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Shadowy group propped up by Democrat money accused of ‘dirty tricks’ meddling against GOP in key races

A shadowy group has been recruiting unsuspecting candidates to act as potential spoilers in competitive House races in the latest attempt from far-left groups to tip Republican races. For the past year, a group known as the Patriots Run Project has recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans in races that will help determine which party controls the House next year, an Associated Press review found. In addition to two races in Iowa, the group recruited candidates in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. All six recruits described themselves as retired, disabled or both. The group’s operation provides few clues about its management, financing or motivation. But interviews, text messages, emails, business filings and other documents reviewed by the AP show that a significant sum has been spent — and some of it traces back to Democratic consulting firms. “At that time, I was thinking, ‘Well, it would be nice to be in Congress and get to work with President Trump,’” Joe Wiederien, 54, reflected in an interview outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Des Moines, where he was seeking treatment for a leaking incision on his head from previous brain surgery. “It looks like it’s a dirty trick now.” WISCONSIN KICKS OFF ELECTION SEASON WITH FIRST WIDELY AVAILABLE ABSENTEE BALLOTS A fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, Wiederien was registered as a Republican until months earlier. A debilitating stroke had left him unable to drive. He had never run for office. For a time, he couldn’t vote because of a felony conviction. But he arrived last month at the Iowa Capitol with well over the 1,726 petition signatures needed to qualify for the ballot as a conservative alternative to first-term Republican Rep. Zach Nunn. After filing the paperwork, he flashed a thumbs-up across the room at an operative he knew only as “Johnny.” Thomas Bowman, 71 and disabled after a kidney transplant, said he believes he likely was recruited to run against Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota to split the conservative vote and help Craig win reelection in the suburban Minneapolis district. But the self-described constitutional conservative expressed gratitude for free help getting signatures. TRUMP MAKES A BOLD PREDICTION ABOUT THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION “They got me on the ballot,” Bowman said. “If I had to do that all by myself, I couldn’t do it.” Patriots Run Project’s actions have resulted in an FEC complaint from the conservative group Americans for Public Trust, which alleges that Patriots Run Project’s “major purpose” was “influencing federal elections” and the organization thus violated campaign finance law by failing to register as a political committee. That would force the group to file reports that would likely reveal who is managing and financing the operation, as well as the motivation behind it. The only concrete identifying detail listed on the group’s website is a mailbox inside a UPS store in Washington, D.C. “It’s clear this shady scheme connected to Democrats is a threat to democracy, yet every single Democrat candidate benefiting from the plot refuses to condemn it,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital. “If they truly mean what they say, they can’t remain silent.” Patriots Run Project operated a series of pro-Trump pages and ran ads that used apocalyptic rhetoric to attack establishment politicians in both parties while urging conservatives to run in November. “We need American Patriots like YOU to stand for freedom with President Trump and take back control from the globalist elites by running for office,” one such ad states. Once recruited, they communicated with a handful of operatives through text messages, emails and phone calls. In-person contact was limited. Patriots Run Project advised them about what forms to fill out and how to file required paperwork. In at least three races, petition signatures to qualify for the ballot were circulated by a Nevada company that works closely with the Democratic consulting firm Sole Strategies, according to documents, including text messages and a draft contract, as well as the firm’s co-founder. In Iowa, a different Democratic firm conducted a poll testing attacks on Nunn, while presenting Wiederien as the true conservative. A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ campaign arm, said the organization had no knowledge of or involvement in the effort. House Majority PAC, the Democrats’ big spending congressional super PAC, was also not involved, a spokesman said. Democrats are no strangers to boosting extreme candidates. During the midterms, the Left funded ads for fringe Republican candidates, hoping they would be easier to defeat in a general election. Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Rich Edson contributed to this report.

Shock number: Trump has higher approval rating in deep blue state than its governor

