DC court appears to be prepping for Trump jury selection, as residents reportedly get ‘suspicious’ notice
Residents in Washington, D.C. have begun receiving notices to appear for a jury screening process for what appears to be former President Donald Trump’s election interference trial, according to NBC News. At least one DC resident shared photos with the outlet showing a notice to appear for a “pre-screening” questionnaire on February 9. The photos went on to indicate that the jury was for a trial on March 4. While the notification does not name the trial, both of those dates line up with the schedule for Trump’s court case. “The date’s public and the length is suspicious,” the individual who received the notice told NBC. “You can easily infer what it’s regarding.” Trump’s election interference case is one of four indictments currently leveled against him. The former president is already combating civil fraud allegations in New York, but he also faces accusations of mishandling classified documents in Florida and another election interference case in Georgia, in addition to the one in DC. BIDEN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SAYS TRUMP CAN BE SUED BY POLICE, DEMOCRATS OVER JAN. 6 RIOT Trump has pleaded not guilty in relation to all the charges. A federal appeals court also ruled late last week that Trump is not immune to facing civil lawsuits relating to the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. APPEALS COURT REINSTATES GAG ORDER IN TRUMP FRAUD CASE Capitol Police officers and members of Congress who were at the U.S. Capitol that day have submitted cases seeking civil damages “for harms they allege they suffered arising from the riot,” with the sole defendant in the lawsuits being Trump. Meanwhile in New York, Trump has accused both NY Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron of political bias in his fraud case. His rhetoric lead to the imposition of a gag order relating to court staffers. “They are defending the Worst and Least Respected Attorney General in the United States, Letitia James, who is a Worldwide disgrace, as is her illegal Witch Hunt against me. The Radical and Unprecedented actions of Judge Engoron will keep BUSINESSES and JOBS forever out of New York State,” Trump wrote in a recent social media post.
North Carolina Sen. Krawiec and Rep. Gill will not seek reelection in 2024
North Carolina state Sen. Joyce Krawiec, who has successfully pushed to overhaul Medicaid, streamline health care access and further restrict abortion while in the General Assembly, announced on Monday that she won’t seek reelection next year. Krawiec, a Forsyth County Republican, made the announcement just before candidate filing for the 2024 elections began at noon. DEMOCRATIC NC LAWMAKER FOREGOES RE-ELECTION, BUT CONSIDERS STATEWIDE OFFICE She quickly endorsed Dana Caudill Jones, a recent Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education member as her successor in the 31st Senate District, which cover all of Stokes County and part of Forsyth. Krawiec, who also had a significant role in passing a 2018 law that implemented a voter ID mandate, said she will serve out the remainder of her term through the end of 2024. NORTH CAROLINA JUDGES BLOCK LEGISLATURE’S BID TO TAKE POWER OVER ELECTIONS BOARD APPOINTMENTS Krawiec “is a conservative stalwart and has been a guiding force in the Senate,” Senate leader Phil Berger was quoted as saying in Krawiec’s news release. “Her influence can be felt throughout our caucus as a skilled legislator, trusted mentor, and well-respected colleague.” Once the vice chairwoman of the state Republican Party, Krawiec served briefly in the House in 2012, then joined in the Senate in 2014 to fill the seat previously held by Sen. Pete Brunstetter. She currently helps lead Senate health care and pensions committees. Krawiec was involved in legislation that moved Medicaid from a fee-for-service system to a managed-care system where statewide and regional health plans received monthly payments for each patient they enrolled and treated. Over the years, she also fought for additional abortion restrictions and for easing state regulations on health care entities that wish to construct building or purchase new equipment. Those certificate of need rules were incorporated into this year’s law expanding Medicaid coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income adults. GOP SET TO GAIN 3 US HOUSE SEATS UNDER MAP ADVANCED IN NC SENATE Also Monday, Democratic state Rep. Rosa Gill of Wake County said she won’t run for reelection. A former teacher and Wake County school board member, Gill filled a House vacancy in 2009 and has been reelected ever since, focusing on education matters. “I’ve served long enough,” Gill told WUNC-FM.
