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Texas Republicans are criticizing a Biden administration parole program for four nationalities after it was revealed this week that three of the top destinations for migrants under the program are in Texas — on top of the numbers it is already seeing coming across the border.

“It’s just another layer to the entirety of what we’re dealing with,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas told Fox News Digital in an interview. “But that’s what people need to understand, it’s a very specific program designed to flood the system, misusing parole to do it.”

Fox News reported this week on how official stats show that during an eight-month period from January through August 2023, roughly 200,000 migrants flew into the U.S. via a parole program for four nationalities. Of those, the vast majority landed in Florida, but three of the top 15 destinations were in Texas — Austin, Dallas and Houston. Over 10,000 migrants traveled to those airports in that period.

DHS DOCS REVEAL WHERE PAROLED MIGRANTS UNDER CONTROVERSIAL BIDEN FLIGHT PROGRAM ARE LANDING

The policy was first announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, which allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S. already, and passed certain biometric and biographical vetting. The program does not itself facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel.

In January 2023, the administration expanded the program to include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans, with up to 30,000 people per month allowed into the U.S. It allows for migrants to receive work permits and a two-year authorization to live in the U.S. and was announced alongside an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities. By the end of February 2024, more than 400,000 nationals have arrived under the parole program, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently said the program is a “safe and orderly way to reach the United States” and has “led to a reduction in numbers of those nationalities.”

“It is a key element of our efforts to address the unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere, and other countries around the world see it as a model to tackle the challenge of increased irregular migration that they too are experiencing,” Mayorkas said.

‘ILLEGAL PROGRAM’: GOVERNOR VOWS TO FIGHT BIDEN FLYING MIGRANTS INTO US

DHS has said that those who enter the U.S. under the program undergo and clear a “robust security vetting” as well as other eligibility criteria. 

“These processes are publicly available online, and DHS has been providing regular updates on their use to the public. These processes are part of the administration’s strategy to combine expanded lawful pathways with stronger consequences to reduce irregular migration, and have kept hundreds of thousands of people from migrating irregularly,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital last month.

But Republicans have claimed the program abuses the parole limits set by Congress, which say that the authority must be used on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or for significant public benefit. It also comes amid an ongoing border crisis that the Biden administration has blamed on a lack of resources and a “broken” immigration system in need of reform, but that Republicans have blamed on the policies of the Biden administration.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

“The invasion at our southern border has turned every American city into a border city, and the Biden administration’s efforts to fly illegal aliens across the country is the reason why,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Biden’s fast-track processing, and programs like their CHNV parole program, are only pushing the border crisis further into the interior of the country. Every day, our national security is being undermined more and more by the Biden administration,” he said. “In Texas, Houston, Dallas, and Austin have been hit especially hard by the open border, finding themselves having to support tens of thousands of illegal aliens Biden has rolled out the red carpet for.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was asked on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” if he thought that the program was okay.

“No,” he said. Cornyn has previously slammed the use of parole by the administration as “cooking the books.” 

Roy told Fox that the historic crisis, which has seen more than 2.4 million migrant encounters last fiscal year at the border, is having a “severe” impact on the state, and he believes Texans will be angry to learn that more migrants are flying in.

“So the impact is severe,” Roy said. “This parole program now I think the Texans are going to go: ‘Wait a minute. You mean they’re flooding across the border and you’re flying people directly to our airports and to our communities?’ And I think that’s going to just continue to elevate the frustration people feel.”

In terms of Republicans effecting change in Washington, Roy says that with a current stalemate that he blames on Speaker Mike Johnson for giving away leverage on Ukraine funding to fix the border, it will be up to governors to act to secure the border.

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“Much of the leverage has been given up. So I think this is more of a reason for Texas to do what it has to do, governors to do what they have to do, because, frankly, the federal government has abandoned them,” he said. “This is a reason to elect Donald Trump. This is a reason to, yes, send Republicans, to the House and to the Senate. So we can at least have an actual debate about border security.”

Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

A group of Australian lawmakers wrote to President Biden on World Press Freedom Day urging him to drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as press freedom groups call for the release of Assange and other journalists around the world facing legal cases.

In a Friday letter, the co-chairs of the “Bring Julian Assange Home” Parliamentary Friendship Group – Members of Parliament Andrew Wilkie, Independent; Josh Wilson, Labor Party; Bridget Archer, Liberal Party, and Sen. David Shoebridge, Greens – called on Biden to end the prosecution of Assange, who is in a U.K. prison fighting extradition to the U.S. to face espionage charges for publishing classified American military documents 14 years ago.

A hearing will be held May 20 in front of the British High Court in London to determine if Assange, an Australian publisher, can be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial or if he can make a full appeal challenging his extradition. If the court rules in favor of extradition, Assange’s only remaining option would be at the European Court of Human Rights.

“On World Press Freedom Day, we write as a group of Australian Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum seeking the freedom of Julian Assange,” the lawmakers wrote. “We write in the hope that Mr. Assange, who has endured maximum security imprisonment in the United Kingdom’s Belmarsh Prison for more than five years without conviction on any substantial charge, can go free, can go home, can be reunited with his wife, children, and family.”

ASSANGE EXTRADITION CASE MOVES FORWARD AFTER US ASSURES UK COURT THERE WILL BE NO DEATH PENALTY

Assange, 52, faces 17 counts under the Espionage Act for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public, as well as one charge alleging conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. If extradited, Assange would stand trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and could face up to 175 years in a maximum security prison if convicted.

The charges were brought by the Trump administration’s DOJ over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of cables leaked by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, and the Biden administration has continued that prosecution. The information detailed alleged war crimes committed by the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition.

The letter comes after Biden said last month he is considering a request from Australia to drop the charges against Assange.

“We were heartened by President Biden’s recent acknowledgment that the United States is considering Australia’s request to end the prosecution of Julian Assange,” the letter reads. “We respectfully urge the United States to discontinue the long, expensive, and punishing extradition process that prevents Mr Assange from returning to his family in Australia.”

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

SQUAD AND MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE JOIN 16 LAWMAKERS CALLING ON BIDEN TO FREE JULIAN ASSANGE

Assange has been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden over allegations he raped two women because Sweden would not provide assurances it would protect him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped.

A U.K. district court judge had rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. Higher courts overturned that decision after getting assurances from the U.S. about his treatment.

Assange’s lawyers have continued to fight against his extradition, currently seeking the opportunity for a full appeal following the May 20 hearing, which comes after the U.S. provided assurances to the U.K. last month that Assange would not face new charges that could lead to the death penalty. They also said he would be allowed to make a First Amendment argument in a U.S. courtroom – things Assange’s lawyers and family described as empty promises.

In March, when the British court asked the U.S. to provide assurances, it rejected most of Assange’s appeals – six of nine he lodged, including allegations of a political prosecution and concerns about an alleged CIA plot under the Trump administration to kidnap or kill Assange while he remained hunkered down in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party has said “there is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration” and the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton of the Liberal Party, has said he believes this case has “gone on for too long.”

In February, the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament passed a motion demanding Assange be freed, stressing “the importance of the U.K. and the U.S.A. bringing the matter to a close so that Mr. Assange can return home to his family in Australia.”

BRITISH COURT RULES JULIAN ASSANGE EXTRADITION ON PAUSE UNTIL US GUARANTEES NO DEATH PENALTY

A cross-party delegation of Australian lawmakers visited Washington, D.C., in September and met with U.S. officials, members of Congress and civil rights groups in an attempt to secure Assange’s freedom.

“While we believe the prosecution of Julian Assange is wrong as a matter of principle, we say in any case that there is no justice, compassion, or reasonable purpose in the further persecution of Mr. Assange when one considers the duration and harsh conditions of the detention he has already suffered,” the letter concludes.

The Obama administration in 2013 decided not to indict Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of classified cables because it would have had to also indict journalists from major news outlets who published the same materials.

President Obama also commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was released later that year.

No publisher had been charged under the Espionage Act until Assange, and many press freedom groups have said his prosecution sets a dangerous precedent intended to criminalize journalism.

“President Biden has repeatedly said that journalism is not a crime, all the while his administration continues to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for acts that journalists engage in every day,” Caitlin Vogus, Deputy Director of Advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “To truly celebrate World Press Freedom Day, the Biden administration should immediately drop the Espionage Act charges against Assange.”

She continued: “If the DOJ tried to prosecute reporters at the New York Times or Wall Street Journal under the Espionage Act for speaking to sources, obtaining classified information, and publishing that information, we would rightfully see it as a severe threat to the First Amendment. The Espionage Act prosecution of Assange threatens press freedom by opening the door to precisely those kinds of prosecutions of journalists by the current or future administrations.”

Reporters Without Borders Executive Director Clayton Weimers told Fox News Digital that the prosecution of Assange “could set a very dangerous precedent for American press freedom.”

