NationalWatch

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to begin the drawn-out task of refunding billions of dollars to companies that paid tariffs the Supreme Court recently invalidated. 

Judge Richard Eaton, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, laid out the estimated $130 billion refund process in a three-page order, saying it would begin with U.S. Customs and Border Protection calculating what importers would have paid without the now-invalid tariffs. Eaton also made clear he had sole jurisdiction over the refunds, which more than 1,000 companies have sued over in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

“The Chief Judge has indicated that I am the only judge who will hear cases pertaining to the refund of [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] duties,” Eaton wrote. “So there is no danger that another Judge, even one in this Court, will reach any contrary conclusions.”

The case in question was brought by Atmus Filtration, Inc., a company that paid President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which Trump imposed on nearly every country on an emergency basis under IEEPA last year.

The IEEPA is a 1977 law that allows the president – after declaring a national emergency in response to foreign threats – to regulate or block certain economic transactions, such as by imposing sanctions.

The Supreme Court decided 6-3 in February to block Trump’s use of the emergency law to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners. The majority held that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, even after a national emergency declaration, because Congress did not clearly grant the executive branch that power.

All importers who paid those duties were entitled to benefit from the Supreme Court’s ruling, Eaton said.

Eaton said CBP should calculate the affected imports as if the tariffs had never applied, which the judge signaled would eventually pave the way for refunds to the companies.

TRUMP RESPONDS TO SUPREME COURT RULING REJECTING SWEEPING TARIFFS POWERS: ‘A DISGRACE’

The Supreme Court majority left the refund process unaddressed in its decision, leaving it to the lower courts to mete out. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, however, questioned in his dissent how the U.S. Treasury could go about refunding companies to the tune of billions of dollars, warning of “serious practical consequences.”

“The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others,” Kavanaugh wrote. “As was acknowledged at oral argument, the refund process is likely to be a ‘mess.’”

Eaton disputed that notion during a hearing just prior to issuing his order.

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“There is nothing particularly novel about the provision of refunds. … I believe that there will be no chaos associated with the provision of these refunds and that it will not result in a mess,” Eaton said, according to Politico.

The Trump administration indicated during the hearing that it is likely to appeal Eaton’s order to delay it from taking effect. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Eaton is set to preside over a closed-door conference with the parties in the case on Friday to further discuss the refund process.

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A group of two dozen state attorneys general sued President Donald Trump on Thursday in an effort to block his new 10% tariffs from taking force — a move that all but ensures Trump’s newly revived tariff regime will end up back before the federal courts for the second time in nearly as many years.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in the Court of International Trade by attorneys general from 24 states, including New York, Oregon, California, and Arizona. 

The state attorneys general argued in the lawsuit that Trump lacks the authority to impose the 10% tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, describing the effort as merely an attempt to “sidestep” last month’s 6-3 Supreme Court ruling, which blocked Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, (IEEPA) to unilaterally stand up his 10% global tariff regime announced last April.

Trump responded to the ruling by immediately invoking Section 122 to keep the 10% tariffs in place in the near-term. He also said then that the administration is planning to increase the import duties from 10% to 15% for certain countries. 

In the lawsuit, the state AGs said Trump “has made clear that he is going to impose worldwide tariffs by any means necessary,” and argued that the effort is “an exercise of completely unrestrained executive power.”

“As with his unlawful use of IEEPA, the President has once again exercised tariff authority that he does not have—involving a statute that does not authorize the tariffs he has imposed—to upend the constitutional order and bring chaos to the global economy,” they added.

Next steps in the case are unclear, though the new lawsuit is likely to be met with fierce opposition from the White House and Justice Department.

It comes as Trump has continued to embrace tariffs as the signature economic policy of his second White House term. Trump, who previously billed himself as the “Tariff Man,” has described the issue as “life or death” for the U.S. economy. 

Last April, Trump declared a national trade emergency to invoke IEEPA, citing the law as a means to address trade imbalances, reduce deficits with key trading partners and boost domestic manufacturing and production.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS 5 TRUMP TARIFF EXECUTIVE ORDERS 

Two federal courts — the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit — previously blocked Trump’s use of IEEPA to enact his tariffs, prompting the administration to kick the case to the Supreme Court last year for emergency relief. (The Manhattan-based Court of International Trade ruled last year that Trump, as commander-in-chief, does not have “unbounded authority” to impose tariffs under the emergency law.)

Lower courts had pressed the Justice Department to explain why Trump invoked IEEPA when other, more narrowly tailored statutes enacted by Congress more specifically address tariffs, including laws that cap tariffs at certain levels or set timeframes subject to congressional review.

Section 122 tariffs can remain in place for up to 150 days without congressional approval, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed on the Senate floor last week that the Democratic caucus would not approve an extension of the broad import duties. 

Legally, the administration could have its work cut out for it as well. 

Some economists — as well as the state AGs — argue that there is a difference between a traditional balance of payment deficit and the trade deficit between the U.S. and other countries. 

“Contrary to the Section 122 Proclamation, a trade deficit is not a balance of payments deficit,” the states argued in their lawsuit. 

Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, told Fox News Digital in an interview last year that Trump’s focus on the trade “deficit” is in fact based on a common misconception. 

“We have a dollar deficit – but we have a stuff surplus,” he said. 

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“What that means is we sell China a small amount of stuff, and they sell us a large amount of stuff,” Wolfers explained. For every dollar bill that goes to China, the U.S. gets something for it that Americans want to buy, like T-shirts. 

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House Democrats largely voted to allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown to keep going on Thursday, shrugging off Republicans’ concerns about the increased domestic terror threat amid the U.S.-Israeli operation in Iran.

It comes hours after President Donald Trump shocked Capitol Hill by ousting DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and appointing Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., as his replacement.

But that did not stop the vast majority of Democrats from voting against a bipartisan DHS funding bill aimed at funding the cabinet agency through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. 

The bill did pass the House in a 221 to 209 vote, with all but four House Democrats voting against it — a significant indicator that Noem’s firing is not enough to tip the scales in the ongoing standoff. The Democrats who voted in favor of the funding bill are Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Jared Golden, D-Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez, D-Wash., and Don Davis, D-N.C.

Nearly identical legislation already passed the House in January, but House GOP leaders wanted to force the vote again in light of heightened national security concerns within the country’s borders.

While largely symbolic, it shows Republicans’ pressure strategy is falling on deaf ears as the left continues to protest President Donald Trump’s strategy to combat illegal immigration.

The bill was the product of original bipartisan negotiations that followed the longest-ever full government shutdown in U.S. history, which ended in November after 43 days.

It would fully fund all aspects of DHS while also including new guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demanded by Democrats, like a body-worn camera mandate and new required training on public engagement and de-escalation.

But Democrats walked away from the deal en masse amid fallout from Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which saw two U.S. citizens shot and killed by federal agents during anti-ICE demonstrations there. The operation has since ended.

Democratic leaders are still insisting on withholding their caucus’ support, however, until further restrictions are put on ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on the ground in various cities.

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., signaled to reporters that Noem’s ouster was not enough.

“It’s not like Kristi Noem was the one who was involved in negotiating anything. She was a corrupt lackey. So we were dealing with the White House before, and we’re going to continue to deal with the White House at this point,” he said.

Meanwhile, the resulting DHS shutdown has taken on new significance as the U.S. continues its campaign to take out Iran’s top leadership and its military sites.

Republican leaders are warning that keeping DHS in a shutdown state is dangerous for national security, given its jurisdiction over agencies that monitor threats from home and abroad.

SWALWELL PRESSED ON DEMOCRATS’ RESISTANCE TO FULLY FUNDING DHS AMID IRAN THREAT

“Now is the time to be vigilant at home and to ensure that all of our doors are locked, so to speak,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a press conference Wednesday. “And yet, as all this is happening, we have Democrats running around here playing political games in Congress. It’s infuriating. They’ve shut down the very agency that is responsible for securing the homeland.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Republicans’ argument “insane” when asked by Fox News Digital earlier this week.

