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EXCLUSIVE: Nearly two dozen state financial officers sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., late Wednesday demanding he take up a bill prohibiting the Biden administration from implementing a program that tracks private investment transactions.

Twenty-three officials in 19 states crafted a letter that demands a bill from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the Protecting Investors’ Personally Identifiable Information Act, be immediately acted upon.

Loudermilk’s bill, H.R. 4551, formally prohibits the SEC from requiring personally identifiable information to be collected under the SEC’s new program and “for other purposes.”

If the bill passes, the signatories argue it could stymie the Securities and Exchange Commission from continuing its implementation of changes to the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), a tracking mechanism for trading activity on the stock market. 

SEC FACES LAWSUIT ALLEGING ‘MASS SURVEILLANCE’ OF STOCK MARKET DATA

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, a Trump appointee, warned the CAT serves as a “comprehensive surveillance database that will collect and store every equity and option trade and quote from every account at every broker by every investor.”

The signatories warned in the letter of civil liberties concerns in that regard as well as the CAT’s “questionable legality.”

“We share the concerns of the American Securities Association … and numerous members of the House and Senate who … [have] expressed concern,” the letter states.

SEC’S SCRUTINY OF BINANCE IS SIMPLY SEEKING INVESTOR PROTECTION: GARY GENSLER

They also said it may be against the law to establish such a database via federal rule versus an act of Congress.

The CAT’s collection of retail investors’ information “poses a clear threat to the security of every American investor,” the signatories argued, as a central database is also more susceptible to hackers.

State financial officers who signed the letter included Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is up for re-election this fall, along with South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore, Alabama Auditor General Andrew Sorrell, Nevada State Controller Andy Matthews and Indiana Treasurer Daniel Elliott.

Matthews said the bill gives Congress the opportunity to “resolve a serious threat to the privacy of the American people.”

Elliott said the CAT is a “data privacy nightmare” that allows the feds to wrongly track financial information of typical American retail investors.

“Our government has shown that when it gives itself this amount of power, it will act irresponsibly and in ways that will harm average American citizens. This entire project should be subject to an act of Congress, not un-elected Washington bureaucrats.”

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A group tied to another noted Hoosier, former Vice President Mike Pence, also spoke out against the SEC’s move and pressed for Johnson to act.

“Conservatives should co-sponsor and demand a floor vote on [the bill] … to ensure that Americans’ financial data is protected,” a June 5 release from Pence’s group, Advancing American Freedom, stated.

“Traditionally, Americans’ financial holdings are kept between them and their broker, not them, their broker and a massive government database. The only exception has been legal investigations with a warrant.”

The bill has 13 co-sponsors, all Republicans, the latest addition being Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-W.V., who added his name to the legislation April 23.

Meanwhile, the executive director of the State Financial Officers Foundation Action told Fox News Digital the SEC database was never congressionally authorized and called for a floor vote “as soon as possible,” highlighting due process concerns.

The SEC formally adopted Rule 613 enacting the plan in 2023, while the CAT system has been in place in some form since 2012, according to the commission’s website. The finalized phase of implementation occurred May 31.

The commission argued in announcing the new rule that it creates a trail that allows regulators to efficiently and accurately track all securities activity throughout U.S. markets.

Calls placed to Johnson’s office for comment were not returned before press time. 

House Republicans are skeptical that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will act on their newly passed criminal referral against Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Multiple GOP lawmakers argued it would be hypocritical of the DOJ not to act, given the recent prosecutions and guilty verdicts for former Trump administration aides Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon following similar referrals.

“I don’t have much hope that this administration is going to follow the letter of the law or the intent of Congress or the subpoenas for the president,” Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital.

“It’s just a further manifestation of the weaponization of the DOJ. So they’re not playing umpire, they’re not behaving as the executive…they’re not calling balls and strikes. They’re just frankly doing things for what look like political purposes, which is not their job,” he said.

JOHNSON FLOATS DEFUNDING SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE AMID JACK SMITH’S TRUMP PROBE

House GOP lawmakers like Reps. Byron Donalds, left, and Mike Garcia, right, are skeptical the DOJ will follow through on the House’s contempt resolution for Attorney General Merrick Garland, center. (Getty Images)

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said when asked if he anticipated the DOJ following through on the House’s will, “Garland’s gonna take up his own contempt resolution? Not likely.”

“There’s nothing but hypocrisy, especially considering the fact that President Trump cited executive privilege for Steve Bannon, and Merrick Garland had moved forward anyway,” Donalds said.

GOP lawmakers aimed to hold Garland in contempt over his refusal to turn over audio recordings of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden.

HILL AID INTERFERES WITH FOX NEWS CAMERA CREW DURING TLAIB INTERVIEW

Republicans are seeking audio tapes of Special Counsel Hur’s, left, interview with President Biden, right. (Getty Images)

Hur’s findings cleared Biden of wrongdoing in his handling of classified documents, but also said the 81-year-old president presented himself “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” and that “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

Biden and his allies aggressively pushed back on concerns about his mental fitness in the report’s wake.

Republicans seeking the audio recording argued it would provide critical context about Biden’s state of mind. Democrats, meanwhile, have dismissed the request as a partisan attempt to politicize the Department of Justice (DOJ).

TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT REVEALS SPLIT AMONG FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY OPPONENTS

The DOJ followed through on two of three criminal referrals sent to them by the previous Democrat-controlled Congress but did not act on a third criminal contempt resolution aimed at former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Meadows, Bannon and Navarro were all targeted for dodging subpoenas from the now-defunct House select committee investigating January 6.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, left, and former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, right, were both found guilty of contempt of Congress. (Getty Images)

“I’m not optimistic because I think the DOJ has proven themselves very partisan and not honest brokers of how they apply the law,” Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., said of the Garland resolution.

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“I think there’s ample evidence that he is in contempt, and I hope that they’ll not be hypocritical. I mean, it’d be a sad day for America,” he said.

Garland took an indirect shot at Republicans’ pushback on the DOJ in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday morning.

“In recent weeks, we have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work. They are baseless, personal and dangerous,” he wrote. “These attacks come in the form of threats to defund particular department investigations, most recently the special counsel’s prosecution of the former president.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis caught a break this week after a Georgia judge decided that a court order pausing litigation in the electioneering case against former President Trump would not prevent him from letting some parts of the case move forward. 

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Tuesday said he plans to continue working on some pretrial motions while the Georgia Court of Appeals reviews his decision on the motion to disqualify Wills, Fox 5 reported. 

The appeals court on Oct. 4 will hear Trump and several co-defendants’ appeal to have Willis disqualified over her “improper” affair with Special Counsel Nathan Wade. The appeals court paused all pending litigation in their case in the meantime — a setback for Willis, who had hoped to try Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, before the election in November. 

However, McAfee’s decision to continue pretrial motions for the defendants not involved in the appeal is a win for Willis, who has been embroiled in scandal, leading to two separate Georgia legislature investigations into misuse of federal funds and probes by federal lawmakers over the same issue. 

FANI WILLIS FACES NOTHING BUT SETBACKS IN CASE AGAINST TRUMP, THE LATEST PENDING WITH SUPREME COURT

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on March 1. (Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)

Those six defendants are John Eastman, Ray Smith III, Shawn Still, Stephen Lee, Trevian Kutti and Misty Hampton.

McAfee noted Tuesday that Hampton had filed a motion seeking a discretionary stay of proceedings, arguing that the eventual appellate ruling might disqualify the district attorney, Fox 5 reported. 

GEORGIA COURT PUTS PAUSE ON FANI WILLIS’ SWEEPING ELECTION CASE AGAINST TRUMP

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis arrives to speak after winning the Democratic primary in Buckhead, Georgia, on May 21. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

In his ruling, McAfee points out that even if Willis is disqualified, the indictment with several statutory and constitutional challenges must still be resolved, and he does not believe that a complete stay is the most efficient course — leading him to deny Hampton’s motion, the outlet reported. 

TRUMP’S APPEAL TO DISQUALIFY FANI WILLIS FROM GA CASE GETS OCTOBER HEARING DATE

Former President Trump holds a rally in the historically Democratic South Bronx in New York City on May 23. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Trump and his co-defendants were indicted in August after a nearly three-year investigation on charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. The indictment included 13 charges against Trump, as well as charges against 18 of his allies. Four defendants charged have already accepted plea deals. Six of the original charges have been dismissed, including three against Trump.

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In February, Michael Roman, a GOP operative and co-defendant in the case, dropped bombshell accusations that Willis had an “improper” affair with Wade, whom she hired to help prosecute the case in November 2021. 

Other co-defendants made similar allegations that she had financially benefited from her relationship with him by taking lavish vacations together. 

Both Wade and Willis denied they were in a romantic relationship prior to his hiring and said they would split the costs of their shared travels. Willis said she reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips in cash.

After evidentiary hearings held in February, Judge McAfee ordered that Wade had to be removed in order to keep Willis from disqualification in the Trump election interference case in Georgia. Wade later resigned from the case.

When the defense in March submitted a joint motion for a Certificate of Immediate Review, McAfee said that his Order on the Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss and Disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney issued March 15 “is of such importance to the case that immediate review should be had” and allowed the defendants to ask the Georgia appeals court for an opportunity to appeal, which the court granted last month.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will attempt to force a vote Wednesday evening on a Supreme Court ethics bill backed by Democrats amid recent scrutiny of Justice Samuel Alito and renewed calls for the conservative justice to recuse from former President Trump’s immunity case. 

Durbin will lead fellow Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., in a request to bring the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to the floor for a vote around 5:30 p.m.

However, unanimous consent to consider the measure will not be granted, as Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will object, his office told Fox News Digital. 

LINDSEY GRAHAM REQUESTS FULL SENATE BRIEFING ON ISIS BORDER THREAT AFTER TERRORIST BUST

Sen. Dick Durbin will attempt to force a vote on a Supreme Court ethics reform bill, but Sen. Lindsey Graham will object to it. (Getty Images)

If brought for a vote and passed, the bill would require the Supreme Court to create an ethics code that is publicly available. It would additionally allow for complaints to be lodged against justices and for a judicial investigation panel to then review them. 