“This would be the first time the Espionage Act, an archaic law badly in need of reform, would be used to punish the publisher of factual information, not just the leaker,” he said. “In this case, the leaker, Chelsea Manning, has already served her sentence. But if the Justice Department is successful in prosecuting Assange, they’re opening the door to prosecuting any journalist or media outlet – including Fox News – to prosecution for publishing government secrets, even if that publication is in the public interest.”

On World Press Freedom Day, many other journalists around the world are facing legal cases for their journalistic work, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia on espionage charges for allegedly stealing secret military documents.

“We continue to call for the Kremlin to release Evan Gershkovich, and indeed for the release of all wrongly jailed journalists around the world,” Weimers said. “We also call on the State Department to designate journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a US citizen, as ‘wrongfully detained.'”

ARTIST THREATENS TO DESTROY PICASSO, REMBRANDT, WARHOL MASTERPIECES WITH ACID IF JULIAN ASSANGE DIES IN PRISON

When governments arrest or imprison journalists for covering the news, Vogus said, it “threatens everyone’s freedom and ability to be informed.”

“Arresting journalists for covering the news is an authoritarian bullying tactic whether it’s happening in Russia or Austin, Texas,” she said. “Compelling reporters to reveal their confidential sources will make whistleblowers less likely to come forward. Sources often risk their livelihoods and even their freedom to tell journalists what they know about corruption, crimes, and wrongdoing.”

Reporters Without Borders downgraded the U.S. to 55 among nations in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

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“The U.S. should be a beacon for press freedom around the world. Instead, we have recently seen journalists in the U.S. arrested and prosecuted simply for doing their jobs across the country, and witnessed growing distrust fueled by the irresponsible rhetoric of some political officials,” National Press Club president Emily Wilkins and National Press Club Journalism Institute president Gil Klein said in a statement. “The falling ranking of the U.S. in the World Press Freedom Index shows that we are headed in the wrong direction.”

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, National Press Club and many other press freedom groups are urging Congress to pass the bipartisan PRESS Act, which would prevent the federal government from compelling journalists to reveal their sources and confidential work.

FIRST ON FOX: The anti-Israel protests that have erupted on college campuses across the country in recent weeks over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza are fueling new political attacks by Republicans on vulnerable Democrats running in this year’s Senate elections.

“Death to America. Threatening Jews. Attacking Police. Antisemitic mobs are taking over our universities. Students radicalized by the far left acting like terrorists,” the narrator says in a new series of ads by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP.

The spots target four Democrats — senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jon Tester of Montana — as well as Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the likely Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan. All five are being heavily targeted by the NRSC as the GOP aims to regain the Senate majority in November’s elections.

The narrator argues that President Biden and Democratic lawmakers “want you to pay off their student loans using your tax dollars to fund this mayhem.” 

HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS UPDATES ON THE CAMPUS PROTESTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The ads end with the narrator urging viewers to tell Democrats to “stop caving to the woke mobs and put America first.”

The NRSC is spending a minuscule five figures to run the spots, but a bigger ad blitz with a similar theme is expected in the near future.

“This is the most toxic issue for Democrats since they tried to defund the police,” NRSC communications director Mike Berg claimed.

“You can bet it will be in television ads if Democrats on college campuses continue these antisemitic riots.”

BIDEN CONDEMNS VIOLENT PROTESTS BUT DECLINES TO CALL UP NATIONAL GUARD

The protests, some of which have turned violent this week, have grabbed plenty of attention on the cable news networks and online. And they seem to be giving Republicans plenty of ammunition to use in this year’s ballot box showdowns.

It’s not just the NRSC.

In battleground Pennsylvania’s high-profile Senate contest, which may decide the chamber’s majority, presumptive GOP nominee Dave McCormick on Friday attacked Casey in an email titled “As Antisemitism Runs Rampant on Campuses Across the Country, Bob Casey Fails to Stand Up for What’s Right.”

HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS SERIES ON ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED

Casey, who earlier this month teamed up with GOP Sen. Tim Scott to introduce the Senate’s version of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, has emphasized that “on the campuses, they’ve got to enforce the law.”

As the House GOP works to hold onto its fragile majority, the National Republican Congressional Committee this past week launched a similar spot against 37 swing district Democrats it is targeting.

“Tell House Democrats it is time to stand up for Israel. It is time to stand up for what is right,” the narrator in the ad urges.

The NRSC ad buy is also modest but may be an appetizer for more to come.

Republicans are mostly unified in reacting to the protests, framing them as antisemitic and anti-American, while Democrats have struggled to find a consistent message when it comes to the demonstrations.

Brian Walsh, a veteran Republican consultant who served for years as a top communications strategist for both House and Senate Republicans, argued that the protests are “problematic for Democrats on several fronts.”

“First, they need the youth vote to turn out for them in November, and it’s clear they’re very unhappy with President Biden, which will have a negative down-ballot effect. Second, it’s motivating conservatives because it reminds them of the woke ideology that’s become a hallmark of this administration,” Walsh said. “And it’s coming at the same time the president is telling working-class Americans they need to pay for the student loans of these same college students. 

“You should expect Republican candidates around the country to pose a very simple question to their Democratic opponents: Do they stand with the protesters who’ve sided with Hamas or do they stand for law and order and in support of one of America’s closest allies, Israel? It’s a problem for many Democrats because they’re caught between their liberal base and where most Americans are who are disgusted by the scenes at Columbia, UCLA and elsewhere.”

Democrats appear divided.

Some in tough races are calling for crackdowns on the campus protests. 

“We all speak strongly that the antisemitism and hate and violence are not acceptable,” Ohio’s Brown said.

But plenty of progressives who don’t face difficult re-election fights are strongly defending the protesters’ rights to demonstrate and oppose calls for federal intervention.

“It is outrageous and it is disgraceful to use the charge of antisemitism to distract from the immoral and illegal war policies that Netanyahu’s extremist and racist government is pursuing,” progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont argued as he pointed to the longtime Israeli leader.

Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona told Fox News “Democrats need to continue to underscore two foundational things. The first one is that we are a nation of laws, and one of those critical laws and rights is that we allow for and people have a right to peacefully protest. Underscore peaceful. 

“President Biden and Democrats need to continue to listen to the Palestinians and those speaking for the innocent lives that are being lost in Gaza and for the need to continue and expand humanitarian aid, and that is something that President Biden and Democrats are listening to and working very hard to obtain a cease-fire.

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“The other side is to always strongly disavow and condemn hate speech, violent rhetoric, antisemitism and that harassment of Jewish students will not and should not be tolerated,” Cardona emphasized. “And those two things are a huge contrast to Donald Trump, who said he would deal harshly with the protesters, even those who are doing it peacefully, wanting to call in the National Guard and clear everyone out. (He) has said before he would bash heads. That is not the way that we do things in this country. “

While Republican candidates and campaign committees are likely to keep up the pressure as the protests continue, it’s questionable how effective their efforts will be with voters.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll released this week indicated that few respondents said the demonstrations in the U.S. and the fighting in Gaza were critical to their vote in the autumn elections.

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

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., became the first House Democrat to call on Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, to resign hours after he was indicted on bribery and money laundering charges. 

“While the bar for Federal indictment is high, trust in our government is low,” Phillips said in a statement posted to his social media. “That’s why office holders and candidates under indictment should resign or end their campaigns, including Sen. Bob Menendez, Donald Trump, & Rep. Henry Cuellar.” 

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, also a Democrat, faces obstruction of justice charges connected to bribery allegations. Former President Trump is currently on trial for alleged hush money payments he made before the 2016 election. 

DEMOCRATIC TEXAS REP HENRY CUELLAR INDICTED BY DOJ ON CONSPIRACY AND BRIBERY CHARGES

The Department of Justice indicted Cuellar and his wife Imelda on conspiracy and bribery charges Friday in connection with $600,000 in bribes they allegedly accepted between 2014 and 2021 from an Azerbaijan-based energy company and a bank in Mexico City to advance the former Soviet republic’s interests in the U.S. 

The couple have been released on bond, Fox News has confirmed. 

Federal law enforcement raided Cuellar’s house and office in 2022 as part of an investigation into a group of U.S. businessmen, and their ties to the country. The representative and his office agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Cuellar released a statement on Friday following reports of the upcoming indictment, declaring both himself and his wife as innocent without specifying the charges.

“I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations,” wrote Cuellar. “Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of Texas.”

The Texas representative specifically defended his wife and her qualifications, once again without specifying the nature of the indictments.

SEN BOB MANENDEZ MAY BLAME HIS WIFE NADINE DURING FEDERAL CORRUPTION TRIAL: COURT DOCUMENTS

“Imelda and I have been married 32 years. On top of being an amazing wife and mother, she’s an accomplished businesswoman with two degrees. She spent her career working with banking, tax, and consulting. The allegation that she is anything but qualified and hard working is both wrong and offensive,” he wrote.

