Donald Trump Poll News

FIRST ON FOX: Democrats’ largest campaign fundraising platform says it has strengthened its donor verification standards days after House GOP investigators accused it of potentially taking in foreign donations for U.S. campaigns, according to a new letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

Attorneys for ActBlue sent a letter to the House of Representatives on Monday announcing it is launching a new “passport verification program” as part of its “ongoing investment in the security of contributions processed from donors located abroad.”

House Republicans have for years accused ActBlue of having insufficient verification standards for weeding out illegitimate campaign donations.

The platform has long been used by a myriad of Democrats to raise money for their political campaigns, including Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. ActBlue said it paused donations from Americans abroad in 2025, however.

REPUBLICANS ZERO IN ON KEY PLAYER ACCUSED OF HELPING DEMOCRAT FUNDRAISING GIANT HIDE FOREIGN CASH

ActBlue has consistently denied wrongdoing in responses to Fox News Digital and communications to House investigators. Ten top figures within the company, including executives and founders, have pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions in both public and private sitdowns with GOP-led committees.

ANOTHER ACTBLUE LEADER PLEADS FIFTH AS HOUSE INVESTIGATES ALLEGED FOREIGN DONATIONS

But a new report released earlier this month, first reported by Fox News Digital, appears to show employees green-lighting donations despite some questions about where they came from.

Chief among the GOP’s concerns is ActBlue’s passport number verification. According to the report, the field only required the correct number of characters for a U.S. passport number rather than a valid code for a donation to be accepted.

GOP LAWMAKER WARNS ACTBLUE ‘GOT CAUGHT’ AS FOREIGN CASH PROBE TRIGGERS FIFTH AMENDMENT PLEAS

But the Monday letter said ActBlue’s new program “adds passport-based identity verification as a further enhancement to ActBlue’s multi-layered approach to fraud and foreign-contribution prevention.”

“In doing so, it also enables U.S. citizens located abroad—who have been unable to contribute on the ActBlue platform since 2025—to resume participating in the political process by supporting the candidates and causes of their choice,” the letter said. “The new program uses the best available technology to allow eligible donors located abroad to verify their identity using a valid U.S. passport. It reflects substantial engineering investments by ActBlue to ensure that, as it resumes processing contributions from foreign addresses, its compliance systems can withstand scrutiny.”

Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said it amounted to a confession.

“This decision to implement a NEW passport verification program only confirms what we’ve been saying: ActBlue failed to verify the citizenship of individuals who made donations from abroad. That’s unacceptable,” Steil told Fox News Digital. “This new policy should have been in place on day one. Right now, far too many questions remain unanswered, including what percentage of the billions of dollars that have flowed through ActBlue came from illegal foreign sources. Chairman Jordan, Chairman Comer, and I will continue to seek answers for the American people.”

ACTBLUE SCRUTINY FUELS NEW GOP BILLS TO TIGHTEN ELECTION DONATION RULES

The probe is being co-led by his panel as well as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.

A spokesperson for Jordan told Fox News Digital, “This action confirms that the platform’s fraud prevention measures were not as robust as [ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones] told Congress. We will continue to demand answers.”

The GOP’s earlier report cited a letter by Wallace-Jones to Steil, which maintained that donations on the platform made by people with addresses outside the U.S. required a passport number for verification.

But the Republicans’ report alleged that the verification “only ensures that the entered passport number contains a certain number of characters, not that it is a valid U.S. passport number,” rendering it an essentially meaningless step.

ActBlue told Fox News Digital in response to the report at the time, “There’s nothing to see here. After we released findings of a third-party forensic analysis that completely undermined a central claim that they have made against ActBlue, Republicans are refusing to move on.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“Instead, they are orchestrating another political stunt before rushing out of town weeks early to go campaign. This coordinated campaign against ActBlue isn’t about the facts, or legislating, it’s about Republicans’ efforts to silence organizations they believe threaten their agenda,” the platform said.

A spokesperson for ActBlue pointed Fox News Digital to a blog post announcing the update when reached for comment.

“In 2025, amid unprecedented attacks from President Trump and his allies, our organization took the proactive step of temporarily suspending all contributions from outside the United States,” the statement said. “ActBlue has now further enhanced its verification process to allow eligible Americans with a U.S. Passport who are located abroad to participate through the platform while maintaining the robust security and compliance standards that donors, campaign, and the public expect.”

It also said ActBlue “accurately described” its vetting process to Congress.

President Donald Trump endorsed Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, the Republican candidate for the state’s at-large U.S. House seat.

“Chuck Gray has been a tremendous Secretary of State for the Great State of Wyoming, a place I love and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024!” the president declared in part of a Monday Truth Social post.

“Chuck Gray has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next U.S. Representative from Wyoming — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump asserted.

TRUMP-ALIGNED CONSERVATIVE EMERGES FROM CROWDED PRIMARY TO DECIDE WHO FILLS WYOMING’S LONE HOUSE SEAT

Gray, who won the Wyoming GOP U.S. House primary in August, thanked the president on Monday for backing him.

“Thank you President Trump for your endorsement!” he declared in a post on X.

‘AMERICA FIRST’: WYOMING SECRETARY OF STATE CHUCK GRAY LAUNCHES HOUSE BID

“As President Trump said, I have a real track record of advancing the key priorities of the people of Wyoming, and I will continue that track record in Congress. Together, we will defend our Wyoming way of life!” Gray added.

GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman, the current occupant of the state’s only U.S. House seat, is running for U.S. Senate.

WYOMING MAN KICKS MOUNTAIN LION IN THE FACE TO SAVE HIS DOG, THEN FIGHTS IT OFF BARE-HANDED

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., is not running for a second six-year Senate term.

The battle over Americans’ clocks reemerged in an unlikely way over the weekend, with President Donald Trump picking a fight with one of his top allies over the issue.

There have been many fights in Congress over the nearly two years that Trump has been in office for his second term that either ended in partisan victory or gloriously fizzled out, but one has quietly gone onto the shelf despite his pressure on Republicans to do something about it.

And that fight is over allowing states to voluntarily observe Daylight Saving Time year-round to effectively do away with the twice-a-year ritual of changing clocks. It’s a popular issue with voters and the president, and there’s a bill that passed the House this summer to enact the change. But it’s a policy issue that has divided both sides of the aisle and ground to a halt in the upper chamber.

TRUMP URGES SENATE TO PASS BILL MAKING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME PERMANENT AFTER OVERWHELMING HOUSE VOTE

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has been one of the more vocal opponents of the bill, vowing to block any attempts to fast-track it on the floor. That resistance earned him a Truth Social post from Trump, who over the weekend shared his personal phone number in a bid to pressure the lawmaker to change his stance on Daylight Saving Time.

“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump said. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

Cotton responded, and noted that Congress has tackled Daylight Saving Time before, only to roll back the change shortly after.

“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Saving Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton said on X. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”

TRUMP FACES REPUBLICAN REBELLION OVER DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME AS SENATE BILL NEARS DEAD END

In the 1970s, lawmakers did enact year-round Daylight Saving Time. But Americans rapidly soured on the change, especially parents whose children had to wait in the dark for the school bus. It was repealed about a year later.

And Cotton recently answered an off-the-cuff question from a fellow Republican during their weekly closed-door policy lunches, a source told Fox News Digital, where he made a similar case as his response to Trump. No one pushed back during the meeting.

The issue of Daylight Saving Time, and supporting a permanent fix or sticking to the status quo is more geographical than political.

It’s, in part, mountainous and Western states versus coastal states. On one side of the spectrum are lawmakers like Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., who introduced a Senate version of the bill last year.

“Every year, more Americans grow more frustrated setting their clocks back and forth, and every winter folks in Washington state despair at the prospect of losing an hour of precious sunlight when we are forced off Daylight Saving Time,” Murray said in a statement at the time.

HOUSE PASSES DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME REFORM AS TRUMP SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR ENDING CLOCK CHANGE

While lawmakers in landlocked states out West, like Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., warn that it would cause kids in their states to go to school in the dark.

“I can see where Florida likes it for tee times at certain times of the year, but it doesn’t work so well for moms and dads putting kids on buses when the sunrise in Western Montana wouldn’t be till 9:30 in the morning. It’s not going to work for us,” Daines told CNN in July.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The most vital currency in the Senate is floor time. And lawmakers won’t have much floor time to spare when they return after the midterm elections in November. Though it’s popular, more pressing issues like the National Defense Authorization Act, supplemental funding for the war and a looming government funding battle will likely take precedence.

And Republican leaders acknowledge that it’s not as easy a simple yes-or-no vote for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“Depends where you’re living in the country and the impact — what it would be, in your own home state,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in July. “So it’s not as simple as what one state might like.”

Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer is sounding increasingly bullish about his party’s chances of riding a potential blue wave into November, declaring Democrats have “the wind in our sails” as national and battleground polling points to a favorable political environment in the midterm elections.