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“Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East. … He decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people, and then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restriction on the American people?” Jeffries posed. “I think it’s ridiculous.”

It’s the Senate, however, where passing that DHS funding bill is actually key to ending the shutdown. The upper chamber voted again Thursday on the original legislation that passed the House in January, but it failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster.

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Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby faced tough questions Thursday about President Donald Trump‘s previous statements about war with Iran. 

While Colby was testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, the Democratic ranking member said that the president broke his campaign promise.

Colby appeared before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday to testify about the recently-released 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS). Several lawmakers focused on the U.S.’s Operation Epic Fury, as U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran continue.

“When President Trump was running for office, he said over and over and over again, ‘I’m not going to do wars.’ In fact, he very specifically said, ‘If I’m president, we will not go to war with Iran.’ And here we are. So I’m genuinely curious what changed? What changed from when he was a candidate to when he was in office?” Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said.

Smith later asked Colby the question, saying that Trump had routinely implied that “his mere presence and his policies” could prevent wars as part of his “America First agenda.” The lawmaker then wondered how that agenda allegedly failed in Iran.

“I think the president sincerely meant that. He sincerely meant, ‘you put me in office, I’m going to do things to make sure that we don’t go to war with Iran.’ He failed. We’re at war with Iran,” Smith said.

PENTAGON OFFICIAL FLAGS RETURN OF ‘COLD WAR MENTALITY,’ AS TRUMP ADMIN RESHAPES NATO ALLIANCE

Colby pushed back, saying he did not think that the agenda had failed in Iran, noting Trump’s consistency in opposing Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. However, the ranking member would not accept that answer and retorted, once again bringing up the president’s statements about not going to war.

The Pentagon policy chief later brought up the president’s commitment to “peace through strength,” citing the peace deals Trump has struck, such as the one in Gaza, as examples of “peace” and saying that what was happening in Iran was the “strength” part.

The lawmaker accepted Colby’s answer as “solid enough” before saying that there was “no question that he failed” in light of the launch of Operation Epic Fury.

Colby was not the only one to refute the argument that Trump broke promises by acting in Iran. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said that under Trump’s leadership, “we’re preventing endless wars.” 

Another lawmaker, Rep. Richard McCormick, R-Ga., asked Colby whether he would consider what is happening in Iran to be “a forever war,” to which the Pentagon official said, “No, sir.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump said that he would not drag the U.S. into endless wars and also spoke against Iran having a nuclear weapon. 

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt refuted what she described as “fake news headlines” suggesting U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran were unjustifiable. She told reporters at the first White House press briefing since Operation Epic Fury began that Iran “is a rogue terrorist regime that has been threatening the United States, our allies and our people for 47 years.”

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“The American people are smart enough to know that. And they’ve also been smart enough to listen to the president himself, not just over the past year in this second term, but during his first term as president, and also for the past 40 years of his life,” Leavitt said. “This is a president who has been remarkably consistent on this issue, that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. And the president tried peace through diplomacy exhaustively and extensively.”

“He and his team gave it their best go, and the president ultimately came to the determination of that peace was not a suitable path,” she said. “The Iranian regime, they want death. They want destruction. They want to kill Americans. And that’s unacceptable to this president. It’s intolerable to him as commander in chief.”

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Virginia lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that requires public schools to describe the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as a violent attack and specifically prohibits teachers from framing it as a peaceful protest.

Virginia Democrats have quickly advanced a slew of controversial legislation since Gov. Abigail Spanberger was elected in November and their ranks ballooned in the state House, including a bid to redraw every Republican congressman except Rep. Morgan Griffith out of their seats to make the Democratic majority 10-1 in the state’s congressional delegation. Now, they are taking steps to shape how the history of Jan. 6 is taught to children.

HB 333, crafted by Del. Dan I. Helmer of Fairfax, bars public school programs from describing the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as a peaceful protest or presenting claims that widespread election fraud altered the 2020 presidential results as credible.

The bill specifically “prohibits” instruction that portrays the insurrection as peaceful or suggests there was “extensive election fraud” that could have changed the election outcome. However, it does not lay out any explicit criminal penalties for violations.

In a statement to the Virginia Mercury on the bill, Helmer said there is “real concern” that President Donald Trump is “trying to rewrite the history of January 6; borne out by the fact there is a WhiteHouse.gov site that presents a false history.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Virginia Republicans for comment.

The Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists also came out against the bill, with executive director Michael Huffman testifying before a state Senate committee that the true education equips children for life, not political agendas, and glorifying or mandating … the dark day serves only short-sighted partisanship, not our kids’ future,” according to Hampton Roads’ PBS affiliate.

Helmer, an Iraq War veteran and staunch gun control advocate, was first elected by flipping what was Fairfax County’s last remaining Republican district, along its border with Prince William County, in 2020.

VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS MOVE TO SEIZE REDISTRICTING POWER, OPENING DOOR TO 4 NEW LEFT-LEANING SEATS

Helmer also announced a bid for Congress in one of the newly-redrawn districts nicknamed the “lobster” or the “scorpion” by critics – as it runs from the Potomac River in Arlington southwestward before splitting in two “claws” to reach out toward the West Virginia line near Rawley Springs and the other jutting down toward Goochland and Powhatan effectively collecting a swath of Republican-leaning towns and pitting them against a small but densely-populated Democrat stronghold.

One of his ads in a 2018 congressional bid compared Trump to Usama bin Laden, where he narrated that the “greatest threat to democracy” used to live “in a cave” but now “he lives in the White House.”

He had recused himself from the redistricting redraw, according to the New York Times, but is considered a top ally of House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, who engineered the effort in the lower chamber.

While the new map has yet to get voters’ approval in an April special election, Helmer has also garnered at least one Democratic challenger in the would-be heavily Democratic-favored district.

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Prosecutor J.P. Cooney, the former top deputy of Special Counsel Jack Smith in his investigation of Trump, told the New York Times that the mogul is not being sufficiently “check[ed]” by Congress and that the DHS-involved shooting of Alex Pretti solidified his decision.

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

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Kristi Noem, the former South Dakota congresswoman and governor who has led President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security thus far in his second term, was ousted from her position on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump announced his he will nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace her on Truth Social. 

Noem, 54, will likely be at least temporarily replaced by Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, a Navy veteran and former mayor of Los Alamitos, California, in the line of succession for the agency.

Noem’s tenure marked a distinct reversal of the open-border policies permitted by predecessor Alejandro Mayorkas during the Biden administration, and DHS has notched record drug interdictions totaling more than half a million pounds of illegal drugs in her first year.

Her management of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda has also led to more than 2 million reported self-deportations in 2025 and about 670,000 removals of illegal immigrants, a figure supporters have hailed as the most successful immigration enforcement operation in history.

Her agency has also been unafraid to hit back at high-profile critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom; Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz; and 2026 midterm candidate David Trone of Maryland, who accused DHS of “executing people in the streets” as he filmed a protest ad outside a Williamsport compound recently purchased for use as a detention facility.

Such criticisms of her mass deportation operations, particularly in Minneapolis, appeared to somewhat sour public sentiment on the administration’s handling of the immigration issue, as U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino — a DHS subordinate — was replaced in the Twin Cities by Border Czar Tom Homan amid the firestorm.

Meanwhile, reports surfaced Thursday that Trump is “furious” with Noem over her performance in bicameral Judiciary Committee hearings this week, particularly over a contract for an advertisement that Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and others grilled her on.

Trump reportedly took issue with her suggesting to Kennedy that he approved a taxpayer-funded ad subcontracted to a firm connected with her inner circle, according to National Review, which also reported that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., is being considered a top candidate for her replacement.

“I haven’t talked to the president,” Mullin told the magazine.