Cuellar, 68, and his wife, 67, made their first court appearance on Friday in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Palermo in Houston.

“The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts,” the DOJ said of the indictments. “In exchange for the bribes paid by the Azerbaijani oil and gas company, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.”

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They each face two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal, two counts of bribery of a federal official, two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal, one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, and five counts of money laundering. 

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Kelly Phares and Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report. 

During the 11th day of the criminal trial in the case N.Y. v. Trump, former Trump campaign and White House communications director testified that Michael Cohen, Trump’s ex-lawyer, would often frustrate campaign staff and do things that were not helpful. 

On the witness stand, Hicks testified that Cohen “used to like to call himself Mr. Fix It, but it was only because he first broke it.”

Cohen is a central player and is expected to be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s case against the former president that he falsified business records connected to a payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to quiet her claims alleging an illicit affair with Trump in the early 2000s. 

Cohen arranged and made the $130,000 payment to Daniels, who was then paid by Trump for what were listed as legal expenses, but which the prosecution alleges were reimbursement for the payments for Daniels.

NY V. TRUMP: WITNESS SAYS COHEN DREAMED OF WHITE HOUSE JOB DESPITE DENYING AMBITIONS IN HOUSE TESTIMONY

Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the 34 criminal counts. 

Michael Colangelo, a lawyer for the prosecution and former high-ranking official in the Justice Department, questioned Hicks — who served as the press secretary for Trump’s 2016 campaign — about Trump’s reaction to the “Access Hollywood” tape just prior to the 2016 presidential election, which captured Trump in 2005 making crude comments about women with a television host.

The prosecution has continuously pushed for the tape to be played for the jury, but Judge Juan Merchan had repeatedly said the video is not admissible evidence and is too prejudicial to be played in the courtroom, though they could refer to the transcript. 

The tape, they argued in court filings, “bears directly on defendant’s intent and motive, both at the time that he and his confederates made the Stormy Daniels payoff and later when they sought to conceal that payment.”  

HUSH MONEY TRIAL JUDGE DOUBLES DOWN ON NOT SHOWING TRUMP ‘ACCESS HOLLYWOOD’ TAPE TO JURORS

“The release of the Access Hollywood Tape caused a panic within the campaign about defendant’s electoral prospects and ultimately served as the catalyst for consummating the Stormy Daniels payoff,” a filing stated. 

On Friday, however, Hicks, who served in the Trump Organization before joining the campaign and eventually the White House as a close advisor to the president, testified that Trump’s main concern following the leak was the impact on his wife, Melania Trump. 

TRUMP DELIVERS PIZZA TO NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTERS IN CAMPAIGN STOP AFTER DAY IN COURT

“He was worried about how this would be viewed at home,” Hicks said. “Mr. Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion. She doesn’t weigh in all the time, but when she does… it’s valuable,” Hicks told defense attorney Emil Bove in cross-examination. 

According to Hicks, Trump asked that newspapers about the leaked tape not to be brought to the Trump residence.

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Bove asked Hicks about the impact on Trump’s family. “I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed about anything on the campaign. He wanted them to be proud of him,” she responded.

Fox News’ Grace Taggart, Maria Pavovich and Kerri Kupec Urbahn contributed to this report.

The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of a local government Friday in a dispute over sending a drone to take pictures of a rural salvage yard without permission.

Liberal and conservative groups closely watched the case, even joining together to urge the court to throw out evidence collected by Long Lake Township.

MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT REJECTS ATTEMPT TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM BALLOT

Todd and Heather Maxon had argued that the aerial photos violated their right to not have unreasonable searches. But the Supreme Court said the fight over excessive junk on the heavily wooded parcel was a civil action, not a criminal case, and that the so-called exclusionary rule doesn’t apply.

“We decline to address whether the use of an aerial drone under the circumstances presented here is an unreasonable search in violation of the United States or Michigan Constitutions,” the court said in a 7-0 opinion.

Without photos and video, the township “would have difficulty ensuring that the Maxons bring their property into conformity with its local zoning and nuisance ordinances,” the court said in a decision written by Justice Brian Zahra.

The township in northern Michigan sent a drone over the property in 2017 and 2018 after neighbors claimed the Maxons were storing too many cars and other items. The township said the property was being turned into a salvage yard, a violation of an earlier lawsuit settlement.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Cato Institute and the Rutherford Institute filed briefs on the side of the Maxons. The Michigan Townships Association and Michigan Municipal League backed the township.

New York City prosecutors again made numerous references on Friday to the leaked Access Hollywood tape where former President Donald Trump made crude comments — after the judge reiterated that the jury could not hear or watch the comments.

Judge Juan Merchan ruled that playing the tape itself would be overly prejudicial towards Trump, but not the comments Trump made in the 2005 incident that leaked just before the 2016 presidential election. In the tape, Trump used lewd language about groping women in the presence of a TV host ahead of a cameo appearance on a soap opera. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team have made numerous references to the tape — in court and in legal filings — apparently attempting to make the case that the damage from the leaked tape was a catalyst for the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Trump is charged with falsifying business records related to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to quiet her story about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump has repeatedly denied the affair.

On Friday, Merchan reiterated that the tape cannot be introduced as evidence or played aloud in the courtroom because it would be prejudicial to Trump. 

NY V. TRUMP: WITNESS SAYS COHEN DREAMED OF WHITE HOUSE JOB DESPITE DENYING AMBITIONS IN HOUSE TESTIMONY

In March, the DA argued the infamous tape should be admissible because “bears directly on defendant’s intent and motive, both at the time that he and his confederates made the Stormy Daniels payoff and later when they sought to conceal that payment.”  

“The release of the Access Hollywood Tape caused a panic within the campaign about the defendant’s electoral prospects and ultimately served as the catalyst for consummating the Stormy Daniels payoff,” a filing stated. 

Last month, Judge Merchan doubled down on his decision to not play the video for the jury because it was too prejudicial. 

But on Friday morning, the prosecution again tried to argue that while it was ruled that the entire Access Hollywood tape couldn’t come into evidence, they wanted the 2016 Washington Post article that discusses it to come in to establish the date that the article was posted. 

Merchan reiterated that he doesn’t want the video to be shown because it’s too powerful of evidence to have Trump’s voice and face associated with the words on the video. 

On Friday, former Trump campaign press secretary and White House communications director Hope Hicks testified that Trump’s worry following the leaked tape centered around how it would affect his wife, Melania Trump. 

HOPE HICKS: COHEN CALLED HIMSELF ‘MR. FIX IT’ ONLY BECAUSE HE ‘BROKE IT’

“He was worried about how this would be viewed at home,” Hicks said. “Mr. Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion. She doesn’t weigh in all the time, but when she does…it’s valuable,” Hicks testified. 

“[I] don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed about anything on the campaign. He wanted them to be proud of him,” Hicks later added. 

Her testimony, which she provided to the court under subpoena, could undercut the prosecution’s arguments that the Trump tape was a catalyst to the Stormy Daniels payment out of concern about how a subsequent bad media hit would impact his campaign. 

The defense team argued earlier in the day that the recent decision in the case of the disgraced Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, could be relevant in Trump’s case. 

Weinstein’s conviction was recently overturned by the New York State Court of Appeals after the court granted him a new trial, saying the trial judge had allowed prosecutors to call women who said Weinstein had assaulted them to testify, even though their accusations did not specifically relate to the entertainment mogul’s charges.

Trump’s defense team argued that the prosecution has been attempting to introduce evidence, including the Access Hollywood tape, that is not directly related to Trump’s alleged crimes.

The decision to overturn the Weinstein conviction relied on two courtroom terms: the “Molineux rule” and a “Sandoval ruling.” 

NY V. TRUMP: HOPE HICKS TESTIFIES, PROSECUTORS REFER TO ‘ACCESS HOLLYWOOD’ TAPE

The Molineux rule says that evidence of prior uncharged crimes or acts committed by an individual may not be entered into evidence in order to infer the guilt of the defendant. 

Such prior acts may be entered into evidence for certain other reasons, like establishing intent, or knowledge, but such uncharged acts may not be entered in a manner that could taint the jury’s opinion as to the likelihood that the defendant committed the crime charged. 

In Trump’s case, defense attorney Todd Blanche argued Friday that evidence is being introduced that does not establish elements of the crime charged, but rather implies Trump’s guilt.

A Sandoval ruling addresses a defendant potentially testifying at their own trial. Prosecutors typically ask to introduce, and the defense typically asks to limit, past allegations of behavior or actions by the defendant. 

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A defendant may choose not to testify based on what the judge allows prosecutors to question the defendant about. But the issue in Trump’s case would be whether a defendant was prevented altogether from testifying in their own defense by the allowance of questions from the prosecutor that would prejudice the jury.

Before adjourning for the day, both parties continued to discuss the Sandoval rule and what questions Trump could be asked if he testifies. 

