at the Vatican.”

Stern explained that rooting out ideological terror in the U.S. is more complex than ever, because even if the border is not open any longer under Trump, the terrorist networks might be infiltrating America with U.S. passport holders – making them tough to investigate, if not impossible to spot before an attack.

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Stern likened it to the release of the suspects in the RAF Fairford investigation – potential terrorist passport holders walking free.

“Until I actually squeeze the triggers, I haven’t committed a crime yet,” he said. “Now give me an airplane.”

“That’s the problem.”

Stern noted that the nature of America’s adversaries in the current conflict is unlike what the U.S. faced in places like Afghanistan.

“We need to remember we are very used to shooting people like the Taliban who don’t know what plumbing is – who literally for years lived in caves until we showed up and gave them stuff,” he continued. “The bad guys that we’re talking about today are extremely sophisticated. They are extremely resourced, extremely resourceful. They’re very intelligent, they’re very smart, and they’re very good at what they do.”

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“The Persian Empire is the only empire of empires who have been all the way on top and all the way defeated at the bottom – six times,” he said. “They’re looking at us going, you’re 250 years old. How adorable. You’re cute, America.”

Stern predicted that some day even 9/11 — which he survived as a first responder — is ultimately going to be dwarfed.

“What will happen, probably is we’ll get attacked – just like 9/11, we’ll get attacked,” he said. “We’ll say, ‘Oh my God, how did this happen?’ People will wake up.”

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“I promise you there will come a time, it will be, you know, June 26 or whatever, where we’re gonna read about 9/11, and we’re gonna say, ‘Wow, that wasn’t so bad, only 3,000 died,'” he warned.

“Why? Because we have created a holy war. We have now gotten into the crazy. And you cannot unring that bell.”

Minnesota’s Republican Party chairman is accusing protesters of racial intimidation after demonstrators disrupted a GOP dinner and displayed a sign invoking the Ku Klux Klan while the state’s first Black female House speaker addressed the crowd.

Minnesota GOP Chair Alex Plechash blasted the demonstrators in a statement after Friday night’s Lincoln Reagan Dinner in Eagan, where protesters held a sign reading “RepubliKKKan Party” during remarks by House Speaker and Republican gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth.

“Last night, radical protesters stormed the stage at our Lincoln Reagan Dinner and held up a KKK symbol while Speaker Lisa Demuth spoke,” Plechash said in a statement posted to X by the Republican Party of Minnesota.

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“Let’s be clear about what happened. Left leaning protesters aimed a symbol of racial terror at a Black woman leader, at a dinner named for the president who ended slavery,” he continued.

Sunrise Movement Twin Cities, a progressive activist organization, claimed responsibility for the disruption and said the demonstration was intended to protest Republican policies it believes harm immigrants and marginalized communities, according to local news station KTSP.

“We disrupted this fundraiser because we refuse to give a moment’s peace to the people bankrolling racial violence,” the group said in a statement cited by the outlet.

The organization also said it was not affiliated with Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).

Video of the incident shows demonstrators moving toward the front of the room holding signs, including one with the letters “KKK” highlighted in red, according to outlet.

One protester could be heard shouting, “You love Trump and you will not stand up for Minnesotans,” as Demuth stood on stage holding a microphone.

As security escorted the demonstrators away, attendees began chanting, “Lisa,” followed by chants of, “USA.”

Plechash told the outlet that protesters gained access to the dinner by purchasing tickets and passing through security checkpoints.

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The chairman said the event experienced two disruptions, the first during remarks by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michele Tafoya and the second while Demuth was speaking.

Plechash said roughly three or four protesters pushed toward the front of the room carrying banners during Demuth’s remarks. He estimated the disruption lasted about 30 seconds and said he did not believe the demonstrators posed a physical threat.

Plechash said in his X post that Eagan police issued trespass orders and that potential charges remained under investigation.

The GOP chairman also called out Minnesota Democrats, specifically naming the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

“Intimidation, criminal behavior, and racist rhetoric have no place in Minnesota politics,” Plechash wrote.

“Republicans debate ideas, and we’d welcome the DFL to show up and do the same,” he added. “Every hour they stay silent says something. Their silence is deafening.”

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Demuth, who won Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary in August, will face off against Klobuchar, the Democratic nominee, in November’s election to succeed Gov. Tim Walz.

President Donald Trump announced an immediate energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, saying both countries have agreed to halt attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure after weeks of escalating tensions over strikes on oil refineries and power plants.

“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The announcement comes as Trump has intensified pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian oil refineries, arguing that the attacks have disrupted global diesel supplies and contributed to higher fuel prices for American consumers.

The issue has become increasingly urgent as diesel prices weigh on American farmers, truckers and businesses that rely on the fuel to transport goods and operate heavy equipment.

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Trump has repeatedly criticized Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy facilities, even as Kyiv maintains that targeting Moscow’s oil industry is a legitimate strategy to weaken Russia’s ability to finance its war.

The announcement follows a contentious week in U.S.-Ukraine relations after Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow Russian diesel exports to reach American and global markets.

Under the agreement announced Friday, Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, with additional shipments expected in November and beyond. The Treasury Department also authorized temporary sanctions relief to facilitate Russian diesel supplies.

Trump argued that the agreement would help bring down fuel prices, while Zelenskyy criticized the decision as a concession to Moscow that could provide additional revenue for Russia’s war effort.

The dispute escalated Saturday when Trump suggested Ukraine should replace Zelenskyy with a leader more willing to negotiate an end to the war.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” Trump told reporters.

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Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has maintained that Ukraine would be willing to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries if Moscow agreed to stop targeting Ukrainian power plants and other critical infrastructure.

The two countries have increasingly targeted each other’s energy systems throughout the war, although the consequences have differed.

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid have left civilians facing electricity disruptions and damaged infrastructure needed to heat homes and sustain businesses. Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, meanwhile, have disrupted fuel production and exports, putting additional pressure on global energy markets.

The Trump administration has spent weeks attempting to negotiate a reciprocal halt to energy attacks as part of broader diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war.

In September, Trump similarly announced that both countries had agreed to an energy ceasefire, although Moscow did not publicly confirm the agreement and attacks continued.

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The latest announcement raises the possibility of renewed diplomatic progress, but an energy ceasefire would not amount to a comprehensive agreement to end the fighting.

It was not immediately clear how the agreement would be monitored or enforced. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Congress is scrambling to stop one of the United States’ most iconic industries from fleeing overseas and taking thousands of jobs along with it.

The U.S. TV and film industry has been hemorrhaging work for years as production companies and movie studios flee to places like Europe and Canada for friendlier tax regimes and other attractive financial policies. It prompted President Donald Trump to publicly call on Congress to pass legislation aimed at incentivizing entertainment studios to bring their production back home — and an unlikely alliance of lawmakers is heeding the call.

A new bill that could potentially end up in a bipartisan tax package at the end of this year would push film and TV studios to bring their productions back to the U.S. via new tax incentives, with extra support if they choose to bring development to rural communities.

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“Since I was a child, I was moved and inspired by the stories of America’s greatness, by living out the American dream, and by the notion that I could do and achieve anything in this world, if I set my mind to it, and most of that was driven by a whole lot of American-made movies,” Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “I want this next generation to be inspired the same way, and I do not want American storytelling to go overseas, to be diluted by values from overseas.”

Moran’s East Texas congressional district is largely rural and a far cry from the Sunset Strip that was home to much of America’s filmmaking history.