In Wednesday’s House hearing, Noem was questioned by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., over rumors of an affair with DHS “special government employee” Corey Lewandowski, a top figure in Trump’s 2016 campaign.

TRUMP UNLOADS ON ‘RADICAL LEFT’ AS HE STANDS BY KRISTI NOEM AMID IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT UNREST

Noem criticized Kamlager-Dove in response, as her husband, insurance company owner and former South Dakota first gentleman Bryon Noem, sat just feet behind her.

Kamlager-Dove asked Noem if at any time during her tenure she had “sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski,” before slamming the longtime Trump aide as a “failed campaign manager” and someone lacking military experience.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., followed up, pressing Noem on Lewandowski while wearing a Justice for Cricket pin referencing the dog Noem once wrote she had to euthanize on her farm.

“I really think you need to say the word ‘no’ into the record so that you can clear that up,” Moskowitz said.

Noem pushed back hard on both Democrats, saying what they were implying is “offensive” and telling Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that she was “shocked that we’re going down and peddling this tabloid garbage in this committee today.”

“The socialist, liberal left: you go off and you attack conservative women and you say that we’re either stupid or we’re sluts. That’s what you do. And I will tell you sir… I am neither of those,” Noem fumed at Moskowitz.

Through the recent turmoil, many Republicans remained highly complimentary of Noem’s tenure.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a former law enforcement officer himself, said during the hearing that he was “embarrassed by the antics of my colleagues across the aisle.”

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“Madam Secretary, you inherited a disaster, and you turned it around. An astonishing 97% decrease in illegal crossings isn’t a coincidence; it’s leadership. Know that this committee has your back,” Higgins said.

When Swalwell pressed her on the ad campaign and contract, Noem shot back that while the Alameda Democrat was “focusing on photo-ops and luxury jets, I’m focused on the fact that the Coast Guard might not get paid because your party is choosing not to fund them.”

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger officially endorsed a Democratic-led redistricting amendment set to go before the commonwealth’s voters on April 21.

The effort, spearheaded by Senate President L. Louise Lucas and House Speaker Don Scott Jr., is written to “restore fairness” in Virginia’s congressional representation. Critics have called that phrasing misleading, arguing the map designed by Lucas would likely would likely redraw districts in a way that removes every Republican lawmaker except Rep. Morgan Griffith.

“I supported the formation of VA’s bipartisan redistricting commission in 2020 and that support has not changed,” Spanberger said in a video address Thursday.

What has changed, she said, is Republican-led states’ efforts to pursue their own redistricting moves, including in Texas. Indiana Republicans voted down a proposal that may have redistricted out some Democrats, including Rep. Frank Mrvan of Indiana.

Spanberger claimed the amendment is “temporary” and “directly in response” to actions in other states and to President Donald Trump’s reported comment that he is “entitled” to more congressional seats.

“It preserves Virginia’s fair redistricting process into the future,” Spanberger said from Richmond.

Incredulous Republicans piled on the Democratic governor on Thursday, noting her change in tune at least on a definitional level since McAuliffe and Youngkin-era redistricting moves.

Ian Lovejoy of Manassas and otherwise center-right Fauquier County — one of the slew of now-former Republican delegates ousted in the November blue wave that swept Spanberger into office — cited her comments after a 2019 redistricting effort was halted by the Supreme Court.

“This is good news for Virginia and the country. Gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy and it weakens the individual voices that form our electorates. Opposing gerrymandering should be a bipartisan priority,” Spanberger said at the time, in a post screenshotted by Lovejoy.

THIS CRUCIAL STATE IS THE LATEST BATTLEGROUND IN REDISTRICTING WAR BETWEEN TRUMP AND DEMOCRATS

“I agree with the Governor on this one,” Lovejoy wrote in a caption accompanying the post.

“[A]nd [I] hope everyone votes no on the illegal gerrymandering amendment — early voting starts Friday.”

“Who could possibly vote against ‘fairness’?” asked Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, noting the turn of phrase in the measure.

“This ballot language is so heavy-handed and misleading that it’s essentially fraud on the people of Virginia,” Williams said. “It frames a blatant, maximalist partisan gerrymander as an act of restoration.”

Amid a flurry of lawsuits, with the most consequential case moving through courts in Tazewell County in the mountainous western end of the state,

In that case, Judge Jack Hurley Jr. declared the amendment process “void ab initio” over a conflict in statutory early voting timelines and alleged abuse of the state’s special session provision. He separately barred Tazewell County from preparing for the election.

A higher court stayed one of Hurley’s orders, allowing the referendum to move forward on April 21 while the merits of the case are decided. A top Republican lawmaker told Fox News Digital that could result in a ruling issued days after votes are cast.

On Wednesday, another development emerged as a new Bedford County lawsuit against an abortion rights amendment could also affect the redistricting measure.

Bedford County Supervisor Charla Bansley filed suit Tuesday, arguing the abortion initiative is invalid because the Democrat-led state legislature did not abide by a 1971 notice requirement mandating that all county clerks be notified for public inspection of the amendment three months before the 2025 election.

VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS CHARGE ‘POWER GRAB’ AS DEMOCRAT WHO BACKED REDISTRICTING RUNS FOR CONGRESS

A Republican source told Fox News Digital that Democrats “bet the farm” on the redistricting amendment, and that “if it fails on the notice requirement, so do their other three amendments.”

Bansley told the Virginia Mercury that her county, along with the independent city of Lynchburg and adjacent Campbell County, never received notice of that particular amendment.

The news sparked chatter, including in the Virginia Scope newsletter, that an unfavorable ruling for the legislature could also endanger the redistricting amendment.

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Abortion amendment sponsor Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Great Falls, told the Mercury the lawsuit is a “frivolous attempt” to silence voters.

Neither Scott nor Lucas have responded to several prior inquiries about criticisms of the redistricting amendment.

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The Department of Justice indicated Thursday it is still investigating the legality of former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen despite reports that the probe has been shelved because prosecutors have been unable to identify any criminal charges to bring.

Multiple sources told Fox News Digital that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office was still looking into the Biden White House’s autopen use after the New York Times reported that the inquiry was recently tabled.

Pirro responded to the report in an X post on Thursday, saying the DOJ “cannot comment on ongoing investigations,” signaling the investigation remained open.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the “inquiry was quietly shelved” because the DOJ failed “to build a criminal case against Mr. Biden and his aides.”

Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor, previously said legal challenges to Biden’s autopen use would likely be unsuccessful.

“Many are suggesting that the Biden pardons may now be challenged in light of the disclosures of Biden’s use of an autopen,” Turley wrote on social media in 2025. “The chances of such challenges succeeding are vanishingly low. Presidents are allowed to use the autopen and courts will not presume a dead-hand conspiracy.”

While other presidents have used autopens, including Trump — who has said he used it on “unimportant” documents — Biden’s became a flashpoint as scrutiny of his mental acuity grew during his tenure.

BIDEN’S ‘AUTOPEN SIGNATURE’ APPEARS ON MOST OFFICIAL DOCS, RAISING CONCERNS OVER WHO CONTROLLED THE WH: REPORT

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee investigated the matter, interviewing several former Biden staffers. The committee alleged in a report that Biden’s use of the autopen amounted to a scandal and recommended the DOJ investigate further.

“As President Biden declined, his staff abused the autopen and a lax chain-of-command policy to effect executive actions that lack any documentation of whether they were in fact authorized,” the report read.

Trump has been eager to see accountability over the autopen, claiming on social media that any staff who used the autopen on behalf of Biden did so “illegally” and threatening the former president with perjury charges.

Biden has forcefully denied the allegations, saying in a statement last year he was in charge of decision-making.

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

The committee had homed in on Biden’s pardons, including five controversial pardons for his family members in the final days of his presidency, saying there was a lack of “contemporaneous documentation” to corroborate that Biden directly ordered the pardons.

The committee asked the DOJ to investigate “all of former President Biden’s executive actions, particularly clemency actions, to assess whether legal action must be taken to void any action that the former president did not, in fact, take himself.”