The measure advanced out of the committee last year by a party line vote, with 11 Democrats in favor and all 10 Republicans opposed. 

BIDEN PUSHED TO REVOKE AL JAZEERA CREDENTIALS AFTER ISRAELI HOSTAGE REPORTEDLY FOUND IN JOURNALIST’S HOME

Sens. Whitehouse, left, and Durbin have made a concerted effort to push Justice Alito to recuse. (Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised Judiciary Democrats for their work on the bill after it advanced, saying at the time, “I support Chairman Durbin, Senator Whitehouse, and the Judiciary Committee’s work on SCOTUS ethics reform, and I look forward to working with them to make progress on this legislation.”

But since its advancement, the bill has remained in limbo. 

Schumer’s office did not provide comment to Fox News Digital regarding his plans for bringing it to the floor. 

DEMS CLAIM GOP ‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES CRUMBLED’ AFTER HUNTER BIDEN GUILTY VERDICT

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Judiciary Democrats have made a renewed and concerted push to increase accountability for Supreme Court justices in the wake of the controversy surrounding Alito and his wife. The New York Times recently reported on an upside-down American flag that flew at their Virginia home in the weeks following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, as well as an “Appeal to Heaven” flag that was on display at a beach home belonging to the Alitos. 

Democratic critics have suggested that the flags were displays of support for those who rioted on Jan. 6. Alito has denied this.

The reports prompted several letters to both Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts from Durbin, Whitehouse and Blumenthal, requesting a meeting with Roberts and Alito’s recusal from 2020 election-related cases.

SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BLASTS ‘SURREPTITIOUS’ RECORDING AS DEMS TARGET JUSTICE ALITO

Judge Samuel Alito, Supreme Court nominee, answers questions during his confirmation hearing, Jan. 12, 2006, on Capitol Hill. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Alito has since refused to step back from such cases, which include the matter of Trump’s immunity claim in his federal election interference case, in which a decision from the court is expected this month. 

The unanimous consent request also comes in the wake of secret recordings that were taken by an undercover liberal filmmaker at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner on June 3. The recordings feature Alito acknowledging that “there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised” when it comes to ideological differences. Alito additionally agreed with the activist’s statement suggesting the country should return to “godliness.” 

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In an op-ed on Tuesday for the Wall Street Journal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., slammed his Democratic colleagues’ attempt to pass the legislation. The Republican explained that the court is charged constitutionally with the power to govern itself. “Liberals complain that the court’s binding ethics rules lack an ‘enforcement mechanism’ to ensure recusal when they want it,” he wrote. “But this complaint would throw the Constitution out the window.”

“The court rightly vests judicial power in its democratically legitimate members as the Constitution requires. Democrats instead want a bureaucracy to ‘administer’ it,” he said in a scathing rebuke of the Democratic effort. 

FIRST ON FOX: Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance and Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz are demanding answers from Secretary of State Antony Blinken surrounding a State Department-linked Ukrainian nongovernmental organization (NGO) that published a list of Americans labeled “Trumpists and Communists” for their opposition to providing more U.S. funds to Ukraine, Fox News Digital exclusively learned. 

“On June 6, 2024, a Ukrainian corporation, Texty.org.ua, published an online article entitled ‘Rollercoaster: From Trumpists to Communists. The forces in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine and how they do it,’” the pair of Republican lawmakers wrote in their letter to Blinken. “The title of this article oversells the product: it is a substantively thin piece, largely an excuse to smear a large group of Americans who have been skeptical of aid to Ukraine in one form or another.” 

“But it is being broadcast as a part of a coordinated media strategy that has all the hallmarks of a U.S.-targeting influence operation,” the lawmakers continued, identifying the names detailed in the article as an “Enemies List.” 

Vance, who is considered a top contender as former President Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election, and Gaetz sent the letter to Blinken on Wednesday, demanding information – including any grant agreements – the State Department has with the NGO and its founder, Anatoly Bondarenko. 

HOUSE PASSES $60B UKRAINE AID BILL AS GOP REBELS THREATEN TO OUST JOHNSON

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, left, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, right, are demanding answers from Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding an apparent “enemies list” by a State Department-affiliated organization. (Photos by Stephanie Keith, Saul Loeb, andJohannes Simon for Getty Images)

Texty.org.ua published a list of 388 individuals and 76 organizations identified as alleged “Trumpists and Communists” for publicly opposing further funding to Ukraine as it continues battling Russia. As of last month, Congress has approved a total of $175 billion in aid and military assistance to Ukraine, following Russia invading the nation in February 2022. 

The pair of lawmakers highlighted to Blinken in their letter that the list includes 116 House members and 21 senators – all of whom are Republicans. 

DEMS SAVE JOHNSON’S $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN FROM GOP REBEL BLOCKADE

“If this were merely some random news outlet in a foreign nation, such a hit piece would be easily ignored,” the lawmakers wrote. Bondarenko, the founder of Texty.org.ua, however, is “listed on a U.S. government website as supported by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, walks with President Biden down the colonnade to the Oval Office during a visit to the White House Sept. 21, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images)

A link provided by the lawmakers to the Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs’ public diplomacy program website, called Tech Camps, details Bondarenko is “one of the founders of Texty.org.ua,” which is a news outlet that combines “classical and ‘digital’ journalism.”

HOUSE TAKES KEY TEST VOTE FOR JOHNSON’S $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN AFTER DEMS HELP IT ADVANCE

“He leads a team of 7 and is in charge of the data journalism part of the newsroom with four people working as designers, programmers and journalists at the same time. The team works on projects about corruptions, education, health care, news, city environment, state procurements, and specializes in telling a story using data visualization techniques. Anatoly holds a Masters degree in Engineering,” the U.S. government website states of Bondarenko. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz, wearing a Laken Riley pin, is seen in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2024, ahead of the President’s State of the Union address. (Aaron Schwartz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Texty.org.ua’s piece lists the so-called “Trumpists and Communists” in graphics, organizing the names, organizations and movements into three categories: Politics, Media, and Experts. The list includes politicians such as Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Tim Scott, Gov. Ron DeSantis, as well as groups such as the “Squad” and the MAGA movement. 

TENSIONS ERUPT ON HOUSE FLOOR AS CONSERVATIVES CONFRONT JOHNSON ON $95B FOREIGN AID PLAN

Former President Trump headlines a Republican National Committee spring donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, on May 4, 2024. (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

“We’ve identified a broad spectrum of aid opponents, ranging from Trump supporters to communists, and examined their connections,” the text from the article reads. 

‘NOTHING MORE BACKWARDS’ THAN US FUNDING UKRAINE BORDER SECURITY BUT NOT OUR OWN, CONSERVATIVES SAY

“While our research does not cover every public figure opposing aid to Ukraine, it highlights prominent individuals and common arguments that often mirror Kremlin propaganda,” it continued. 

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 28: U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) questions witnesses in a hearing of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, in the Cannon House Office Building on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigating economic, technological and security competition between the U.S. and China.  ( Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who was listed on Texty’s “enemies” roundup, sent a letter to Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, asking them to end U.S. support to Texty. The committee on Tuesday passed a resolution effectively defunding the NGO, sparking applause from Banks in comment provided to Fox Digital.

“I was just designated an ‘opponent of Ukraine,’ after being sanctioned by the Russian regime. I’m not bothered by what foreign nations think of me. But it’s shameful for our agencies to be using Hoosiers’ tax dollars to collaborate with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate U.S. citizens and lawmakers. I’d like to thank the Republicans on the Appropriations Committee for defunding any such work with the Data Journalism Agency,” Banks said in comment Wednesday afternoon. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Presidential Council for Science and Education via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday, Feb. 8. Denmark is warning that Russia could attack NATO in the next three to five years. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Vance and Gaetz called on Blinken to send them information by June 28 regarding “all releasable material related to Department of State support for Anatoly Bondarenko or Texty.org;” “Provide a list of any Department of State directives, master agreements, or other policies that outline obligations of grantees or subgrantees of the Department relevant to the above publication;” “Provide a list of any grants or other awards by the Department of State to Anatoly Bondarenko or Texty.org or Texty.org.ua;” and “Inform us whether or not the Department of State is initiating any investigation into violations of Departmental policy regarding this matter.” 

Then-President Trump, right, welcomes J.D. Vance, then-Republican candidate for U.S. senator for Ohio, to the stage at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar )

“Needless to say, whatever one thinks of American foreign aid or support for Ukraine, all Americans can agree that our tax dollars should not be supporting direct attacks on U.S. persons based upon reasonable political disagreement, and especially not direct attacks on U.S. legislators based solely upon their vote,” they wrote. 

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Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment on the letter but did not immediately receive a response. 

If there was any remaining doubt about former President Trump’s sway over the Republican Party, dismiss it.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee firmly remains his party’s ultimate kingmaker – candidates who landed the coveted Trump endorsement all won their primary battles on Tuesday as four states held intra-party contests.

And in a couple of high-profile cases, Republican primaries that were supposed to be competitive contests ended up as blowouts with the Trump-backed candidates easily cruising to victory.

“With all things equal, you want the president’s endorsement. End of story,” longtime Republican consultant Dave Carney told Fox News. “It’s not a guaranteed win, but it is really important. It sends a signal to primary voters of your credentials.”

WHAT TRUMP-BACKED SAM BROWN TOLD FOX NEWS AFTER HIS LANDSLIDE GOP SENATE PRIMARY VICTORY

Former President Trump points during a campaign rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas on June 9, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

And seasoned GOP strategist and communicator Lance Trover, spotlighting that the party remains firmly under Trump’s grip, said, “I don’t know that there’s really any question about where Republican voters are and who they’re aligned with.”

TRUMP ENDORSEMENT IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE A VICTORY FOR SENATE GOP CAMPAIGN CHAIR

A last-minute endorsement by Trump in Nevada likely boosted Army veteran Sam Brown to a more than 40-point victory in the GOP Senate primary in the key race in a crucial Western battleground that may determine if Republicans win back the chamber’s majority.