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He’s one of the House lawmakers leading the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, a bill aimed at bringing film and TV jobs back to the U.S. by creating a federal tax credit for domestic productions. It would further incentivize studios to film in rural areas with added financial benefits in areas deemed to be federal opportunity zones.

“This bill is extremely important to send a message that American storytelling does not just happen in California or New York. It happens all over America, including rural America,” Moran said.

The bill is notably led in the Senate by Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a top Trump foe, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., one of the president’s biggest supporters in the chamber.

Moran’s House colleagues who are helping to spearhead the bill include Reps. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, Brian Jack, R-Ga., Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.

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Suozzi told Fox News Digital that his home state was “watching good-paying jobs and production move overseas,” adding, “We can’t let that happen.”

“Democrats and Republicans agree we need to keep these jobs here,” Suozzi said.

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But some, particularly on the right, might bristle at the prospect of awarding more lenient tax policies to an industry they perceive as having a longtime liberal bias — something Moran pushed back on.

Moran said his state, for example, was home to “conservative,” “faith-based,” and “patriotic” entertainment production that was also creating jobs and stimulating local economies.

“So I would say to those that are challenging this, I would say, well, do you want to see the stories and the movies and the TV productions that we watch go overseas, and be influenced by the culture and the values of other countries, somewhere else that do not love freedom like we do in America?” he posed.

But the end of this congressional term is fast approaching, and getting anything passed after the November election will be an uphill battle.

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“I feel confident that there will be some kind of bipartisan tax package during the lame-duck session, and my hope would be that this, or a version of this bill, makes it into the final text,” Moran said.

Edward Coristine, the former DOGE engineer better known as “Big Balls,” is now helping build the Trump administration’s new digital front door to the federal government — an effort aimed at giving Americans one place to navigate information and, eventually, complete services now spread across thousands of government websites.

“I think that the fact that there’s 29,000 government websites is pretty insane,” Coristine told Fox News Digital in a sit-down interview. “And it is the citizens’ objective to have to go figure out which government website they’re supposed to use for each specific thing.”

Coristine — better known around Washington by his attention-grabbing “Big Balls” nickname — sat down with Fox News Digital at the White House to talk about his new role helping build America.gov, what he learned during his time at DOGE, the administration’s plans to make more government services fully digital, his experience being attacked in Washington, and how the nickname that helped make him famous actually came from his dad.

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Coristine is now working with the National Design Studio on the administration’s revamped America.gov, which launched Sept. 29 as an AI-powered single point of entry for information drawn from thousands of government websites. President Donald Trump singled out Coristine during the launch, identifying him as the project’s lead engineer and thanking him for his work.

Coristine said his time at DOGE gave him a firsthand look at the frustration Americans face when trying to navigate federal services and helped shape what he is working on now.

“I think we got a lot of feedback that the American government is hard to interact with because you have to navigate the maze of bureaucratic services,” Coristine said.

The software engineer had already worked in Musk’s orbit before joining DOGE, spending several months at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company, before later joining the government efficiency effort at 19.

“What I think is really special about America.gov is it presents a single point of entry to find all the information that you need,” he added, including finding government services tailored to the user and asking questions with answers sourced from the federal government.

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Coristine pointed to Medicare as one example, saying Americans currently may have to move between Medicare.gov and the Social Security website to enroll in benefits.

“Companies, generally speaking, only have one website and everything is easy to find,” he said. “We should have the same vision for the government.”

The ambitions for America.gov also go beyond simply helping users find the right information. Coristine said the administration plans to make first-time passport applications fully digital, expanding beyond the online renewal system already available to eligible Americans.

“Specifically with passports, what we’re going to do is we’re gonna make new passports online for the first time ever,” Coristine said, describing the existing process as “very manual.”

TRUMP’S NEW HIGH-TECH GOVERNMENT HUB HOLDS SOME BIZARRE SURPRISES: ‘ENJOY FINDING THEM’

“You have to go in person, you have to get to the post office, you get your photo taken like a CVS or Walgreens,” he said.

Under the planned system, Coristine said users would be able to take their passport photo at home, preview how it would appear on the document and complete the process “without leaving the America.gov website.”

Coristine also offered a glimpse into how Trump has talked about the broader project, comparing the president’s approach to digital government with his background in hospitality.

“I think the president has been a great host for his entire career. He’s been in the hospitality business, right?” Coristine said. “So any great host knows they have to make things easy, they have to make it all feel clean.”

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“President Trump is very focused on removing the potholes from the digital government that make it hard to get things done,” he added.

The role marks the latest chapter in a whirlwind stint in Washington that began at DOGE and quickly thrust the 20-year-old — and his now-famous “Big Balls” nickname — into the national spotlight.

Coristine told Fox News Digital the “Big Balls” moniker had a far less dramatic origin than its eventual notoriety might suggest.

“I got the nickname Big Balls from my dad,” he said, explaining that he eventually made it his LinkedIn URL AND THIS IS WHAT DROVE IT INTO THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT, RIGHT?

“It was actually, like, fairly underground, but I was discovered,” Coristine said. “It’s been very funny ever since.”

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Coristine’s profile rose further in August 2025 after he was attacked while walking a female friend back to her car in Washington’s Logan Circle neighborhood, an incident that left him with a broken nose and concussion and drew national attention.

Coristine has said he rushed his friend into the car before the group turned on him, slamming him against the vehicle and throwing punches.

“I really thank President Trump for making D.C. safe again,” Coristine said. “Like all my friends, they’re now able to walk outside.”

“Everyone is very calmed by the National Guard because it feels like the city is so much safer,” he continued. “And the crime numbers totally represent that. The crime has been falling like a knife in D.C.”

Trump established the Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force in March 2025 before launching an intensified federal crime crackdown in August, with the operation delivering more than 16,000 arrests, 3,200 narcotics arrests and nearly 2,000 illegal firearms seized in its first year.

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“So I’m unbelievably grateful to the president for making the city safe and beautiful,” Coristine said.

The Justice Department has charged 64 foreign nationals across 17 states with unlawful voting, fraudulent voter registration and election-related offenses in roughly the last five weeks, according to figures provided to Fox News Digital, as federal prosecutors intensify election-integrity enforcement.

Minnesota leads the nation with 11 defendants, followed by Pennsylvania with 10 and Texas with nine. Louisiana accounts for five, while New Jersey, California and Florida each have four, according to the department’s latest tally.

The nationwide crackdown comes as federal officials intensify scrutiny of voter-registration safeguards ahead of November’s midterms, with recent elections underscoring how even a few illegal ballots can exceed the margin separating candidates. Fox News Digital mapped the states with the largest concentrations of defendants as DOJ says it has charged 104 people with voting fraud-related offenses since Trump returned to office in 2025.

SKID ROW FORGERIES, ILLEGAL VOTES AND A MAYORAL CANDIDATE: ELECTION FRAUD CASES PILE UP NATIONWIDE

“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen. In 2020, Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race was decided by six votes,” a DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital, referring to Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ narrow victory over Democrat Rita Hart.

DOJ said federal prosecutors are bringing more than twice as many election-fraud cases each week as the six-vote margin in the Iowa race.

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The spokesperson added: “Voting by noncitizens and other ineligible voters is a federal crime, and the department will enforce the law whether a case involves one illegal ballot or hundreds.”

The cases involve allegations ranging from fraudulent registration applications to ballots cast in multiple elections.