TRUMP RENEWS ATTACKS ON BIDEN AUTOPEN PARDONS, CLAIMS HE ‘NEVER GAVE THE ORDERS’

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Asked for comment, the White House deferred to the DOJ. 

DOJ headquarters declined to comment.

Fox News’ David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is making it clear: he’s staying in the race for the Republican Senate nomination even if President Donald Trump endorses Paxton’s rival, longtime Sen. John Cornyn.

“I’m staying in this race,” Paxton said in an interview Wednesday evening. “I owe it to the people of Texas.” 

Trump says he’ll soon take sides in the costly and combustible GOP primary showdown Cornyn and Paxton. 

“I will be making my Endorsement soon,” the president wrote in a social media post hours after Cornyn and Paxton advanced to a May 26 runoff election. 

The two heated rivals topped a crowded field of contenders in Tuesday’s primary, but since no one cleared the 50% threshold, the nomination race heads into overtime.

Trump added that he “will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!”

A Republican operative in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News Digital it’s expected Cornyn will get the president’s endorsement. However, the president has been known to change his mind on candidates or even reverse endorsements. 

A second source in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News that while there’s still jockeying to influence the president’s decision, given Cornyn’s better-than-expected performance in the primary, Trump is expected to back the senator and prevent a messy and expensive runoff.

CONTENTIOUS REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY IN TEXAS HEADED INTO OVERTIME

Asked if he would end his Senate bid if Trump backed Cornyn, Paxton, a MAGA firebrand and longtime Trump supporter and ally, said no in an interview with Real America’s Voice.

“I’ve spent a year of my life campaigning against John Cornyn because John has not represented the people of Texas well,” Paxton argued. “He’s been against Trump in both of his elections, said he shouldn’t run last time. … The people of Texas, at least the Republicans, would like something different.” 

And a source in Paxton’s political orbit emphasized to Fox News Digital that the Texas attorney general isn’t getting out of the race.

Cornyn or Paxton will face off in the general election against rising Democratic Party star state Rep. James Talarico, who topped progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in the Democrats’ primary. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in right-leaning Texas.

‘OPEN BORDERS, TRUMP-HATING RADICAL’—REPUBLICANS QUICKLY POUNCE ON TALARICO

The 2026 Senate showdown in Texas is one of a handful across the country that could determine if Republicans hold their majority in the chamber in the midterm elections. The GOP currently controls the chamber 53–47.

The Cornyn campaign and aligned super PACs spent nearly $100 million to run ads attacking Paxton and Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt — who came in third — with the senator charging in the closing weeks of the primary campaign that Democrats would flip the seat in the general election if Paxton was the GOP’s nominee.

Cornyn, his allies and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing messy divorce.

“Over the next 12 weeks, Texas Republican primary voters will hear more about my record of delivering conservative victories in the United States Senate, and learn more about Ken’s indefensible personal behavior and failures in office,” Cornyn told reporters on Tuesday night.

“Just like the primary, we have a plan to win the runoff, and we are in the process of executing it,” Cornyn said. “Judgment day is coming for Ken Paxton.” 

Paxton, a MAGA firebrand and longtime Trump supporter and ally who grabbed significant national attention by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, told supporters on primary night, “As we head into this runoff, we’re going to make the choice even clearer. While John Cornyn was cutting deals on gun control and amnesty, I was suing corrupt Joe Biden over 107 times.”

And he charged, “John Cornyn spent around $100 million trying to buy this seat. We’ve spent around $5 million.”

ROUND TWO OF CORNYN VS. PAXTON GETS UNDER WAY

Trump on Wednesday urged, “for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW!”

And pointing to Talarico, the president argued, “We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively.”

“Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT!” Trump warned.

Trump, whose clout over the GOP remains immense, stayed neutral in the Republican primary race. All three candidates, who sought the president’s endorsement, were in attendance Friday as Trump held an event in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“They’re in a little race together,” Trump said of Cornyn and Paxton. “You know that, right? A little bit of a race. It’s going to be an interesting one, right? They’re both great people, too.”

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the lobbying campaign to clinch the endorsement for Cornyn hasn’t stopped, and if anything, is intensifying in the hours since primary night.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that Cornyn had “a great night” against Paxton. The top Senate Republican has spent the last several months bending Trump’s ear at every opportunity to jump into the race and back the longtime incumbent.

“He’s positioned to win the runoff, and if the president endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and a lot of, you know, just 10 weeks of another spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats,” Thune said.

Thune spoke with Cornyn on Wednesday morning, and believed that Talarico was the more formidable match-up for Republicans in November — one that Cornyn was better suited to win. 

“The matchup that’s good for us is John Cornyn at the top of the ticket,” Thune said.

NRSC communications director Joanna Rodriguez told Fox News Digital, “John Cornyn remains the only candidate who guarantees state Rep. Talarico never becomes a United States senator and ensures the fight for President Trump’s Senate majority is waged in true battleground states, not Texas.”

And the Thune-aligned Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), the top super PAC backing Senate Republicans, which spent millions on behalf of Cornyn in the primary campaign, made it clear in a statement early Wednesday that it will continue to support the senator in the runoff.

“SLF and its sister organizations were proud to support Senator Cornyn early, and we look forward to him securing the Republican nomination on May 26,” the group’s executive director, Alex Latcham, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a GOP political operative in Trump’s orbit told Fox News Digital, “Talarico being the nominee makes President Trump’s endorsement of Cornyn more important than ever.”

While Trump stayed neutral, his top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, helped the Cornyn campaign. And veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita, who served as co-campaign manager of Trump’s 2024 White House bid, consulted for a top Cornyn-aligned super PAC. 

LaCivita, in a social media post Tuesday night aimed at Paxton and his top political consultant, wrote, “The second wave is going to be a (bi–h.)”

But on the Paxton side of the playing field, operatives and donors are confident they can unseat the senator.

Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling chief executive officer and prominent Republican donor and bundler who supports Paxton, told Fox News Digital, “This was Cornyn’s shot to fend off his challenger by getting over 50%, and he couldn’t do it. The runoff voters will be even less friendly territory for Cornyn.”

Pointing to former longtime Senate GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has often acted as a Trump foil, Eberhart said, “This race is about MAGA vs. McConnell.”

Meanwhile, Lone Star Liberty, a pro-Paxton super PAC, circulated a memo ahead of Tuesday’s election that shrugged off threats that Cornyn would succeed in the runoff by continuing to hammer the attorney general over his litany of scandals, arguing there was nothing new to offer.

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“Cornyn’s talk of ‘unleashing’ new attacks in the runoff is bluster,” the memo states. “The truth is that from day one, his forces fired every bullet they had. There are no new attacks left — only more of the same, at ever-greater cost and with ever-diminishing returns.”

Fox News’ Rich Edson contributed to this report

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Former President Barack Obama on Thursday endorsed Democrats’ redistricting effort in Virginia that could grant the party four additional seats in the House of Representatives.

Virginia is one of several states engaged in a nationwide redistricting battle ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. So far, Obama has thrown his weight behind Democrat initiatives in both California and now Virginia.

“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. But right now, they’re under attack,” Obama wrote on X Thursday.

“Several Republican-controlled states have redrawn their congressional maps to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterm elections. Now Virginia has a chance to help level the playing field. If you live in the Commonwealth, early voting begins March 6, and Election Day is on April 21. Vote YES,” he added.

Obama urged Californians to back Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s redistricting effort late last year, arguing it was a “responsible” tactic in response to GOP redistricting efforts in Texas.

His newfound support for redrawing congressional maps comes six years after he and former Attorney General Eric Holder launched All On The Line, a “a grassroots movement to fight gerrymandering and advocate for a fair redistricting process.”

Obama also blasted gerrymandering during his final State of the Union address, during which he said the nation must “end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around.”

VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS CHARGE ‘POWER GRAB’ AS DEMOCRAT WHO BACKED REDISTRICTING RUNS FOR CONGRESS

The battle over congressional districts has spilled out across the country, with President Donald Trump and top Democrats urging allied state legislatures to take action.

The Supreme Court weighed in on the issue earlier this week, ruling in favor of a Republican representative from New York challenging a Democrat redistricting effort.

Over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices, the conservative majority halted a state court ruling that had ordered New York’s redistricting commission to redraw the district held by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., which covers Staten Island and a small piece of Brooklyn.

A judge had ruled that the district was drawn in a way that dilutes the power of its Black and Hispanic voters and had instructed the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to complete a new map.

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“Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to keep New York’s 11th Congressional District intact helps restore the public’s confidence in our judicial system and proves the challenge to our district lines was always meritless,” Malliotakis said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The plaintiffs in this case attempted to manipulate our state’s courts to use race as a weapon to rig our elections,” she added. “That was wrong and, as demonstrated by today’s ruling, clearly unconstitutional.” 

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Chaos erupted during a Senate hearing Wednesday when Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., jumped in to help Capitol Police remove a protester — an encounter that may have left the man injured.

Video of the incident showed Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, stepping in as officers struggled to remove Brian McGinnis, a Marine Corps veteran running as a Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina.

Sheehy said in a statement that “Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protester from the Armed Services hearing.”

“He was fighting back. I decided to help out and deescalate the situation,” he said. “This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one. I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence.”

Before the scuffle, McGinnis stood up during a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on the Current Readiness of the Joint Force hearing and shouted, “America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel.”

Police immediately moved to remove him from the hearing room, with two officers attempting to corral McGinnis. After a struggle, they got him to the exit. That’s where Sheehy stepped in.

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McGinnis grabbed the door and held on, wedging his arm between the door and its frame. As officers and Sheehy pushed to get him to let go, a loud cracking sound could be heard in the video. It was not immediately clear whether his arm was broken during the struggle.

Capitol Police said in a statement that “an unruly man who started to illegally protest during a hearing put everyone in a dangerous position by violently resisting and fighting our officers’ attempts to remove him from the room.”

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Police said three officers were treated for injuries after working to remove McGinnis. They added that he “got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room” and was also treated.

McGinnis faces three counts of assault on a police officer, three counts of resisting arrest, and a charge of crowding, obstructing and incommoding related to the unlawful demonstration.

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“Protests are not allowed inside the congressional buildings,” Capitol Police said. “There are plenty of other spots on Capitol Grounds, outside, where demonstrations are allowed.”

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Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., plans to introduce a bill that would halt entry from a set of Muslim countries, an effort Ogles framed as a continuation of travel restrictions President Donald Trump implemented in 2017.

“Mass Islamic immigration, legal or illegal, has transformed America and brought destructive consequences,” Ogles said.

“America’s moral exemplar is a meek carpenter who rose from the dead, not a warmonger with 12 wives and countless slaves. My bill will preserve this truth.”

Ogles’ bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prevent admission of aliens from a series of countries with predominantly Muslim populations and a handful of other U.S. adversaries as Republicans continue to express concerns about Islamic ideologies and possible ties to recent acts of violence.

The bill, dubbed the “Halt Immigration from Countries with Inadequate Verification Capabilities Act” (HICIVA), targets Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

The bill describes those countries as regions “where the government or prevailing conditions do not allow for reliable verification of the identities, backgrounds, or intentions” for travelers looking to enter the U.S. The ban would also apply to individuals who have lived in the listed countries in the five years before the date of their attempted entry.

It makes an exception for U.S. citizens.

Ogles’ plans to introduce his bill come on the heels of a deadly shooting in Austin, Texas, that left at least three dead and over a dozen others injured.

While investigators declined to definitively ascribe motives to the attack, police discovered the suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, 53, wearing a hoodie marked with the words “property of Allah” on the front. A search of his home also revealed an Iranian flag and photos of Islamic leaders.

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Diagne was shot and killed in a confrontation with law enforcement on Sunday.

The shooting came just one day after the United States struck the Islamic Republic of Iran alongside Israel, targeting the country’s military leadership, citing an imperative to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on Saturday.

Investigators said they would take recent events into consideration as they evaluated the Austin shooting.

“We’re looking at the totality of this. We see these indicators, we’re thinking about events and what’s occurring in the country as well. The motives – all of those things, that’s what the investigation is about right now,” Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said in a press event.

While the investigation into the motives for the attack continues, Ogles believes Islam itself presents a threat to the United States as an idea.

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“In 2017, President Trump rightly called out the unassimilable nature of those from Islamic nations, and I want to make it statute. America is no place for a religion that endorses pedophilia, sex slavery, polygamy, abuse of women and the murder of Christians,” Ogles said, referring to an executive order from Trump’s first term.

That 2017 order made by Trump also sought to ban travel from the six countries highlighted by Ogles’ bill, and Iraq, for 90 days.

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The bill notes that the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s power to enact the restriction in the case of Trump v. Hawaii, stating in its decision that Trump had been motivated by security concerns and not religious animus.

According to Ogles’ office, Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., will also join the bill as an original sponsor.  

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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signaled he may be willing to grant clemency to a pro-Trump election worker who was thrown in jail for a 2020 scheme attempting to find proof of election fraud.

President Donald Trump has been pressuring Polis to release Tina Peters, 70, since he returned to office last year. Polis acknowledged that Peters’ sentence was “harsh,” given that she had no prior criminal record.

Polis admitted on social media this week that Peters was sentenced to 9 years in prison while a former state lawmaker convicted of the same crime was sentenced only to probation and community service.

“Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law. This is the context I am using as I consider cases like this that have sentencing disparities,” Polis wrote on X.

The Democratic governor said earlier this week that it would impact his decision if Peters expressed remorse for her actions in 2020, which she so far has not.

“What she would have to show in any successful clemency application would be appropriate contrition, apology. That’s the kind of thing I would be looking for,” he told KUSA-TV.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, whose office helped prosecute Peters, pushed back on Polis’ comments and emphasized that Peters has not demonstrated any remorse for her actions.

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“Clemency should be based on remorse, rehabilitation, and extenuating circumstances — not on political influence, favor, or retribution,” Weiser, a Democrat who is running to succeed the term-limited Polis, said.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is also hoping to replace Polis as governor, also said Peters shouldn’t be pardoned or have her sentence commuted.

“Donald Trump may be seeking revenge on Colorado, but surrendering to his political pressure will not make our state stronger or safer,” the Democrat said.

Trump has posted on social media about Peters’ case multiple times, describing her as a “patriot.”

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“Instead of protecting Americans and their Tax Dollars, Democrats chose instead to prosecute anyone they can find that wanted Safe and Secure Elections,” Trump posted last year. “Democrats have been relentless in their targeting of TINA PETERS, a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure that our Elections were Fair and Honest.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The more than six-year prison sentencing of illegal alien Jose Melgar-Rivas for causing serious injuries to a federal officer by dragging him with his vehicle shows why the agent who shot activist Renee Good feared for his life, an expert told Fox News Digital.

U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester announced Tuesday that Melgar-Rivas had been sentenced to serve 78 months in federal prison for assaulting, resisting or impeding a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, resulting in bodily injury.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, lauded the sentencing as “great news.” She noted, however, that “unfortunately, this is just one of many examples of either aliens and/or rioters, illegal obstructionists, assaulting federal agents with vehicles.”

She pointed to a dramatic rise in vehicular assaults on federal immigration enforcement officers, most notably including an attack on ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who was dragged by an illegal immigrant’s vehicle in a similar incident in Minnesota. That agent later shot and killed activist Renee Good when she allegedly accelerated her vehicle at him in a confrontation with law enforcement.

Ries called for Melgar-Rivas’ sentencing to be “announced far and wide.” She said that “others need to know that there are, in fact, consequences for both obstructing ICE carrying out their lawful federal enforcement duties, but also there are severe consequences for assaulting and harming ICE agents [and] federal agents.”