But beneath that confidence are three variables that could determine whether the Democratic advantage becomes a wave — or breaks before Election Day: a potential polling undercount of Republicans, persistent voter skepticism of the Democratic brand, and the GOP’s financial firepower advantage.

Schumer, speaking to reporters last week as the Senate adjourned until after Election Day, predicted that Democrats are “on the edge of taking back the Senate.”

After nearly two years of President Donald Trump back in the White House and Republican control of the Senate and the House, Schumer emphasized, “Americans are frustrated with higher costs and a government they don’t believe is working for them.”

AI IS SUPERCHARGING THE CAMPAIGN AD WARS, BUT VIRAL DOESN’T MEAN VICTORIOUS

The GOP is fighting political history, which has traditionally seen the party in power in Washington lose congressional seats during midterm election years. Add to that a challenging political climate fueled by persistent inflation Americans see at the grocery store, high gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran, and Trump’s negative approval ratings.

The latest polls indicate Democrats holding an advantage over Republicans in the battle for Congress and that they are more enthusiastic to vote in the midterms.

But Trump predicts that Republicans will perform much better in the midterms than critics and pollsters expect.

“I think we’re going to have a big surprise, because they don’t know what’s happening,” the president told supporters at a rally Saturday night in Ohio, as he referred to Democrats.

Here’s a closer look at the three variables.

Polling problems?

Republicans control the Senate 53-47, which means Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win back the majority. But with one month to go until Election Day, Democrats are treading deeper and deeper into red territory as Republicans stay mostly on defense.

The latest Fox News polls indicate margin of error races in Michigan, a must hold for the Democrats, and in Texas, Maine and Iowa, three seats the party is working to flip to win the majority. An average of the latest surveys also points to very close contests in Alaska, Ohio, and Kansas, where the Democrats are playing offense, and Minnesota, a leading flip opportunity for the GOP.

WHO’S UP AND WHO’S DOWN IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS MIDTERM POWER RANKINGS

But what if the polls are off?

“Polls considerably underestimated Donald Trump and other Republicans on the ticket with him in 2016, 2020, and, to a slightly lesser extent, in 2024,” polling guru, political analyst and statistician Nate Silver noted this past weekend.

But Silver added that polls in the previous two Trump-era midterms, 2018 and 2022, were essentially unbiased.

Fast-forward to this cycle, and polls in some high-profile Democratic primaries were off the mark. Among the miscues this summer, overestimating Abdul El-Sayed’s narrow victory in Michigan’s Senate showdown, and underestimating victories by Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota’s Senate primary, state Rep. Angie Nixon’s win in Florida’s Senate contest, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s upset victory to capture the Wisconsin gubernatorial nomination.

Coverage of the miscues grabbed widespread media attention and sparked fresh criticism of public opinion polling.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

If the surveys are overestimating Democratic turnout and underestimating Republican enthusiasm, even a modest polling miss could reshape several of the close Senate contests.

“I don’t think any Democrat is over optimistic after…2024. We all understand that anything can happen in the closing days, and we’re preparing for that,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital.

Bad brand?

Trump’s approval ratings remain well underwater, as do favorable ratings for the GOP.

But surveys indicate the Democrats’ brand is nothing to brag about.

The Democrats’ favorable rating hovered in negative territory in the most recent Fox News national poll, at 44%-55%. And it was even lower in the latest Wall Street Journal national survey, at 38% favorable and 58% unfavorable.

“I think just because Americans are outraged because of how Republicans have failed them and made their life more expensive doesn’t automatically mean that they’re going to embrace and trust Democrats,” former Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Fox News Digital on Saturday.

Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who is considering another White House run in 2028, said it’s crucial Democrats “make sure that our candidates get out there, make it very clear who they are, what they’re about, and what we would do differently.”

Making life even tougher for the Democrats: the victories by left-wing and socialist-aligned candidates over more moderate contenders in the party’s primaries, which gave the GOP more messaging ammunition to portray all Democrats on the ballot this year as radicals.

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

That’s the case in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida, where El-Sayed, Flanagan and Nixon all defeated establishment-backed rivals.

Meanwhile, in Texas, a trail of controversial past comments by Talarico is handing the GOP more firepower.

But Democrats in all four of these Senate showdowns are returning fire by anchoring the Republicans on the ballot to Trump.

In the latest Fox News poll in Texas, 53% of those questioned said they were extremely or very concerned that Talarico is too liberal. But a near equal amount, 51%, said they were extremely or very concerned that Paxton is too close to Trump.

Money matters

Republicans are winning the ad wars, thanks to a major money advantage. Boosted by massive cash infusions from the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. and other leading Republican groups and donors, the GOP is outspending the Democrats in all of the crucial Senate showdowns.

That includes a roughly $70 million advantage in Ohio and nearly $30 million in Maine and Texas, three top targets for the Democrats, according to figures from AdImpact, a top ad-tracking firm. The GOP’s outspending the Democrats by approximately $25 million in Michigan, which Republicans are aiming to flip.

Republicans are also outspending Democrats in swing state New Hampshire, in the battle to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

“The amount of money being spent is enormous,” Buckley told Fox News Digital, as he pointed to all the Republican-aligned ads flooding the small state.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

But Buckley said Democrats have organizing and enthusiasm advantages.

“We might not be as competitive as we’d like on television, but we’re certainly competitive knocking on the doors. We’ve got the energy out there. The voters are excited. You saw that with the turnout in the primaries throughout the country,” he said.

Deceased Virginians with felony convictions are reportedly among those receiving voting-rights restoration letters under Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who announced in July that she had restored voting rights to 66,000 people with felony convictions.

The notices come as Virginia separately implements a federal court ruling that sharply narrowed which felony convictions can trigger disenfranchisement, while voters this fall will decide whether to amend the state constitution to automatically restore voting rights upon release from incarceration.

“I’ve been a lawyer for 27 years and in every minute of my career, when you were convicted of a felony, you lose your voting rights. The way you get those back is you have to petition the governor and then the governor can review your case and determine whether the civil rights of a convicted felon should be restored,” Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson told Fox News Digital on Monday.

Anderson, who shared posts showing letters from Spanberger and her administration sent to families of deceased recipients, said the situation is “one or the other” — either Richmond is not vetting who receives the restoration notifications or its vetting is not thorough enough to catch deceased recipients.

SPANBERGER SPARKS OUTRAGE AFTER SNEAKILY ENDING YOUNGKIN-ERA WOMEN’S SPORTS PROTECTIONS

“The order specifically says that they’ve reviewed [each] case individually, right?”

He noted that Virginia has online voter registration and questioned whether an unscrupulous relative who received one of the notifications might try to register their dead relative to vote.

“These dead people clearly aren’t petitioning the governor to get their civil liberties back… they’re restoring every single felon’s civil disabilities without anybody even asking. And that’s concerning, especially when they’re dead.”

Virginia resident Howard “Skip” Lambert posted a July 1 restoration notice signed by Spanberger and an Aug. 31 notification from her administration addressed to a redacted relative, informing the recipient that their voting rights had been restored.

The July letter said that after the relative had been convicted and sentenced, Spanberger’s office “completed review of the particulars of the individual’s case.”

Anderson pointed to that line as evidence of vetting.

Lambert’s letter went on to say the relative would have their civil rights — except for the ability to transport or possess firearms — restored effective July 1.

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR ABIGAIL SPANBERGER QUIETLY ROLLS BACK YOUNGKIN’S PLANS TO PROTECT GIRLS’ SPORTS

In the ensuing letter from Secretary of the Commonwealth Candi Mundon-King, the relative was notified that Spanberger had restored their right to vote and serve on a jury and was encouraged to re-register to vote at the online “Citizen’s Portal” via a QR code.

Lambert wrote that he was upset by the mailings, saying the recipient was his daughter, who died in 2024. He also confirmed that she had a felony conviction.

“Interesting this letter arrives as early-voting begins… yet the provided official order is dated July 1,” he said on Sept. 24. “Just because cash doesn’t change hands doesn’t mean the governor isn’t trying to buy votes.

Reached by phone Monday, the Fredericksburg-area resident confirmed to Fox News Digital that the documents were authentic and that the recipient was his daughter.

“I do have a question of timing in the letter I believe my daughter voted in the previous election where it was Hillary and Donald Trump — because she had had her rights restored then,” he said.

Around the time of that election, former Democratic Gov. Terence McAuliffe attempted a mass restoration but was rebuked by the Virginia Supreme Court, which ruled that he did not have the authority to take such an action affecting an estimated 206,000 Virginians, according to NPR.

Another woman, Peggie Young, posted a similar set of documents addressed to her “dear BFF, Peter Breton.”

“I have his ashes. Is this perhaps how voter fraud begins. I’m so confused,” she said, adding that she also received the letter only on Sept. 29.

Young could not immediately be reached.

Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, told Fox News Digital that Spanberger’s purported vetting process appears to be inadequate:

“If the process is so thorough that they can’t even tell who’s alive and who’s dead, how thorough is it?” Kilgore told Fox News Digital.