Brown, a former Army captain who was severely burned and permanently scarred in 2008 when his vehicle ran over an explosive device in the war in Afghanistan, ended up crushing his main Republican rival – Jeff Gunter, a wealthy dermatologist who served as Trump’s ambassador to Iceland.

Republican senatorial candidate Sam Brown speaks at an election night party Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in Reno, Nevada. (AP Photo/Tom R. Smedes)

Trump’s endorsement Sunday in Nevada was the latest example of the former president backing the candidate supported by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the Senate GOP’s campaign arm.

In South Carolina, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace survived a serious primary challenge for a second straight election cycle. 

Mace won renomination in South Carolina’s competitive Low Country-based 1st Congressional District by easily defeating Catherine Templeton, a former director of South Carolina’s labor agency who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018, and Marine Corps veteran Bill Young.

MACE CRUSHES CHALLENGERS IN HIGH-PROFILE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY SHOWDOWN

Templeton was backed by millions spent by outside groups aligned with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Unlike two years ago, when he had her back, the former House speaker targeted Mace, who last year was one of eight House Republicans to break ranks and vote to oust McCarthy. 

The former speaker is seeking revenge as he works to defeat the eight Republican lawmakers, and McCarthy-aligned outside groups shelled out millions of dollars to run ads supporting Templeton and targeting Mace.

In 2022, Trump targeted Mace after she blamed him for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory. Mace won a single-digit victory over a Trump-backed challenger.

But fast-forward two years, and Mace now had Trump’s backing after she endorsed the former president and campaigned for him earlier this year in South Carolina’s crucial GOP presidential primary.

Trump also had an impact on the GOP primary race in the 4th District in upstate South Carolina. That’s where three-term Rep. William Timmons narrowly fended off a challenge from state Rep. Adam Morgan, who ran to Timmons’ right.

“There’s no doubt that Timmons would have lost without the Trump endorsement,” a Republican source who works on House races told Fox News.

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In Maine’s 2nd Congressional District – where Republicans are once again hoping to knock off moderate Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who is running for a fourth term in a mostly rural district won by Trump in both 2016 and 2020 – the former president’s endorsement made a major impact.

State Rep. Austin Theriault, a former NASCAR driver who had Trump’s backing, defeated state Rep. Mike Soboleski by more than 30 points.

And in North Dakota, Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Kelly Armstrong likely helped the three-term Republican representative top Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in the race to succeed GOP Gov. Doug Burgum.

Burgum, who is considered a top contender to serve as Trump’s running mate, had backed Miller in the primary.

Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a caucus night rally in Las Vegas, Feb. 8, 2024, as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum watches. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Carney, who stayed neutral in the GOP presidential primaries but is now steering a pro-Trump super PAC, noted that compared to two years ago, when a number of high-profile Trump endorsed candidates won primary battles but went down to defeat in the general election, “he’s being more judicious in who he’s endorsing.

And Trover, a top aide on Burgum’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential primary campaign, emphasized, “I think you’re seeing more and more of a unified Republican Party as we inch forward toward the general election.”

He argued that the GOP is “a unified party that’s going to be with him 110% of the way, no matter what happens.”

Republicans did under perform in Tuesday’s one general election showdown – a special congressional election in red-state Ohio.

Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli defeated Democrat Michael Kripchak, an Air Force veteran, by less than 10 points in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Bill Johnson, who stepped down earlier this year to serve as president of Youngstown State University.

Johnson overwhelmingly won the mostly rural and blue-collar district by 35 points in his 2022 re-election and Trump carried the district by 29 points in 2020.

But the massive swing in the Democrats’ favor is the latest example of their party over performing in special elections.

National Republican Congressional Committee communications director Jack Pandol argued that his party is “not sweating” the results in the special election and dismisses talk that the contest was a barometer for things to come in November, as the House GOP works to defend its razor-thin majority in the chamber.

“It’s a special election. It’s off-calendar. Turnout is really low,” Pandol told Fox News. “I don’t think that it’s useful or instructive to try to read into this too much.”

And he predicted that House Republicans “will eviscerate” Democrats with “presidential-level turnout.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is asking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to organize a full briefing for lawmakers in the chamber on the threat of ISIS terrorism presented by the vulnerable southern border. 

The senator requested the leaders’ “immediate assistance” to set up a classified briefing for senators on the issue in a letter sent Tuesday. 

Graham’s urgency on the matter was prompted by a recent revelation that eight Tajikistan nationals with ties to ISIS were busted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI in New York City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia after entering the country illegally over the southern border. The sting was first reported by the New York Post’s Jennie Taer.

BIDEN PUSHED TO REVOKE AL JAZEERA CREDENTIALS AFTER ISRAELI HOSTAGE REPORTEDLY FOUND IN JOURNALIST’S HOME

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during a hearing on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A federal source told Fox News that the suspected terrorists had been fully vetted prior to being released into the country. 

“While members of the Intelligence Community have offered piecemeal briefings to Congress, I believe that the threat is urgent and that a briefing should be held with all members before the Senate’s scheduled departure from Washington, D.C. at the end of next week,” the South Carolina Republican wrote. 

DEMS CLAIM GOP ‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES CRUMBLED’ AFTER HUNTER BIDEN GUILTY VERDICT

Neither Schumer’s nor McConnell’s offices immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Following the reports of the ISIS-tied immigrants’ arrests, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI said in a statement, “Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities. The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”

SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BLASTS ‘SURREPTITIOUS’ RECORDING AS DEMS TARGET JUSTICE ALITO

A group of over 100 migrants attempting to enter the US illegally rush a border wall Thursday, March 21, 2024.  (James Breeden for New York Post / Mega)

“As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security.”

‘LOOSE CANNON’: SENATE DEM ESCALATES ATTACK ON JUSTICE ALITO AFTER SECRET RECORDING

This split shows DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and migrants at the southern border. (Photos by David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images and Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Graham’s request comes as fears of terrorism originating at the southern border continue to heighten. 

“The fact that these eight ISIS suspects got through the southern border really is a travesty,” retired U.S. Army Major General Dana Pittard said on Fox & Friends in response to the latest event.

MIKE LEE PRAISES TRUMP FOR RESISTING CLINTON LAWFARE, WARNS BIDEN OF SLIPPERY SLOPE

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of terrorist threats.

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FBI Director Christopher Wray testified last year that foreign terrorists who are potentially among groups of individuals illegally crossing the border are a “source of great concern for us. That’s why we’re aggressively using all 56 of our joint terrorism task forces.”

Wray further revealed at the time that they had observed an increase in known or suspected terrorists that have sought to cross the border over the last five years. Notably, encounters with individuals on the terror watchlist rose to a record sum in fiscal year 2023. 

Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price contributed to this report. 

North Dakota voters on Tuesday approved a ballot measure that sets age limits on congressional candidates. 

The measure creates a new article in the North Dakota Constitution entitled “Congressional Age Limits,” that establishes “no person may be elected or appointed to serve a term or a portion of a term representing North Dakota in the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives if that person could be 81 years old by December 31 of the year immediately preceding the end of the term, and any such person is prohibited from appearing on the ballot.” 

According to the election results shared online by the North Dakota Secretary of State, 60.88% of voters approved the measure, while 39.12% voted against it. A total of 111,709 votes were cast. 

The ballot measure, which bars people from running or serving in the U.S. House or Senate if they are to turn 81 years old during their term, is intended to avoid age-related and cognitive issues among officeholders, supporters say. Though it would not apply to presidential contenders, the measure comes in the same election year as there are serious concerns over 81-year-old President Biden’s mental fitness. 

REP. ARMSTRONG WINS GOP NOMINATION TO SUCCEED GOV. DOUG BURGUM IN NORTH DAKOTA

A voter places a ballot for the 2020 presidential election in a drop box outside the Cass County Courthouse in Fargo, North Dakota, on Oct. 15, 2020. (Dan Koeck/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It passed the same day that U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong won Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor of North Dakota, while longtime public utilities regulator Julie Fedorchak finished first in a rambunctious GOP race for the House seat he will vacate. Armstrong, who currently occupies North Dakota’s lone House seat, beat Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in the race to succeed Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, who did not seek a third term and is under consideration to be 77-year-old Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

Some legal experts view the measure as a test case for revisiting a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against congressional term limits. A state legislative panel attached a $1 million cost estimate to the measure in anticipation of a lengthy legal challenge, The Associated Press reported. 

Former President Trump arrives to speak at a caucus night rally in Las Vegas, Feb. 8, 2024, as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum watches. Burgum is on Trump’s 2024 VP shortlist. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

EXPERTS REVEAL MAJOR ‘DOWNSIDE’ TO POTENTIAL TRUMP VP PICK: ‘NO WOW FACTOR’

Jared Hendrix, chair of the sponsoring committee, told the North Dakota Monitor that age limits are crucial to ensure lawmakers are healthy enough to adequately represent North Dakotans’ interests in Washington, D.C. “We just decided talking about it, thinking about it, that 81 was a good number where there’s virtually no opposition at that point,” Hendrix told the newspaper in February. 

Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller and Gov. Doug Burgum on Oct. 23, 2023. North Dakota saw competitive primary contests Tuesday for Congress and governor after Burgum announced he would not seek another term.  (AP Photo/Jack Dura, File)

Republican U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, who had no primary challenge to his re-election bid, opposed the measure, saying voters should be able to choose whomever they want.

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“To limit those decisions arbitrarily just doesn’t make sense to me,” Cramer, 63, told the AP. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Drew Johnson has won the Republican primary in the battleground 3rd Congressional District and will face incumbent Democrat Susie Lee in what is expected to be a tough general election fight.

The Associated Press called the race for Johnson early Wednesday morning. The outcome is an upset victory for the candidate, who faced stiff competition in a crowded field of Republican rivals, including former Nevada state Treasurer Dan Schwartz and former Nevada state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien.

“I’m honored to earn the trust and support of Republican primary voters in Nevada’s crucial 3rd Congressional District. The pundits didn’t give us a chance, but we outworked our opponents and overperformed expectations,” Johnson said in a statement.