The department is also securing guilty pleas in some cases, including against Filipino national Evelyn Miller of Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Miller pleaded guilty to illegally voting in the 2024 presidential election and faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

MORE THAN A QUARTER-MILLION NONCITIZENS MAY BE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN 4 KEY STATES, DHS ALLEGES

“We intend to prosecute anyone who corrupts our democracy by illegally voting in its elections,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania David Metcalf said.

Also in Pennsylvania, federal prosecutors charged Haitian national Cliff Sanon with submitting a fraudulent voter registration application in Philadelphia County. Prosecutors allege he submitted eight registration applications and voted in the November 2022 election.

BLANCHE ANNOUNCES CHARGES AGAINST 10 PERMANENT RESIDENTS ACCUSED OF MINNESOTA VOTER FRAUD

In Minnesota, Ghanaian green card holder Joshua Kofi Edzie was charged with illegally voting in the state’s August 2026 primary and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in connection with voter registration.

The prosecutions have also reached Republican-led states, including Texas, Louisiana and Florida, which account for 18 defendants combined in the DOJ figures provided to Fox News Digital.

In Louisiana, the feds indicted an ex-mayoral candidate on a charge of voting by an alien. Bridget Johnson, who ran in 2024 to lead Cotton Valley, Louisiana, allegedly submitted a registration in the name of Jamaican national Michael Wedderburn and falsely swore he was a citizen. Wedderburn then allegedly voted illegally in 2024 for president and mayor. He was also recently indicted.

In New Jersey, Republicans have pointed to several razor-thin elections amid a separate controversy involving approximately 6,600 people who indicated they were not citizens but were erroneously registered through the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission. Fewer than 400 subsequently voted, according to Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration.

Former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac recently highlighted municipal elections in Caldwell, Atlantic Highlands and Bogota decided by margins of four to six votes in 2023.

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The state has not established that any of the affected voters changed an election outcome. Sherrill spokesman Sean Higgins previously said the governor “moved with transparency and accountability to remediate this error from 2023.”

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The prosecutions come as federal officials continue scrutinizing voter-registration safeguards ahead of November’s midterm elections. Authorities have not established that any of the cases identified in DOJ’s nationwide tally changed the outcome of an election.

As California grapples with soaring Medi-Cal costs — including billions spent on healthcare for immigrants without legal status — Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers have backed a revised health-plan tax in response to new federal restrictions, a move critics warn could shift more costs onto privately insured Californians.

The tax has united an unlikely coalition of doctors and health insurers against him, with critics warning it could make California even more expensive.

To preserve billions in Medi-Cal financing after Washington tightened the rules governing health-plan taxes used to draw federal matching funds, Newsom backed a redesigned tax that would raise the levy on private health plans beginning in 2027 if federally approved, potentially increasing premiums for their customers. Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants cost California an estimated $12.4 billion in 2025, the Associated Press reported.

When asked if expanding coverage to illegal immigrants created a need for California to raise taxes, Brian Blase, president of the right-of-center Paragon Health Institute, answered with a strong “yes.”

DR. OZ UNVEILS MEDICAID OVERHAUL, CLAMPS DOWN ON $2B FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND MANDATES WORK FOR ABLE-BODIED

“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act limited California’s ability to target the tax just on Medicaid insurers, so California is proposing to raise the health insurance tax on people that have private coverage … the estimates are that would increase insurance for families by $400 a year,” he told Fox News Digital. “That is just because California doesn’t want to deal with its unsustainable spending … there are many people on the program who are not eligible for the program, and that is not even accounting for the fact that California has expanded Medicaid to all unauthorized immigrants in the state.”

California’s attempt to shore up Medi-Cal’s bottom line follows federal changes that will prevent the state from continuing its existing health-plan tax structure after 2026, forcing a redesign of a financing mechanism that has generated billions of dollars for the program.

The California Medical Association and California Association of Health Plans are suing to block the tax increase, not on the grounds that it benefits illegal immigrants, but over allegations that the measure violates voter-approved limits on health-plan taxes and restrictions on how the resulting revenue can be spent. The duo uniting to challenge the tax is notable because doctors and insurance companies often find themselves on opposite sides of healthcare debates.

Proposition 35, the initiative in question, limits how much California can tax commercial health-plan enrollment, constraining the state’s options as it tries to comply with new federal rules governing the much higher tax previously imposed on Medi-Cal enrollment. The proposition was passed with overwhelming support from Californian voters.

NEWSOM BEGS CALIFORNIANS TO VOTE ‘NO’ ON BILLIONAIRE’S TAX IN FACE OF MASS EXODUS, PITCHES NATIONWIDE TAX HIKE

“California voters passed Proposition 35 and made it law. The state does not get to ignore that law simply because following the law is inconvenient,” California Medical Association CEO Dustin Corcoran said in a statement.

Health insurers warn the cost of the revised tax could be passed directly on to consumers through higher premiums, estimating an increase of about $100 per person per year. A family of four, for example, could face an additional $400 annually on top of normal rate increases.

Newsom spokeswoman Tara Gallegos said that the governor maintains that his tax increase is not rendered illegal by the proposition.

“The state disagrees with their claims, and we believe the courts will too,” she told Fox News Digital of the lawsuit.

H.D. Palmer, deputy director for external affairs at the California Department of Finance, explained to Fox News Digital that the new tax measure was designed to comply with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. According to Palmer, the state’s current health tax regime may conflict with the bill and that the state is submitting a proposal with two tracks — one that is similar to the current taxing scheme but might run afoul of federal law and another that conforms to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by shifting costs toward private plans.

CALIFORNIANS FLEEING TO RED STATES ARE DRIVING UP HOME PRICES AND RENTS IN THEIR NEW CITIES, DATA SHOWS

“If the federal government declines to approve the tax that is structured similar to the existing [health plan tax], Proposition 35 may then sunset per current law,” he added.

California has faced a mass exodus of people and businesses over the past decade, with the cost of living being one of the chief reasons individuals cite for leaving the Golden State. One analysis found that almost 10 million people moved from California to other states between 2010 and 2024, while just over 7 million moved to California from elsewhere in the country during the same period.

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The state’s exodus has raised concerns about its financial outlook, with the departure of higher-income residents potentially reducing tax revenue for a state heavily dependent on income taxes.

President Donald Trump said Saturday he had not decided whether the firing squad execution of convicted Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan would be livestreamed, saying he will ultimately “make a decision.”

The Pentagon confirmed to Fox News Digital earlier this week that the execution of Hasan – a former Army major who was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009 – was scheduled to be livestreamed on Dec. 3.

Trump, however, said he had not decided whether to allow the military’s first execution in more than six decades to be broadcast from Fort Hood.

“He was vicious, he was violent,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Hasan’s execution.

VETERAN SHOT 7 TIMES IN FORT HOOD MASSACRE HAS A WARNING FOR AMERICANS PLANNING TO WATCH EXECUTION

“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it,” he continued. “Because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did.”

“I’ll make a decision, ultimately,” Trump added. “I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”

Fox News Digital previously reported that Trump approved the use of an Army firing squad following a recommendation from War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Trump’s comments came one day after he was asked whether he had approved the decision to livestream the execution.

MULTIPLE DEATH SENTENCES IN DIFFERENT STATES ARE SET TO BE CARRIED OUT WITHIN 24 HOURS: ‘NOT VERY COMMON’

“I wasn’t involved in that decision, but I understand the decision,” Trump said during an interview Friday with CNY Central following a rally in Syracuse.