The federal case began in 2023 as King v. Youngkin, when disenfranchised Virginians sued then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other state officials, arguing that Virginia’s blanket felony ban conflicted with the federal Virginia Readmission Act of 1870.

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

U.S. District Judge John Gibney Jr. ruled in January that Virginia could disenfranchise people only for 11 common-law felonies recognized in 1870. After rejecting the state’s effort to map those offenses onto a broader list of modern crimes, Virginia ultimately narrowed automatic disenfranchisement to murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The Department of Elections is separately notifying roughly 235,000 Virginians whose convictions no longer disqualify them from voting. Those court-driven notices are distinct from the Spanberger restoration orders received by Lambert and Young, which state that the governor’s office reviewed each recipient’s case before restoring multiple civil rights.

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger’s office and ELECT for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Whistleblowers who pulled back the curtain on Medicaid fraud that allegedly cost taxpayers millions of dollars in states like Minnesota could gain new protections under a House GOP bill after alleging they faced retaliation from state leaders.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, unveiled the Medicaid Whistleblower Protection Act, which would establish federal protections nationwide for state and local Medicaid workers who report early warning signs of fraud, including contracting irregularities and unusual financial transactions.

“No public servant should have to choose between their conscience and their livelihood,” Miller-Meeks said in a press release exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital. “Whistleblowers who report fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid are protecting taxpayer dollars and the vulnerable people this program is meant to serve, and they deserve real protection, not retaliation.”

The bill would prevent employers from firing, demoting, threatening, harassing or discriminating against Medicaid workers who report fraud, violations of law, gross mismanagement, abuse of authority or dangers to public health or safety.

MINNESOTA ‘TRIED TO COVER UP FRAUD ALLEGATIONS,’ FORMER STATE TROOPER ALLEGES

Workers who face retaliation could also receive reinstatement, twice their back pay plus interest, attorneys’ fees and punitive damages.

The legislation follows a January letter from more than 30 current and former Minnesota Department of Human Services employees highlighting a “pattern of retaliation” for flagging fraud as early as 2019, with some alleging they faced surveillance, investigations, reassignment and termination.

“I will fight to make sure the people willing to tell the truth are protected, not silenced.” Miller-Meeks said.

Several Republican lawmakers grilled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison in March over the letter and rampant fraud in the state, questioning when they first learned about the schemes and allegations of retaliation.

When pressed on the retaliation claims, Walz said he was “not specifically” aware of them and repeatedly declined to address the allegations. The fraud involved more than $90 million in alleged fraudulent claims tied to multiple state-funded assistance programs.

WALZ REMOVES TOP MINNESOTA OFFICIAL ON EVE OF ‘GAUNTLET’ HEARING OVER FRAUD SCANDAL

Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, backed the bill, saying politicians and agency leaders target whistleblowers to protect “their political base.”

“The federal, state and county workers who run these programs are often the first to see red flags, but, as we have seen time and again in Minnesota, if they dare to point it out, they are called racist, accused of creating a hostile work environment, demoted, reassigned or otherwise harmed personally and professionally,” Robbins said.

The bill is one of 14 measures in House Energy and Commerce Republicans’ “Continuing the Fight Against Fraud” package, led by Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. The package aims to detect fraud more easily, recover improper payments and increase accountability.

Another measure in the package led by Miller-Meeks, the WALZ Act, would require the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General to open investigations into any program that sees a 10% or greater increase in total payments over any six-month period within a fiscal year.

WHITE HOUSE PUSHES ‘WATERSHED’ FRAUD-FIGHTING REFORM IN CONGRESS AS VANCE CONVENES TASK FORCE

Guthrie blamed oversight failures under the Biden administration for allowing fraud to “go unchecked in government health programs.”

“Every dollar stolen by fraudsters or wasted on improper payments is a dollar taken away from supporting families in need who rely on these programs,” he said.

The legislation would take effect Jan. 1, 2028, amid the Trump administration’s continued crackdown on fraud through an anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s and Ellison’s offices for comment.

The late House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was an accidental speaker.

And it was a sheer accident that the world learned a dark secret about Hastert, years after he left Capitol Hill.

It was twenty years ago, almost to the date. House Republicans were on the verge of losing their majority in the 2006 midterms. And their Speaker, Dennis Hastert, was in meltdown.

HIGHEST-RANKING US OFFICIAL TO EVER SERVE JAIL TIME, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT DEAD AT 84

Word had just broken that then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) had sent inappropriate messages to high school-age male teens, serving as House pages. The Republican-led House was meeting on September 29, 2006, trying to escape town so the GOP could defend their majority. But nothing was going right for Republicans. The public was growing weary of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Democrats were poised to retake the House in November.

Yours truly and Deirdre Walsh — then of CNN — spotted the portly Hastert lumbering across Statuary Hall toward the Speaker’s office.

“Did he call you?” Walsh asked Hastert about Foley.

“What are you going to do about it?” I inquired.

“We’ll talk about that shortly,” mumbled Hastert under his breath, his wide glasses nearly tumbling over the bridge of his nose as he huffed into the Speaker’s suite.

An hour later, Hastert, outgoing Senate Majority Leader

Bill Frist (R-TN) and other top Republicans convened a brief press conference to tout a national security bill they just passed. The legislation was designed as the GOP sendoff as lawmakers went home to campaign.

“Ok, we’ll take questions. Only on the bill,” instructed Frist. “Only on the bill.”

No one even squeaked.

Finally, I piped up.

“We have questions about other subjects,” I announced, determined to ask about Foley.

“Alright,” said Frist, shoving back from the table.

The Tennessee Republican knew what was coming. Frist was happy he wouldn’t have to address Foley. That was something for Hastert. Especially since Frist planned to run for President in 2008.

I inquired about Foley. Hastert muttered a non-answer which was barely usable for broadcast. He mumbled something about him not being “very happy” about Foley. But it was a soundbite from the Speaker of the House on the scandal, right as a bloodied GOP hit the exits for the midterm campaign.

Someone then quickly adjourned the press conference. And that was it.

FORMER REPUBLICAN HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT DEAD AT 84

A few days later, local reporters in Illinois pressed Hastert about how he handled the Foley matter. Back in Washington, asked one of the Speaker’s aides why Hastert – as a former teacher and coach – wasn’t more aggressive protecting the teen pages.

We may have found out why years later.

Eighty-four year-old Dennis Hastert died of natural causes over the weekend. The late Speaker is one of the most ignominious figures in American politics.

He was the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history, wielding the gavel from 1999 to 2007. Hastert stumbled into the Speakership, rising thanks to the missteps of others. Yet despite his years in Congress, what we learned about Hastert nearly a decade after he left office revealed him to be one of the most grotesque persons to ever serve in Congress. In fact, Hastert is the highest-serving U.S. official to ever serve jail time.

Virtually no one knew it, but Hastert was an unbridled sexual predator. Known as “Coach” rather than “Mr. Speaker” to his Capitol colleagues, Hastert preyed on teenage boys when he taught high school in the 1960s and 1970s.

Hastert was never implicated in the page scandal. The House nixed the program soon afterwards, even though it was nearly as old as the republic. But in retrospect, how Hastert fumbled what was going on with the House pages shockingly added up later.

Democrats won the House handily in the 2006 midterms. Hastert didn’t run – and probably wouldn’t have won – a leadership race in the new Congress. He stuck around as rank-and-file member for a few months and resigned in late 2007.

Few heard much from Hastert after he departed Congress. Such was his style. He shunned interviews as Speaker and was rarely even spotted in the Capitol corridors. To defend his reticence with the press corps, the Speaker proclaimed that he was more of a “listener.”

And then Hastert’s otherwise bland, nearly forgotten Speakership took a dark turn in 2015.

Federal banking regulators flagged Hastert’s curious withdrawals of staggering amounts of cash. They suspected the transactions signaled that someone could be blackmailing the former Speaker. So they investigated. But that’s how it came to light that Hastert was actually paying hush money to conceal his sexual transgressions with minors.

The feds indicted Hastert on charges of lying to investigators and evading banking laws. He later pleaded guilty to the bank crimes. Prosecutors dropped the charge of making false statements. Federal Judge Thomas Durkin declared that the former Speaker was “a serial child molester.” In court, Hastert admitted that he “mistreated athletes” and “took advantage” of those he was supposed to mentor.

Prosecutors never charged Hastert in connection with sex crimes. He served 13 months of a 15-month sentence at a federal facility in Rochester, MN.

It’s remarkable that someone who operated at this level of American government obscured such a hideous secret for so long.

And as instructive as the day nearly 20 years ago when the Foley scandal broke and Republicans were on the verge of losing the House, unceremoniously terminating Hastert’s Speakership — the day that propelled him into the leadership is even more illuminating.

Republicans nearly lost the House in the 1998 midterms. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) was toxic and Republicans showed him the door. In late 1998, Republicans tapped then-Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA), chairmanof the Appropriations Committee, to become Speaker in 1999. But then came December 19, 1998. The Saturday before Christmas.