NC faces federal lawsuit over alleged racial bias in newly drawn congressional maps
North Carolina Black and Latino voters sued in federal court on Monday seeking to strike down congressional districts drawn this fall by Republican state legislators that they argue weaken minority voting power in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in central North Carolina challenges four districts where the plaintiffs contend GOP leaders in charge of the General Assembly moved around groups of voters and minimized the voting strength of minorities, thereby strengthening “the state’s white majority.” They also want a new map adopted. GOP SET TO GAIN 3 US HOUSE SEATS UNDER MAP ADVANCED IN NC SENATE The map enacted in October puts Republicans in good shape to win at least 10 of the state’s 14 congressional seats next November. Under the iteration of the congressional map that had been drawn by state judges for the 2022 elections, Democrats and Republicans each won seven seats. The shift could help Republicans on Capitol Hill retain control of the U.S. House. “North Carolina’s minority populations have long suffered from voting discrimination and vote dilution and as a result have endured persistent disparities in political representation,” the lawsuit reads, adding that “the state’s newly enacted congressional redistricting plan exacerbates these issues.” NORTH CAROLINA REDISTRICTING RULING COULD BE BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS The lawsuit filed by 18 individuals challenging the 1st, 6th, 12th and 14th Congressional Districts as racial gerrymanders was filed the same day that candidate filing began for those seats and other positions on the ballot in 2024. The 1st District, covering many rural, northeastern districts, and the Charlotte-area 12th District are currently represented by Black Democrats. While the plaintiffs seek to prevent the state’s full congressional map from being used in elections, their filings don’t immediately seek a temporary restraining order preventing their use in 2024. Candidate filing ends Dec. 15 for the March 5 primaries. State House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican and one of several lawsuit defendants, said the lawsuit contains “baseless allegations” and is a “desperate attempt to throw chaos into North Carolina’s elections, on the first day of candidate filing no less. We are fully confident that these maps are going to be used in this election and every election this decade.” The lawsuit contends that minority voters were harmed by the new Greensboro-area 6th District because they were removed from the previous 6th District and distributed to surrounding districts, which appear to be heavily Republican. This weakened their voting strength, the lawsuit said. Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning is the current 6th District member. The new 6th District is now considered a GOP-leaning district. Republican mapmakers also unlawfully diluted the voting strength of minority voters in the 1st District by removing from the district reasonably compact minority communities in Pitt County, the lawsuit said. Democratic Rep. Don Davis is the current 1st District lawmaker. Looking at Charlotte and points west along the South Carolina border, the lawsuit alleges that Republican leaders removed minority voters out of the 14th District and into the adjoining 12th District so that the 14th was no longer a district where white voters could join up with minority voters to elect their preferred candidate. Meanwhile, the number of minority voters grows in the 12th, which is represented by Democratic Rep. Alma Adams of Charlotte. The current 14th District member, Mecklenburg County Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson, previously announced that he’s running for state attorney general. Moore, the House speaker, is now running for the 14th District seat. NC COURT ALLOWS REDISTRICTING MAP TO STAND IN WIN FOR REPUBLICANS AHEAD OF MIDTERMS Two years ago, the state Supreme Court suspended candidate filing for the 2022 elections while state lawsuits challenging congressional and legislative redistricting maps initially approved by the General Assembly in fall 2021 could be reviewed. The state’s justices struck down those maps, ruling in February 2022 that Republican lawmakers conducted unlawful partisan gerrymandering, and ordered new maps be drawn. But a new edition of the state Supreme Court with a majority of Republican justices essentially reversed that ruling in April, opening the door for GOP legislative leaders to adjust lines that favor again their party’s candidates. An earlier U.S. Supreme Court decision also prevents similar partisan gerrymandering claims in federal courts. These two rulings largely force the congressional map’s foes to challenge the map on claims of racial bias, which the plaintiffs say date from the Reconstruction era to the recent past. The latest congressional map “continues North Carolina’s long tradition of enacting redistricting plans that pack and crack minority voters into gerrymandered districts designed to minimize their voting strength,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers write.
Why we’re publishing never-reported details of the Uvalde school shooting before state investigators
Over a year after the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, the community still doesn’t know what went wrong. It’s a key reason we’re publishing findings based on a trove of raw materials investigators have yet to release.
“Someone tell me what to do”
Across the country, states require more training to prepare students and teachers for mass shootings than for those expected to protect them. The differences were clear in Uvalde, where children and officers waited on opposite sides of the door.