Trump added that the military wanted the execution to “serve as an example, and I understand that very well.”

Vice President JD Vance said Friday that he wasn’t sure whether the execution would be livestreamed.

“If it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” he told reporters.

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If Hasan’s execution is carried out, it would be the first conducted by the U.S. military since 1961 and the first military execution by firing squad since 1945.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump praised Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., as a “great guy” on Saturday, saying he would welcome the Pennsylvania Democrat into the Republican Party.

Trump was asked by a reporter after stepping off Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews whether he had spoken to Fetterman — who has repeatedly broken with Democrats during the current session of Congress — about becoming a Republican and whether he would welcome such a switch.

“I’d love to see it. I think he’s great,” Trump responded.

“It’s going to be hard for him to get the nomination as a Democrat, but I’d love to have him as a Republican,” he continued.

REPUBLICANS SAY THEY’D WELCOME FETTERMAN AS GOP EYES BIGGER SENATE MAJORITY

Trump described Fetterman as a “great guy” with “magnificent parents,” whom he said he had spoken with previously.

“He’s a very solid person,” Trump added. “He’s smart and all that, but he’s got great common sense.”

Trump also suggested that switching parties could benefit Fetterman politically.

“If you look at the polls, he does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat,” he said.

MAVERICK DEMOCRAT SURGES WITH REPUBLICANS AS HIS OWN PARTY TURNS ON HIM, STOKING TALK OF GOP SWITCH

Trump’s comments come as Fetterman has repeatedly broken with Democrats on key issues, including the Iran war and immigration, although he continues to vote with his party the vast majority of the time.

Since joining the Senate in 2023, Fetterman has voted with Senate Democrats nearly 90% of the time. During the current session of Congress, however, that figure has fallen to just under 81%, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Fetterman’s occasional breaks with his party have fueled speculation in recent months about whether he might eventually become a Republican. He has also reportedly used Republican fundraising platforms to solicit donations and maintains a close friendship with Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.

Last month, Fetterman recorded a video introducing Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., at the Republican Midterm Convention.

FETTERMAN TEASES WHERE HIS TRUE LOYALTY LIES AFTER SURPRISE APPEARANCE AT GOP CONVENTION

He also mistakenly referred to himself as a lifelong Republican during an appearance at the Texas Tribune’s TribFest last month.

An attendee at the event asked why Fetterman did not run as an independent.

“Because I’m a lifelong Republican,” he said, before realizing his mistake. “I guarantee you that will break through. That will get clipped.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Fetterman’s office for comment.

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Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump touted billions of dollars in manufacturing investments and his administration’s efforts to combat crime in Tennessee on Saturday, while calling Iranian leaders “crazy” and floating the idea of a “Trump Ocean” during a wide-ranging rally featuring musician Kid Rock.

The president appeared in Clarksville ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, campaigning for Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty and gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn while mixing economic talking points, foreign policy and off-script humor.

Kid Rock opened the event with a religious-themed introduction, praising Trump’s leadership while taking aim at the news media.

TRUMP TOUTS ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AT OHIO RALLY, URGES VOTERS TO DELIVER GOP MIDTERM WINS

“Literally, President Trump could walk across the Cumberland River, and tomorrow the headline would say President Trump refuses to swim,” the musician joked.

The rocker also condemned Islamist extremism and defended religious freedom, arguing that Americans should not be forced to live under religious laws that override the Constitution.

“We are not, and we will never be, one nation under Mohammed, because we are, and we always will be, one nation under God,” Kid Rock told the crowd.

Trump later thanked his longtime supporter and friend by his given name, Bob, before turning to an array of domestic and international issues.

The president addressed tensions with Iran, calling the country’s leaders “crazy” while claiming that Tehran’s rhetoric had softened following U.S. military operations.

AFTER ‘LAKE AMERICA,’ TRUMP SUGGESTS A NEW NAME FOR THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

“They don’t talk that way anymore, by the way,” Trump said after recounting previous threats from Iranian leaders.

Trump described what he characterized as extensive damage to Iran’s military capabilities, claiming 159 ships had been sunk and its air force and air-defense systems destroyed.

“They have no Navy. They have no Air force, they have no anti-aircraft equipment,” Trump said.

The president then pivoted from the Strait of Hormuz to an unexpected geography lesson, suggesting it could one day be called the “Trump Strait.”

He also revisited his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America before floating additional changes to the map.

“We need a river. We need an ocean,” Trump said, suggesting the Atlantic or Pacific could become the “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas.”

TRUMP RALLIES NEW YORK CROWD FOR REPUBLICAN BRUCE BLAKEMAN’S BID TO REPLACE GOV KATHY HOCHUL

“Before I get out, I think we should have an ocean,” he added, without yet announcing any formal renaming plans.

On the economy, Trump promoted Korea Zinc’s planned investment of more than $6 billion in Tennessee, a project expected to create 740 jobs across Montgomery and Smith counties.

Tennessee officials announced the $6.6 billion project in December, describing it as the largest single private corporate investment in state history. The plans include a new critical-minerals smelter in Clarksville and the reopening of a former mine in Gordonsville.

“And your state will soon be home to the first new mineral smelter in the United States, first one built since 1979,” Trump said.

The project is intended to strengthen domestic supplies of minerals used in semiconductors, defense technology and advanced manufacturing.

TRUMP NAMES LEAVITT SUCCESSOR AFTER WEEKS OF SPECULATION — AND SHE’S NO STRANGER TO MAGA

Trump also cited General Motors’ previously announced $275 million investment in its Spring Hill manufacturing facility to support production of next-generation turbocharged Cadillac engines.

The president credited his tariff policies with encouraging domestic investment, arguing that companies were expanding American manufacturing to avoid import duties.

In a Tennessee-focused fact sheet released as the rally began, the White House asserted that Republican-backed tax policies had preserved $23 billion in economic activity in the state. The administration also cited an average $3,674 tax refund for Tennesseans in 2026.

Public safety was another focal point of his address, with Trump praising federal law-enforcement operations in Memphis and claiming approximately 12,000 dangerous criminals had been removed.

The White House separately asserted that murders and overall crime in Memphis had declined approximately 36%, crediting the Memphis Safe Task Force.

The president also shared some lighter moments about first lady Melania Trump, describing her objections to his theatrical impersonations of athletes during discussions about transgender participation in women’s sports.

“She said it’s not presidential,” Trump recalled, before joking about her film career. “There is only room for one star in a family, so I don’t need this movie stuff. I don’t need it.”

Trump, who carried Tennessee in all three of his presidential campaigns, said the visit was also an opportunity to thank supporters in a state where he had enjoyed strong electoral backing.

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“Sometimes it’s nice to go to a place where you don’t have to be, but you’re there to say thank you to the great people that elected you three separate times in record time,” Trump said.

Trump repeatedly returned to the November elections, urging supporters to back Republican candidates even though his name will not appear on the ballot.

“In this election, I’m asking you to do me a favor. Pretend. Just pretend that I’m running,” Trump said.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president,” warning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacking Russian oil refineries as the two leaders clashed over a U.S. deal with Moscow.

“It’s time for Ukraine to get a new president,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before heading to a rally in Tennessee.

Trump accused Zelenskyy of making global fuel problems worse by continuing to authorize strikes on Russian refineries.

TRUMP SATS RUSSIA HAS AGREED TO DELIVER MILLIONS IN DIESEL FUEL AFTER ‘HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL DISCUSSION’

“He’d better d— well stop,” Trump said.