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s favorability among likely New York voters has cratered, and former President Trump is viewed more favorably by voters in the historically blue state in a new poll. Siena College released a poll Thursday showing that just 34% of voters in the Empire State view Hochul favorably, with 54% viewing her poorly. When asked about their views on Trump, 39% of likely New York voters told pollsters they view the 45th president favorably, and 57% view him poorly, a figure slightly higher than voters’ assessment of Hochul.  ​​”It is also worth noting that Hochul’s favorability rating, 20 points underwater, is worse than Trump’s, 18 points underwater,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in the poll’s press release. “To repeat, Kathy Hochul has a lower net favorability rating in New York than Donald Trump.” The poll found that Hochul’s favorability rating dropped from last month’s findings of 39% favorability to 50% disapproval among voters.  FORMER AIDE TO NEW YORK GOV. HOCHUL, WHO IS ACCUSED OF BEING CHINESE SPY, WENT ON A TOUR OF THE WHITE HOUSE “While Hochul’s favorability rating has never been outstanding — she’s never been viewed favorably by 50% of voters in a state where 49% of the voters are Democrats — it has now hit an all-time low, 34-54%,” Greenberg said. “Her job approval rating, 39-56%, is also a record low.” Trump traveled to his home state Wednesday, where he joined thousands of supporters on Long Island at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. He vowed to the crowd he would “win New York” and “save” the longtime blue state.  FORMER AIDE TO DEMOCRATIC NY GOVERNOR ARRESTED IN FEDERAL CASE  “The reason I’m here,” Trump told the crowd, is because “we are going to win New York. “That’s the first time in many, many years that a Republican can honestly say it, and we’re going to do it.”  A Republican presidential candidate has not claimed victory in the Empire State since Ronald Reagan in 1984.  “We have to do it. We do it, and the election nationwide is over. We take over the White House, and we fix up our country,” he said.  HOUSE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV. HOCHUL ON ALLEGED CHINA COMMUNIST PARTY AGENT’S INFLUENCE IN NEW YORK  “I say to the people of New York: With crime at record levels, with terrorists and criminals pouring in and with inflation eating your hearts out, vote for Donald Trump. What the hell do you have to lose?” Trump told the crowd.  Trump has previously said he has a good shot at winning the traditionally liberal state, including in May as he faced trial in New York City on 34 counts of falsifying business records.  “I think we have a chance to win in New York. It hasn’t been done in, you know, many, many decades as a Republican,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” in May. “I think we have a very good chance.” Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, Trump has also campaigned on winning the Garden State, another historically blue jurisdiction.  “We’re going to win New Jersey,” Trump told a massive crowd this spring in Wildwood, sparking exuberant cheers from supporters.  The Siena survey found that, in New York, Vice President Kamala Harris still has a lead over Trump, though it appears to not be as “deep blue” compared to previous presidential elections. “New York remains solidly ‘blue’ but perhaps not as deep blue as it has been in the last several presidential cycles. In the six presidential elections this century, Democrats have carried New York by at least 18 points, and at least 22 points in five of the six. President Biden won here by 23 points in 2020,” Greenberg said. “With less than seven weeks till Election Day, Harris leads Trump head-to-head by 13 points, little changed from 14 points last month, and by 12 points in a multi-candidate race, unchanged from August.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Shutdown fears move House Republicans to protect military paychecks

FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans are moving to protect U.S. service members’ paychecks in the event of a partial government shutdown. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., is re-introducing her Pay Our Troops Act on Thursday, with support from at least 20 fellow House lawmakers – 16 Republicans and four Democrats. It comes a day after more than a dozen House GOP lawmakers helped defeat Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to avert a partial government shutdown by extending the current fiscal year’s funding levels through March, known as a continuing resolution (CR).  IN THE ONLY STATE BORDERING RUSSIA, ALASKA GOVERNOR SAYS ITS DEFENSES ARE ‘STRONG’ The Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-held Senate must come to some agreement on federal funding by Sept. 30 to avoid a shutdown weeks before Election Day. “It’s really important that we send that message to our military men and women, that they will receive a paycheck even with all the talk and uncertainty about funding the government,” Kiggans, herself a veteran, emphasized to Fox News Digital. Her previous iteration of the bill, which netted 118 co-sponsors, was introduced in late September 2023 – when Congress was similarly barreling toward a partial government shutdown with no agreement in sight until the 11th hour. FLASHBACK: ALASKAN F-35s PREPARE FOR MAJOR SUB-ZERO ARCTIC WARFARE Johnson’s bill would also have included the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which adds a proof of citizenship requirement to the voter registration process – a bill Democratic leaders have deemed a nonstarter. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for his plan, while 14 Republicans who were mainly opposed to a CR on principle helped defeat it. Johnson, R-La., however, has consistently vowed not to let the government shut down.  But Kiggans’ bill is a sign that Republicans are growing anxious about the possibility of federal programs stalling and potentially thousands of workers being furloughed. The legislation would extend pay for all service branches, including the Coast Guard, which Kiggans said had been left out of military funding protections in past shutdowns. COAST GUARD OFFERS UPDATE ON DEADLY TITAN SUBMERSIBLE IMPLOSION NEARLY ONE YEAR LATER “It also covers for some defense contractors and civilians that are also essential to military service,” she said. “It just provides that reassurance we don’t need our military families to be worried about [whether they are] going to get a paycheck or not.” Asked whether the Wednesday vote made her more nervous about the prospect of a shutdown, Kiggans said there was “a lot of uncertainty in this Congress.” “I am disappointed that we weren’t able to pass the funding bills in a timely manner. I think the American public would agree,” Kiggans said. She said she would have preferred spending some of the August recess working on the 12 appropriations bills that Congress must pass every year rather than scramble for more time with a CR. “Am I surprised it didn’t pass? Well it’s – I wish it was different, and we had passed it,” Kiggans said of Johnson’s conservative CR, which the speaker’s allies hoped would be a strong opening salvo in the House’s negotiations with the Senate. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “But we’ll have to continue to work, and hopefully we’ll get something passed soon,” Kiggans said. She said her office made Johnson aware that her bill was being prepared but cautioned the legislation would likely not be deployed for a House-wide vote unless a shutdown was imminent. “That’s my gut instinct, is that they probably will not bring it to the floor unless we are really faced with the reality of that,” Kiggans said.