According to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma, Melgar-Rivas, a Honduran national who entered the country illegally, attempted to evade arrest by placing his car in drive and accelerating during a struggle with agents. The office said that an ICE officer became caught in the vehicle’s door and was dragged down the roadway, resulting in him sustaining “multiple, serious injuries.”

The incident occurred on July 15, 2025, in Oklahoma City. Melgar-Rivas was arrested several hours later. He was charged by a federal grand jury with assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer resulting in bodily injury and pleaded guilty on September 30, 2025.

The office said Melgar-Rivas will be deported after serving his 78-month sentence.

In response to the sentencing announcement, Ries emphasized that “there are severe consequences for assaulting and harming ICE agents, federal agents, and this sentence expresses that.”

Ries pointed to a DHS statistic from February stating there have been 180 vehicular attacks on federal agents, constituting a 3,300 percent increase in vehicular attacks against ICE since President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office.

Ries linked this rise in attacks to what she referred to as an organized and concerted effort to “cause division and disruption in the U.S.” and to “prevent deportations to keep the left in political power.”

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“Clearly the word went out from trainers, the organizers on the left, who instruct both aliens and rioters, protesters, obstructionists on how to interfere with federal agents conducting their job,” said Ries. “All of these people who are rioting and protesting and obstructing are directed to do so. Perhaps they swap their signs out now for ‘hands off Iran,’ because many of these protests, whether it’s anti-ICE, hands off Iran, hands-off Venezuela, et cetera, et cetera, it’s the same funders, it’s the same organizers, in some cases it’s the very same so-called protesters.”

“None of it is organic, and we need to keep attention on that fact,” she added.

One such attack rocked the nation in January when it resulted in Ross shooting and killing Good in Minneapolis.

According to DHS, criminal illegal immigrant and sex offender Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala dragged Ross 50 yards with his car in Bloomington, Minnesota, while trying to evade arrest. During a traffic stop, Munoz-Guatemala refused to exit his vehicle and tried to flee law enforcement. The department said the ICE officer still had his arm inside Munoz-Guatemala’s vehicle as the illegal immigrant tried to drive away. Ross was hospitalized due to his injuries and received 33 stitches in his right arm and left hand.

Ries said that less discussed is that this rise in violent obstruction “takes a lot of psychological toll and emotional toll on agents.”

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“There’s clearly a pattern of aliens and obstructionists using their vehicles to interfere with and even threaten ICE agents. And as an ICE agent or federal agent, when you know that, if yet another car is put into drive and is aimed in your direction, then that goes to the mindset of that agent.”

“We live in the age of rage, where so many people just want to be outraged at anything. And unfortunately, they become useful tools of these leftist leaders and funders to do their bidding,” she said.

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This, Ries said, is why it is so critical that people understand the serious risks and consequences of attacking agents or interfering with operations.

“If [Good] had not been interfering with ICE agents doing their job that day, she’d still be alive. If she complied with agents’ orders to get out of the car, she would still be alive,” she said. “So, this news of this sentencing needs to go to those in Minneapolis and around the country to comply with officers, to not interfere.”

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem forcefully defended her department’s immigration enforcement policies Wednesday before Democratic lawmakers — part of a heated and contentious House Oversight Committee hearing that, at times, grew deeply personal.

The hearing is the second in back-to-back DHS oversight hearings centered on the agency’s actions on immigration enforcement and Noem’s leadership of the department, and comes as members of Congress remain deadlocked on how to proceed with fully funding the sprawling federal agency.

Here are the top moments from the action-packed hearing. 

Dems home in on Lewandowski, ‘blankies,’ and luxury jets 

Some Democrats on the panel zeroed in on the responsibilities Corey Lewandowski has assumed as a special adviser for the Department of Homeland Security. Rep. Sydney Kalmager-Dove, D-Calif., cited a Wall Street Journal report from last month, that said Trump allegedly rejected Lewandowski’s request to be Noem’s chief of staff “due to reports of a romantic relationship” between the two.

Both Noem and Lewandowski have denied reports of an affair. 

Kalmager-Dove asked Noem, point-blank, about the nature of their relationship. “This person has no experience running anything close to the Department of Homeland Security, or even advising someone in your position,” Kalmager-Dove said, noting his role as a special government employee has extended a “well beyond the allowed 130-day” period. 

“He is unqualified, which has left my constituents and I wondering why he is your top official,” she added. 
“So, Secretary Noem, at any time during your tenure as Director of Department of Homeland Security, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?” 

Noem turned to address House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan briefly before responding. “Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that we’re going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today,” she said. 

To Kalmager-Dove, she said: “Ma’am, one thing that I would tell you is that he is a special government employee who works for the White House. There are thousands of them in the federal government.”

Raskin says Noem is ‘flying too close to the sun’

The panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., pressed Noem for details about Lewandowski’s role at DHS, though in the context of the question of DHS’s use of so-called “luxury jets.” Noem had defended use of the jets one day prior during Senate testimony, noting they were used for both executive travel and mass deportations.

Raskin said Wednesday that he had nearly been prepared to buy that story. “And then I heard about an airborne episode of entitlement, arrogance and contempt that I could hardly believe.”

“Apparently, when your special blanket — your blankie — was left on one of the government jets and not transported over the new one, your special government employee, Corey Lewandowski, chivalrous, stepped forward to fire the pilot, mid-air,” Raskin said.

“A 2003 Coast Guard Academy graduate and distinguished U.S. Coast Guard commanded … [who then] had to be rehired immediately because there was no one else who could fly the two of you on the rest of the journey back home,” Raskin said. “Secretary Noem, you’re flying high now, maybe even a little bit too close to the sun.”

The exchanges were markedly tense, largely due to the presence of Noem’s husband, who was sitting in the gallery for the duration of the hearing. 

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Swalwell, Noem showdown

Later in the hearing, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., confronted Noem about the case of Miguel Lopez, a migrant who had been living illegally in the U.S. for some 30 years prior to his deportation last year. Lopez is married to a U.S. resident. “I went and saw Miguel in Mexico,” Swalwell told Noem. “He doesn’t have a job … and it’s hard for him to communicate” after being away from his home country for roughly three decades.

Noemi interjected: “Did he have a criminal record?”

Swalwell acknowledged that Lopez had pleaded guilty to a “lesser nonviolent charge” in 1995, but asked Noem to recognize “the pain” caused by the administration’s broader deportation policy. 

“The pain?” Noem responded. “And I wish people would do things correctly. If they’re not in legal status in this country, they can return home. We will pay for them to return home.” 

As for Miguel, she said, “I hope he got the $2,600 he could have” by choosing to self-deport. 

‘Worst of the Worst’ 

The sharpest exchange came when Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., pressed Noem on the Trump administration’s repeated pledge to target “the worst of the worst” offenders in its removal efforts.

“Tell me about the worst of the worst,” Cohen said.

Noem fired back: “The worst of the worst served. I think you’ve offended the families behind me today with that.”

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Cohen responded that he did not intend to offend anyone and said it was wrong for Noem to suggest he had. But Noem doubled down, arguing that critics were downplaying the consequences of illegal immigration.

“I was commenting on the fact that the individuals aren’t violent offenders, and you keep talking about the fact that these individuals that are in this country illegally don’t harm families,” she said.

Cohen noted that undocumented immigrants are statistically “less likely” than people born in the U.S. to commit crimes.

Noem then gestured to family members seated behind her, invoking stories of children lost to fentanyl overdoses and fatal car crashes involving undocumented drivers.

“The vast majority of these people behind me lost their children due to drugs, overdoses from drugs that came over the southern border,” Noem said. “They died from their kids being hit, accidents on the roads that illegal drivers were driving.”

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Cohen acknowledged the tragedies but argued they did not address his broader point. “All that’s true and given it’s true,” he said. “But you say you’re only going after the worst of the worst, and you’re not.”