The president argued that Ukraine should avoid targeting Russian refineries because of the potential impact on global energy supplies.

“We said, ‘you can do whatever you want to Russia, don’t hit the refineries’, because that’s a world problem that’s caused,” Trump said.

Trump also criticized Zelenskyy for failing to reach an agreement to end the war, which began when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

ZELENSKYY TO SEEK OFFRAMP FOR YEARS-LONG RUSSIA WAR IN UN SPEECH AFTER TRUMP REVEALS PEACE DEAL IS CLOSE

“He could have made many deals and for some reason, he never does,” Trump said.

The remarks came after Zelenskyy criticized a new American agreement with Russia that would temporarily ease sanctions on Russian diesel exports.

Trump confirmed Friday that Washington had reached an agreement with Moscow to suspend restrictions on Russian diesel exports until April 7.

TRUMP TELLS ZELENSKYY TO STOP DOING ‘ONE THING’ DURING ATTACKS ON RUSSIA

The agreement would allow Russia to release millions of tons of diesel into the U.S. and global markets, potentially increasing fuel supplies at a time when Americans are paying more at the pump.

But Zelenskyy warned that the deal could give Russia additional money to buy weapons and continue its war against Ukraine.

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The dispute comes as Russia and Ukraine have stepped up strikes on energy facilities, transportation systems and other key infrastructure.

Trump has been seeking ways to lower fuel prices as the U.S. faces rising energy costs tied to the conflict with Iran.

Trump’s warning puts fresh pressure on Zelenskyy to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

A Supreme Court showdown over climate change lawsuits could leave oil companies bankrupt, gas stations facing financial ruin and Americans paying more at the pump if the justices allow cities and states to pursue billions in damages against the fossil fuel industry, energy policy experts warn.

“You would see mass exodus and that would create more scarcity with fuel, more so than we’re seeing already today, higher prices,” Jason Isaac, CEO of American Energy Institute, told Fox News Digital. “And that’s really what this is about. It’s about controlling these companies and stopping the use of hydrocarbons.”

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in Suncor v. Boulder, a dispute over whether federal law prevents cities and states from suing oil companies under state law for alleged climate damage linked to emissions that cross state borders.

During oral arguments, Justice Clarence Thomas pressed Boulder’s attorney, Kevin Russell, on whether the legal theory could expose businesses beyond oil producers to similar lawsuits, including large retailers.

WAVE OF OVERLOOKED ‘LEFT-WING’ LAWSUITS COULD COME WITH AN UNEXPECTED PRICE TAG FOR AMERICANS

“Nothing in our theory prevents that,” Russell acknowledged, although he noted that state tort law could impose additional limitations.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh separately raised concerns about the potential financial consequences of widespread litigation, warning that enough lawsuits could “bankrupt” defendants and questioning whether virtually any manufacturer or business could face similar claims.

The city and county of Boulder, Colo., sued oil giants ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in 2018, accusing the companies of knowingly contributing to climate change while misleading the public about the alleged dangers of fossil fuels. The municipalities are seeking damages to help cover the mounting costs of climate-related harms. There are roughly 30 similar lawsuits pending in jurisdictions across the country, including cases in Portland and Baltimore.

Boulder’s lawsuit alleged ExxonMobil and Suncor knew for decades about the climate risks associated with fossil fuels but misled the public about those risks. The complaint pointed to a 1977 internal memo from ExxonMobil that circulated among the company’s highest-level managers. The memo reported that “current scientific opinion overwhelmingly favors” that fossil fuels contribute to the rise in CO2 emissions.

David Bookbinder, who previously served as counsel of record for Boulder but is no longer involved in the case, described the lawsuit as a way to implement an “indirect carbon tax” during a Federalist Society forum last year.

But Boulder has maintained that the case is not an attempt to regulate national climate policy, arguing instead that Colorado has the authority to hold companies accountable under state law for alleged harms suffered within its borders.

“Since the founding, states have had the power to provide tort remedies for injuries occurring within their borders even when the conduct causing those injuries occurred elsewhere,” Russell told the justices.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS, BANNED RIFLES AND ‘CLIMATE LAWFARE’: BLOCKBUSTER FIGHTS AWAIT SUPREME COURT

O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers, argued that the lawsuits are an attempt to accomplish through the courts what climate advocates have been unable to achieve through Congress.

“When you really boil it down, and you separate it from all the legal arguments, the advocates who push these cases are very clear,” Skinner told Fox News Digital. “That it’s an effort to get a backdoor carbon tax, because carbon taxes have never passed in Congress, or to bankrupt the energy industry.”

Justice Samuel Alito has recused himself from the case without providing an explanation.

Isaac warned that a Supreme Court ruling in Boulder’s favor could open “Pandora’s box,” allowing thousands of jurisdictions to pursue similar lawsuits. He said a 4-4 split could have a similar practical effect by leaving the lower court’s ruling in place, although a tie would not establish nationwide precedent.

“There are over 90,000 levels of government — government entities just in the United States alone — that could also begin lawsuits against energy companies,” Isaac told Fox News Digital. “Driving up cost to consumers because the cost to defend those would be astronomical.”

LAWSUITS COST EVERY AMERICAN HOUSEHOLD THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. SUPREME COURT CAN HELP

Skinner argued that who could be sued could extend beyond oil producers to businesses across the energy supply chain, including gas stations, automakers and utilities that sell or use fossil fuels.

“From Boulder’s perspective, anybody who’s contributed to climate change would reliable, any sort of company, big or small, and the problem here is that to the left, climate change is everything and everything is climate change,” Skinner told Fox News Digital. “So it’s very hard to find a line for who isn’t contributing to climate change.”

But Isaac said the case is different from lawsuits against tobacco or opioid companies because greenhouse gas emissions come from countless sources around the world and cross state and national borders, making it difficult to isolate responsibility for climate-related damage.

“Emissions are a global phenomenon,” Isaac told Fox News Digital.

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS SAY JUSTICE KAGAN CANNOT BE IMPARTIAL IN UPCOMING SUPREME COURT CLIMATE LITIGATION

ExxonMobil and Suncor argue that because greenhouse gas emissions travel globally, Colorado cannot use state law to hold companies liable for emissions originating outside its borders. The companies contend that such disputes should instead be governed by federal law.

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Meanwhile, other states such as Utah have barred these types of state tort lawsuits from being pursued.

“If the energy companies were to lose and Colorado were to win, this would in effect drive up the prices of gas all across the country,” Utah Attorney General Derek Brown told Fox News Digital. “And so those kind of decisions ultimately, it’s the province of Congress.”

Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton slammed the FBI for slow-walking the release of documents related to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

“They are telling us that at current processing rates, the process will take 12 years. Under the FBI’s timeline, we won’t even be able to challenge what they withheld until 12 years from now. That is obviously unacceptable, and I would like to know what leadership at the FBI and DOJ think about that position,” Fitton told Fox News Digital.

Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2025 after the FBI initially rejected a July 2024 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to the FBI investigation of Thomas Matthew Crooks’ assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

TRUMP’S ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN SENT MYSTERIOUS TEXTS ABOUT 3D PRINTER LEADING UP TO BUTLER, PA, SHOOTING: REPORT

The lawsuit forced the release of multiple batches of documents to Judicial Watch, the most recent of which revealed a series of text messages Crooks sent to an unknown recipient, whose name the FBI redacted before sending to Judicial Watch.