Lee, who faced little competition in the Democratic primary, maintains a strong fundraising advantage and is expected to put up a tough fight with the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as the party aims to flip control of the House of Representatives from Republicans.

WATCH: TRUMP RALLYGOERS REVEAL WHO THEY WANT AS VICE PRESIDENT

Drew Johnson, Republican candidate for Nevada’s 3rd District, gives a tour of the Pioneer Saloon where he was holding a meet and greet in Goodsprings, Nevada. (Getty Images)

“Right now, voters are struggling to make ends meet, worried about our country’s open borders, and fearful of crime in their own neighborhoods. I look forward to providing voters with a positive vision for cleaning up the mess Susie Lee and Joe Biden have created,” Johnson said.

Republicans hold a slim 218-213 majority in the House and are aiming to expand that majority after losing a number of members to resignations and one expulsion over the past year.

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Rep. Susie Lee walks down the House steps at the Capitol, April 1, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Former Nevada state Treasurer Dan Schwartz was one of several Republicans running in the 3rd District GOP primary. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Election analysts rate the race as either “lean” or “likely” Democratic.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Congressional Democrats criticized their Republican counterparts over alleged hypocrisy after they were not satisfied when President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty of federal firearms charges on Tuesday. 

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., remarked that “my Republican friends have gone on and on about how Democrats have weaponized the [Department of Justice], but their conspiracy theories crumbled this morning when Hunter Biden, the son of the president, was found guilty in a federal court on three gun-related charges.”

“The divide here is stunning. And it’s a great reminder that one political party remains committed to the rule of law and the other doesn’t. It’s that simple,” McGovern added. 

SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BLASTS ‘SURREPTITIOUS’ RECORDING AS DEMS TARGET JUSTICE ALITO

Rep. Jim McGovern called out his Republican colleagues. (Juan David Moreno Gallego/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

When asked if the verdict undermines GOP claims that the justice system has two tiers, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., responded to Fox News, “How could you make the argument when this justice system has just handed down a verdict when it comes to the son of the President of the United States?”

‘LOOSE CANNON’: SENATE DEM ESCALATES ATTACK ON JUSTICE ALITO AFTER SECRET RECORDING

Chairman Richard Durbin, (D-IL), attends a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to examine Texas’s abortion law on Capitol Hill on Sept. 29, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., pointed to the difference between the two political parties in the aftermath of former President Trump’s guilty verdict in New York and Biden’s guilty verdict in Delaware. 

“Compare and contrast the difference in reaction between the Republicans or Democrats,” he said. “The Republicans are attacking our entire system of justice and the rule of law if they don’t like the way that one case came out.”

TRUMP TO MEET WITH HOUSE, SENATE REPUBLICANS IN DC THIS WEEK

Hunter Biden arrives to federal court with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, Tuesday, June 11, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

However, he said, after Hunter Biden’s verdict, “I don’t hear a single Democrat crying foul.”

Durbin also addressed addiction and the toll it has taken on Americans. “There were so many thousands of American families that have been hurt painfully by addiction,” the Illinois senator said. 

MIKE LEE PRAISES TRUMP FOR RESISTING CLINTON LAWFARE, WARNS BIDEN OF SLIPPERY SLOPE

President Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Philadelphia on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“Now it’s touched the First Family of the United States. I know the president, it means so much to him personally, because of his love for his son. He and his — Jill have weathered this storm for many years. I’m sure their hearts are broken,” he added. 

In a statement following his son’s guilty verdict, President Biden remarked on how proud he is of Hunter as a father, referring to his son’s battle with addiction. 

“I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that,” he said. 

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report. 

Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Trump, filed an emergency motion on Tuesday seeking to keep him out of prison as he pursues an appeal – possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court – on his conviction for defying a Jan. 6 House committee subpoena. 

The motion filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia requests a ruling by June 18 – before Bannon’s surrender date of July 1 – to allow sufficient time to seek further relief from the Supreme Court if necessary. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington agreed to the Justice Department’s request to require that Bannon report to prison on July 1 after a federal appeals court panel in May upheld his contempt of Congress conviction.

“There is also no denying the political realities here. Mr. Bannon is a high-profile political commentator and campaign strategist. He was prosecuted by an administration whose policies are a frequent target of Mr. Bannon’s public statements,” the motion says. “The government seeks to imprison Mr. Bannon for the four-month period leading up to the November election, when millions of Americans look to him for information on important campaign issues. This would also effectively bar Mr. Bannon from serving as a meaningful advisor in the ongoing national campaign.”

“This is a landmark case. The prosecution pursued a novel and aggressive theory of liability, and the case garnered international attention,” Bannon’s lawyer, R. Trent McCotter, wrote. “If the panel decision stands, there will be far-reaching consequences, including separation-of-powers concerns. Before the prosecution of Mr. Bannon, it had been 50 years since the government convinced a jury to convict someone for not adequately responding to a congressional subpoena—and there has certainly been no shortage of disputes over congressional subpoenas during that time.”

JUDGE ORDERS STEVE BANNON TO REPORT TO PRISON

Steve Bannon, former adviser to former President Trump, center, and attorney Matthew Evan Corcoran, left, depart the courthouse on June 6, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Bannon was convicted nearly two years ago of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to have the 2020 presidential election results showing a victory for President Biden overturned. 

Nichols, nominated by Trump to the bench in 2018, had initially allowed Bannon to remain free while he fought his conviction because the judge believed the case raised substantial legal questions. However, during a hearing in Washington’s federal court, Nichols said the calculus changed after a three-judge District of Columbia appeals court panel said all of Bannon’s challenges lack merit.

The motion Tuesday comes after Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges in his New York City hush money trial and faces a sentencing hearing next month just four days before the Republican National Convention, where the GOP will likely declare him their official 2024 presidential nominee.

Steve Bannon, former advisor to former President Trump, appears in Manhattan Supreme Court to set his trial date on May 25, 2023 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)

Bannon “intends to vigorously pursue his remaining appeals in this case and has retained experienced Supreme Court counsel,” his lawyers wrote Tuesday, asking the court to allow him to remain on release given there is “no dispute that Mr. Bannon ‘is not likely to flee or pose a danger to the safety of any other person or the community if released’ —indeed, he has been out on release for years now without incident, and his ‘crime’ was non-violent.”

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE INVESTIGATES ‘MANIPULATED’ EVIDENCE SEIZED BY FBI IN TRUMP CLASSIFIED RECORDS PROBE

“Mr. Bannon faced what the Court has described as a novel scenario: Congress was pursuing documents and testimony from a former executive branch official, yet counsel for the former President himself required Mr. Bannon to protect executive privilege in responding to the subpoena,” the motion says. “Mr. Bannon followed the advice of his counsel and requested that the Committee resolve the privilege issues with the holder of that privilege, or have the matter resolved in a civil suit.” 

Bannon’s lawyer at trial argued that the former adviser did not ignore the subpoena, but was still engaged in good-faith negotiations with the congressional committee when he was charged.

The defense has said Bannon had been acting on the advice of his attorney at the time, who told him that the subpoena was invalid because the committee would not allow a Trump lawyer in the room and that Bannon could not determine what documents or testimony he could provide because Trump asserted executive privilege.

Steve Bannon, former adviser to former President Trump, leaves after a court appearance at New York State Supreme Court on May 25, 2023 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Defense lawyer David Schoen told the judge it would be unfair to send Bannon to prison now because he would complete his entire sentence before he exhausted his appeals. Schoen said the case raises “serious constitutional issues” that need to be examined by the Supreme Court.

“In this country, we don’t send anyone to prison if they believe that they were doing something that complied with the law,” he told reporters.

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A second Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, was also convicted of contempt of Congress. He reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence.

Bannon is also facing criminal charges in New York state court alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges, and that trial has been postponed until at least the end of September.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden’s whirlwind, and at times emotional, criminal trial came to a close Tuesday when the jury found the first son guilty on all counts related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018. 

“I am more grateful today for the love and support I experienced this last week from Melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than I am disappointed by the outcome. Recovery is possible by the grace of God, and I am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time,” Hunter Biden said in a statement after the verdict. 

After roughly six and a half days in court, the jury agreed with the prosecution team that Hunter Biden lied on a federal firearm form, known as ATF Form 4473, in October 2018 when he ticked a box labeled “No” when asked if he was an unlawful user of drugs or addicted to controlled substances. 

Fox News Digital was present in the courtroom throughout the majority of the trial and has compiled the seven most dramatic moments and testimony that unfolded between June 3 and June 11. 

HUNTER BIDEN FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN GUN TRIAL

Hunter Biden leaves federal court, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

HUNTER’S EXES TAKE THE STAND 

Three of Hunter Biden’s exes took the stand and testified during the trial, including his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, who was married to the first son for more than 20 years and with whom she shares three adult daughters. 

Buhle and Biden divorced in 2017 after Buhle found a crack pipe on the side porch of their home in Washington, D.C., in 2015, she told the court. 

Buhle was soft-spoken and appeared emotional during her testimony as she detailed her suspicions of his rampant drug use after he was discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive for cocaine.

“I was definitely worried, scared,” she said, describing how she would scour his car for drugs and drug paraphernalia to ensure their daughters would not drive the vehicle around with the substances. 

HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS DAY 5 AFTER TESTIMONY FROM SISTER-IN-LAW-TURNED-GIRLFRIEND: ‘PANICKED’

Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, leaves the courthouse after taking the stand during Biden’s criminal trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Biden’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, also took the stand last week, walking the jury through Biden’s rampant drug abuse throughout their relationship, including him smoking crack in hotel rooms, stealing away to public bathrooms to smoke crack and how she helped pick up drugs for him. She said the crack cocaine he purchased often was the size of a “ping pong ball,” which he broke into pieces and lit up in glass pipes. Kestan testified under immunity. 

READ THE VERDICT

Kestan met Hunter Biden when she was 24 and he was 48 at a New York City gentleman’s club where she worked as a dancer. Kestan said their whirlwind relationship was a “distraction” for Biden as he allegedly smoked less when they were hidden away, sometimes for days at a time, in ritzy hotel rooms such as New York City’s Four Seasons or in a bungalow at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont. 