How exodus from Congress could shape 2024 election
Members of Congress are fleeing Capitol Hill at the end of next year, making for a 2024 election cycle with at least three dozen open seats. There are 36 lawmakers not running for reelection to Congress in 2024, including seven members of the Senate and 29 members of the House, according to data aggregator Ballotpedia. On the House side, the 29 who are either retiring or seeking another office include 20 Democrats and 9 Republicans. “Retirements can take many forms. Members seek another office or another career opportunity, or they simply get tired with the job after doing it for many years,” Derek T. Muller, professor of law at Notre Dame Law School, told Fox News Digital. WHY SEN TIM SCOTT ENDED HIS REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL BID “Partisan bickering can make the job more exhausting, and gridlock can make it seem that efforts are wasted. It’s hard to be away from one’s family so many weeks of the year. And many members of Congress are aging out. It’s no surprise to see high levels of turnover this cycle,” Muller said. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report projects five open House seats as possible Democrat pickup opportunities while none are listed for the GOP. THIS GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IS CURRENTLY HAVING A MOMENT A majority of House lawmakers who are leaving are departing safe red or blue districts. But the Republican Party has been forced to grapple with underwhelming back-to-back performances in 2022 and 2023 amid fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year. Most recently, Democrats in Virginia made blocking the GOP’s proposed 15-week abortion limit a cornerstone of November’s statehouse elections – and retained control. Meanwhile, the “partisan bickering” Muller referenced has reached historic highs in the 118th Congress. Less than three months ago, eight Republicans joined all House Democrats in a majority vote to oust the speaker of the House for the first time in U.S. history. It paralyzed Congress for three weeks as a GOP conference fraught with divisions sought a new speaker. However, Democrats are not facing a clean sweep in 2024 – their own intraparty divisions have been brought back to the surface in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. FINAL COUNTDOWN: TRUMP HOLDS COMMANDING LEAD WITH 50 DAYS TO GO UNTIL IOWA CAUCUSES Progressives have revolted against Democrats’ traditional pro-Israel stance, threatening to withhold support from candidates supporting Tel Aviv. That could make it harder for a moderate Democrat without an incumbency advantage to win a primary and, therefore, make it easier for a Republican candidate in a general election. A Fox News poll published Oct. 12 showed widespread disapproval for Congress across the parties, though Republicans fared slightly worse. GOP lawmakers’ approval rating is just 30%, seven points lower than Democrats. Their disapproval rating, 66%, is 6% higher than their liberal counterparts in Congress.
Dean Phillips says it will be ‘game on’ with Biden if he can pull off a ‘surprise’ showing in first primary
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Rep. Dean Phillips says he plans to “under promise” and “overdeliver” as he runs a long-shot primary challenge against President Biden for the Democratic nomination. Phillips, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, launched his campaign for the White House in late October. He’s focusing most of his time and resources on New Hampshire, where the president’s name won’t be on the ballot in the state’s unsanctioned Democratic primary on Jan. 23. “Do I have to win? No. Absolutely not. Do I think I’m going to? No, I don’t. I bet you’ve never heard that from a politician before,” Phillips answered when asked by Fox News Digital where he needed to finish in the New Hampshire primary to continue his presidential quest. Phillips acknowledged, “I’m a long shot, a dark horse, and that‘s fun. That’s fine. Because I feel what’s happening in the country and what’s happening right here.” PHILLIPS TARGETS BIDEN, FELLOW DEMOCRATS, OVER BORDER POLICIES AS HE LAUNCHES PRIMARY CHALLENGE AGAINST PRESIDENT “I think we will surprise and from there it’s game on,” he predicted as he was interviewed following a campaign event in this heavily Democratic city in New Hampshire’s Seacoast. Phillips, citing the 81-year-old president’s age, has repeatedly criticized Biden for “not passing the torch” to the next generation of Democratic leaders and urged that a serious primary contender challenge the president for the party’s 2024 nomination. Biden continues to suffer from underwater approval ratings among many Americans and faces concerns – not just from Republicans and independents but also from Democrats – over his physical and mental stamina. WHY DEAN PHILLIPS IS SCOLDING FELLOW DEMOCRATS When no other major Democrats considered running against Biden, the multimillionaire businessman and co-founder of a gelato company turned three-term House Democrat from Minnesota launched his own campaign. While the president is the commanding frontrunner for his party’s 2024 nomination, polls indicate that many Americans – including plenty of Democrats – don’t want the president to seek a second term in the White House. Those same surveys spotlight that voters are not thrilled with the likely prospect of a rematch between Biden and the candidate he defeated in 2020, former President Donald Trump. “The country’s being very clear right now. They do not want Joe Biden to be the president. And they don’t want Donald Trump to be the president,” Phillips emphasized as he addressed