“We’re receiving these documents because they’re part of the investigation, yet we’re not being told who he was talking to,” Fitton told Fox News Digital.

GOP LAWMAKERS BLINDSIDED BY NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT TRUMP BUTLER SHOOTER: ‘AWFULLY STRANGE’

“Withholding that information is a very concerning decision. The American people want to be certain this isn’t another JFK situation. By handling it this way, authorities are creating the appearance of a cover-up. In part, that’s true, because they aren’t providing details about who Crooks was talking to, who was texting him, what they were saying, or who witnessed specific actions. It makes no sense to withhold this,” he said.

The documents revealed a series of one or two-word texts Crooks sent to the redacted recipient between May 2023 and January 2024. The words appear unrelated and somewhat nonsensical.

WOULD-BE TRUMP ASSASSIN THOMAS CROOKS HAD SNAPCHAT, WHICH MAY HOLD EVIDENCE ‘TREASURE TROVE’: FORMER FBI AGENT

“Hello … Hello red …Hello red … Hdudhdbdbbd … 7888ejdj … Yolo … Ddodjjf … 890 … Hdjd … Djdj … red … Yup red … Hello … Jhhhuuh … Hhdj … Jjjjjjjjjjjj … Hello red … Red red,” Crooks’ messages said. 

Fitton, while acknowledging that any potential correspondents with Crooks have a reasonable expectation of privacy, argued that the FBI “must weigh that expectation of privacy against the public interest.”

SECRET SERVICE MISSED ‘MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES’ TO PREVENT TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: WATCHDOG

“The public interest in understanding how a former president was nearly killed – and two American citizens were killed – outweighs the privacy interests of anyone being protected in these documents. Unless the court speeds up the process, all we can do is speak out publicly to pressure the FBI and the Department of Justice to take ownership and stop stringing the American people along regarding the Butler assassination investigation,” he told Fox News Digital.

A previous batch of documents Judicial Watch obtained through FOIA also revealed that, shortly before Crooks climbed onto the roof of the AGR International building where he fired his weapon from, he engaged in a heated argument with rally attendees on the ground.

TWO MEN SHOT AT TRUMP’S BUTLER RALLY SUE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OVER SECRET SERVICE ‘PREVENTABLE FAILURES’

“Thomas Crooks was behaving erratically in a very public way at the rally. This wasn’t a case of someone furtively running around; he was getting into a verbal altercation with individuals about Trump and then immediately went up onto the roof. That just blows my mind,” Fitton told Fox News Digital.

Fitton complained that the shear numbers of the documents involved in the shooting call for a faster release process.

“The entire release process involves approximately 75,000 pages. At 500 pages per month, it will take well over 12 years to review them all. To me, that is unacceptable,” he told Fox News Digital.

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“It isn’t that hard. I believe the president wants it done, and it’s frustrating that the FBI is taking its typical approach to transparency—which is to offer very little,” he said.

Fox News Digital contacted the FBI and U.S. Secret Service for comment.

President Donald Trump on Saturday criticized the Norwegian Nobel Committee for not selecting him for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing a long list of accomplishments.

“I settled 8 WARS, am close to ending or settling 2 more, got all of the Israeli hostages back, including the final 28, both living and dead, had hundreds of hostages, from countries all over the World, released and sent back home, won a war in Venezuela, and captured the violent dictator who so viciously ran that country, and stopped the number one state sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, from obtaining a Nuclear Weapon — AND MUCH MORE! Yet, with all of that I, or the United States of America, did not get the Noble Peace Prize. WOW!” Trump wrote in a Saturday morning Truth Social post.

Trump has long openly pined for the prize, first receiving a nomination in 2018 from Norwegian lawmakers for diplomatic efforts involving North Korea and nuclear disarmament.

In 2019, he told reporters during a news conference, “I think I’m going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t.”

TRUMP TEASES POTENTIAL KIM JONG UN MEETING LATER THIS YEAR

While the Norwegian Nobel Committee does not publicly release a list of nominees for the Peace Prize, Trump has been nominated at least five times, according to the people who nominated him. That list includes former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who nominated Trump in 2019, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who nominated him in 2025.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARDED TO UN JURIST WHO ACCUSED ISRAEL OF COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN GAZA

Despite being nominated again this year by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and others, Trump was passed over yet again, this time in favor of South African jurist Navi Pillay.

The 85-year-old Pillay was the first non-White woman appointed to South Africa’s high court, and she later served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SANCTIONS SITTING PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR ‘ABUSES OF POWER’

She also served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.

However, her nomination was not without controversy.

The Nobel Committee’s announcement highlighted her work as the chair of the U.N.’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian Territory and Israel. Skeptics, however, claimed her work on the commission displayed anti-Israel bias.

WAR CRIMES COURT TURNS ‘BLIND EYE’ TO TOP WORLD THREATS WHILE TARGETING AMERICANS, TRUMP ADMIN ACCUSES

“Navi Pillay is indeed a world leader, an individual at the forefront of the international spread of the poisonous forms of antisemitism that beset the 21st century,” Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights, told Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter.

TRUMP TO ZERO-IN ON IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT, GAZA PLAN AND UN OVERHAUL IN WORLD STAGE SPEECH

The U.N., however, praised her work and career as “steadfast.”

“For decades, she has been a champion of international law and human rights and a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Friday.

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Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

Cornell University has tapped Sally Yates, a former Obama administration deputy attorney general fired by President Donald Trump during his first term, to lead an independent review of the Ivy League school’s handling of sexual assault allegations.

Yates’ appointment comes as Cornell faces scrutiny over its response to an alleged gang rape at a fraternity house in October 2024. As part of the independent review, Yates and her employer, King & Spalding, will have access to Cornell’s internal documents, including case files, oversight records for Greek organizations, communications with law enforcement and disciplinary hearing records.

Yates brings decades of Justice Department experience to Cornell’s review, along with a public profile shaped by her confrontation with Trump and subsequent involvement in the Russia investigation.

Sally Yates’ career and clashes with Trump

President Barack Obama nominated Yates as deputy attorney general in January 2015, and the Senate confirmed her four months later in an 84-12 vote. She previously served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, a position Obama appointed her to in 2010.

CORNELL PRESIDENT SAYS UNIVERSITY ‘MUST DO BETTER’ ON HANDLING OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS

During the presidential transition, Trump’s incoming administration asked Yates to remain as acting attorney general while his nominee, Jeff Sessions, awaited Senate confirmation. But her tenure lasted just 10 days.

Trump fired Yates on Jan. 30, 2017, after she instructed Justice Department lawyers not to defend his executive order restricting travel and refugee admissions from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

“The acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States,” the White House said in a statement announcing her firing.

Yates maintained that she was not convinced the directive was lawful.

“My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts,” Yates said in a letter. “In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right.”

Yates returned to the national spotlight in May 2017, testifying before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Her testimony detailed warnings she had given White House Counsel Don McGahn about Trump’s then-national security adviser, Michael Flynn, shortly before her dismissal.

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Flynn had discussed Obama administration sanctions against Russia with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016, despite then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence publicly denying that sanctions were discussed.

After reviewing FBI intelligence, Yates warned McGahn that Flynn had misled administration officials and could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail because Moscow knew what had actually been discussed.

Flynn resigned in February 2017, 18 days after Yates’ initial warning. He later pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak.