It’s unclear whether Trump will testify later in the course of the unprecedented trial.

Fox News’ Kevin Ward, Grace Taggart, Maria Pavovich, Shannon Bream and Kerri Kupec Urbahn contributed to this report. 

Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail. 

What’s happening? 

– Trump’s criminal trial wraps up its third week

– University president breaks silence on anti-Israel agitators

– Only pro-life Dem in Congress indicted 

During the 11th day of the criminal trial in the case N.Y. v. Trump, former Trump campaign and White House communications director testified that Michael Cohen, Trump’s ex-lawyer, would often frustrate campaign staff and do things that were not helpful. 

On the witness stand, Hicks testified that Cohen “used to like to call himself Mr. Fix It, but it was only because he first broke it.”

Cohen is a central player and could be the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s case against the former president that he falsified business records connected to a payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to quiet her claims alleging an illicit affair with Trump in the early 2000s. 

Trump paid a $9,000 fine for violating the judge’s gag order ruling Friday, but there are still four more alleged violations that Judge Juan Merchan has yet to rule on. Trial resumes on Monday at 9:30 a.m.

Campus Unrest

‘FLOOD THE GATES’: Guide to ‘escalate’ campus chaos spread among agitators at Ivy League …Read more

PROSECUTOR’S PRIORITIES: NYC DA probes cop’s ‘unintentional discharge’ in Columbia campus raid …Read more

NO MORE TESTS! Columbia Law Review editors argue that school cancel finals after mass arrests …Read more

‘CAUSE FOR CONCERN: Biden brings up Islamophobia amid worst antisemitism outbreak in decades …Read more

‘OVERLY BROAD’: Bill designed to combat antisemitism raises bipartisan free speech concerns …Read more

‘I LOVE YOU’: Video reveals ‘Squad’ Democrat’s message to anti-Jewish agitators during encampment Zoom call …Read more

Capitol Hill

CHARGES FILED: Justice Department indicts Dem Rep. Henry Cuellar  …Read more

‘RAISED YOU RIGHT’: Lawmaker praises frat brothers for defending American flag …Read more

Tales from the Campaign Trail

‘EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER’: Biden opens up Obamacare to illegal immigrants shielded by DACA …Read more

FAITH IN REPUBLICANS: Catholics’ support swings for Trump over Biden by significant margin: poll …Read more

BE MORE HUMBLE: Politico founder warns media ahead of election …Read more

BIG RISK: Bernie Sanders warns Biden’s pro-Israel position may sink his presidency …Read more

Subscribe now to get Fox News Politics newsletter in your inbox.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

ATLANTA (AP) — Several Democrats serving as their state’s top election officials have sent a letter to the parent company of Facebook, asking it to stop allowing ads that claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

In the letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the secretaries of state from Colorado, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont said allowing such ads will further erode trust in elections and fuel threats of political violence against election workers, which already has led some to leave the profession. Also signing the letter was Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who does not oversee elections.

NEW TRUMP VOTER FRAUD SQUADS BEGIN GEARING UP FOR ‘ELECTION INTEGRITY’ FIGHT

“Meta is allowing extremists and election deniers to further undermine our elections,” the secretaries wrote in the letter, which was emailed to the tech giant on Thursday. “As Secretaries of State, we are strongly opposed to Meta’s decision to allow ads promoting election denialism and urge you to repeal this policy before it inflicts more damage.”

Nearly four years later, conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election and false claims of widespread fraud and manipulation of voting machines persist. Former President Donald Trump continues to insist, despite no evidence of widespread fraud, that he won that election as he seeks a return to the White House.

Reviews, recounts and audits in the swing states where he disputed his loss have all affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, and even Trump’s former attorney general said there was no fraud on a scale that could have tipped the election. In an interview this week with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Trump falsely claimed he won Wisconsin despite losing to Biden by about 21,000 votes. Trump told the news outlet he would accept the results of the November election “if everything’s honest.”

Since the 2020 election, election workers across parts of the country have faced death threats and harassment. A recent survey by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU found that 34% of local election officials said they knew of one or more local election officials or election workers who left their job at least in part because of safety fears, threats or intimidation. The environment has led to a historic turnover of election workers throughout the country.

YouTube, the Google-owned video service, announced a policy similar to Meta’s last year in which it said it would stop removing content that falsely claimed previous U.S. presidential elections were tainted by fraud.

Meta has defended the work it’s doing to protect elections globally. A company spokesperson provided details about how the company views elections, referencing its 2022 plan for the midterm elections in which the company said it will “continually review content to determine if it violates our community standards, including our policies on election and voter interference, hate speech, coordinating harm and publicizing crime, and bullying and harassment.”

As part of its work, Meta said it would remove election-related content that includes misinformation about the “dates, locations, times and methods of voting” along with calls for violence related to voting or the outcome of an election. In that plan, the company specified it would reject ads calling into question the legitimacy of an upcoming or ongoing election.

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But it’s the ads related to the 2020 election that have the group of Democratic secretaries of state concerned, including various campaign ads earlier this year repeating false claims that the election was rigged. The letter was organized by the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, a political action committee affiliated with the Democratic National Committee, and was circulated only among Democrats.

“When people believe an election was stolen they are less likely to have confidence in the system, and that depresses turnout,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in an interview Friday. “We want voters to know the truth about elections and feel empowered to participate.”

FIRST ON FOX: The Biden administration has agreed to wind down a controversial intelligence “experts” group, as it faced a lawsuit from a conservative legal nonprofit arguing that it was in violation of federal law.

The Homeland Intelligence Experts Group was announced by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September. The group was a collection of figures from the private sector to provide perspectives on the government’s intelligence and national security efforts.

“The security of the American people depends on our capacity to collect, generate, and disseminate actionable intelligence to our federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, campus, and private sector partners,” Mayorkas said in a statement. 

DHS DOCS REVEAL WHERE PAROLED MIGRANTS UNDER CONTROVERSIAL BIDEN FLIGHT PROGRAM ARE LANDING 

But critics have said that the board was not a neutral body and was instead a partisan body. Critics highlighted former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan as two of the figures they saw as objectionable due to their signing on to a letter questioning the veracity of the Hunter Biden laptop story.

America First Legal, which filed the lawsuit, found that of all the political contributions of those named to the group, just 1% went to Republicans, while 98% went to Democrats.

Multiple Republican lawmakers had sent a letter to Mayorkas demanding that the appointments of “known purveyors of disinformation” be withdrawn. AFL, also representing itself and former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, sued DHS in November.

The lawsuit alleged that the alleged bias violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act, citing alleged lack of balance, a lack of public notice and inappropriate influence by the Biden administration.

According to a joint notice and stipulation of dismissal, DHS “maintains its position that the establishment and operation of the Experts Group did not violate the FACA” but agreed to wind the group down.

BIPARTISAN LAWMAKERS SEEK ANSWERS FROM MAYORKAS AFTER RUSSIAN CYBERATTACKS ON WATER SYSTEMS IN US

“The Experts Group shall be wound down within thirty (30) days of the entry of the Order, it will not hold any future meetings, and the Department will not reconstitute the Experts Group inconsistent with the FACA or the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Department will also provide the Experts Group meeting agendas and meeting minutes with participant identifying information redacted within fifteen (15) days of the entry of the Order,” it said.

AFL in turn agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. DHS also reserves the right to create an advisory committee under the FACA provisions. The conservative plaintiffs hailed the agreement as a win.

“Thanks to the courage of Ric Grenell in standing up to the Deep State, we have just achieved an unqualified legal victory over Mayorkas and Biden,” Stephen Miller, President of America First Legal and a former senior Trump White House advisor said in a statement.

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“As a result of our lawsuit in federal court, DHS is surrendering in total to our demands: they are closing down their new partisan intelligence board featuring Clapper and Brennan — which would have been used to promote censored, unethical spying, and gross civil rights invasions of political enemies — and they are surrendering their documents, handing them over to our possession. We won. We beat Biden and DHS,” he said.

Grenell said that DHS “surrendered” because “they knew the America First Legal team was right, and Biden’s team broke the law.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors and were protected from deportation under an Obama-era executive order will be able to obtain health care through Obamacare under a new rule being published Friday by the Biden administration.

Those who are protected via the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, along with other illegal immigrants, are currently prohibited from accessing healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. A rule announced Friday will end that prohibition.

The administration says it predicts that the rule, which will go into effect just days before the 2024 presidential election, will result in over 100,000 uninsured illegal immigrants accessing health insurance. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule would allow DACA recipients to apply for coverage through HealthCare.gov and state-based marketplaces as soon as November 1. The rule does so by making what HHS calls “technical modifications” to the definition of “lawfully present” used to determine eligibility.

REPUBLICAN STATES ASK FEDERAL JUDGE TO END ‘UNLAWFUL’ DACA PROGRAM 

In a statement on the rule, President Biden renewed his calls for those he called “Dreamers” — an activist-preferred term to refer to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors — to be granted a pathway to citizenship along with others of millions of illegal immigrants.