I was on the job on 9/11. I was on the job on January 6. I’ve covered Congress for a litany of big hearings, the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Even the day they banished Pete Rose from Major League Baseball as a kid reporter back in Cincinnati. You name it, I’ve seen it.

But from a sheer news perspective, December 19, 1998 rivals many of those.

The House met on that Saturday before Christmas to approve articles of impeachment against President Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal. This would mark only the second time in American history that the House impeached an American President.

President Clinton also ordered airstrikes against Iraq for violating no-fly zones following the first Gulf War that day. So that story was in full force. But the night before, there was news that Livingston – the GOP’s Speaker in waiting – had an affair with a lobbyist.

Juxtapose that with what the House was trying to do with Clinton because of his sexual exploits.

On the morning of December 19, 1998, Livingston took to the House floor to demand that the president resign for his transgressions.

“No! You resign! You resign!” came a cacophony of catcalls from Democrats in unison in the House chamber.

Livingston paused and held up his hand to quiet the din.

The Louisiana Republican then announced he would not stand as the GOP’s nominee for Speaker when the new Congress convened in January 1999. He promised to resign from the House a few months later.

FOLLOW US ON X

Bedlam tore through the Capitol.

House Republicans scrambled. They needed a new Speaker-designee.

By nightfall, they conscripted J. Dennis Hastert for the job. The Chief Deputy Whip in the Republican Conference. Hastert was a part of the GOP leadership team. But he was a backbencher. His obscure leadership slot was to help count votes on the floor.

Many reporters who covered Congress didn’t even know who Hastert was.

Hastert was barely vetted by the press corps.

But there was other big news. Airstrikes against Iraq. The Livingston scandal. That’s to say nothing of only the second impeachment trial of a President in American history.

GOT A TIP?

Hastert seized the Speaker’s gavel in January 1999. He remained on the job for another eight years. Longer than any other Republican. His odious past obscured.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

But ultimately, Dennis Hastert did not take to the grave the loathsome secrets he hid for so long.

President Donald Trump has cleared the way for the Fort Hood terrorist to face an Army firing squad, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday, nearly 17 years after the deadly rampage.

Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the execution. The Army secretary will set the execution’s time and place, Parnell said.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES IT’S READOPTING THE FIRING SQUAD AS A MEANS OF EXECUTION

“Judgment day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Amid a rapid rise in technological developments, the U.S. Army’s new leadership is looking to pull back on using artificial intelligence and other tools it feels forced the branch to transform too much all at once.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army vice chief serving as acting chief of staff, outlined on Monday how he hopes to narrow the service’s sweeping modernization push after years of experimentation with drones, artificial intelligence and other emerging technology.

“There was a lot, a lot of motion,” LaNeve told a small group of reporters. “It was almost like everything was being transformed at once.”

“You can’t AI yourself to be the best maneuver brigade commander out there,” LaNeve said.

The Army Transformation Initiative pushed new technology rapidly into formations and encouraged experimentation across the board. Army leaders credited that effort with accelerating change but acknowledged Monday that its breadth created enormous activity across the force.

INSIDE AMERICA’S LASER REVOLUTION AS THE MILITARY NEARS BIG BATTLEFIELD BREAKTHROUGH

The branch is now preparing to unveil “How the Army Fights,” a new framework intended to turn years of experimentation into a more focused set of decisions about what technology the service will prioritize, where it belongs in Army formations and how the force will organize and spend for future wars.

“The Army cannot and should not modernize everything at once,” the new blueprint states. “The answer is focused modernization.”

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer said experimentation through the technology push produced necessary learning, but insisted that the service had reached a point where it needed to “drop the chalk line and actually start making some decisions.”

Those decisions include which technologies warrant investment, where they belong in Army formations and which theaters take priority — with the service acknowledging it cannot afford to transform everything simultaneously.

Army leaders aren’t yet saying what will fall by the wayside.

Asked what was being left “on the cutting room floor” as the service narrows its focus, LaNeve said, “I’m not sure we’re prepared to say what we’re cutting out now.”

But one investment is moving unmistakably to the front of the line.

“If you ask me what my number one modernization priority would be, I would say command and control,” LaNeve said.

The shift is unfolding amid a broader leadership shake-up at the Army.

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle took over after his predecessor, Dan Driscoll, resigned last month following months of reported friction with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had earlier ousted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, a close Driscoll ally who helped lead the service’s transformation push.

Telle, a former Trump White House aide, was tapped days later to lead the Army in an acting capacity and was publicly praised by Hegseth as “strong and whip smart.”

In his first press interview since taking the job, Telle described “How the Army Fights” as a way to impose greater coherence on the service’s modernization efforts as technology rapidly changes the battlefield.

TRUMP NAMES ADAM TELLE ACTING SECRETARY OF THE ARMY FOLLOWING DAN DRISCOLL’S RESIGNATION

That battlefield is envisioned as one in which troops operate alongside autonomous systems and under persistent drone surveillance, while AI helps commanders sift through massive amounts of sensor data and identify targets in “seconds and minutes rather than hours.”

The Army also wants autonomous systems taking on some of the most dangerous jobs that are currently performed by soldiers — this includes reconnaissance, resupply and breaching enemy obstacles.

But Army leaders are resisting the idea that advances in drones and AI have diminished the importance of traditional ground forces.

“Autonomous systems enable Soldiers to destroy and disrupt, but they can never replace the human judgment, leadership, and physical presence of Soldiers required to control the land and consolidate gains,” the blueprint states.

The Army is drawing heavily from recent conflicts, including Ukraine, Gaza and the India-Pakistan conflict, while building the new framework around its most demanding potential adversary: China.

HTAF identifies China’s People’s Liberation Army as the “pacing threat” and says the Army must organize, train and equip against it with the same institutional focus Cold War-era leaders brought to the Soviet Union.

The blueprint also assumes a future major war could reach much closer to home. It warns the U.S. homeland can no longer be treated as a sanctuary, with adversaries potentially using cyberattacks, sabotage and drones to disrupt the ports, airfields and other infrastructure needed to deploy American forces.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

For Telle, the challenge is fitting rapidly evolving technology into a coherent Army rather than chasing every new system that emerges.

He compared individual weapons and technologies to ornaments on a Christmas tree.

“How the Army Fights is really the tree to hang those ornaments on,” Telle said.

The Biden-era FBI tracked First Lady Melania Trump and Barron Trump’s travel, while surveilling President Trump’s future Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ phone, as officials worked the classified documents investigation reaching deep into Trump’s inner circle, newly declassified records show.

Documents released Monday by the White House detail “Plasmic Echo,” the probe later led by special counsel Jack Smith into whether Trump improperly retained classified documents after leaving office. The declassified documents show agents tracked the First Lady and First Son’s travel while planning the Mar-a-Lago search, then monitored Susie Wiles’ calls involving defense lawyers, campaign advisers and journalists. 

The surveillance collected call details rather than conversation contents, according to the documents.

TOP INVESTIGATOR IN BIDEN-ERA ELECTION PROBE WANTED TO TEAR KEY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT AWAY FROM LAWMAKERS

“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power. Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Those responsible must be held accountable.” 

The revelations come less than a week after Smith faced a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over investigative tactics used in his separate probe into Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election. That investigation, known as Arctic Frost, included the collection of phone-record information involving Republican lawmakers, while the newly released records stem from Plasmic Echo, the classified-documents investigation that ultimately led to the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

The Supreme Court launched its new term Monday with a blockbuster oral argument over whether federal or state laws and courts should handle civil lawsuits against energy companies for alleged climate change harms.

Eight justices debated for nearly two hours on a key gateway over environmental liability — who decides and where. It was unclear after the public session how the court might rule.

Absent was Justice Samuel Alito, who recused last week after calls to step aside because he owns stock in oil companies, but not the two at the center of Monday’s appeal.

Local and state governments seek civil damages totaling billions of dollars, arguing it is necessary to help pay for rebuilding after wildfires, rising sea levels, and severe storms worsened by fossil fuel pollution.

SUPREME COURT CAN RESTORE SANITY AND STOP THE LEFT’S RADICAL CLIMATE AGENDA

Colorado’s highest court let the case brought by Boulder County proceed.

SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH CHEVRON, OIL COMPANIES IN LOUISIANA ENVIRONMENTAL LAWSUITS

The companies — backed by the Trump administration — counter emissions are a national issue that should be heard in federal court, where similar suits have been tossed out.

The justices will also decide whether they have jurisdiction to hear this dispute, or whether it belongs in state courts.

SUPREME COURT CLIMATE SHOWDOWN JOLTED BY ALITO’S LAST-MINUTE DECISION

Chief Justice John Roberts could be the deciding vote. He asked tough questions of both sides and his vote could produce a 4-4 tie with Alito not participating.

That would mean the specific lawsuit moves ahead in state courts. He said the court in the past has allowed similar claims to be decided outside the federal venue.