Kestan’s testimony was accompanied by photos depicting crack pipes in hotel rooms, a photo of a bare-chested Biden in a bubble bath with Kestan, and a screenshot of a FaceTime video showing Biden’s back tattoo that resembled claw marks. The jurors were told amid Kestan’s remarks that Biden learned how to cook crack cocaine, and they were shown a photo of baking soda in one hotel room that was used to cook cocaine into crack.

Ex-girlfriend Zoe Kestan leaves federal court after testifying in Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law turned girlfriend, also took the stand. Hallie Biden was a key figure in the trial: She was the one to toss Hunter Biden’s gun in a trash can outside a Wilmington supermarket, which led to police involvement ahead of the indictment last year. She also provided further insight into his addiction to crack cocaine during the year he purchased the gun.

‘LIKE A SON’: FORMER TOP BIDEN ADVISER WITH DEEP BUSINESS TIES TO CHINA SPOTTED INSIDE HUNTER BIDEN GUN TRIAL 

Hallie Biden is Beau Biden’s widow and began a relationship with Beau’s brother, Hunter Biden, in 2015, after her husband’s death from brain cancer. The pair had an on-and-off romantic relationship until about 2019, when they called it quits. Hallie Biden testified about her discovery that Hunter Biden used crack, that he introduced her to crack cocaine, and how she became sober before discovering the handgun at the heart of the case in Hunter Biden’s truck on Oct. 23, 2018.

​​”It was a terrible experience I went through, and I was embarrassed and ashamed. … I regret that period of my life,” Hallie Biden told the court on Thursday about her use of crack cocaine. Hallie Biden was joined in court by her husband, who she married the weekend before her testimony. Similar to Kestan, Hallie Biden also testified under immunity.

A court sketch depicts Hallie Biden testifying during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 6, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)

JILL BIDEN AND ALLIES FRONT AND CENTER 

First lady Jill Biden became a fixture of the Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom throughout the trial. She took a front-row seat in the courtroom, sitting behind her stepson as he faced testimony regarding his repeated use of crack cocaine before and after his illegal purchase of a firearm. 

HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS DAY 4 AFTER WILD TESTIMONY FROM EXES ON RAMPANT DRUG USE, TRASHED HOTEL ROOMS

Jill Biden only missed one full day of court last week, when she traveled to Normandy, France, with President Biden to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. She also notably missed former daughter-in-law Kathleen Buhle’s testimony, but she returned to the court after Buhle left the stand.

First lady Jill Biden leaves federal court, June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The first lady was frequently joined by family members such as President Biden’s siblings Valerie Biden and James Biden, daughter Ashley Biden, daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen Biden, and allies, such as former Biden adviser Francis “Fran” Person and lawyer and producer Kevin Morris.

Jill Biden seldom looked around the courtroom during her days in the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building, which is named after the Republican Delaware senator President Biden defeated in 1972, subsequently catapulting the 46th president’s political career. The first family and allies also walked past large portraits of President Biden and Vice President Harris when entering and leaving the court’s main lobby. 

HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS 3RD DAY WITH CROSS-EXAMINATION OF FBI AGENT

Jill Biden directed her focus toward the defense team and presiding Judge Maryellen Noreika the majority of her time in court, only shifting in her seat to speak with family or allies.

Jill Biden was not in the courtroom when Hunter Biden’s verdict was read, but she joined her stepson in court soon after and left with him and his wife early Tuesday afternoon.

First lady Jill Biden arrives at federal court, June 4, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PROSECUTION TELLS JURY THAT BIDEN FAMILY IN AUDIENCE ‘NOT EVIDENCE’ 

Prosecutor Leo Wise in his closing arguments highlighted to the jury that the “people sitting in the gallery are not evidence,” seemingly referring to the first lady and others in the Biden family, whose roots run deep in Delaware. 

“Respectfully, none of that matters,” he added, even if the jurors recognized the audience “from the news.” 

A juror who spoke to Fox News after the verdict said he was “aware” of the first lady’s presence in the courtroom but that the jury “didn’t discuss any part of the case until” they were excused to deliberate Monday afternoon.

HUNTER BIDEN’S WIFE LASHES OUT AT FORMER TRUMP ADMIN AIDE 

Hunter Biden’s second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, lashed out at a former Trump White House aide, Garrett Ziegler, on the second day of the trial.

Hunter Biden sued Ziegler last year for publishing contents of his infamous laptop that he left in a Delaware repair shop in 2019. Amid the Hunter Biden trial this month, the scandalous laptop was formally entered into evidence and confirmed as valid, despite many media outlets previously discounting the laptop as Russian disinformation.

HUNTER BIDEN’S WIFE LASHES OUT AT FORMER TRUMP AIDE DURING COURT APPEARANCE: ‘PIECE OF S—‘

“You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of s—” Cohen Biden said while pointing her finger at the former Trump administration aide just outside the courtroom last Tuesday, according to reports. Fox News Digital did not witness the tense exchange.

Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, are shown outside federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 11, 2024. (Reuters/Hannah Beier)

Ziegler, who founded a nonprofit group Marco Polo, did not initially respond to Melissa Cohen Biden’s remarks but later confirmed the confrontation. 

“It’s sad I’ve been sitting here the whole time and haven’t approached anyone,” Ziegler said later to NBC News, confirming the encounter. 

HUNTER BIDEN’S DRUG USE: WHAT PROSECUTION NEEDS TO PROVE, WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW

Hunter Biden and wife Melissa Cohen Biden leave federal court on June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

NAOMI BIDEN NERVOUSLY TAKES THE STAND 

Naomi Biden was called by the defense team to take the stand last Friday, and she told the court that she was aware of her father’s addiction to drugs but said she had never witnessed him use drugs, namely crack cocaine. 

Naomi Biden took the stand early Friday afternoon in the federal courthouse, dressed in all black with her hair pulled back, and told the court amid her testimony that she was “nervous.” Hunter Biden appeared emotional when his daughter first entered court, taking out a tissue at one point and dabbing his eyes. 

HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL: 9 KEY FIGURES WHO MAY TESTIFY

A court sketch depicts Naomi Biden’s testimony during Hunter Biden’s federal trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 7, 2024. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)

Wise presented Naomi Biden with a stack of printed-out text messages she shared with her father in October 2018 during cross-examination, including messages Hunter Biden sent his daughter after 2 a.m. asking if her boyfriend could drive his pickup truck to him and exchange the vehicle in Manhattan. 

Naomi Biden testified that she did not know what her father was doing at 2 a.m. or why he was asking for the car in the middle of the night. Wise asked Naomi Biden if she knew if her father was meeting with someone named Frankie that night. Kestan testified earlier in the week that Biden met with a drug dealer named Frankie in a hotel room when he was in New York City in October 2018. 

“I can’t take this. I don’t know what to say. I just miss you so much,” she texted him later as they tried to hash out exchanging the truck. Biden texted back, apologizing.  

US V HUNTER BIDEN: OPENING STATEMENTS TO BEGIN IN FIRST SON’S FEDERAL GUN TRIAL AFTER JURY SEATED

VERDICT READ IN COURT 

Following about just three hours of jury deliberations between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, Hunter Biden was found guilty of all three counts, which included making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

A court sketch depicts the verdict being read during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 11, 2024. Biden was found guilty on all three counts in his federal gun trial. (William Hennessy Jr.)

Hunter Biden was very still and forward-facing as the guilty verdict was read. Ahead of the verdict, Hunter Biden appeared more upbeat than he did amid trial proceedings during the first week. He flashed a big smile at his defense team early Tuesday morning. 

HUNTER BIDEN’S CRIMINAL TRIAL ON FEDERAL GUN CHARGES BEGINS WITH JURY SELECTION

He kissed his wife, and they left the courtroom before grabbing lunch in Wilmington a short time later.

Hunter Biden and wife Melissa Cohen Biden arrive for the reading of the verdict in his trial on criminal gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 11, 2024. (Reuters/Hannah Beier)

Hunter Biden faces a total maximum prison time of 25 years for the three charges. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release. Hunter Biden, however, is a first-time offender, making it unlikely he will face maximum penalties when he is sentenced at a later date.

JURY HEARS AN HOUR OF EXCERPTS FROM ‘BEAUTIFUL THINGS’ 

The prosecution team played roughly an hour of excerpts from Hunter Biden’s 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” which detailed his rampant drug use after his brother’s death in 2015. He authored the memoir after he became sober in 2019.

The book was “key evidence that Hunter was using drugs,” prosecutor Wise said in his closing arguments to the jury on Monday. 

Hunter Biden holds a copy of his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” while leaving federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, June 5, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Last week, the prosecution team played excerpts from the book, which included anecdotes such as how he linked up with a female drug dealer he nicknamed “Bicycles” who sold him crack cocaine on the streets of Washington, D.C., how he could serve as a “crack daddy” to dealers due to his spiraling addiction, and how he took cocaine from a stranger in a hotel bathroom in Monte Carlo.

US V HUNTER BIDEN TRIAL ENTERS DAY 7 WITH CONTINUED JURY DELIBERATIONS: ‘CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES’

“I possessed a new superpower: the ability to find crack in any town, at any time, no matter how unfamiliar the terrain. It was easy-risky, often frustrating, always stupid and stupendously dangerous, yet relatively simple if you didn’t give much of a s— about your own well-being and were desperate enough to have an almost limitless appetite for debasement,” one excerpt read. 

Social media users weighed in on Hunter Biden being found guilty on charges related to his possession of a firearm. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The excerpts were taken from the audiobook version of the memoir, which was narrated by Hunter Biden himself. The first son sat in court as his narration echoed through the court’s speaker system, walking the jury through his free fall with crack cocaine. 

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Another excerpt read in court stated, “I was smoking crack every 15 minutes.” And another, “I was so lost in my addiction that I watched the crowd rob me blind and didn’t care enough to stop them – not as long as the cycle of drugs, sex, exhaustion and exhilaration repeated itself over and over. It was nonstop depravity.” 

Hunter Biden will be sentenced sometime in October.