“I’m proud of the contributions of Dreamers to our country and committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed. That’s why I’ve previously directed the Department of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to ‘preserve and fortify’ DACA. And that’s why today we are taking this historic step to ensure that DACA recipients have the same access to health care through the Affordable Care Act as their neighbors,” he said.

“On Day One of my administration, I sent a comprehensive immigration reform plan to Congress to protect Dreamers and their families. Only Congress can provide Dreamers permanent status and a pathway to citizenship. Congress must act.”

Vice President Harris, in a separate statement, made a similar appeal.

“President Biden and I will continue to do everything in our power to protect DACA, but it is only a temporary solution. Congress must act to ensure Dreamers have the permanent protections they deserve,” she said.

The push for health care and citizenship for illegal immigrants has regularly met with fierce opposition from Republicans. When Obamacare was unveiled by President Barack Obama, he faced accusations that the legislation would give health care to illegal immigrants — with one GOP congressman yelling, “You lie” at the president during a joint session of Congress.

DACA COURT RULING THE LATEST TWIST FOR CONTROVERSIAL OBAMA-ERA IMMIGRATION POLICY

The Trump administration attempted to end DACA but was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2020. A separate lawsuit, filed in 2021, is still ongoing and blocked further enrollments in the program are blocked after a federal appeals court found that the Obama administration did not have the authority to institute the program. 

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Democrats and the Biden administration have made repeated pushes for broader amnesties of illegal immigrants already in the U.S., but those efforts have failed amid unified opposition from Republicans who have rejected granting a pathway to citizenship to illegal immigrants amid an ongoing crisis at the southern border.

The Biden administration has claimed that it needs additional funding and reforms to fix a “broken” system that enables the crisis. Republicans have said that the administration needs instead to restore Trump-era policies that they believe can end the crisis.

Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.

Alabama officials on Thursday approved legislation to ensure President Joe Biden will appear on the state’s November ballot, mirroring accommodations the state made four years ago for then-President Donald Trump.

The House of Representatives voted 93-0 for the legislation. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill into law the same day, a spokeswoman said.

“This is a great day in Alabama when in a bipartisan manner, we passed this legislation to ensure that President Joe Biden gains access to the ballot in Alabama,” Democratic state Sen. Merika Coleman, the bill’s sponsor, said. The Republican-dominated Alabama Legislature approved the bill without a dissenting vote.

ALABAMA LAWMAKERS EYE GAMBLING COMPROMISE AS LEGISLATIVE SESSION NEARS ITS END

The issue of Biden’s ballot access has arisen in Alabama and Ohio because the states’ early certification deadlines fall before the Democratic National Convention begins on Aug. 19. Republican secretaries of state warned that Biden might not appear on state ballots.

“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states. Election after election, states across the country have acted in line with the bipartisan consensus and taken the necessary steps to ensure the presidential nominees from both parties will be on the ballot,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.

Alabama has one of the earliest candidate certification deadlines in the country, which has caused difficulties for whichever political party has the later convention date that year.

Trump faced the same issue in Alabama in 2020. The Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature passed legislation to change the certification deadline for the 2020 election to accommodate the date of the GOP convention.

“This is nothing new. We just need to fix this so the president can be on the ballot, just like our nominee can be on the ballot,” Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Chris Pringle said during the brief debate.

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The Alabama legislation will defer the state’s certification deadline from 82 days before the general election to 74 days to accommodate the date of the Democrats’ nominating convention.

Litigation was almost a certainty if Alabama Republicans had declined to grant Biden ballot access after making accommodations in the past for GOP nominees. The Biden campaign asked Alabama to accept provisional certification, saying that has been done previously in Alabama and other states. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said he would not accept provisional certification because he didn’t think he had the authority to do so.

In Ohio, the state elections chief has said the Republican-led Legislature has until Thursday to approve an exemption to the state’s 90-day rule, which sets this year’s ballot deadline at Aug. 7. No bill appears to be forthcoming, but leaders of both parties haven’t entirely ruled one out. The state House and Senate both have voting sessions scheduled for Wednesday.

Catholics in the United States have swung dramatically against President Biden in recent years, now boasting a significant statistical break towards his GOP challenger.

Pew Research released on Apr. 30 a report exploring support for presidential candidates sorted by religious affiliation.

The poll found that 55% of Catholics support or lean towards supporting former President Donald Trump in a head-to-head against Biden.

BIDEN SPARKS CHRISTIAN GROUP’S ANGER AFTER MAKING SIGN OF THE CROSS AT ABORTION RALLY: ‘DISGUSTING INSULT’

Conversely, only 45% of Catholics support Biden in the same one-on-one pairing.

The 12% margin of support in favor of Trump marks a significant shift from 2020, when he held an extremely narrow lead — 50% to 49%.

Biden currently leads among Hispanic Catholics with a narrow 49%-47% split, but the close contest marks a major shift rightward for the demographic. In 2020, a similar poll from Pew Research found Hispanic Catholics preferred Biden to Trump with a staggering 67%-26% split.

BIDEN ‘DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE CATHOLIC FAITH,’ BISHOP SAYS: ‘I’M NOT ANGRY AT HIM, HE’S JUST STUPID’

Approximately 60% of protestants expressed support for Trump, according to the April survey. Conversely, about 38% said they leaned toward Biden.

Atheists, agnostics, and the religiously unaffiliated broke in favor of Biden by a large margin — approximately 69% said they would back the Democratic incumbent while only 28% voiced support for Trump.

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Biden has leaned into his Catholic identity in his presidential campaigns, asserting himself as a devout believer despite blatant disregard for non-negotiable church teachings.

However, Catholic leaders have pushed back on this self-characterization and pointed out his support of policies utterly contrary to the faith, such as pro-choice deregulation and affirmation of gender ideology.

Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington D.C. previously called Biden a “Cafeteria Catholic” — saying he “picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.”

Former President Trump’s unprecedented trial in Manhattan resumes for its 11th day on Friday, when the presiding judge could rule on the former president’s remaining alleged gag order violations, and the court is expected to hear continued testimony from a computer forensics expert.

Trump is expected back in court at 9:30 a.m. Friday for the final day of the third week of his trial.

Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing Thursday morning to consider the remaining alleged gag order violations against Trump. The 45th president was fined $9,000 on Tuesday for violating the order — which bans him from speaking publicly about witnesses and family members of court officials — on nine separate occasions. The district attorney’s office argued Trump violated the gag order on 14 separate occasions.

Merchan did not deliver a ruling on the remaining alleged violations Thursday but could issue a decision Friday. In his initial gag order ruling, Merchan warned that Trump could face jail time if there are “continued willful violations” of the order.

Trump said he would appeal the gag order during remarks after the trial adjourned Thursday evening.

NY V TRUMP: WITNESS SAYS COHEN DREAMED OF WHITE HOUSE JOB DESPITE DENYING AMBITIONS IN HOUSE TESTIMONY

During the trial on Thursday, the jury heard continued testimony from Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as the trial’s seventh witness, Doug Daus, a computer forensics expert with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. 

Daus is expected to resume testimony Friday morning under cross-examination. The computer expert testified on Thursday about the “unusual” number of contacts on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s cellphone, which totaled nearly 40,000 contacts, and confirmed the metadata for audio recordings on Cohen’s phone, at least of of which appeared to be a conversation between Cohen and Trump.

The New York v. Trump case focuses on Cohen paying Daniels $130,000 to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which is a felony. 

TOP REPUBLICANS DOUBLE DOWN ON CALL FOR DOJ PROBE INTO BRAGG’S ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN

Davidson testified Thursday that the $130,000 payment to Daniels was not a “payoff” or “hush money,” as it is frequently called in the media, but a “consideration” payment. Consideration is a legal term for what someone gives in return for the promise to abide by a contract. In the case of Daniels, money was given in return to abide by the contract.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass pressed Davidson about a 2018 statement Daniels released denying any affair with Trump, detailing that her interactions with the former real estate mogul only included “a few public appearances and nothing more.” Davidson prepared the statement for Daniels.

TOP REPUBLICANS DOUBLE DOWN ON CALL FOR DOJ PROBE INTO BRAGG’S ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN

“I don’t believe that Stormy ever alleged that any interaction with Trump was ‘romantic,‘” Davidson said Thursday, but he added that, to his understanding, Daniels had a sexual encounter with Trump.

Davidson’s testimony also focused on Cohen, who Davidson said became “despondent and saddened” following the 2016 election, allegedly lamenting he did not lock down a White House job under the Trump administration. 

“Can you f–ing believe I’m not going to Washington after everything I’ve done for that guy? I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington … I’ve saved his a– …,” Davidson recounted of a conversation he had had with Cohen in December 2016.