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

“There are a lot of familiar situations where conduct outside of the state has broad effects among other states, and yet we allow state courts in a particular state to bring litigation,” said Roberts. “I guess I’m not quite sure what makes this situation different from all those other ones, where we’ve allowed them to proceed in state court.”

Justice Elena Kagan compared the climate change lawsuits to previous claims against tobacco and opioid companies brought by states on behalf of their citizens.

THE SUPREME COURT IS BACK. THESE FIVE CASES COULD RESHAPE AMERICAN LIFE

“This is the same kind of lawsuit against the same kind of actors for the same kind of harm,” said Kagan. “Where does this principle come from, that states can’t regulate in the air and water space?”

But Justice Brett Kavanaugh seemed to speak for many of his conservative colleagues, on the implications for multi-jurisdictional lawsuits to play out, potentially for decades.

” It is going to bankrupt – if there are enough of these [lawsuits] — bankrupt these various defendants and certainly other defendants out there. Anyone is a potential defendant for a suit like this. Any manufacturer, any business,” suggested Kavanaugh.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel because we’ve said this multiple times,” he added, “and Congress, presumably, when doing the Clean Air Act and doing the Clean Air Act amendments, has relied on this Court’s precedents establishing that this kind of pollution is a federal law matter unless Congress speaks otherwise.”

The current litigation is part of dozens of lawsuits brought by states and municipalities across the country.

Boulder County, located north-west of Denver, sued in 2018.

Among the defendants is Suncor, a Canadian-based energy giant that operates the only major oil refinery in Colorado. ExxonMobil, the largest oil company in the U.S., is also a defendant.

Local officials claim the energy firms have misled the public about their role in climate change, and say financial penalties are necessary to mitigate ongoing harms in their communities, including recent forest fires and worsening air pollution.

Some states also accuse the current administration of rolling back mandated protections in the Clean Air Act and thereby abdicating their regulatory authority.

But the companies and the Trump Justice Department argue climate change should be addressed by the national government in federal court, and that the Clean Air Act limits what individual states and counties can do.

FOLLOW US ON X

They say this global problem is not limited to any one energy sector or country, and cannot be resolved by what they call local “power grabs.”

Some litigators believe the companies could fare better in federal court since they would not have to juggle dozens of ongoing lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions.

“Interstate air pollution is an inherently federal area,” Sarah Harris, a Justice Department lawyer, told the court. “This suit egregiously exceeds constitutional limits on state authority,” Harris told the justices.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE U.S. NEWS

With the possibility of an evenly divided court, the eight justices may not have to reach the merits of the federalism question.

GET BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

The Supreme Court specifically asked both parties to address at argument whether it should even hear the case, at least at this stage. That procedural “exit ramp” could put the larger issues off for another day.

“I understand that you have several other federal issues that you have raised that are still pending in the state court,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked the oil companies lawyer Kannon Shanmugam. “So why shouldn’t we wait and hear all of these claims once the state courts are done with their federal considerations?”

The case is Suncor Energy Inc. v. Commissioners of Boulder County, CO (25-170).

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

A decision is expected by next spring.

President Donald Trump is heading to Nebraska on Monday to campaign for Republicans in the same city where federal authorities last year captured an alleged MS-13 hit squad leader wanted for four murders in Honduras.

Trump will headline a rally in Grand Island alongside U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and Gov. Jim Pillen as part of a multi-state swing ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

Located 150 miles west of Omaha, Grand Island drew national attention last year following the arrest of 33-year-old Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto, known by the alias “Fantasma.” Authorities allege Cuadra Soto headed “El Combo,” an MS-13 assassination squad, and faces four homicide charges in Honduras.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN INSIDER REVEALS STRATEGY BEHIND MIDTERM BLITZ THAT WHITE HOUSE HOPES PAYS OFF BIG

“The arrest of this MS-13 gang member wanted for murder in Honduras is just one example of the criminals President Trump has removed from Nebraska’s communities,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Radical Democrats allowed criminals to pour into our country, released them unvetted into American communities and now they want to abolish ICE.”

Officials say Cuadra Soto entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 via the southern border and later obtained a California driver’s license.

Honduran authorities suspect him in the July 2022 ambush near a Tegucigalpa nightclub that killed four men, including Said Lobo Bonilla, son of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAYS FEDERAL AUTHORITIES HAVE ARRESTED MORE THAN 10,000 SUSPECTED GANG MEMBERS

According to an unsealed federal affidavit, Cuadra Soto fled Honduras after the killings. He and two co-defendants were initially released from local custody after paying $125,000 in bribes to government officials.

Bis argued that Democratic policies have hamstrung federal law enforcement, contrasting that with the administration’s approach. “In sharp contrast, President Trump supercharged law enforcement to arrest the worst of the worst,” Bis said, attributing the policies to significant drops in violent crime.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Ricketts, a former Nebraska governor, is seeking to hold his Senate seat against independent challenger Dan Osborn, who has drawn backing from state Democrats.

A Senate Democrat pushing for an end to the war in Iran and the creation of a Palestinian state met with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince during a trip to the Middle East.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in a post on X revealed that he had met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, on Monday.

Murphy, who arrived in the region on Saturday for meetings in Qatar, acknowledged that he’s taken issue with the Saudi leader’s policies, but that it was “important for us to be here to recognize that there are things that we need to work on together — the end of the war with Iran, a pathway to a Palestinian state.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS SWEEPING TERMS OF PROPOSED IRAN AGREEMENT

He noted that he’s been in disagreement with the Saudis, particularly over the Gulf country’s several investments in President Donald Trump’s family businesses, but that “there’s got to be space for political dialogue and speech here in Saudi Arabia.”

“We talked about those things. I’m not saying we came to conclusions, but I think it’s important for the crown prince to not just hear from the Trump administration, but to hear from people who want a different path for Saudi Arabia in the region and in the world,” Murphy said.

“But those points of alignment are important as well,” he continued. “We are not going to get a permanent end to this war without the Saudis’ help. We’re not going to get a Palestinian state without the Saudis’ help.”

4 GOP SENATORS REBEL AGAINST TRUMP ON IRAN WAR, VOTE WITH DEMS TO REIN IN AUTHORITY

Murphy notably did not mention Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist who was murdered and dismembered by Saudi operatives at a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey in 2018.

Years ago, Murphy was demanding accountability from the Saudi Arabian government over Khashoggi’s slaying.

“And I think what we have to remember is that it took two weeks for the Saudi government to cop to what had happened,” Murphy said around the one-year anniversary of Khashoggi’s death. “The people that we do business with — the president and the Secretary of State that talked to you on a regular basis — were lying to the entire world and to the American public for two weeks when it was patently clear as to what had happened.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Murphy’s office for comment on Khashoggi and his meeting with MBS.

‘RED CARPET FOR A DESPOT’: TRUMP’S LAVISH XI WELCOME COLLIDES WITH GOP ANTI-COMMUNISM MESSAGE

Meanwhile, Murphy’s confab with MBS was part of a broader trip to the region. The lawmaker announced on Saturday that he had just arrived in Qatar for a slate of meetings and noted that he was likely the first Democrat to set foot in the Middle East since the Iran war began earlier this year.

Murphy, one of the more vocal critics of the war, said that his trip was meant to view war damage, speak with allies about the conflict’s regional impact and meet with actors working to end the fighting.

He’s so far met with Ali Al Thawadi, a key diplomat who coordinates U.S.-Iran shuttle diplomacy, and another key leader in the region, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Murphy noted that “there are so many things Qatar does to protect U.S. interests,” like hosting the largest U.S. military base in the region, housing Afghan refugees, and acting as key middlemen to getting hostages out of Gaza.

“And they are mediators right now in the effort to end the war with Iran,” Murphy said. “I thanked him for all of this. Qatar is and will remain an essential ally of the United States.”

“Of course, I was also candid with him, in particular regarding my deep concerns about the transfer of the luxury plane,” he continued.

The Biden administration’s effort to combat alleged threats against school boards amid a wave of heated parent protests triggered sustained internal resistance within the Justice Department and FBI, documents released by the DOJ show.

“Five years ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued an infamous memorandum at the urging of the National School Boards Association and White House officials, directing the FBI and United States Attorneys to consider looking for a federal hook to prosecute parents exercising their right to free speech,” Blanche posted to X on Monday, when the DOJ released the “Report to Expose the Weaponization of Government Against Parents in Schools.”

“Along with the report, we’ve released hundreds of exhibits and emails that make official and verify what many Americans had guessed: the Garland DOJ worked hand in hand with WH officials and the National School Boards Association to chill free speech and parental rights while they threatened to prosecute parents and label them domestic terrorists,” Blanche added. 

In October 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to coordinate with federal, state and local law enforcement over what it described as an “increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools,” amid escalating clashes involving parents at school board meetings.

TRUMP DOJ REPORT LAYS BARE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S ALLEGED ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS

Garland’s memo drew significant internal pushback across the Justice Department and FBI, with officials raising concerns about politicization, First Amendment protections and whether there was a sufficient federal basis for intervention, according to the Justice Department report released Monday.