WASHINGTON — A continuing focus on diversity appears to be the political strategy for how President Biden would approach filling any Supreme Court vacancies in a second term. 

Sources close to the White House and his re-election campaign say the president would use the successful nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as a template for navigating any future high court opening.

For now, officials say he plans to more prominently tout Jackson’s confirmation to various key constituencies as the presidential campaign intensifies, especially to Black voters who will be key to his re-election.

After Justice Stephen Breyer announced his 2022 retirement, Biden committed early on to naming the first Black woman as his replacement and gathered a number of qualified jurists for initial vetting. That internal list then expanded before three finalists were ultimately reached — Jackson and judges Leondra Kruger and J. Michelle Childs. Kruger and Childs remain top contenders for the Supreme Court, sources say.

BIDEN ADMIN WEIGHS GOING AROUND ISRAEL TO NEGOTIATE RELEASE OF US HOSTAGES DIRECTLY WITH HAMAS: REPORT

President Biden arrives at Omaha Beach to commemorate “D-Day” in France. (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)

The president, in public remarks, has made much of the diversity of his judicial nominees for the courts. Almost two-thirds are women, more than twice those named by President Trump in his single term (Biden 127; 64% as of May 22, versus Trump 55 total; 24%). Biden has also named an equal percentage of members of a racial or ethnic minority group to the federal bench — about 64%.

Biden could make history with the first justice who identifies as Asian American or Pacific Islander and would have more than 30 AAPI judges he has named to the lower federal courts to choose from. 

But any retirement by Justice Clarence Thomas, who turns 75 June 23, or Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who turns 70 two days later, would put political pressure on the next president to name a Black or Latino to the Supreme Court.

BIDEN’S CRUSADE AGAINST US ENERGY HARMS AMERICA AND OUR ALLIES

Overall, Biden has been actively finding qualified federal candidates to fill bench vacancies. His 200th federal judge was confirmed by the Senate last month, slightly outpacing the number by his predecessor at this point in his presidency. 

The following is an unofficial list of potential candidates for the Supreme Court by Biden. It was compiled from a number of sources, including officials within his inner circle, his political campaign and Democratic political and legal circles. 

The current White House administration, like those before, quickly began compiling an informal list of possible high court nominees to consider in the event of a sudden vacancy. But serious vetting only begins when such a vacancy occurs or is announced in advance by a retiring justice.

Justice Leondra R. Kruger at a session at the California Supreme Court in Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

• Leondra Kruger, California Supreme Court Justice

Born in 1976, Kruger is a former Obama Justice Department lawyer and argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court. She also clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens and was a finalist for the 2022 court seat that went to Brown Jackson. Her sterling resume and relatively young age could continue to make Kruger a strong favorite for a Supreme Court seat, especially if Thomas retires. She’s considered something of a moderate on the state high court and often a “swing” or deciding vote in close cases. But state judges rarely receive serious consideration for the U.S. Supreme Court. The last was Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981. Kruger’s parents were both pediatricians. Her mother is Jamaican. Her late father was the son of Jewish immigrants. She gave birth to a daughter in March 2016.

• Sri Srinivasan, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

Born in 1967 in India, Srinivasan was later named to the court in 2013 (97-0 vote), months before colleague Patricia Millett joined him. He is now chief judge on that bench. He was a finalist for the seat that Garland was nominated for. The son of Indian immigrants and raised in Kansas. Padmanabhan Srikanth Srinivasan was the principal deputy solicitor general at the Justice Department and argued more than two dozen cases before the Supreme Court. He would be the high court’s first Asian American. He clerked for Republican-nominated federal judges Harvie Wilkinson and Day O’Connor. Obama called him “a trailblazer who personifies the best of America.” Known as low-key, practical and non-ideological, he may not excite many progressives, nor give conservatives much to dislike. 

Fun fact: Justice Elena Kagan has praised him (both worked together in the Obama SG’s office), saying Srinivasan “cools it down” with his calm manner during oral arguments.

BIDEN WANTS TO ‘BASTARDIZE’ HIS FAMILY STORIES TO GET ‘WEIRD POLITICAL POINTS WITH CERTAIN DEMOGRAPHICS’

• Elizabeth Prelogar, U.S. Solicitor General (pronounced: PRE’-low-guhr)

Born in 1980, Prelogar became the 40th solicitor general in October 2021, after serving for months in an acting role. The Idaho native clerked for justices Ginsburg and Kagan, a former solicitor general, and for then-Judge Merrick Garland on the D.C. Circuit appeals court. Besides Kagan, former solicitors general to later become a justice include William Howard Taft, Robert Jackson, Stanley Reed and Thurgood Marshall.

Fun facts: She was a beauty pageant contestant named Miss Idaho in 2004 and appeared last fall on the NPR quiz show, “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me” (her topic was vacuum cleaner salespeople).

• Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General

Born in 1968, Monaco was a former federal prosecutor and national security adviser under Obama from 2013-2017. She worked as a researcher under then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden starting in 1992. Monaco would also be a favorite for attorney general in a second Biden term if Garland retires.

Candace Jackson-Akiwumi testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C. (Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)

• Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Chicago

Born in 1979 in Norfolk, Virginia, both her parents are judges, U.S. District Judge Raymond Alvin Jackson and former Norfolk General District Court Judge Gwendolyn Jackson. A former federal defender in Chicago and, before that, a partner in a D.C. law firm, Jackson-Akiwumi was nominated by Biden in March 2021, one of three Black women named to appeals court seats in the administration’s first months.  

• J. Michelle Childs, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

Born in 1966, Childs was nominated in December 2021 to serve on the high-profile D.C. Circuit appeals court, replacing the retiring Judge David Tatel. She was Biden’s second Black woman on the D.C. Circuit, after now-Justice Jackson. Sources say Rep. Clyburn (D-S.C.) strongly pushed the White House to name the South Carolina-based Childs to this seat. The D.C. Circuit is seen as something of a professional stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Besides Jackson, recent justices who earlier served on that appellate bench include John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. Childs had previously been a federal district court judge since 2010. The Detroit native went to law school at the University of South Carolina.

Born in 1974, Pérez was a 2021 appointee to her current seat. She previously served at the progressive Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law as director of its Voting Rights and Elections Program. A native of San Antonio, she would be given serious consideration, especially if Sotomayor retired.  

• Nancy Maldonado, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Judge, Chicago

Born in 1975, Maldonado was nominated for a seat on the 7th Circuit. She would be the first Hispanic judge on that federal appeals bench. Her nomination to the high court would have a strong backer in her home state of Illinois. 

• Patricia Millett, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

Born in 1963, Millett was named in 2013 to a bench considered a stepping stone to the high court, where four current justices once served (so did Justice Scalia). Formerly a private Washington-based appellate attorney — Obama called her “one of the nation’s finest” — who also had more than a decade experience in the U.S. Solicitor General’s office. Millett argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court, second-most ever for a female lawyer. Sources from both ideological stripes call her fair-minded, no-nonsense and non-ideological. Age may be a drawback for any future high court vacancies.

Fun fact: Her husband is U.S. Navy reservist Robert King, and the two met at a Methodist Church singles event.

BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE DEEPLY INVOLVED WITH FAMILY’S BUSINESS DEALINGS: REPORT

President Biden gives a speech at the White House. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

• Cindy Kyounga Chung, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Pittsburgh

Born in 1975, Chung, a Korean-American native, is a Biden appointee to her current seat and a former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh.

• Roopali Desai, 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Phoenix, Arizona

Desai was born in 1978 in Toronto, Canada, to parents of Indian descent. After law school in Arizona, Desai, as a private attorney, worked successfully with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office to throw out challenges to the state’s 2020 presidential election results. She was then appointed by Biden to the largest federal appeals court. 

• Lucy Haeran Koh, 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, San Francisco

Born in 1968, Koh was renominated in 2021 by Biden to the federal appeals court. Her 2016 nomination expired with the end of the 114th Congress, and then-President Trump subsequently named someone else to the seat. The Oklahoma native is of Korean descent. Koh had been overseeing separate multidistrict litigation involving such tech giants as Samsung and Apple, Inc. She is married to state Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar (see below).

BIDEN’S ‘PERPETUAL STATE OF CONFUSION’ ON DISPLAY IN NORMANDY AMID RISING COGNITIVE QUESTIONS

• Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen, 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Pasadena, California

Born in 1965 in Dalat, Vietnam, and named to the court in 2012 after two years as a federal district court judge, Hong-Ngoc Nguyen could make history as the high court’s first Asian American justice. She is already the first Asian American woman to sit on a federal appeals court. A former state judge, federal prosecutor and private attorney, he moved with her family to the U.S. when she was 10, just after the fall of South Vietnam to the communists. Her parents eventually set up a doughnut shop in North Hollywood, California.

• Michelle Friedland, 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, San Jose, California

Born in 1972 and named to the appeals court seat in 2014, Friedland was sworn in by former Justice O’Connor, for whom she once served as a law clerk.

• Arianna Freeman, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Philadelphia

Born in 1978, Freeman is a Biden appointee and the first Black woman on the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Her service as a former federal public defender in the City of Brotherly Love was criticized by Senate Republicans during her judicial confirmation. 

Tamika Montgomery-Reeves testifying at her confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

• Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Wilmington, Delaware

Born in 1981 in Jackson, Mississippi, Montgomery-Reeves was named by Biden in 2022 to her current seat after her service on the Delaware Supreme Court. Her home state professional roots would be an obvious selling point to the president. 

• Paul Watford, private attorney in Los Angeles and former judge

Born in 1967, Watford’s age and background until recently made him a favorite among some liberal court watchers. Named to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2012, he resigned in May 2023 to go into private practice. He was a finalist for the seat that went to Garland in 2017, although that nomination ultimately failed. He clerked for conservative-libertarian former federal Judge Alex Kozinski on the 9th Circuit and later for Bader Ginsburg. He is also a former federal prosecutor and law firm partner. Supporters call the Orange County, California, native an ideological moderate, which may not sit well with progressives seeking a stronger liberal voice. But his rulings limiting police discretion in search and seizure cases have been applauded by left-leaning advocates.