NY V TRUMP: HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATES BRAGG PROSECUTOR WHO HELD SENIOR ROLE IN BIDEN DOJ

Davidson testified that Cohen had been hoping to land a position as White House chief of staff or attorney general in the lead-up to Trump’s inauguration. 

The lawyer’s testimony Thursday stands in contrast to Cohen’s remarks to Congress in 2019.

“Sir, I was extremely proud to be personal attorney to the president of the United States of America. I did not want to go to the White House. I was offered jobs,” Cohen told Republican Rep. Jim Jordan in 2019 during a House Oversight Committee hearing. 

MICHAEL COHEN TIKTOK VIDEOS, FUNDRAISING STUN LEGAL OBSERVERS: MAY HAVE ‘TORPEDOED CASE AGAINST TRUMP’

“I did not want to go to the White House,” Cohen added later in his testimony to Congress. “I retained, I brought an attorney in, and I sat with Mr. Trump, with him for well over an hour, explaining the importance of having a personal attorney, that every president has had one in order to handle matters like the matters I was dealing with.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, and he has slammed the case as a “scam” promoted by the Biden administration and led by a “conflicted judge.”

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Court proceedings on Friday are expected to wrap up by 3:45 p.m., earlier than the usual 4:30 p.m. end time, because a juror has an appointment.

Fox News Digital’s Brianna Herlihy and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A former U.S. senator and longtime political confidante of President Biden openly acknowledged that the Department of Justice was “full of Biden people” during the Obama presidency, sparking criticism from skeptics as Biden’s DOJ continues to fight questions about its impartiality in high-profile investigations.

“The Justice Department is full of Biden people!” Former Delaware Democratic Sen. Ted Kaufman said in a 2012 “Oral History” Senate interview reviewed by Fox News Digital in response to a question about Biden’s input on cabinet positions.

“I mean full of Biden people. If you want a list of where Biden people are, there are a whole bunch of people in the Justice Department, and a whole bunch of them in our foreign policy establishment, and a whole bunch of them in the White House, OMB, and places like that.”

NEW YORK TIMES OPINION VIDEO DECLARES ‘DEEP STATE’ IS ‘KIND OF AWESOME’

“But since financial reform wasn’t one of his major interests, he didn’t have people in it. Although I must say, after I left the Senate I was offered two major positions in the financial area of the administration which I turned down,” Kaufman continued. “He would have had one person in the financial area if I had not decided that my time of full-time employment days was over and that I had a different view of where I was going to go.”

Kaufman, who Biden referred to as one of his “closest friends in the world” during a White House event last year, has a long history of working with President Biden and says the two met when Biden was not yet 30-years-old contemplating a run for Senate in 1972. Biden’s sister Valerie, who was serving as Biden’s campaign manager, recruited Kaufman to help with the campaign and Kaufman later joined Biden’s Senate staff where he worked for 22 years ultimately becoming Biden’s chief of staff.

Kaufman was appointed in 2008 to fill the Delaware Senate seat vacated by Biden when he went to the White House to serve as Obama’s vice president and the Delaware Democrat served there for about a year before current Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., took the job after winning a special election. 

He was most recently the head of Biden’s 2020 transition and was described in a Politico profile piece as the “man who literally wrote the laws on presidential transitions” and said Kaufman, who lives a few minutes away from Biden’s main Delaware residence, “likely has more control over a future Biden administration than anyone other than the Democratic presidential nominee himself.”

JESSE WATTERS: A DARK AND DANGEROUS CHAPTER IN AMERICA IS HERE

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital that “President Biden is proud to have restored the full independence of the Department of Justice from politics, a bipartisan tradition.”

“He’s also proud that after the Trump Administration became the first since Herbert Hoover to in total lose jobs and left him with a spiking violent crime rate, he delivered unprecedented job creation and the biggest violent crime reduction in 50 years,” Bates continued.

The resurfacing of Kaufman’s remarks comes as Biden’s DOJ is involved in high-profile investigations into former President Donald Trump as well as Biden’s son, Hunter, which conservatives have long argued have been politically motivated.

“Joe Biden is the epitome of a corrupt, career politician,” the Trump campaign’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. 

“The only jobs Crooked Joe has ever created are for his equally crooked family members at foreign companies or for his partisan leftist friends in the federal government. Biden’s witch-hunts against his political opponent, President Trump, have been carefully coordinated and led by Biden’s deep state Democrat friends who make a living by ripping off American taxpayers,” Leavitt continued. “On the contrary, President Trump has employed thousands of people at his successful companies for decades and had an unparalleled record of job creation in his first term as President, which will only continue when he is re-elected in November.”

Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas recently sent a scathing letter to the DOJ and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last month, highlighting the hiring of Michael Colangelo on the team attempting to charge the former president with 34 counts of falsifying his business records, including alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Colangelo was previously employed as a senior official at President Biden’s DOJ, but reportedly left his role in December 2022 to work as Senior Counsel at the DA’s office a few months before the indictment of Trump.

GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a vocal critic of the Biden DOJ, told Fox News Digital that “it is clear to the American people that Joe Biden’s weaponization of the Department of Justice is an illegal form of election interference targeting President Trump” after reviewing the unearthed Kaufman quote.

Donald Trump Jr. blasted “Crooked Joe” in a statement to Fox News Digital and said Biden “has been a creature in the DC swamp for over 50 years and the DOJ is the beating heat of the swamp, and so his influence over it is no surprise.”

“Anyone with a working brain can see that the purpose of these corrupt cases against my father is to try to save Biden politically,” Trump Jr. continued, defending his father. “It’s shameful that Biden’s minions at the DOJ are willing to turn America into a Banana Republic, all to try to stop my father from retaking the Presidency.” 

A Biden campaign alum pushed back against the critics of Kaufman’s quote, telling Fox News Digital that their interpretation was Kaufman speaking “as a proud former chief of staff to then-Senator Biden talking about how the alumni of their office were successful. Not as though anyone is being inappropriate.”

“By the Trump campaign’s rationale, their DOJ was corrupt; so was George W. Bush’s, and everyone down the line,” the campaign alum added. “They don’t provide any evidence that anything inappropriate took place.”

Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland, who heads the Biden DOJ, has come under intense scrutiny over the handling of multiple investigations. Earlier this year, Garland pushed back on critics who accused the DOJ of political bias.

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“Look, we have reasserted and clarified the norms of this Justice Department,” Garland replied. “We follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. Politics is not a part of our determinations. It would be improper and it’s not. The Department has regulations about the appointment of special counsels, and we follow those regulations.”

He went on to say, “In each case, we have appointed people who are formerly veteran career prosecutors, whatever their current position is.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Kaufman and the DOJ for comment. 

Fox News’ Alexander Hall and Aubrie Spady contributed reporting.

President Biden broke his silence and condemned violent protests shaking college campuses across the U.S. amid the worst antisemitism outbreak in decades and added that Islamophobia has no place in America.

“There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,” Biden said. “There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It’s simply wrong. There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s un-American.”

Law enforcement sources indicated to Fox News Digital there has not been a spike in Islamophobia across the U.S., so when Biden summoned Islamophobia during his speech, it had some observers scratching their heads, including Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz.

“Why can’t President Biden simply denounce antisemitism without pandering to Muslims and Arabs?”

— Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz

“Why can’t President Biden simply denounce antisemitism without pandering to Muslims and Arabs,” Dershowitz posted on X, before later saying the crisis at hand was about antisemitism, discrimination and violence against Jews, not other groups. “Why won’t he just condemn Jew hatred?”

PRESIDENT BIDEN CONDEMNS VIOLENT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS, WON’T CALL UP NATIONAL GUARD

Mobs of anti-Israel agitators have invaded college campuses and set up encampments, demanding the schools completely divest in supporting war efforts in Gaza. Jewish students report feeling threatened at Columbia, and a Jewish student was blocked from entering UCLA’s campus.

On Tuesday morning, anti-Israel agitators at Columbia University in New York City continued to call for the “intifada revolution,” chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as a mob invaded and occupied an academic hall. That chant calls for the eradication of Israel. 

CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY REVEALS ‘TRUE COST’ OF ANTI-ISRAEL MOB THAT TOOK OVER ACADEMIC BUILDINGS

It was not until the next night that university officials permitted the New York Police Department to enter university grounds and remove the agitators.

Agitators at the University of Chicago have also called to globalize the intifada.

Hugh Hewitt, host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” called Biden out in a social media post for taking two minutes and forty seconds to get to the hatred displayed against Jews before mixing in Islamophobia.

“It is a teleprompter, of course, but his writers are spent,” he said. “They don’t have the ability to compose, nor he to deliver, a forceful speech.”

TRUMP SAYS 4 WORDS ABOUT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES AS ARRESTS SKYROCKET

Hewitt told Fox News Digital Islamophobia “is real and a cause for concern” as is hate speech of all sorts.

He also addressed antisemitism on college campuses.