The memo followed throngs of parents protesting at school board meetings over dissatisfaction with how gender and race were being taught in classrooms and COVID-19-era learning restrictions, prompting the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to appeal to then-President Joe Biden for federal assistance and warn that some actions surrounding the protests “could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Some of the internal messages detailed in the Justice Department’s report released Monday had been disclosed previously and reported on by Fox News Digital. In one message sent before Garland’s memo went public on Oct. 4, 2021, a deputy assistant attorney general said the operation — and proposals to link it to the DOJ’s election crimes work — looked so politically motivated that Garland “might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force.” The DOJ’s Public Integrity Section chief, meanwhile, called the proposal “stupid.”

An FBI counterterrorism official later raised concerns about the label “domestic terrorist” potentially being applied to everyone who “oppose school board actions,” while a DOJ Civil Rights Division attorney noted that much of the activity in question could be protected under the parents’ First Amendment rights.

DOJ LAWSUIT TARGETS ALLEGED SCHOOL ‘SECRET GENDER TRANSITIONS’ POLICIES THAT KEEP PARENTS IN THE DARK

Multiple DOJ officials noted that the problem at hand appeared to fall primarily within the jurisdiction of state and local authorities and questioned whether there was a sufficient federal basis to intervene, according to the report.

Internal dissent over the effort continued as the memo was implemented following its Oct. 4, 2021, release and during the resulting fallout.

On Oct. 5, 2021, an FBI lawyer claimed that the DOJ issued the press release accompanying the memo without coordinating with the bureau. The Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, the agency’s largest operational division, stated that “we were all caught off guard by this announcement,” which was “unilaterally pushed by DOJ.”

As the DOJ began assembling its task force, objections persisted.

BLISTERING REPORT EXPOSES HOW NATIONAL K-12 GROUP’S DEI AGENDA IS TRICKLING DOWN TO LOCAL SCHOOLS

The Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ’s National Security Division stated that he didn’t “see the need for a task force like this” and that the Justice Department doesn’t “start a narrowly focused task force every time some group believes they are the subject of threat.”

Later that month, the Department of Homeland Security circulated a brief linking the threat level facing educational workers as tied to heightened opposition to masks, vaccines and critical race theory. An FBI counterterrorism official slammed the threat assessment guidelines as a “politically charged paper,” expressing his desire that the FBI not collaborate.

NSBA ultimately apologized for the language used in its letter to then-President Joe Biden seeking federal assistance, including action by the Justice Department and FBI.

“The obligation of the Justice Department is to protect the American people against violence and threats of violence and that particularly includes public officials,” he said of the memo.

Some school board officials did receive online and written threats in 2021, a fact supporters of Garland’s approach cited in defending the Justice Department’s response.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Arnold & Porter, the law firm where Garland now serves as a partner, did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Monday.

A source in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s political orbit tells Fox News Digital that the Republican Senate nominee in Texas appears frustrated with a lack of control over his campaign as he faces off against Democratic nominee state Rep. James Talarico in a combustible Senate battle.

The source spoke on Monday after Politico reported on an audio recording from late last month where Paxton said, “I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it’s all coming — you know — from D.C.”

The faceoff in red-leaning Texas between Paxton and Talarico is a race to succeed longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who Paxton defeated in a bruising primary fight. The contest is one of roughly a dozen that will determine if the GOP holds onto its Senate majority in the midterm elections.

“I don’t control message or what we’re doing… I don’t have ability to change anything,” Paxton added on the audio recording. “So I have to live with whatever I’ve got. So it is a challenge.”

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLL IN TEXAS SHOWS

Paxton made the comments, according to the report, during a Sept. 24 lunch in the nation’s capital hosted by a D.C.-based lobbying firm. Politico reported it obtained the recording from a person attending the lunch who does not support Paxton.

“Campaigns don’t coordinate with super PACS and that’s obviously what AG Paxton was referring to,” Paxton campaign adviser Nick Maddux told Fox News Digital in a statement.

Super PACs and other outside groups are legally prohibited from directly coordinating with candidates and campaigns over spending and other expenditures.

Maddux added, “AG Paxton is thankful for the support and knows how important Texas is to keeping the majority, which is why he’s on the ground every day talking to Texas, raising money, and taking his message directly to the people including with his statewide television buy that started over this past weekend.”

WHO’S UP AND WHO’S DOWN IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS MIDTERM POWER RANKINGS

Paxton’s frustration at the lunch appeared to extend beyond his lack of control over outside spending. In a separate recording from the same gathering obtained by The New York Times, Paxton suggested last month’s GOP midterm convention in Dallas had hurt Republican candidates’ polling.

“Dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good,” Paxton said.

Maddux described the reporting as “manipulated nonsense.”

As he campaigned against Cornyn in the March primary and a May runoff, Paxton characterized the senator as a “Washington insider” and a “RINO” — which stands for “Republican in name only.” And Paxton, known as a MAGA firebrand, showcased his outsider credentials and support for President Donald Trump. The president made an 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton ahead of the runoff.

Paxton, meanwhile, repeatedly criticized Cornyn for being bankrolled by the D.C. Republican establishment.

“I think John spent $100 million. What a waste of money. That money should have been going to Republicans in other states, not fighting another Republican,” Paxton told Fox News Digital in Waco, Texas, on the eve of the March primary.

Groups aligned with Cornyn vastly outspent pro-Paxton groups during the primary campaign to run spots highlighting the Texas attorney general’s political baggage.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Paxton has faced a slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered him over the past decade, including a 2023 vote by the Texas House of Representatives to impeach him. Paxton was eventually acquitted of all charges by the state Senate. Paxton is also currently dealing with a contentious divorce, with his wife citing “biblical grounds” based on “recent discoveries” as she filed last year to end their marriage.

Cornyn, who was supported by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, regularly argued that if Paxton won the nomination, the party would be forced to spend millions of dollars to keep the seat from flipping and that Republicans down-ballot would suffer.

Now, many of those groups that targeted Paxton during the primary are spending big bucks to try and save the Senate seat. A projection from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact estimates that up to $850 million will be spent in the race.

“The same people who tore him down earlier this year are now trying to rebuild him,” the Paxton source told Fox News Digital.

The source added that Paxton “genuinely doesn’t like the DC people.”

The latest Fox News poll in the race, conducted Sept. 24-28, showed Talarico with a slight 51%-49% edge over Paxton.

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

And the race in Texas, along with Senate showdowns in Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Iowa, and Alaska, is rated a toss-up in the most recent Fox News Power Rankings.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The Paxton source said that the candidate appears to be in uncharted territory.

Pointing to Paxton’s ballot box victories as a state lawmaker and his 2014 election and 2018 and 2022 re-elections as state attorney general, the source said, “I don’t think he’s ever been in a campaign situation where he’s been the underdog.”

A Colorado resident was charged with trying to steal hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars by billing the state’s Medicaid program for transporting a patient to doctor’s appointments — rides that would have taken place after that person had already died.

A new report by the House Energy and Commerce Committee revealed that taxpayer-funded healthcare programs, specifically Medicare and Medicaid, are rife with vulnerabilities that allow them to be exploited on the local, state and federal levels.

“Medicare and Medicaid fraud occurs nationwide and costs American taxpayers billions of dollars a year. Fraud is prevalent in all sectors of health care and is especially egregious in taxpayer-funded health care programs that are intended to serve vulnerable populations, including the elderly, disabled, children, and pregnant women,” the report said. “Patients are suffering from identity theft, long waiting lists, substandard health care, and, in some cases, a lack of health care services due to fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid.”

Fox News Digital highlighted some of the most egregious examples below.

BOMBSHELL REPORT EXPOSES HEALTHCARE FRAUD SCHEMES AS TAXPAYERS LOSE UP TO $521 BILLION ANNUALLY

Hundreds of thousands billed for a dead patient

Wesam Yassin was one of two providers of non-emergency medical transportation, a Medicaid benefit for helping patients get to doctor’s appointments, charged by state and local prosecutors for fraudulent billing in Colorado in February 2026.

Yassin is accused of charging Colorado Medicaid a total of $3.3 million in questionable bills under a company called Sama Limo, according to the report. Yassin is accused of charging $283,000 for 64 rides for one person, coming out to over $4,000 per ride.

Roughly $165,000 of those charges came after the patient in question had already died, the report said.

“Proceeds from this scheme were allegedly used for personal gain, including the purchase of a home, furnishings, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and cosmetic surgery,” a federal release announcing the charges said.

It also pointed to charges against Ashley Marie Stevens, who is accused of trying to bilk the state for over $1 million in taxpayer dollars. She is accused of billing the state some $400,000 for non-medical rides for herself and her family in addition to “ghost rides,” which never even took place.

VANCE-LED TASK FORCE CUTS OFF $1.4B FROM HOME HEALTH, HOSPICE PROVIDERS SUSPECTED OF FRAUD

“Fraudulent” hospice practices in Los Angeles County

The report also accused the hospice industry in California of raising suspicions of fraud.