Before her confrontation with Trump, Yates spent 27 years at the Justice Department, prosecuting white-collar fraud and public corruption cases. She also served as lead prosecutor in the case against Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph, a prosecution then-Attorney General Eric Holder highlighted when Obama selected her as deputy attorney general.

Yates returned to King & Spalding as a partner in May 2018, later leading an independent investigation into sexual misconduct and abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League.

Commissioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation in October 2021, the investigation included more than 200 interviews and uncovered widespread verbal and emotional abuse, sexual misconduct and repeated failures by teams and league officials to address complaints.

The findings, released in October 2022, documented how coaches accused of misconduct continued working despite previous complaints. Yates’ report recommended stronger background checks, clearer reporting procedures and greater accountability for teams and league officials.

Cornell University investigations

Cornell said it selected Yates and her firm because of “their expertise in higher education and extensive experience conducting independent investigations for boards and institutions.”

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Yates’ involvement in the case brings another prominent Trump adversary into the controversy, days after New York Attorney General Letitia James, who previously brought a civil fraud case against Trump and has faced his calls for her prosecution, was appointed to oversee a separate state investigation.

Cornell previously investigated the alleged assault and imposed suspensions and expulsions on several students accused of involvement. A lawsuit filed against the university by the alleged victim has since brought renewed national attention to the case and raised questions about the school’s response.

The two investigations have separate mandates. James’ investigation will examine the case at the center of the controversy, while Yates’ review will assess Cornell’s broader policies and handling of sexual assault and dating violence allegations.

“As part of that broader mandate, Yates and her team will conduct a detailed review of the university’s response to the allegations involving Jane Doe and members of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024, including whether Cornell followed its policies and procedures in responding to the matter,” the school said in a statement.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Yates for comment.

Marshall Billingslea was a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer in the 1990s when he sat down with one of the highest-ranking defectors from the Soviet biological weapons program and began learning the extent of what Moscow had secretly built.

And what he found out from Ken Alibek, the former No. 2 official in the Soviet biological weapons apparatus, is raising red flags for Billingslea over the Oct. 2, 2026, death linked to an anti-plague institute in Russia.

“I think one of the most important things that Ken shed light on was the sheer scale of the Soviet program, which then Russia inherited,” Billingslea told Fox News Digital. “Just mammoth.”

Three decades later, the mysterious death of a researcher at the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East has put new attention on what became of that program — and Billingslea argues the world should be demanding answers from Moscow.

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“It’s not acceptable in this day and age for the Russians to have a biological warfare program,” said Billingslea, who previously served as President Donald Trump’s special presidential envoy for arms control. “They need to cut it out, and they need to tell us. They need to come clean about what they’re doing at this lab and whether this lab is still involved in their warfare program.”

The U.S. government says Russia’s offensive biological weapons program did not disappear with the Soviet Union.

“Russia maintains an offensive biological weapons program and is in violation of its obligations under the BWC,” a State Department official told Fox News Digital this week.

BWC, or Biological Weapons Convention, is an international treaty that prohibits the development, production and stockpiling of biological weapons.

State’s 2025 arms control compliance report assessed that the Soviet-era program was “absorbed, not dismantled” by Russia after the collapse and has “continued and evolved” since then.

There is no evidence linking the Irkutsk researcher’s death to Russia’s biological weapons program, and Billingslea told Fox News Digital he has seen no evidence that the the institute remains involved in the program today.

But the unexplained death has revived scrutiny of the Soviet program’s work and the network of ostensibly civilian laboratories that Billingslea said Alibek identified as also performing classified work.

Alibek’s disclosures included Soviet efforts to alter pathogens to make them more lethal, transmissible or difficult to treat, Billingslea said, adding that some of the most troubling revelations involved plague.

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“The goal was to render the plague bacteria far more resistant to antibiotics,” he said.

Billingslea said Soviet researchers also experimented with combining plague with toxin-producing pathogens, with the aim of making infections even harder to treat. “They took the plague bacteria and they merged it with a non-dangerous bacteria,” Billingslea said.

“The goal was to render the plague bacteria far more resistant to antibiotics.”

According to Alibek’s account, researchers also worked on combining plague with toxin-producing pathogens so that treating an infected person with antibiotics could trigger the release of toxins.

Billingslea said that U.S. officials were not relying solely on Alibek for their understanding of the program and that there were “multiple other sources of information” that made him “very confident in the basics” regarding the disclosures regarding Soviet-era research.

“So this doesn’t all derive from Ken Alibek,” he insisted when speaking with Fox News Digital.

By the time Billingslea was interviewing Alibek in the mid-1990s, he said, Washington had already confronted Moscow over its biological weapons work. “We knew about the plague programs, we knew what they were up to, and we knew where the sites were,” he said.

Among the facilities Alibek identified were at least six Soviet Ministry of Health laboratories that had legitimate civilian public-health missions while also performing classified work connected to the biological weapons program, according to Billingslea.

The Irkutsk institute was among the facilities Alibek identified, but Billingslea cautioned he does not recall the Soviet defector saying that antibiotic-resistant plague or plague chimeras were specifically developed there.

That distinction has become particularly important following the unexplained death of a 28-year-old researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute.

Russian authorities have said they found no microorganism linked to the woman’s professional activities, while the World Health Organization has sought additional information from Moscow about what caused her fatal pneumonia.

Billingslea said the pressure for answers — and for Russia to end its offensive biological weapons program — should not come from Washington alone.

“It’s very, very important that this is not viewed as a U.S. versus Russia discussion,” he said. “This is a topic of grave concern to the entire international community.”

He also said that Russia needs to release the genetic sequence of the pathogen that killed the researcher, along with information about contact testing, the timeline of her illness and the institute’s biosafety procedures.

The genetic sequence could allow outside experts to determine “what it was and whether it was modified,” he said.

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Billingslea called on countries outside the traditional U.S. alliance system, including Brazil and Mexico, to press Moscow for greater transparency, and pointed to a December meeting of parties to the Biological Weapons Convention as an opportunity for countries to confront Russia over the program.

“At the December meeting, Russia is going to get grilled,” he said. “And they should.”

FIRST ON FOX: Critical blue collar manufacturing jobs in the U.S. are making inroads after years of Biden-era offshoring hollowed out the workforce, according to a new economic report.

A Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) report says 72,000 manufacturing jobs have been added in 2026 alone, many of them due to a rise in the manufacturing of durable goods like metal and transportation equipment. The advisors say this is a reverse of a Biden-era trend that saw 200,000 manufacturing jobs disappear in the last two years of the former president’s administration.

Not only is the current administration’s focus on re-shoring jobs contributing to the uptick, but so are his tariff policies, according to the CEA, a White House agency responsible for providing President Donald Trump with economic analysis.

AMERICA’S NEW BLUE-COLLAR JOB BOOM IS ONE NOBODY SAW COMING — AND IT’S JUST GETTING STARTED

In particular, Trump’s landmark One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) has laid the groundwork for American companies to expand in the United States, instead of shipping jobs overseas, according to the report. The bill’s provisions include allowing manufacturers an immediate 100% tax deduction on expenses related to new factory building, and purchasing machinery and equipment.

The report highlights success stories from corporations that are reinvesting in Americans and expanding their businesses.

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For example, the 100% expensing provision in the OBBB has helped Jergens, a manufacturing company based in Ohio, expand to Illinois.

“Since the passage of the bill [OBBB], our employees are voluntarily working additional hours,” the company’s CEO, Jack Schron, said. “They are keeping more of what they earn, putting more money back into the American economy and Jergens has a ready workforce. It is a win-win-win: a win for the employee, for Jergens and for the United States economy.”