“Jew hatred is the ancient evil, and it’s on dozens of campuses right now.”

— Hugh Hewitt

“Jew hatred is the ancient evil, and it’s on dozens of campuses right now,” Hewitt said. “That should be the president’s exclusive focus today, tomorrow and for as long as antisemitism is sweeping the country and would be if he wasn’t concerned with his re-election.”

Shortly after Biden made the remarks, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called the president “impotent” on social media.

VIRGINIA TECH POLICE PHYSICALLY CARRY AWAY ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS AMID EFFORT TO RESTORE PEACE ON CAMPUS

“President Biden still won’t forcefully condemn the Hamas mobs on campuses. He’s terrified of them,” the senator said. “A complete lack of leadership from an impotent president.”

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., issued a statement to Fox News Digital on Biden’s remarks.

“To have any chance of winning Michigan in November, Joe Biden has made the political calculation that he needs to equivocate on Israel, equivocate on defending American Jews and equivocate on protecting Jewish students at universities,” Zeldin said. “Hamas sympathizers have taken over college campuses across this country calling for the death of Jews. Weak leadership is the play call at the White House, demonstrating an incredible lack of moral clarity and courage. This is a time to singularly, emphatically and powerfully condemn antisemitism.”

The FBI declined to comment about a rise in Islamophobia in the U.S., directing all questions on the matter to the White House.

The White House defended the president’s comments, backing them with instances in the news where Muslims were attacked.

“In Chicago, a 6-year-old child was brutally killed and his mother stabbed. Three college students of Palestinian descent, two of whom are American citizens, were shot in Vermont – paralyzing one,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. “The FBI has sounded the alarm about rising crime and threats against Muslims, Arab Americans and Palestinian Americans in recent months. Appalling language, threats and violence have targeted the Muslim community.

“President Biden cares about the rights, dignity and safety of all Americans,” Bates added.

But others would not hold back, including Rich Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a nonprofit, non-partisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE CENTER PRESIDENT COMPARES ANTI-ISRAEL MOBS AT COLUMBIA TO NAZIS AT GERMAN UNIVERSITY

“What people need to understand is that the Biden administration itself is like one of these college campuses. You have a protest movement inside the government with leaks, anonymous letters, [protesters] outside the White House wearing masks, resignations, threats of resignation, shouting, staffers at town hall meetings and more,” Goldberg said. “And Biden is sort of like that weak college president who is afraid of the Hamasniks on his campus. So, when he condemns antisemitism, he makes sure to balance it out, so his own Hamas encampment doesn’t get agitated.”

When Biden condemned the violence at school campuses on Thursday, he said “order must prevail.”

“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent. The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society and order must prevail,” Biden said.

Biden had been facing mounting media and political pressure to speak out against the violence.

EMORY UNIVERSITY RIPS ANTI-ISRAEL ‘ACTIVISTS’ DISRUPTING CAMPUS; POLICE USE TEAR GAS, ZIP-TIES DURING ARRESTS

“Throughout our history, we’ve often faced moments like this because we are a big, diverse, free-thinking and freedom-loving nation. And moments like this there are always those who rush in to score political points. But this isn’t a moment for politics. It’s a moment for clarity,” Biden also said.

“So let me be clear … violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is. It’s against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law. Vandalism. Trespassing. Breaking windows. Shutting down campuses. Forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest,” Biden continued. “Threatening people. Intimidating people. Instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law.”

“Threatening people. Intimidating people. Instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law.”

— President Biden

The protests have continued despite the president condemning the actions of anti-Israel agitators against Jews.

RESURFACED POST COMES BACK TO HAUNT BIDEN AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS SWEEP THE NATION 

Former FBI Special Agent and Fox News contributor Nicole Parker said FBI leadership in June 2021 stated hate crimes were “the highest priority of the FBI’s civil rights program,” mainly due to the devastation they cause to communities and individuals. The FBI also made it the highest priority because there is no tolerance for hate in the U.S.

“The FBI vowed to use their full resources to reduce the hate crime threats and protect all Americans,” Parker said. “Based on what I have observed on college campuses nationwide in the past couple of weeks, I believe this vow to protect is more relevant now than ever as individuals live in fear for their lives and are unable to go about living freely and peacefully because of their religion or country of origin. This cannot be tolerated.”

She also spoke about how free speech is embraced in the U.S., but terroristic threats, destruction and violence are not. They are instead serious crimes.

“I hope the deafening silence from AG Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray in the face of what appears to be rampant violations of federal civil rights and hate crimes across college campuses nationwide in the last couple of weeks is not an indication of a lack of resources and effort being spent to address the threats,” Parker said. 

“Americans have observed the federal criminal justice system in the last few years. … Typically, they make it very clear to the public when they are interested in addressing the matter.”

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She also urged anyone who believes they may be a victim of a hate crime to contact the FBI.

“If you believe you have been the victim or witness of a hate crime or a violation of your civil rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I encourage you to report it.”

Greg Norman of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump moves from the courtroom in New York City to the banquet rooms in South Florida on Friday, as he headlines a gathering of top Republican donors and teams up with potential running mates.

Trump starts his day in a Manhattan courtroom, where the former president is being tried on nearly three-dozen state felony charges for falsifying business records in relation to hush-money payments during the 2016 election he made to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair with the adult film actress.

Trump has repeatedly denied falsifying business records as well as the alleged sexual encounter with Daniels.

But the conclusion of court on Friday will free the former president to travel home to Palm Beach, Florida, where he’ll be the main attraction at the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) Spring Donor Retreat.

HAS BIDEN’S BUMP AGAINST TRUMP FLATLINED?

The closed-to press gathering – held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palm Beach and at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club a few miles north – comes as he aims to close his fundraising gap with President Biden in their 2024 election rematch.

And listed as “special guests” at the confab are a number of Republican politicians considered to be on Trump’s shortlist for running mate, according to an agenda of the weekend’s events obtained by Fox News.

FORMER RIVAL DESANTIS TO HELP FUNDRAISE FOR TRUMP

“This event takes on even greater significance in light of the fact that the President is constrained from travel due to his trial. While at the same time, Biden can travel all over the country to raise money,” Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks told Fox News

Brooks, who has close ties to the GOP donor class, said that “major donors are stepping up now in a big way as we watch in horror the nightly images on TV of our country spiraling out of control.” 

And he predicted that “this weekend will be a huge success.”

Among those listed as “special guests” are possible running mates Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, JD Vance of Ohio, and Marco Rubio of Florida. So are Govs,. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Kristi Noem from South Dakota. Two top Trump supporters in the House – Reps. Elise Seefanik of New York and Byron Donalds of Florida – will also be there, as will entrepreneur and former 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

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Also attending the gathering are the recently Trump-installed leadership at the RNC – chair Michael Whatley and the former president’s daugther-in-law Lara Trump, who is co-chair of the national party committee. House Speaker Mike Johnson is also attending, as will a handful of top GOP Senate candidates.

While Trump’s team won’t say whether the former president will hold one-on-one meetings with the potential running mates during the weekend confab, it’s not hard to imagine that such encounters may occur.

While the appearance of the potential vice presidential candidates will grab media attention, those involved in the gathering say fundraising is the emphasis.

“The events this weekend are really more about raising money for the presidential race than it is about auditions for the potential VP candidates,” a Republican strategist with ties to Trump world told Fox News.

Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes told Fox News the gathering “is certainly an opportunity for a collection of the most dynamic leaders of our common sense movement to demonstrate the winning messages we have to end Biden’s weak and dangerously dishonest presidency. Those who financially support President Trump and the America First agenda will see that they are helping save our nation with victory in November.”

The Biden campaign took aim at Trump ahead of the RNC donor retreat.

“Donald Trump will spend the weekend off the campaign trail again, hiding behind closed doors with billionaire donors, boot lickers, abortion banners, Social Security cutters, and a puppy killer,” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer charged.

The “puppy killer” reference was to South Dakota’s Noem, whose anecdote in her upcoming book about shooting and killing a family dog has stirred controversy amid plenty of media attention.

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

EXCLUSIVE: A watchdog group is asking a federal court to unseal documents related to the Justice Department’s subpoenas of the personal phone and email records of members of Congress and during the Trump-Russia investigation, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research filed a motion, first obtained by Fox News Digital, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Thursday, saying the matter is “of significant public interest.” 

The motion also revealed the nondisclosure orders that the DOJ imposed upon Google to prevent the tech giant from notifying users that their records were targeted.

GOP SENATORS DEMAND DOJ GIVE ANSWERS AFTER IT ALLEGEDLY SPIED ON HOUSE, SENATE STAFFERS DURING RUSSIA PROBE

Jason Foster, the founder of Empower Oversight, received notice in October 2023 that the Justice Department had obtained and served a subpoena on Google in 2017 for records associated with his Google email address and two Google Voice telephone numbers connected to his family’s phones and his official work phone. 