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The partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security could impact how the federal government is able to address potential terror threats in the U.S., a public safety expert said, warning that the escalating conflict with Iran could encourage those wishing to harm Americans.

Jeffrey Halstead, a retired police chief in Fort Worth, Texas, and a former commander for Homeland Security for Phoenix police, told Fox News Digital that U.S. military actions could “escalate the mindset of some of these outlying or outlier terrorist entities” wanting to take action. 

“We’ve seen historically that any time there is a conflict, especially in the Middle East with escalating tensions, military action and now a declaration of war, there is a significant impact on the ability for us to work collectively to share intelligence and gather information in a timely manner from our federal partners,” Halstead said. “With the current Department of Homeland Security shutdown, if something were to occur here in the United States, there could be some significant delays because FEMA and other very, very critical divisions of the federal government are basically shut down.”

He specifically pointed out the terrorist attack in Austin, Texas, over the weekend, which left 2 people dead and 14 injured. The suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old naturalized citizen born in Senegal, was also killed.

Authorities said they are investigating the shooting, which took place at a bar at about 2 a.m. on Sunday, as a “potential nexus to terrorism” as Diagne appeared to wear a “Property of Allah” sweatshirt and an undershirt depicting the Iranian flag. A Quran was also later recovered from his vehicle, and an Iranian flag and images of regime leaders were found at his home.

That attack comes after U.S.-Israeli joint military strikes, which began against Iran on Saturday morning, killed the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other leaders, triggering a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Halstead, who is also the director of strategic accounts at Genasys, a communications hardware and software provider that helps communities during emergencies, warned that events in the U.S. later this year, such as World Cup soccer matches and America’s 250th anniversary, could make the U.S. an “escalated target” if the conflict in the Middle East remains active.

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He also said anytime there is a government shutdown, there seems to be a “pretty significant distraction, both politically and administratively, in every facet of our federal government and the manner in which the government operates.”

“Sometimes there is reduced staffing in some of these critical agencies, and some of the agencies aren’t being funded at all,” he said. “This will delay and possibly impede some of that critical intelligence, which could be terroristic threat level intelligence, that needs to be in the hands of local police, so that the beat officers, the patrol officers, as well as all the supervisors, understand the latest and greatest threats, including high-profile targets that could be on the radar of some of these active cells in the United States.”

He added that the government shutdown has an impact on the ability to “get that intelligence as fast as possible into the hands of those that need it” and that delays could be “very, very catastrophic” if the information is ignored or not sent.

Halstead noted that he has not seen any evidence that the shooting in Austin is directly tied to the government shutdown.

“However, when there are military actions overseas, especially in a lot of these high-profile terrorist organizations or terrorist hosting countries, it elevates the mindset for other people to take actions against American citizens and institutions in America,” he explained. “That could be schools and religious sites, and it could be the way that we live our lives with freedom.”

“When these incidents overseas happen that are terror-related, it does instill in the mindset of some of these lone wolf-style actors to take action,” he continued. “And if you look at [the case in Austin], that is exactly what the FBI has profiled to date, that this was a lone wolf probably acting upon the military action that was taken against Iran, and then wearing a shirt, ‘Property of Allah,’ that speaks to his either religious belief and/or possibility of some terroristic ties.”

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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “I am in direct coordination with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and thwart any potential threats to the homeland.”

DHS, President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to place blame on Democrats for the shutdown. After the conflict with Iran began over the weekend, Democratic lawmakers remain unmoved, including those who voted to end the government shutdown in November.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., argued that DHS still has plenty of money left from Trump’s spending bill signed last year and that Democrats are not going to suddenly abandon their demands for reform. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told The Hill that he sees no correlation between the funding negotiations and the ongoing war in Iran.

“I don’t think there’s any relationship between FEMA and Iran — or the Coast Guard, for that matter,” King said.

Republicans contend that the conflict makes DHS funding even more necessary, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., writing on X: “Following the successful strikes on Iran and the FBI’s warning of elevated threats here at home, it is dangerous for Democrats in Washington to keep the Department of Homeland Security shut down.”

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Halstead said the funding fight “looks like all the other shutdowns that we’ve seen,” adding that it “becomes one side against the other, and then they will make some strong allegations and statements and then publicly the other side will make retaliation.”

“This is probably some of the worst infighting I think I’ve seen in almost 40 years,” he said.

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A House Oversight Committee has called seven more individuals to testify in Washington, D.C., about their ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; Leon Black, co-founder of investment firm Apollo Global Management; and Kathryn Ruemmler, former White House counsel to former President Barack Obama.

James Comer, R-Ky., the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, fired off a new round of letters Tuesday after interviewing former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary last week as part of the panel’s expanding probe.

Others called to testify include Lesley Groff, a former longtime executive assistant to Epstein; Sarah Kellen, another former Epstein employee; Doug Band, a longtime personal aide and counselor to Clinton; and tech billionaire Ted Waitt, a former boyfriend of Maxwell.

Addressing each individual, Comer wrote, “Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, and documents obtained by the Committee, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation.”

A spokesperson for Gates told Fox News Digital he will appear before the committee for a transcribed interview scheduled for May 19.

“Gates welcomes the opportunity to appear before the committee,” the spokesperson said. “While he never witnessed or participated in any of Epstein’s illegal conduct, he is looking forward to answering all the committee’s questions to support their important work.”

According to the roughly 3 million emails the Department of Justice released during the Epstein investigation, Gates reportedly had affairs and sought medication to treat a sexually transmitted infection for himself and his wife at that time, Melinda French Gates, without her knowing. 

On Feb. 24, Gates reportedly acknowledged having affairs with two Russian women, which Epstein later discovered, but said they did not involve Epstein’s victims.

“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates said, according to a town hall recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Gates also admitted he was “foolish” to have spent time with Epstein, the outlet reported.

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Billionaire Leon Black, scheduled to testify May 13, has been accused of raping an autistic 16-year-old girl in 2002 at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, according to a high-profile lawsuit filed in the summer of 2023.

The victim alleged that Epstein and Maxwell groomed her to serve as a living “doll” for the late financier and his wealthy associates.

Black, who left Apollo Global Management in 2021, previously hired Epstein for personal tax advice, the firm said last month. 

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Ruemmler, who resigned as a top attorney at Goldman Sachs over her ties to Epstein, will appear before the committee April 21, her spokesperson said Tuesday.

“Ruemmler welcomes the opportunity to appear before the committee,” spokesperson Jennifer Connelly told Reuters. “She has done nothing wrong and had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity on his part.”

Ruemmler previously served as a White House counsel to Obama and an associate counsel to Clinton.

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According to DOJ documents, she reportedly received gifts from Epstein and counseled him on managing media questions regarding his criminal activities. Connelly told the outlet she was a practicing criminal defense attorney at the time and had even represented a client in common with Epstein. 

FOX Business’ Rebecca Rosenberg and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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A Democratic lawmaker who previously drafted impeachment articles against President Donald Trump disrupted a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing Wednesday, accusing Republicans of using concerns about illegal immigrants holding commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to distract from what he called Trump’s broader failures.

“This past weekend a convicted felon with bone spurs illegally attacked Iran, launching a protracted war of regime change,” Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., said during his opening remarks, arguing Republicans were diverting attention from congressional war powers.

The hearing — hosted by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Accountability — focused on whether illegal immigrants are obtaining non-domicile CDLs and whether the Department of Homeland Security has properly coordinated with transportation authorities and ICE to enforce immigration laws tied to commercial trucking.

Officials from Oklahoma and Florida were invited to testify about illegal immigrants holding non-domicile CDL licenses, which they said has caused deadly crashes on the nation’s highways.

St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard del Toro was one of the witnesses, and he investigated a high-profile case in which an illegal immigrant from India with a California CDL allegedly killed a family on Florida’s Turnpike after failing to properly complete an illegal U-turn on the tollway.