“Investigators observed nearly 500 hospices operating in a three-mile radius in L.A. County, 137 hospices operating on Van Nuys Boulevard alone, and 89 companies registered to a single address in Van Nuys,” the report said.

TRUMP ADMIN’S FRAUD CRACKDOWN TARGETS FOREIGNERS ACCUSED OF INFILTRATING US FEDERAL PROGRAMS

The document also noted that House lawmakers raised concerns with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that an increase in home health and hospice providers raised red flags about possible healthcare fraud tied to foreign criminal groups earlier this year.

“The Committees were concerned about data from a March 2022 California State Auditor’s Report and HHS hospice ownership data, showing that L.A. County had more than 31 percent of the hospice agencies in the U.S. in 2022,” the report said.

DOJ CHARGES 10 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DEFENDANTS IN LARGEST FEDERAL HEALTHCARE FRAUD CRACKDOWN IN US HISTORY

The California Department of Public Health had placed a freeze on new hospice licenses in January 2022. Despite that, however, the report found that 15 new hospices — located in a single Los Angeles County building — still got Medicare certification in 2023.

U.S. taxpayer dollars ending up in foreign criminals’ hands

House Republicans are worried that potential hospice fraud is not the only area being targeted by international criminal groups.

The report highlighted allegations from 2024 in which “years-long, large-scale” schemes targeted as much as $3 billion in American taxpayer dollars via fake bills for urinary catheters.

Members of Russian organized crime groups bought 30 small medical supply companies already receiving federal dollars, and billed the Medicare system nearly $11 billion for urinary catheters, the report said. More than 99% of those funds never went out the door, however.

Similar medical equipment fraud schemes ensnared bad actors in Estonia, Pakistan, Georgia and Hong Kong.

Autism fraud in Minnesota

Allegations of fraud in Minnesota’s social programs have been well documented and the subject of numerous state and federal probes.

One particular incident highlighted in the report involves a man named Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, who pleaded guilty to trying to defraud $6 million from a Minnesota autism therapy program paid for by state Medicaid dollars.

He and his co-defendants are accused of hiring unqualified people as behavior counselors and getting children to enroll by bribing their parents, the report said.

Yussuf admitted during his plea hearing that he did not actually know anyone with autism, the report said.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie told Fox News Digital that “combating fraud is a coast-to-coast battle.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“Every instance of fraud we uncover represents money stolen from taxpayers and care taken away from the patients who depend on it most,” Guthrie said.

The Supreme Court opens its new term Monday with cases that could reshape religious liberty, gun rights, immigration and the balance between state and federal authority.

While the last term was dominated by major cases testing presidential power — including Trump’s authority to restrict birthright citizenship, impose tariffs and fire independent agency officials — many of the court’s marquee cases this term span a wide range of issues, including federalism and individual rights.

“There’s a couple of religious freedom cases,” Carrie Severino, president of JCN, told Fox News Digital. “We have a couple cases that touch on state and federal preemption, but I’m not sure there’s an easy theme for all of them.”

The blockbuster case this term is Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, and it centers on whether Colorado officials can use state tort law to seek damages from oil giants Suncor and ExxonMobil for climate-related harms, or whether federal law blocks those claims.

SUPREME COURT CLIMATE SHOWDOWN JOLTED BY ALITO’S LAST-MINUTE DECISION

“If Colorado actually succeeds on its nuisance claims and others against these companies, the upshot would not just be these companies changing what they do in a way to protect Colorado or remedy Colorado, but rather it would affect their operations far outside of the state,” Adam White, senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute shared during a Federalist Society Panel. “And the question is, can Colorado courts reach outside of their own state and try in effect to regulate?”

Suncor and ExxonMobil argue that the Clean Air Act gives the federal government authority over interstate and international emissions, leaving Colorado unable to hold them liable for conduct outside the state. But the state argues that it is seeking damages under state law and that the Clean Air Act preserves states’ authority to enforce their own laws.

The Supreme Court will decide whether federal law blocks Boulder’s climate lawsuit and whether the justices can hear the case.

Severino said the case is an effort by “climate lawfare activists” to regulate carbon emissions.

“If the court is viewing this as an effort to weaponize one jurisdictions law to really regulate outside its borders, then I think they’re going to be not very happy about this claim,” Severino said. “If the Court really views it as an attempt by Colorado to legislate worldwide actions of these energy companies, then I think they’re going to say this is actually something that fits within the federal government’s sphere of activity, not a single state.”

The case marks the first oral arguments heard before the high court.

An Arizona election integrity measure is at the center of another Supreme Court case testing the balance of power between states and the federal government over how elections are run.

THESE 11 UPCOMING SUPREME COURT DECISIONS COULD MAKE OR BREAK TRUMP’S SECOND TERM AGENDA

Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota stems from an Arizona law requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for certain voter registrations. Voters who register without that documentation may qualify as “federal-only” voters, allowing them to vote in federal elections but not state and local races. The law also allows the state to purge noncitizens off voter rolls close to an election. The dispute centers on whether the National Voter Registration Act prevents Arizona from imposing additional requirements on voters.

The Supreme Court will also hear major cases involving gun rights and religious liberty and will determine how far states can go in limiting those freedoms.

Colorado is up to bat twice before the Supreme Court this term, with St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy testing whether the state can exclude Catholic preschools from its universal preschool program because of religious policies barring same-sex couples and LGBT students from attending the schools, which conflicts with the state’s nondiscrimination requirements.

Colorado provides funding to private preschools that participate in the program but requires them to follow state anti-discrimination rules covering sexual orientation and gender identity. The Catholic schools argue those rules clash with their religious beliefs and that they should not have to abandon their policies to receive the same funding available to other private schools.

“They don’t agree with the state on things like allowing children to use the opposite sex bathroom if they identify with the opposite sex, So this is something the Supreme Court has been very favorable to religious organizations of and for not allowing states to just cut them out of otherwise generally applicable state benefit programs,” Severino said.

EXCLUSIVE: SUPREME COURT PRAYER GROTTO CASE COULD IMPACT ‘EVERY SINGLE ZONING LAW’ IN AMERICA, ATTORNEY SAYS

But Amanda Shanor, an attorney who helped represent the gay couple who were denied a wedding cake before the Supreme Court, said during a Federalist Society Panel there is concern that the case could chip away at anti-discrimination protections by expanding when businesses and institutions can refuse to serve people based on their identity.

“The schools are not saying, like in the earlier cases — like Masterpiece Cake Shop or 303 Creative — that they want to not serve somebody because of the expression that it would express with regard to a particular event, but instead that they don’t want to have the kids or the families because of the status of the kids or the families,” Shanor said. “And will that then go spread over into other things, like will the bakery be able to say, ‘I don’t want to serve all X type of people?’”

Illinois and Connecticut have cases, with state laws restricting certain semiautomatic firearms facing challenges at the Supreme Court.

“This is important because the Supreme Court, for the first time following its landmark Bruin decision is going to be looking at how states or municipalities can limit particular types of weapons,” Severino said. “What the court said it’s going to look at is whether these are weapons that are in common use and have lawful purposes, and so this is the court’s opportunity to look at things like the popular AR-15 type rifle and decide is this something that qualifies as something that’s in common-use and therefore is protected by the Second Amendment.”

And while presidential power may not be a major theme this term, the Supreme Court will still weigh the limits of the Trump administration’s authority in a case involving its push to deport illegal immigrants to third-world countries they are not from, and that are not listed in their removal orders.

The case is not a direct test of presidential power, but instead centers on whether federal immigration law gives the administration the authority to carry out the policy.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear more than two dozen cases and still could pick up more.

Senators on Capitol Hill were split on Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ warning that artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to “a billion deaths” amid growing controversy over the technology’s direction and rapid growth.

Gates is one of several industry giants who have sounded the alarm on AI’s advancements, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. President Donald Trump has pushed back on calls to slow down AI development, arguing a rollback could give an advantage to competitors in the AI race like China.

Gates made the claim on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week when he was asked whether AI could wipe out humanity — as some in the industry have warned is a possibility that could happen within a decade.

GOP LAWMAKERS SMELL SOMETHING ELSE BEHIND BIG TECH’S AI DOOMSDAY WARNINGS: ‘SOMETHING ELSE GOING ON’

“I think that’s incredibly irresponsible,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas told Fox News Digital.

“That’s not as dire as some of the AI officials who have suggested that there was a 10 percent chance of wiping out all of humanity,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine said. “This is something we have to take very seriously.”

“What worries me about that prediction is that the Republicans who are in control of the House and the Senate say ‘everybody go home and let AI do whatever they want to do,’” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said.

Cornyn claimed that Gates’ warning risks fueling calls for regulations that could ultimately benefit the biggest players in the AI industry while crowding out smaller competitors.

“I mean, he’s fear-mongering,” Cornyn said. “And I worry that it’s in pursuit of what’s sometimes called regulatory capture, that the government and the public will demand regulation while a handful of prime AI companies are in control and crowd out any competitors.”