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Schron added that 83% of his workers are picking up overtime after the OBBB provision established no taxes for overtime work.

In another example touted in the CEA report, a company in North Carolina, Ketchie Inc., has expanded its workforce by 25% after taking advantage of the 100% expensing provision to purchase new machinery. The report says the company waited to buy the equipment until the OBBB passed.

As for wages, manufacturing workers are seeing benefits, too, with their pay increasing by 7.9% since January 2025.

“Adjusted for inflation, this means that blue-collar manufacturing workers are earning nearly $2,500 more per year, on average, since President Trump took office,” the report says.

It also touts figures from the construction industry, including 100,000 construction jobs added since Trump took office.

Semiconductor chip manufacturing, an industry in which the United States typically competes with China, is on the rise in the United States too.

Micron is building memory chip plants in Idaho, Virginia and New York, which the report says is a $250 billion investment in the United States. Apple is investing $600 billion in American semiconductor production, too.

The report also says that major pharmaceutical companies like GSK and Gilead are investing billions of dollars in the United States, along with automakers like Stellantis.

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All told, the reshoring and tariff policies have resulted in $11 trillion in investments in the United States during Trump’s second term in office, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the economy is on everyone’s mind with only a few weeks left until the midterm elections. Inflation, particularly high gas and grocery prices, continue to impact Americans before they head to the polls.

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According to a Fox News Poll, the cost of everyday items is a hardship for voters: 61% say gas prices are a major problem, up from 48% two years ago, while 52% say the same for healthcare costs, up from 44%. Majorities also view housing costs (54%, down from 60%) and grocery prices (62%, down from 66%) as major problems.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the economy is worse under the Trump administration than before.

FIRST ON FOX — Dozens of individuals backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are set to appear on ballots as candidates for state legislature seats on Election Day, something Republicans say could set in motion a trend that transforms the Democratic Party.

At least 65 DSA-aligned candidates have advanced to contest state legislative seats in November’s general election. The Republican State Leadership Committee — the official GOP body responsible for ensuring state-level conservative victories — claimed that these races could very well determine the future of the Democratic Party, according to a memo obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.

“The statehouse trend is also relevant because several prominent DSA-aligned Congressional candidates in 2026 have emerged from state and local political organizing,” the memo reads. “These victories demonstrate one potential progression: movement organizations can help develop candidates locally and at the state level, provide them with political experience and organizational networks, and eventually support campaigns for Congress.”

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“The scale of that presence matters not only because DSA-aligned candidates could influence the direction of their state legislatures if elected, but because state legislative offices can provide a platform, governing experience, donor networks and organizational infrastructure for future campaigns for higher office,” it continues.

The RSLC’s methodology included candidates who are DSA members, DSA endorsees or self-identified members of the organization.

DSA-affiliated candidates identified by the RSLC take positions on a number of issues that crucial swing voters and independents may find extreme, including defunding or abolishing police departments, left-wing economic policies and demanding race-based reparations.

Opposition to traditional policing has emerged as a prominent issue among some of the DSA-aligned state legislative candidates identified by Republicans.

“As a State Senator I will continue to do everything I can to end policing and incarceration in New York State,” Democratic State Sen. Jabari Brisport’s campaign website reads. Brisport also supports decriminalizing prostitution, arguing that removing criminal penalties for sex workers while maintaining protections against trafficking and exploitation would help keep communities safe.

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Over in Wisconsin, Democratic State Rep. Ryan Clancy has stood by his statement that police work has “no dignity or value.”

“It means that American policing has always been bad and it always will be,” Clancy told a local outlet in 2023, alleging that American police forces have their roots in slave patrols. “It’s not like we can get back to this to the early days… American policing… [is] epically racist and classist because that’s a dead end. That is the point of American policing.”

Clancy told Fox News Digital that his comments concerned officers who abused their authority over sex workers, although his original remarks and subsequent 2023 interview criticized policing more broadly as an institution he argued was inherently racist and could not be reformed.

He concurred with the RSLC’s assertion that DSA-aligned candidates are shaping the future of the Democratic Party.

State Rep. Eleanor Chávez, running with the DSA’s backing in New Mexico, meanwhile has called Immigration and Customs Enforcement “fascist” and compared its agents to the KKK. Republicans in New Mexico have condemned such rhetoric, arguing that it could spur people to commit violence against law enforcement officers.

Despite its propensity to draw attention to its stances on social issues, the DSA bills itself as an economically motivated organization.

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To this end, some of its members running for state legislatures have called for reforms some have described as radical.

New York Democratic Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha, who is running for re-election with the backing of the DSA, has pushed legislation that would allow the government to acquire the privately held Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., potentially through eminent domain if a negotiated purchase cannot be reached.Dylan Wegela, a DSA-backed state house candidate in Michigan, has similarly pushed for state acquisitions of utility companies.

Shrestha agrees with the RSLC’s assessment that DSA-aligned state lawmakers could influence the Democratic Party’s trajectory.

“The things DSA-aligned state lawmakers are fighting for are things that are extremely popular with voters, and have been for a long time,” she told Fox News Digital. “A majority of our constituents believe the energy sector should not be for profit, healthcare should be single-payer and universal, the government should play a positive role in building necessary infrastructure such as permanently affordable housing and public transit, and so on.”

The DSA-affiliated lawmaker also defended her plan to take over the Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., citing a feasibility study commissioned by supporters of the bill that found it would lower costs for consumers.

Sometimes, the stances of DSA clash with Democratic policy priorities.

Gabriel Acevero, a DSA-backed lawmaker in Maryland, for instance, opposed a marijuana legalization measure he argued did not go far enough to address racial inequities, declaring that “cannabis legalization without reparations for communities harmed by the intentional drug war is not progressive policy.” Scores of DSA-affiliated candidates running in states such as New York, Minnesota and Massachusetts have thrown their support behind reparations for racial minorities.

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Republicans have a vested interest in tying the mainstream Democratic Party to the DSA. A Fox News poll from September found that 55% of registered voters had an unfavorable opinion of the DSA.

While some in the Democratic Party argue that Republican attempts to tie the Democratic Party to socialism are bad-faith campaign tricks, party leadership has recently made significant concessions to its left-wing flank.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer backed Abdul El-Sayed’s more moderate opponent in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, but a super PAC aligned with Schumer has since committed millions of dollars to supporting El-Sayed’s general-election campaign. El-Sayed is a progressive backed by prominent figures on the party’s left, but who has said he is not a socialist.

Due to the disorganized nature of the DSA and the varying degrees of affiliation held by candidates, estimates of the number of socialist candidates running for state legislature vary across sources. The Brookings Institution, for instance, found at least 76 had advanced to the general election, while the RSLC’s analysis identified a minimum of 65 running in a total of 24 states.

Though the DSA’s gains have received significant attention, a Brookings Institution analysis found that candidates backed by the organization represent only a tiny fraction of the nation’s state legislative seats, raising questions about how far the socialist movement’s growing influence extends.

“The RSLC has consistently said that socialism starts in the states and that is where we need to stop it,” the RSLC’s memo reads. “The DSA’s growing presence in statehouse races could have dangerous impacts for state policy in the short-term, and it reflects a clearly orchestrated long-term effort to build political power from the state-level up.”

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Every state legislative candidate mentioned was reached for comment by Fox News Digital on Tuesday.