Born in 1970 and of Taiwanese descent, Liu is a former Justice Ginsburg law clerk who helped draft her dissent in Bush v. Gore. Liu joined the state high court after twice being rejected in 2011 by Senate Republicans for a seat on a San Francisco-based federal appeals court. He was eventually filibustered after conservatives said he was “outside the mainstream,” expressing concerns over his past statements on a variety of hot-button topics such as same-sex marriage and health care reform. A Liu nomination would be among the most contentious made by a Democratic president. 

• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, former California Supreme Court Justice

Born in 1972 in Mexico, Cuéllar was named in 2021 as president of the D.C.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Nicknamed “Tino,” Cuellar served in the Obama and Clinton administrations and is a former academic specializing in administrative law. He is married to federal Judge Lucy Koh (see above).

• Jane Kelly, 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Born in 1964, Kelly is only the second woman to serve on the St. Louis-based court, appointed in 2013 (96-0 vote). She spent most of her legal career as a federal public defender in Iowa. One of her biggest fans is fellow Iowan Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.

Fun fact: Kelly graduated in 1991 from the same Harvard Law School class as Obama.

• David Barron, 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Boston

Born in 1967, Barron was confirmed to the bench in May 2014. He formerly served as acting assistant attorney general in the Obama administration, then went to Harvard Law School as a professor. He also clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens. Being a white male may hurt his chances if President Biden feels political pressure to replace Justice Ginsburg with another woman.

• Robert Wilkins, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

Born in 1963, Wilkins is an Indiana native and was raised by a single mother. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1989. He filed a civil rights lawsuit in 1992 against the Maryland State Police after being pulled over for speeding after officers were instructed to focus on young Black males when making lawful traffic stops.

• Cheryl Ann Krause, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Philadelphia

Born in 1968, Krause was a law clerk for two Republican-appointed court judges, including Justice Anthony Kennedy. She was named to her current seat in 2014 by Obama. 

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• Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

A few members of Congress typically get mentioned on these lists, often as a political courtesy, especially to those senators who would vote on any nomination. Frequently mentioned are two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee (and former 2020 presidential candidates) who gained national prominence during the Justice Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.

Booker, born in 1969, is the former mayor of Newark and one of four Black senators. Klobuchar, born in 1960, was a county prosecutor and adviser to former Vice President Walter Mondale. She was mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate for Biden and has frequently been mentioned as a high court candidate, dating back to 2009.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress on Wednesday over his failure to produce audio recordings of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden.

Hur’s findings cleared Biden of wrongdoing in his handling of classified documents but also said the 81-year-old president presented himself “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him-by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

Biden and his allies aggressively pushed back on concerns about his mental fitness in the report’s wake.

Republicans seeking the audio recording argue it would provide critical context about Biden’s state of mind. Democrats, meanwhile, have dismissed the request as a partisan attempt to politicize the Department of Justice (DOJ).

JOHNSON FLOATS DEFUNDING SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE AMID JACK SMITH’S TRUMP PROBE

House Speaker Mike Johnson, right, is teeing up a vote on a contempt of Congress resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Getty Images/File)

The pursuit of Hur’s audio tapes is part of the House GOP’s wider impeachment inquiry into Biden, investigating allegations he used his political position to enrich himself and his family. Biden has denied accusations of wrongdoing.

And while the majority of Republicans have indicated they support the measure, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has little wiggle room: He can only lose two votes on any party-line measure.

Two Republicans – Reps. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., told Fox News Digital they are still unsure about how they’ll vote.

“I still have to go through the final decision process. But if they’ve already released the transcripts, it doesn’t seem to me like there’s any legal leg to stand on to not release the actual videos. To me, that seems like something they should do,” Newhouse said.

Ciscomani said, “I want to understand exactly the purpose behind that before I comment on it.”

HILL AID INTERFERES WITH FOX NEWS CAMERA CREW DURING TLAIB INTERVIEW

House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., criticized the moderates’ indecision.

“If moderates don’t agree that Merrick Garland needs to be censured by not turning over audio which solidifies whatever the testimony is, that would shock me,” Norman said.

Republicans are moving against Garland over the DOJ’s refusal to release audio tapes of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden. (Getty Images/File)

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said she would aim to force a vote on her own inherent contempt resolution against Garland if the DOJ fails to go after him if the Wednesday resolution passes. An inherent contempt resolution would direct the House’s sergeant at arms to arrest its target rather than passing it to the DOJ.

“As of right now, we fully intend to bring it,” Luna said. “I don’t really have much faith in the Department of Justice. And I don’t think the American people do either. But we are trying to bring back a level playing field and show that, you know, there should be accountability all the way up to the top.”

Democrats, meanwhile, blasted the GOP effort. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said, “This is what they want to do because they don’t have the votes to impeach Joe Biden, right? That’s why they did Merrick Garland. That’s why they went after [Hunter Biden]. It’s all trying to please their base because Congress doesn’t want to do what Donald Trump wants, which is to impeach Joe Biden so they can have even scores.”

Their targeting of Garland is part of a wider GOP effort to crack down on alleged weaponization of the DOJ by Biden’s officials. That also includes various pieces of legislation and public threats to defund various aspects of the department, including the special counsel currently investigating former President Trump.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment on the contempt resolution against Garland.

TRUMP GUILTY VERDICT REVEALS SPLIT AMONG FORMER GOP PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY OPPONENTS

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., had led Democrat opposition to the measure. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon/File)

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Garland took an indirect shot at Republicans’ pushback on the DOJ in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday morning.

“In recent weeks, we have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work. They are baseless, personal and dangerous,” he wrote. “These attacks come in the form of threats to defund particular department investigations, most recently the special counsel’s prosecution of the former president.”

Of course Hunter Biden was guilty. It only took a jury in Delaware, where the family name is golden, three hours to figure that out.

His defense was quite frankly absurd. Biden was a drug addict – he helpfully wrote and recorded a book about it – then his lawyer argued he wasn’t using drugs on the day, week or alternate Tuesday that he bought a handgun – so he didn’t mean to lie on the federal form.

The result: Guilty on all three felony counts.

HUNTER BIDEN’S EX-BUSINESS ASSOCIATE DISMISSES GUN TRIAL CHARGES: ‘DISTRACTION’ FROM ‘INFLUENCE PEDDLING’

The only real mystery is why Hunter didn’t plead guilty and spare his father the personal and political embarrassment of having all this dirty laundry aired in open court. Federal prosecutors clearly were pushing for a settlement. The testimony from Hunter’s exes, the excruciating text messages, all this could have been avoided.

He would have gone to jail either way.

And yet, for all the criticism from Republicans that the law enforcement system has been weaponized against their side, the Biden Justice Department just convicted the president’s son. There aren’t many countries around the world where you can imagine that happening.

Hunter Biden departs from federal court, Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware.  (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

In fact, that same DOJ is now prosecuting two other prominent Democrats, Sen. Bob Menendez and his gold bars bribery case, and Rep. Henry Cuellar.

In what must have been a difficult psychological blow for Joe Biden, who went to Wilmington last night to be with his son, essentially repeated a statement he made last week. 

“I will accept the outcome of this case, and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal,” said the president, who says he has ruled out a pardon. He said he and his wife are “so proud of the man he is today.”

BIDEN’S MENTAL ACUITY QUESTIONED

Despite hours of cable news banners, Joe Biden did not address the matter even when he was addressing a gun safety forum, which made for an awkward situation. But he was not going to give his detractors the sound bite they wanted.

You might think, given that Donald Trump is also a convicted felon – and I’m not comparing the two cases – that he and his allies would let the media tout the Hunter Biden conviction. But no.

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, joined by his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware.   (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The Trump camp’s press secretary said “this trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine. Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Crime Family is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”

So we’ve gone from Hunter Biden must be convicted immediately to this is a mere distraction. The gun felony case has nothing to do with his dad, who kept urging him to get sober. The second, more serious criminal trial, for tax evasion, might feature a limited parental role.

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But the “Biden Crime Family” refrain is aimed squarely at the then-vice president’s son trading on his last name to rake in global business for which he was clearly unqualified. So there’s a deliberate shifting of the goal posts here.

Keep in mind that House Republicans, after months of investigation, failed to produce evidence of Joe Biden getting a dime, though he clearly used innocuous calls and a couple of lunches to help his son drum up business. Also, the committee’s key source was indicted for lying. 

Special counsel David Weiss told reporters yesterday the gun case shows “no one is above the law.” But he also suggested the government wouldn’t propose a harsher sentence than for the average person.

Hunter Biden, center, and his attorneys Abbe Lowell, right, and Kevin Morris, left, leave the House Oversight and Accountability Committee markup titled “Resolution Recommending That The House of Representatives Find Robert Hunter Biden In Contempt Of Congress,” in the Rayburn Building on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

One could argue that the case should have been brought five years ago. But there’s also a contention that it wouldn’t have been filed at all against Hunter Jones. 

These rare cases usually have to be tied to a larger crime, such as if the president’s son had used the illicitly obtained gun to rob a bank. (That’s the argument Trump made, that he faced a gussied-up misdemeanor because he’s the leading candidate for president.)

But Hunter owned the handgun for all of 11 days before his paramour tossed it in the trash.

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The judge should sentence Hunter Biden around the time of the Democratic convention in August. And then comes the second trial. Awful timing for a notorious son who could have avoided this spectacle with a guilty plea.

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., defeated her primary opponent in Nevada’s Tuesday election.

Lee easily fended off a challenge from RockAthena Brittain, a biological man who identifies as a transgender woman. 

Her opponent did not receive any kind of backing or financial support from the Democratic Party, according to the Nevada Current. 

“I couldn’t even get the Human Rights Campaign to consider me for an endorsement,” Brittain told the outlet. 

SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BLASTS ‘SURREPTITIOUS’ RECORDING AS DEMS TARGET JUSTICE ALITO

((Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))

“They said they like Susie Lee because she asks for advice on issues. Wouldn’t it be better if they supported someone who actually knows the issues and doesn’t have to ask?” Brittain said. 