the crowd huddled to see him. “Whichever party breaks that logjam will win the White House, the Senate and the House.” And Phillips told Fox News that his mission is “to demonstrate that Americans are sick and tired of the nonsense. That we have a crisis that cannot be addressed by either Donald Trump or frankly, President Biden, and it’s time for change.” PHILLIPS APOLOGIZES FOR CRITICIZING VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS The president nearly a year ago proposed a nominating calendar for the 2024 election cycle that booted New Hampshire from its traditional lead-off primary position and replaced it with South Carolina, a much more diverse state where Black voters play an outsized role in Democratic politics. Biden came in a dismal fifth in the 2020 New Hampshire primary, but a few weeks later won South Carolina in a landslide. The victory boosted the former vice president toward the Democratic nomination and eventually the White House. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) earlier this year overwhelmingly approved the calendar change proposed by the president. But New Hampshire leapfrogged South Carolina to honor a longtime state law that mandates the state holds the first primary. With the state holding an unsanctioned Democratic contest, the president’s re-election campaign earlier this autumn announced that Biden wouldn’t file to place his name on the New Hampshire ballot. Top Democrats in New Hampshire launched a write-in campaign for Biden in order to prevent any electoral embarrassment in the state’s presidential primary. Support for the write-in effort was heavily on display Friday night at the state Democratic Party’s annual fundraising gala, which Phillips also attended. Speaker after speaker encouraged those attending the function, many who were wearing “write-in Joe Biden” stickers, to do just that. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who headlined the event, topped his speech by saying “there’s an important primary next month.” He then held up a pen to hammer home his point that voters should write in the president’s name on the ballot. Asked about the reception he received at the dinner, Phillips told Fox News, “I got a lot of cold shoulders.” And pointing to the move last week by the Florida Democratic Party to keep Phillips – as well as best-selling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, who is making her second straight White House run – off their presidential primary ballot, he charged, “What we’re seeing in Florida, what we’ve seen in the past from the GOP, is disenfranchising, it’s causing division and anger and I think risk to the country that we have to solve fast.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
IRS whistleblowers to testify behind closed doors amid Biden impeachment inquiry
The IRS whistleblowers who allege the federal investigation into Hunter Biden has been influenced by politics are testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee behind closed doors Tuesday. Gary Shapley, who led the IRS’ portion of the Hunter Biden probe, and Joseph Ziegler, a 13-year special agent within the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division, will sit for a closed-door hearing during the committee’s executive session Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. IRS OFFICIAL SAYS HE WAS FRUSTRATED DOJ DID NOT BRING CHARGES AGAINST HUNTER BIDEN FOR 2014, 2015 TAX YEARS The whistleblowers are set to discuss information “protected under Internal Revenue Code Section 6103,” according to the committee, meaning the information is related to confidentiality of tax returns. Shapley and Ziegler have alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the Hunter Biden investigation, which began in 2018. Shapley has said that decisions “at every stage” of the probe were made that “had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.” And Ziegler has said that Hunter Biden “should have been charged with a tax felony, and not only the tax misdemeanor charge” and that communications and text messages reviewed by investigators “may be a contradiction to what President Biden was saying about not being involved in Hunter’s overseas business dealings.” Ziegler also alleged that federal investigators “did not follow the ordinary process, slow-walked the investigation, and put in place unnecessary approvals and roadblocks from effectively and efficiently investigating the case,” including prosecutors blocking certain questioning and interviewing of Hunter Biden’s adult children. COMER, JORDAN DEMAND HUNTER BIDEN APPEAR FOR DEPOSITION, SAY HE WILL NOT RECEIVE ‘SPECIAL TREATMENT’ Shapley also said U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, who was leading the investigation, requested special counsel authority but was denied and said that he did not have “ultimate authority” in the probe to pursue charges against the president’s son. Weiss was tapped as special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August. Weiss, during his interview before the House Judiciary Committee last month, admitted he initially “wasn’t granted” special attorney authority in his Hunter Biden investigation by the Justice Department despite requesting that status, but he told investigators he did not interpret that decision as a “denial in any way, shape or form,” according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by Fox News Digital. The closed session at Ways and Means is set to take place a week before Assistant U.S. attorney Lesley Wolf is set to be deposed by the House Judiciary Committee after being subpoenaed last month. Her deposition, set for Dec. 14, comes after Shapley