As Chairman Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., gaveled the hearing in, Thanedar interrupted with a parliamentary inquiry, questioning why the Homeland Security panel — rather than Transportation — was holding the proceeding.

“Per Rule X, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has jurisdiction over transportation regulatory agencies, and roads and safety thereof,” Thanedar said.

“Any bills to improve highway safety would need to be considered and voted on by that committee.”

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The Detroiter added that he wanted to go on record about his objections to holding the hearing, saying it is really about “scapegoating immigrants” to deflect from issues with Trump’s handling of the economy, “which is running off the road.”

Brecheen appeared nonplussed, and reiterated that the committee remains a proper venue, and whether or not the House Transportation Committee could investigate similarly.

“While DOT is the primary federal regulator of CDLs, DHS plays a critical role in granting work authorizations and immigration benefits through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,” Brecheen said.

“ICE partnered with state highway patrol agencies in several states to conduct joint enforcement operations targeting illegal aliens operating commercial motor vehicles, resulting in significant arrests and taking unsafe drivers off the road.”

He noted one case in his home state where an illegal immigrant with a New York driver’s license that had a REAL ID endorsement and the name “No Name Given” was discovered and arrested along Interstate 40.

He observed the REAL-ID Act itself was signed by former President George W. Bush after 9/11 and that anyone authorized to haul hazardous materials could effectively be driving an 80,000-pound “chemical bomb” if they so chose.

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“This is absolutely under the jurisdiction of this committee,” he said.

After Brecheen’s own opening statement, Thanedar followed.

In 2025, Thanedar first drafted Articles of Impeachment against Trump, saying he is “unfit to serve” and “represents a clear and present danger to our nation’s Constitution.”

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Thanedar’s articles include usurpation of appropriations, abuse of trade powers, violation of First Amendment rights, creation of an unlawful office (DOGE), bribery and tyrannical overreach.

Thanedar was also the only Democrat to appear for the subcommittee hearing.

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With prices still a concern and economic confidence subdued, voter anger toward Washington has reached new highs. 

Majorities say the economy is struggling, inflation is not under control and the federal government is falling short.

A new Fox News survey finds a record 70% disapprove of the job congressional Democrats are doing, up 6 percentage points since December (29% approve). 

Views of congressional Republicans have mostly held steady, with 36% approving and 64% disapproving.

The gap reflects greater party unity on the right: 77% of Republicans approve of their party’s leaders, while just 62% of Democrats approve of theirs.

The sour mood extends beyond Congress. Eight percent are “enthusiastic” about how the federal government is working, and another 26% are “satisfied.” But a majority is “dissatisfied” (33%) or “angry” (32%) with Washington. 

While these views are similar to the one-year point in Joe Biden’s presidency (February 2022), there are two key differences. First, the 8% enthusiastic and the 32% angry are at record highs. And, second, the partisan intensity has flipped. Republicans were more than four times as likely as Democrats to be angry in 2022, while Democrats are more than five times as likely as Republicans to feel that way now.

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“Political science research indicates anger is a more powerful mobilizing force than hope or fear,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducted the survey with Democrat Chris Anderson. “The anger on the left may be one reason Democrats have been doing so well in recent special elections and early 2026 primaries.”

Much of that frustration appears rooted in the economy. Only 30% rate it positively, down from 32% earlier in President Trump’s term (July 2025). More than twice as many say economic conditions are only fair or poor.

Voters are still feeling cost pressures. Compared to a year ago, most say grocery prices have increased (81%), including more than half who say they are up a lot (56%). Large numbers also say costs have increased for utilities (79%), healthcare (71%), housing (65%) and gas (51%).

And while 22% say inflation is completely or mostly under control, the highest going back to 2022, most say it is not.

More than half, 57%, rate their personal finances negatively, and those ratings are especially high among independents (61%), Black voters (66%), voters under 30 (66%), women (66%) and households with income below $50,000 (74%). 

Just 9% say there are a lot of jobs in their community that pay decent wages, while 15% say there are almost none.

Reflecting those concerns, half of voters identify the cost of living (50%) as the most important economic issue facing the country, far ahead of government spending (18%), jobs (10%), income inequality (9%), tariffs (8%) and taxes (4%).

Currently, 43% approve and 57% disapprove of the job Trump is doing overall. It was 44% and 56% in both January and December.

Another 6 in 10 say he is focused on the wrong things. By comparison, 54% said Biden had the wrong focus in November 2021.

Virtually all Democrats are unhappy with the job Trump is doing (95% disapprove) and say he is focused on the wrong issues (94%). Republican unity is strong but not absolute: 87% approve and 83% say he has the right focus. There is a fault line within the GOP over support for the MAGA movement. 

Among Republicans who identify with MAGA, approval of the president climbs to 98% compared to just 63% among non-MAGA Republicans. And there is a similar 38-point gap in whether he is focused on the right issues (95% MAGA vs. 57% non-MAGA).

Most independents disapprove of Trump’s job performance (72%) and think he is focused on the wrong issues (78%).

Border security is the president’s only positive issue, with 52% of voters approving (48% disapprove). His ratings are underwater by 35 points on the cost of living (32% approve, 67% disapprove), 27 points on tariffs, 23 points on the economy and healthcare, 20 points on foreign policy, 19 points on taxes, 13 points on jobs and 6 points on immigration. Republicans rate Trump far more negatively on the cost of living (33% disapprove) than other measures.

On tariffs, 63% of voters disapprove of how Trump is handling them, while another 56% oppose tariffs in general. The top concerns about tariffs are higher consumer costs, the risk of a trade war and reduced product availability. The main reasons for supporting them are preventing unfair trade practices from other countries, protecting U.S. jobs, increasing government revenue and reducing the trade deficit.

After the Supreme Court’s Feb. 20 ruling limiting the administration’s tariff authority, 62% say Trump is being treated fairly by the high court, including majorities of Democrats (76%) and independents (58%) and half of Republicans (50%).

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Still, the Court’s own ratings have slipped: 57% disapprove, up 7 points since last summer. The higher disapproval is driven largely by a near doubling among Republicans, from 20% disapproving in 2025 to 39% today.

Conducted February 28-March 2, 2026, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,004 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (104) and cellphones (642) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (258). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education and area variables to ensure the demographics are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis and voter file data.

Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

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The House Oversight Committee voted along bipartisan lines to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi Wednesday in a motion spearheaded by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., amid continued frustrations with the Department of Justice’s efforts to release the Epstein files.

Mace said she introduced the motion to hear from Bondi on “the department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”

The vote succeeded 24-19, with five Republicans joining Democrats to advance the subpoena.

Besides Mace, the Republicans who voted with Democrats included Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.; and Scott Perry, R-Pa.

Lawmakers like Mace have raised questions about whether Bondi is doing all she can to release its documentation on Epstein in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 

That bill, which became law in November 2025, required the department to release any documents and files related to its investigation on the disgraced financier so long as it didn’t reveal the identities of Epstein’s victims.

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But after the deadline came and went, lawmakers like Mace and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., believe the DOJ has more on the books it hasn’t made public.

Epstein, who had an expansive social circle among the rich and powerful, died in 2019 while incarcerated on charges of sex trafficking minors, leaving behind questions of whether he could have used his vast network to facilitate illegal sexual encounters with minors.

Years later, public demands for accountability and justice for any potential co-conspirators persist.

President Donald Trump promised to deliver on those demands on the campaign trail, but after months without any document releases, lawmakers grew impatient. Bondi attracted frustration early on in Trump’s second term when she told audiences she had a list of Epstein accomplices “sitting on my desk right now.”

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Now, with the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency act, questions remain among some lawmakers about Bondi’s good-faith effort to comply with transparency requirements that carry the force of law as she claims that “all” the files have been released.

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“The American people want answers, and so do we,” Mace said in a post on X.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is unclear when Bondi will be scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee.

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