At the time, Foster worked in the U.S. Senate as the chief investigative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, then chaired by Sen. Chuck Grassley. 

The DOJ’s subpoena to Google compelled the company to release records related to Foster’s Google accounts, as well as the records of other Google customers. 

“Based on further discussions with the U.S. Senate Office of Legal Counsel, DOJ’s Office of Inspector General, former colleagues of Mr. Foster’s who also received notices, and attorneys for Google, it appears that the other accounts listed in the subpoena belonged to other staffers, both Republicans and Democrats, for U.S. House and Senate committees that were similarly engaged in oversight of DOJ pursuant to their constitutional authorities,” the filing states. 

Empower Oversight said the DOJ “withheld that important context from Google” and questioned whether the agency also withheld that information from the court. 

The nature of the records the DOJ obtained “could easily enable DOJ to identify confidential whistleblowers who were providing Congress with information about government misconduct,” Empower Oversight said. 

“There are multiple layers of secrecy standing between the public and important documents that the Department of Justice filed in this case,” the filing states, calling for the unsealing of records related to the investigation. 

The Justice Department “obtained a subpoena and later requested and received non-disclosure orders [NDOs] that prohibited Google Inc. from notifying ‘any other person of the existence of’ the subpoena,” the filing states. 

FLASHBACK: ROSENSTEIN THREATENED TO ‘SUBPOENA’ GOP-LED COMMITTEE IN ‘CHILLING’ CLASH OVER RECORDS, EMAILS SHOW

“Accordingly, the public is deprived of learning what basis (if any) DOJ offered in support of its NDO requests,” the filing states.

The subpoenas, according to Empower Oversight, appear to be related to the leak of confidential information, which resulted in the prosecution and guilty plea of former Senate Intelligence Committee Security Director James Wolfe. 

After Wolfe’s conviction for making a false statement to the FBI, the Justice Department requested three additional one-year renewals of the non-disclosure order with the court.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa; Ted Cruz of Texas; and Mike Lee of Utah began investigating the subpoenas and DOJ’s efforts to collect the private phone and email logs in November after Empower Oversight’s Freedom of Information Act request revealed the collection of those records while both House and Senate lawmakers investigated the origins of the Trump-Russia probe during the Trump administration.

FBI RECEIVED ‘CRIMINAL INFORMATION’ FROM OVER 40 CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES ON JOE BIDEN, HUNTER, JAMES: GRASSLEY

Back in 2018, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to subpoena personal records belonging to staffers for the House Intelligence Committee during a confrontation over the Justice Department’s “failure to comply with the committee’s compulsory process,” the senators revealed in November. 

A spokesperson for Google did not comment on the Empower Oversight filing directly, but told Fox News Digital that the company has seen an increase in non-disclosure orders from federal prosecutors.

“We’re seeing non-disclosure orders issued for an increasing number of court orders, warrants, and subpoenas from U.S. authorities. Delayed notice results in users not having the opportunity to assert their rights in court to contest demands for their data. For these reasons, we support the bipartisan NDO Fairness Act, which would ensure that gag orders are issued only when warranted and for reasonable periods,” a spokesperson for Google said in a statement.

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The Justice Department declined to comment. 

The investigation that prompted the subpoenas began under the Trump administration. 

• Kelly Daughtry, a Johnston County attorney who finished first in the March 5 Republican primary for North Carolina’s 13th congressional district, has withdrawn from the runoff, effectively handing her opponent, Brad Knott, the party’s nomination for the seat.
• Daughtry suspended her campaign after Knott received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, noting on social media that “it has become clear that a pathway to victory is no longer feasible.”
• With the 13th district recently redrawn to heavily favor Republicans and force incumbent Democrat Wiley Nickel out of Congress, Knott is very likely to be elected its representative come November.

A candidate seeking the Republican nomination for a North Carolina congressional seat announced Thursday that she’s suspending her campaign, citing her rival’s endorsement by former President Donald Trump in their upcoming runoff.

Johnston County attorney Kelly Daughtry had finished first among 14 candidates in the March 5 Republican primary for the central North Carolina district. But she failed to get above the 30% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff. She and second-place finisher Brad Knott, a former federal prosecutor, had advanced to the scheduled May 14 runoff.

In a social media post, Daughtry said that with Trump’s formal backing of Knott last month “it has become clear that a pathway to victory is no longer feasible.”

VULNERABLE HOUSE DEM ‘FIGHTING’ TO RETAIN HIS SEAT REJECTS GOP CHALLENGER’S CLAIM HE’S ‘BEHOLDEN’ TO BIDEN

“I believe in the democratic process and respect the endorsement of our President,” Daughtry added.

Knott also picked up the endorsement of third-place primary finisher Fred Von Canon.

“The time has now come to suspend my campaign,” Daughtry added. “Brad has my full endorsement, and I want him to know that I am here to support him, not to oppose him.”

But her announcement doesn’t mean she is no longer an official candidate. And her name won’t be removed from the ballot — it’s too late for that. Early in-person voting for the runoff continues through May 11, and traditional absentee balloting has been going on for weeks.

Knott accepted Daughtry’s endorsement in his own statement but cautioned supporters who believed he was now the primary winner. Daughtry, the daughter of former state legislative leader Leo Daughtry, ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in 2022.

“While Kelly has ended her campaign, this election is not over,” Knott said. “I strongly encourage my supporters to get out and vote on May 14.”

The seat for the reconfigured 13th District covers all or parts of eight counties. The horseshoe-shaped boundaries arc around most of Raleigh, the state capital, and stretch from Lee County — then east and north — to the Virginia border.

The current 13th District is represented by first-term Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel. Nickel, however, declined to seek reelection, citing the North Carolina legislature’s redistricting last fall that skewed his district to the right politically. Two other Democratic incumbents — Reps. Jeff Jackson and Kathy Manning — didn’t run either, saying the GOP-leaning skew also made it impossible for them to win in November.

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The GOP runoff winner in the 13th District will still have a fall Democratic rival in Frank Pierce. Still the Democratic departures could make a big difference in whether Republicans can retain their narrow U.S. House majority entering 2025.

House Democrats who furiously condemned attacks on police during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol are also speaking out against police being injured at the anti-Israel protests currently raging at universities across the country.

Fox News Digital reached out to all the remaining members of the now-defunct House select committee on January 6 as well as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. – all Democrats who led criticism of how cops were treated in 2021 – to ask whether they would extend the same condemnation to those attacking police on college campuses. 

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a member of the committee, told Fox News Digital that she condemned all attacks on law enforcement but panned comparisons to the Capitol riot.

“I condemn attacks on police officers, full stop. At the Capitol and on campuses,” Lofgren said. “It’s worth noting that what is happening on college campuses is not aimed at stopping the peaceful transfer of power or threatening our democratic system of government, so there is not a direct equivalency. Any attempt to sanitize the events on January 6th is a malicious one.”

LIVE UPDATES: POLICE AT UCLA CLEAR ANTI-ISRAEL ENCAMPMENT, DETAIN PROTESTERS 

Swalwell told Fox News Digital, “I condemn all violence against police officers.”

Similarly, a source familiar with the thinking of the former Jan. 6 committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he also condemns any form of violence.

It comes after reports of police officers being injured during anti-Israel protests at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, the University of Utah, and Emerson College in Boston, as well as violent clashes between students and police at the University of California at Los Angeles.

RESURFACED POST COMES BACK TO HAUNT BIDEN AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS SWEEP THE NATION 

A report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published last year found that 114 Capitol Police officers were reported injured during the Capitol riot. One officer died on the scene of natural causes, and four more who were at the scene committed suicide in the seven months after the riot.

A spokesperson for Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., would not directly weigh in on whether Schiff condemns the recent attacks against police specifically, but pointed Fox News Digital to earlier statements speaking out against attacks on Jewish students.

“Over the past weeks, from Columbia University to UCLA and far too many campuses in between, many of those demonstrations have turned violent, and created unsafe and wholly unsustainable learning environments for all students. We’ve seen explicit, repeated targeting and intimidation of Jewish students – many of whom have been blocked from entering buildings or called unspeakable things on the basis of their faith and background. This is patently unacceptable and must end,” Schiff said in one of the statements flagged.

MAJOR US LAW FIRM SUES STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE FOR ALLEGED SUPPORT OF HAMAS ‘TERRORIST ACTIVITIES’

Pelosi’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did the offices of House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., or Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., despite all three condemning attacks on police during the Jan. 6 riot.

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In an October 2022 Jan. 6 committee hearing, Aguilar accused the pro-Trump protesters of “violently attacking the efforts of the brave men and women in law enforcement trying to resist the mob.”

Raskin said in a statement on the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6, “The attempted coup and insurrection left 150 law enforcement officers injured, wounded, traumatized or dead. Anyone who denies or minimizes this unprecedented assault on law enforcement can never call himself or herself ‘pro-law enforcement.’ That’s just political fraud.”