alleged Wolf sought to block investigators from asking questions related to President Biden throughout the years-long federal investigation into Hunter Biden. Specifically, Shapley alleged Wolf worked to “limit” questioning related to President Biden and apparent references to Biden as “dad” or “the big guy.” Wolf allegedly said there was “no specific criminality to that line of questioning” relating to President Biden, which Shapley said “upset the FBI.” COMER DEFENDS PRIVATE DEPOSITION OF HUNTER BIDEN, VOWS TO RELEASE TRANSCRIPT AND HOLD PUBLIC HEARING In October 2020, Wolf reviewed an affidavit for a search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and “agreed that probable cause had been achieved,” Shapley testified. However, Shapley said Wolf ultimately would not allow a physical search warrant on the president’s son. Shapley said Wolf determined there was “enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.” Wolf allegedly said that “optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant,” Shapley said, adding that Wolf agreed that “a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved.” Wolf also allegedly tipped off Hunter Biden’s legal team ahead of a planned search of his storage unit, Shapley said. MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATOR WARNED OF HUNTER BIDEN’S ‘UNUSUAL,’ ‘ERRATIC’ PAYMENTS FROM CHINA IN 2018 The whistleblowers’ testimony at Ways and Means and Wolf’s deposition at Judiciary comes as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., are leading the investigation as the House gathers evidence and considers whether to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden. The committees are investigating the alleged politicization of the federal probe into Hunter Biden. They are also investigating the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and whether the president was involved or benefited directly from those ventures. President Biden has repeatedly denied having any involvement in his son’s business dealings. Hunter Biden has been charged with making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty in October. Weiss’ investigation is ongoing. Hunter Biden was subpoenaed to appear for a deposition at the House Oversight Committee on Dec. 13.
Frontrunner Trump to join ‘Hannity’ for Iowa town hall with less than six weeks until caucuses
PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch the “Hannity” Town Hall with former President Trump on Fox News Channel at 9 p.m. ET. Donald Trump heads back to Iowa on Tuesday with just under six weeks to go until the state’s caucuses kick off the Republican presidential nominating calendar. The former president – the commanding frontrunner in the GOP nomination race as he makes his third straight White House run – returns to sit down with Fox News’ primetime opinion host Sean Hannity for a town hall in Davenport, Iowa. The town hall, which will be pre-taped in front of a live audience, will air at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News’ “Hannity.” Trump enjoys a very large double-digit lead in the most recent public opinion surveys in Iowa’s GOP caucuses over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who are fighting for second place in the Republican race in the Hawkeye State. DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL OF IOWA’S 99 COUNTIES, BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP? “President Trump is taking his message directly to the people, like he’s always done,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told Fox News. LaCivita touted, “That’s why he’s dominating in every single poll across the country.” GAME ON IN IOWA WITH THE CAUCUSES CLOSING IN Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments – including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss – have only fueled his support among Republican voters. “Bring as many people as you can to vote, and do the caucus like nobody’s ever done the caucus before,” Trump told a crowd of supporters at a caucus organizing event Saturday in Ankeny, Iowa. “And we’re going to win.” Trump is aiming for a big victory next month in the caucuses to bring the nomination race to an early conclusion, so he can focus on a rematch with President Biden, who defeated him in the 2020 election. “The more we win, they’re going to see that signal for the November election,” Trump said this past weekend. THIS CANDIDATE REMAINS IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT AS THE FIRST VOTES IN THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE NEAR As Trump made two stops Saturday in Iowa, his campaign began ramping up their ad buys in the state in the final weeks ahead of the caucuses. The former president didn’t have Iowa to himself this past weekend. DeSantis fulfilled his goal of stopping in all of Iowa’s 99 counties. At his stop Saturday in Jasper County, he was joined by popular Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who endorsed him in early November. Also teaming up with DeSantis was Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, an influential social conservative organization in a state where evangelical voters play an outsized role in Republican politics. Vander Plaats endorsed DeSantis the weekend ahead of Thanksgiving. DeSantis has repeatedly vowed he’ll pull off an upset by winning Iowa. DeSantis is hoping to follow in the footsteps of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (2008), former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (2012) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (2016), who stopped in all 99 counties en route to Iowa caucus victories. But none of those three won the GOP