WATCH: AI SAFETY SCARE SPARKS CAP HILL FIGHT OVER GUARDRAILS: ‘CHINA’S GOING TO EAT OUR LUNCH’

King, however, argued the competition between tech companies gives reason why the government should implement safeguards.

“The president seems to think, well, industry will regulate itself. The government shouldn’t be involved,” King said. “The problem with that is that these companies are engaged in an intense competition.”

He claimed that companies could then be reluctant to voluntarily slow development or impose their own safeguards if doing so risks allowing competitors to pull ahead in the industry.

“They’re gonna be forced to make a decision: Should we slow down and put in our own safeguards?” King explained. “But if we do, our competitor across the street won’t and [will] get ahead of us, or China will get ahead of us.”

Republican senators also warned about another concern surrounding the rapid development of AI: Could China pull ahead?

BEYOND KILLER ROBOTS: CHINA’S REAL AI THREAT TO AMERICA IS ALREADY HERE, EXPERTS WARN

“Look, I think we need to use common sense,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said. “So we want to develop it. Obviously, we need to stay ahead of adversaries like China, but we need to do it safely. “

“I think the administration is generally on the right track in not trying to put a heavy hand on this technology, which is going to be fundamental to our economy and our national security,” Cornyn said.

The conversations around AI ramped up this month, shortly before both the House and Senate went on recess leading up to the midterm elections. Many Democrats called for Congress to stay in session to address the concerns around AI and work to get legislation that enacts safeguards.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“We have a responsibility, but not the Republicans,” Warren said. “They say ‘send everybody home,’ because Donald Trump doesn’t want to do anything about AI.”

Southern Baptist Convention President and Pastor Willy Rice called on pastors across the country to “step up” into the political process as midterm elections near.

While some Christian leaders advise against wading into politics from the pulpit, Rice argues pastors have long played a key role in American politics.

Members of the theological and political left have shown no hesitance to mix religion with their politics and evangelicals should not either, he says.

DETROIT PASTOR SAYS PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES ARE TRYING TO ‘VIRTUE-SIGNAL’ TO CHRISTIAN VOTERS

“Should pastors engage in the political process? They absolutely should. Because there are many political issues that are, at their heart, theological issues and moral issues that strike at the very center of what we believe to be true and what we believe people need to know in order to flourish personally and as a culture.”

“I think the pastors need to step up. I think throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history,” Rice said.

‘JESUS WAS A RADICAL’: PROGRESSIVES INVOKE CHRIST TO SELL LEFT-WING AGENDA ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Rice lamented that many Christians have been encouraged in recent decades, from both external and internal forces, to “be more quiet” and “withdraw from the political process.”

“Now, the interesting thing is that those on the theological and political left did not [withdraw], and they had no intention of doing so. And in fact, statistics show that people on the political and theological left are actually more politically engaged than those on the right,” Rice said. “So what you had was, for a period of time, I felt like you had an almost a vacuum that kind of developed, a silence that was there with a lack of Christian leaders leaning in.”

PRO-LIFE GROUP RAMPS UP NC GROUND GAME AS REPORT FINDS FED ABORTION MESSAGE GIVES GOP CANDIDATE BIGGEST BOOST

Rice highlighted abortion, the definition of marriage, gender identity and immigration as issues where Christians should feel compelled to vote in a certain way.

“These issues are deeply, profoundly theological issues. They go back to the creation; they go back to Genesis 1 and 2. They go back to our understanding of what it means to be a human being, and our understanding of what God’s creative purpose is for us as human beings,” he said.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FORCED A FALSE CHOICE ON AMERICANS ABOUT IMMIGRATION

Rice argued that Christians also face “manipulative” arguments when it comes to immigration. He admits that the immigration issue does present a “challenge” for Christians but argues there is nothing wrong with enforcing America’s laws.

“There is a value of compassion, a value of wanting to care for the least of these people who are poor and oppressed and wanting to help,” Rice said, noting that Christians do more of that charity than any other group in the U.S.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT COMPARES TRUMP MIGRANT DETENTION POLICY TO JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT

“But there is also the importance of the rule of law,” he continued. “The protection of people who are in this country. And what you’ve had is sometimes a very cynical use by some people in power of trying to manipulate Christians by saying, since you must demonstrate compassion, therefore you must embrace open immigration, or you must not insist on the enforcement of the immigration laws.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“That is very, very manipulative. No one would say that because you love people or care for people, you should leave the doors of your house unlocked, or you should open up the jail cells in your own community,” he said.

The FlyDubai stabbing is contributing to concerns that Iran could increase covert and deniable attacks as the conflict with the United States and Israel drags on.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, meanwhile, said there are “strong indications” Iran played a role in a suspected terror plot near RAF Fairford, the British air base used by U.S. forces during operations against Iran. Counterterrorism police have since arrested a dual U.K.-Iranian national on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

The two suspected attacks are raising questions over whether Iran’s war strategy is shifting, but experts caution not to treat the incidents as equally indicative of Iranian involvement — or evidence yet that Tehran has changed its tactics.

FLYDUBAI PILOT SHOWED WORLD ‘THE HIGHEST FORM OF COURAGE,’ INDIA’S PM SAYS

President Donald Trump said early information he has received points to a possible Iranian connection to the attack aboard an Israel-bound FlyDubai flight, where a co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain and attempted to crash the aircraft with more than 180 people aboard.

The United Arab Emirates and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have described the FlyDubai incident as terrorism, but UAE authorities have not publicly attributed the attack to Iran. Neither investigation has publicly established that the Iranian government directed the attacks, and Iran has denied involvement in the Fairford case.

Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Fairford case fits more closely with Iran’s recent use of hired operatives and other intermediaries.

“The attack on the airbase in the United Kingdom does fit more recent patterns,” Byman told Fox News Digital, while stressing how much remains unknown about the investigation.

RUBIO CONFIRMS ‘FOREIGN ACTOR’ INVOLVED IN UK TERROR PLOT

The FlyDubai attack would be a more significant departure.

“That is quite different, and that is something that Iran in the past, at least we haven’t seen Iran do,” Byman said. “It is plausible to me that Iran is involved, but that seems like much more of a stretch based on Iran’s traditional way of operating.”

But the uncertainty surrounding the attacks also illustrates part of the appeal of the broader strategy Iran has spent decades developing: using proxies, covert operatives, criminal networks and other intermediaries to threaten adversaries far beyond its borders while making Tehran’s own role more difficult to establish.

Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury and FBI counterterrorism official who now directs the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute, said Iran has increasingly sought to put more distance between itself and the people carrying out overseas operations.

“Typically Iran does not admit that it’s involved in these types of attacks because it wants reasonable deniability,” Levitt said.

“There are several advantages for Iran to using terrorism,” Byman said. “One is that there is often a degree of deniability.”

“Terrorism gives Iran a lot more reach,” he added. Levitt, however, put the distinction with conventional warfare more bluntly.

“If Iran shoots a drone or a missile at you, you know where it came from and you know where to shoot back,” he said. “But if Iran uses proxies, and recruits people and does things in a covert manner, it might not be so easy to point a finger back at Iran or to know exactly who did it.”

That capability matters in part because Iran does not have the conventional military strength to match the United States and its allies directly, Levitt said.

“They just don’t have the capability to fight soldier to soldier, airplane to airplane in an all-out kinetic war, but they’re extremely effective at asymmetric warfare, at covert terrorist activity, if that’s what this proves to be,” he said.

UK AIRBASE TERROR SUSPECTS BEING RELEASED ON BAIL AS IRAN DENIES CONNECTION

Recent U.S. prosecutions have shown how far that playbook can extend. Federal cases have accused Iranian operatives of seeking to recruit hitmen to kill U.S. officials and using Eastern European organized crime figures in a murder-for-hire plot targeting Iranian-American journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad in New York.

Those operations relied on the same basic advantage: Tehran could pursue targets overseas without launching a conventional attack that immediately identified Iran as the aggressor.

The question now is whether the current conflict gives Iran reason to push that strategy further.

Levitt said Tehran could pursue overseas plots in an effort to pressure Western governments to end the conflict by demonstrating that Iran can impose costs far beyond the conventional battlefield.

And if Fairford and FlyDubai are ultimately tied to Tehran, he said, they would stand out because they involve harder targets and potentially more ambitious tactics than the assassinations, kidnappings, shootings and smaller-scale bombings Iran has more commonly pursued overseas.

“Perhaps this is the new normal, and Iran wants to demonstrate that it can exact a higher cost,” Levitt said.

Byman, however, pointed to several reasons Tehran could exercise restraint.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Iran already has other ways to pressure Washington and its allies, while a terrorist attack against Americans could backfire by uniting U.S. public opinion behind further escalation against Tehran, he said. U.S. and Israeli strikes against senior Iranian intelligence and security officials may also have disrupted some of the networks Tehran would need for overseas operations.

“If Iran wants to go further, then terrorism does become more of an option,” Byman said.