Brittain’s campaign against the three-term congresswoman was considered a longshot given Lee’s name identification, relationships and Democratic Party infrastructure support. 

‘LOOSE CANNON’: SENATE DEM ESCALATES ATTACK ON JUSTICE ALITO AFTER SECRET RECORDING

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., does a TV stand up outside of the U.S. Capitol before the House vote on the $483.4 billion economic relief package on Thursday, April 23, 2020. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Nevada’s third district is notably on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) target list of districts it hopes to get Republicans elected to in the 2024 elections.

Lee’s district is alongside 36 others across the country that Republicans consider “prime pick-up opportunities.” 

TRUMP TO MEET WITH HOUSE, SENATE REPUBLICANS IN DC THIS WEEK

Representative Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina, speaks during a news conference following a House Republicans meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Republicans are in the majority and on offense. We will grow our House majority by building strong campaigns around talented recruits in these districts who can communicate the dangers of Democrats’ extreme agenda,” said NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., earlier this year. “These House Democrats should be shaking in their boots.” 

While Republicans hope to end Democrats’ hold on the pivotal district, non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report rates the race as “Lean Democratic,” predicting Lee with an enduring edge. 

This split shows President Biden and former President Trump (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson and Evan Vucci)

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The November election is made more competitive in Nevada by the fact that President Biden is also on the ballot. Biden has received some historically low approval ratings during his tenure, and swing state Nevada is embroiled in a close race between him and former President Trump. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

In a primary that split the conservative House Freedom Caucus, incumbent Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., fended off a challenge from conservative State Rep. Adam Morgan. 

Prominent members of the House Freedom Caucus were split on who should get the nod to represent South Carolina’s solidly Republican 4th Congressional District in the northern part of the state, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg.

Timmons was endorsed by former president Donald Trump as well as conservative Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Byron Donalds of Florida and Jim Jordan of Ohio. Morgan received the backing of Florida’s Matt Gaetz and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good of Virginia. Morgan chairs the South Carolina legislature’s version of the Freedom Caucus.

INCUMBENT SC REP TIMMONS HIT WITH RESURFACED VIDEOS OF APPARENT SUPPORT OF DEI IN CONGRESS

Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Timmons raised more campaign cash than Morgan to the tune of $2.4 million to $578,000.

Both candidates said securing the southern border would be their primary focus if elected.

South Carolina State Representative, who is running against Rep. Williams Timmons. (Adam Morgan for Congress)

“Border security has got to be on the top of the list. Over 10 million people have crossed the southern border illegally in the last 3½ years. It’s unacceptable. We have to change the course. Our country can’t sustain it,” Timmons said, according to a report from Fox affiliate WSPA.

Timmons will face Democrat Kathryn Harvey and Constitution Party candidate Mark Hackett in the general election on Nov. 5. Timmons won the 2022 general election with 90.8% of the vote.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

RENO, Nev. – EXCLUSIVE: Former U.S. Army Capt. Sam Brown vowed to deliver results for Americans “crushed” by Biden’s policy failures, his first promise after winning a hard fought Senate primary in the crucial swing state of Nevada.

“Look, this is a clear signal that Republicans here in this state are united, not only behind President Trump, but behind me to take on Joe Biden and Jackey Rosen this November,” Brown told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview just moments after the race was called. 

“Americans need hope. Nevadans have been crushed by Biden’s policies. They’ve been supported by Jacky Rosen. And this is a resounding victory. We’re looking forward to going head-to-head and delivering a victory that Nevadans need,” he added.

WATCH: TRUMP RALLYGOERS REVEAL WHO THEY WANT AS VICE PRESIDENT

Republican Nevada Senate candidate Sam Brown. (Josh Edelson/Getty Images)

Brown said Nevadans would see a “clear contrast” between his and former President Trump’s America First policies over the next five months, and those of Biden, which he said had led to a worsening border crisis, a deteriorating state of the world, and an economy where prices are too high.

“The solutions are clear. We’ve got to secure our border. We’ve got to go after the cartels. We’ve got to ensure that we’re not allowing people into this country that mean to do harm. We’ve got to make sure that the economy is working for all, that there are good jobs, that we don’t have unnecessary inflation, we have an American energy policy that provides security and lower costs,” Brown told Fox. 

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“This is a future that’s not too far away. We’re going to deliver it after November.”

Brown soundly defeated his main primary rival, former U.S. Ambassador Jeff Gunter, by a significant margin, and will head to the general election with solid backing from Trump and national Republicans, who view the Nevada race as one of their top targets to flip from Democrats.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., won his party’s nomination for a pivotal swing district in Tuesday’s primary election. 

The incumbent Democrat managed to fend off a primary challenge from young political newcomer Levy Schultz. 

Schultz challenged the Nevada representative because of what he described as the lack of affordable housing he encountered in Las Vegas. 

SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY BLASTS ‘SURREPTITIOUS’ RECORDING AS DEMS TARGET JUSTICE ALITO

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., speaks on infrastructure and climate change during a news conference outside the Capitol on August 23, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“The American people should not have to rent the American dream. We should be able to buy it,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this year. 

The challenger’s candidacy was considered a long-shot against Horsford. 

‘LOOSE CANNON’: SENATE DEM ESCALATES ATTACK ON JUSTICE ALITO AFTER SECRET RECORDING

Rep. Steven Horsford (Getty Images)

The Democrat incumbent was first elected to the House in 2012. However, Horsford lost his seat to a Republican competitor after one term in 2014. But, after running again in 2018, he regained his seat and has been serving in it since. 

Nevada’s fourth district is being eyed by Republicans as a prime pick-up opportunity alongside 36 other districts nationwide. 

TRUMP TO MEET WITH HOUSE, SENATE REPUBLICANS IN DC THIS WEEK

Representative Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina, speaks during a news conference following a House Republicans meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Republicans are in the majority and on offense. We will grow our House majority by building strong campaigns around talented recruits in these districts who can communicate the dangers of Democrats’ extreme agenda,” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said in a statement earlier this year. “These House Democrats should be shaking in their boots.” 

However, this could prove difficult, as non-partisan political handicapper, the Cook Political Report, has rated the race “Likely Democratic.”

MIKE LEE PRAISES TRUMP FOR RESISTING CLINTON LAWFARE, WARNS BIDEN OF SLIPPERY SLOPE

President Biden and former President Trump (AP/Alex Brandon/Julia Nikhinson )

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Horsford does still have to contend with a competitive election landscape in the battleground state. This is magnified by the fact that he has to share the ballot with President Biden, who has racked up historically low approval ratings. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced a tough grilling from House GOP lawmakers Tuesday over his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes during the height of the pandemic. 

Cuomo visited Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with the House select subcommittee investigating the coronavirus pandemic. 

Lawmakers zeroed in on a March 25, 2020, executive order by the governor that restricted nursing homes from refusing to admit or readmit residents “solely based on confirmed or suspect[ed] diagnosis of COVID-19.” 

A report released in March 2022 by the New York state comptroller found Cuomo’s Health Department “was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes” and it “understated the number of deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%” during some points of the pandemic.

CUOMO FINALLY FORCED TO TELL WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT COVID-19 DECISIONS THAT COST THOUSANDS OF LIVES

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the COVID-19 select subcommittee, grilled former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo behind closed doors Tuesday. (Getty Images)

Cuomo has pushed back on these claims, insisting New York’s health department was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidance issued by the Trump administration before Cuomo’s order. 

A report released in March 2022 by the New York state comptroller found former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Health Department “was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.” (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

In his opening remarks, Cuomo said “any serious review must stop asking political questions and start asking fact-based ones.” He pointed out that New York was “No. 39 in terms of pro rata nursing home deaths [despite the state] being ground zero for COVID.” 

He also accused the Trump administration of targeting Democrat-led states “despite both red and blue states issuing” the same guidelines. 

GOP lawmakers held a post-hearing press conference at which they accused Cuomo of deflecting blame. 

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“I felt like the governor was defensive throughout most of the day, often putting blame on other people rather than himself. [He] didn’t seem to be taking a lot of responsibility for the things that were happening,” Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said. 

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., called Cuomo a “phony” and a “fraud” who “put our most vulnerable population at risk, resulting in the death of over 15,000 seniors.

“And it was Andrew Cuomo who covered it up,” Lawler added. “It wasn’t just the directive which was bad enough and idiotic and resulted in the death of the 15,000-plus seniors. It was Andrew Cuomo, for political purposes, who directed the state government to cover up the death toll.” 

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been accused of mishandling his state’s response to COVID-19. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

GOP conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said Tuesday’s deposition “was a step in delivering accountability and delivering long overdue answers to those families who are still mourning the loss of their loved ones.” 

Speaking to reporters after the deposition, Cuomo said the federal government was ultimately to blame for the severity of the pandemic. 

“We have two very different opinions on what happened during COVID,” Cuomo told a reporter. “I think the federal government failed this nation. And it was abysmal. How did COVID get to the U.S. in December and nobody knew? How did it take so many months before we had … basic testing in place? How did we have a president running around saying, ‘It’s going to be gone when the weather gets warm?’ … who then admits to a reporter that he purposely downplayed it?” 

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, told Fox News Digital the governor “presented fact-based evidence that New York, at the end of the day, was the 39th state for pro rata in nursing home deaths in 2020 despite the fact that it started off the hardest hit.” 

“We worked day and night to protect New Yorkers and save lives even though the ‘experts’ kept changing the facts on the ground. We were grappling with international PPE shortages and no national response,” Azzopardi said. “The fact that this partisan farce was allowed to go on, and they continue telling their fact-less stories, especially in order to help their marginal members who weren’t even at the hearing, tells you what a joke this was.” 

Wenstrup subpoenaed Cuomo in March to appear before his committee. A letter accompanying the subpoena said Cuomo’s testimony “is vital to our investigation into the effectiveness of federal guidance and regulations implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the protection of nursing home residents.”

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“Further, this investigation may inform legislation to enhance the federal scientific guidance process, including the drafting, publication, and implementation of guidances originating from CMS or CDC,” the letter said.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.