nomination. While Trump has hosted roughly 20 events in Iowa this year, the Florida governor has made around 130 stops, many of them hosted by the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down. Additionally, the super PAC has spent millions to put together a formidable ground game in Iowa. However, what once appeared to be a two-candidate fight for the nomination is now a three-way battle. Haley, who has enjoyed momentum in the polls in recent months, thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates, has leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and votes second in the Republican nominating schedule, and her home state, which holds the first southern contest. She aims to make a fight of it in Iowa, where she is pulling even with DeSantis in some of the latest polls. Last week, Haley landed the backing of Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the influential and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers. AFP Action has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars and mobilize its formidable grassroots operation to boost Haley and help push the Republican Party past Trump. “Trump’s already in the finals,” said longtime Republican consultant David Kochel, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns in Iowa. And he highlighted that DeSantis and Haley are “trying to construct some plausible path to get a one-on-one shot with Trump that everybody agrees is essential to any notion that he can be derailed from getting the nomination.” Seasoned Iowa-based Republican strategist and communicator Jimmy Centers cautioned that “everyone needs to be clear-eyed that former President Trump will win the Iowa caucus on Jan. 15.” “The question is whether Gov. DeSantis or Amb. Haley come in a strong enough second place finish where they put a sizable gap between themselves and whomever comes in third to be able to say to Republicans in New Hampshire and beyond that this is a two-person race,” he spotlighted. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Gold bars stashed in Dem senator’s home recovered after 2013 violent robbery
Several gold bars discovered by federal agents in Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s residence as part of a high-profile bribery investigation can be traced to a violent robbery a decade ago. According to a sprawling indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in September, Menendez and his wife allegedly played a role in a years-long bribery scheme that involved the Egyptian government and local businessmen including Fred Daibes, a wealthy New Jersey real estate developer. Prosecutors revealed they retrieved multiple gold bars from Menendez’s home which were allegedly used as payment in the scheme. At least four of the gold bars discovered by investigators can be linked to Daibes, both because of their unique engraved serial numbers and thanks to court documents related to a 2013 robbery which Daibes was a victim of, an NBC New York investigation revealed Monday. In November 2013, four assailants beat and robbed Daibes at gunpoint in his Edgewater, New Jersey, apartment, stealing 22 gold bars, jewelry and cash. “Each gold bar has its own serial number,” Daibes told local investigators in a 2014 transcript obtained by NBC New York. “They’re all stamped … you’ll never see two stamped the same way.” 5 EXPLOSIVE REVELATIONS FROM DEM SEN BOB MENENDEZ’S BOMBSHELL FEDERAL INDICTMENT Photographs released by the Department of Justice in September showing the gold bars discovered at Menendez’s home, for example, reveal one of the bars has a serial number of “590005.” Daibes reported a gold bar with that same serial number stolen during the 2013 heist, NBC New York reported. And the federal indictment notes that the serial numbers on the gold bars indicate they had previously been possessed by Daibes. MSNBC’S ALICIA MENENDEZ ADDRESSES FATHER’S INDICTMENT: COLLEAGUES HAVE ‘AGGRESSIVELY’ COVERED “A court-authorized search of the residence of Robert Menendez and Nadine Menendez, a/k/a ‘Nadine Arslanian,’ the defendants, revealed, among other things, approximately two one-kilogram gold bars and nine one-ounce gold bars that had serial numbers indicating they had previously been possessed by Fred Daibes, the defendant,” the indictment states. In addition, when Daibes reported the robbery to police in 2013, he said 22 gold bars had been taken. Similarly, the September indictment states that Daibes sold 22 gold bars to Wael Hana, another defendant allegedly implicated in the bribery scheme. Police ultimately arrested and charged four individuals for robbing Daibes in 2013, according to local media reports. Then, in September 2015, the suspects all ped guilty and were ultimately sentenced to several months in prison. Meanwhile, since the federal bribery indictment was unsealed earlier this year, Menendez has repeatedly asserted his innocence and remained in the Senate. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The allegations leveled against me are just that, allegations,” Menendez said Sept. 25. “For anyone who has known me throughout my 50 years of public service, they know I have always fought for what is right. My advocacy has always been grounded. And what I learned from growing up as the son of Cuban refugees, especially my mom, my hero, Evangelina Menendez. Everything I accomplished, I worked for despite the nay sayers and everyone who has underestimated me. “I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator,” he added. “The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system. We cannot set aside the presumption of innocence for political expediency when the harm is irrevocable.”