Support for Taylor Swift’s get-out-the-vote effort drops sharply among particular voting bloc: poll

A new poll suggests that support is dropping among all Americans for Taylor Swift’s efforts to encourage her legions of fans to vote in the upcoming elections. Fifty-three percent of voters questioned in a Monmouth University national survey released on Thursday said they approved of Swift’s voter encouragement efforts – which she did last week in a social media post following the first and potentially only debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump. Swift, in her social media post, also endorsed Harris in the race to succeed President Biden in the White House. Support for the pop star’s voter participation efforts is down 15 points from 68% in a Monmouth survey conducted in February, when Swift was in the spotlight for a debunked conspiracy theory surrounding the presidential election and the Super Bowl. CLICK HERE FOR FOX NEWS’ LATEST REPORTING ON TAYLOR SWIFT A baseless conspiracy theory at the time suggested that Swift was involved in a covert government plot to help Biden win re-election.  Swift endorsed Biden in the 2020 presidential election and for years has encouraged her fans to vote.  TRUMP MAKES BOLD PREDICTION IN HIS 2024 SHOWDOWN WITH HARRIS The president suspended his re-election campaign following a disastrous debate performance in late June with Trump, and Harris replaced Biden two months ago atop the Democrats’ 2024 national ticket. The new poll indicates that while support for Swift’s voter participation efforts remains high among Democrats – 87% in the new survey, unchanged from February – support has, not surprisingly, plunged among Republicans from an already low 41% earlier this year to just 20% now. Support among independents dropped from 73% to 52%, according to the survey. “Republicans were wary of Swift all along. What we don’t know is whether this will have any effect on the part of her fan base who already leans right,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray highlighted in the poll’s release. More than 400,000 people clicked on the vote.gov website in the 24 hours after Swift’s endorsement of Harris in a post that also included a link to the voter registration website. What’s unclear is how many of those people will actually end up voting and whom they’ll support in the presidential election. Trump initially downplayed Swift’s endorsement of Harris in a “Fox and Friends” interview the morning after the debate.  But on Sunday, Trump turned up the temperature, writing “I hate Taylor Swift” in a social media post. The Monmouth University poll was conducted Sept. 11-15, with 803 registered voters nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. 

Trump’s former ICE chief turns the tables on Harris’ ‘border hawk’ narrative

FIRST ON FOX: The head of immigration enforcement under former President Trump is seeking to sound the alarm about Vice President Kamala Harris’ “open borders” policies and the truth about the crisis at the southern border — just as Harris is claiming she is the right candidate to tackle the border. Tom Homan, a Fox News contributor who previously served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under former President Trump, is preparing to engage in a series of virtual town halls with his nonprofit, Border911 Inc. He intends for the town halls to bring awareness to the facts about the consequences of the ongoing crisis at the southern border, including sex trafficking and the smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S. MEXICAN GOVERNMENT BUSES MIGRANTS TO US BORDER AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BECOMES TOP ELECTION ISSUE As part of that, Homan is challenging the narrative by Harris that she is tough on border security. A recent ad by Harris said that “fixing the border is tough, so is Kamala Harris.” Border911 Inc., which is led by experts on border and national security from both Republican and Democratic administrations, is releasing a video that instead points to past comments by Harris that it says conflict with that narrative.  They include her saying she was open to “starting from scratch” with ICE, decriminalizing illegal crossings, saying she supported “sanctuary” city laws and comparing ICE to the Ku Klux Klan as a senator. “Kamala Harris wants everyone to believe she’s some border hawk now. But going all the way back to her days as DA in San Francisco, her statements and policies make it clear where she stands,” Homan, who served under multiple administrations, told Fox News Digital. “The fact is, she’s an open borders radical and, along with Joe Biden, she’s personally responsible for the current crisis.” HARRIS SHIFTS POSITIONS ON BORDER, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS CAMPAIGN PROMISES ‘PRAGMATIC’ APPROACH Republicans and the Trump campaign have zeroed in on the border, including Harris’ role in tackling root causes of migration. They have linked the historic highs seen during the border crisis to the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, including the ending of Trump-era policies they see as having successfully brought the border under control. Conservatives have sought to paint Harris as a radical on illegal immigration, pointing to many of the same remarks featured in the video, just as the Harris campaign has sought to present her as the right candidate for border security. A Harris campaign adviser told Fox News last month that Harris’ positions have been “shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.” Her campaign said she believes illegal border crossings are illegal and supports “continuing to ensure sufficient resources to enforce our laws and prioritize detention and removal for individuals who pose threats to public safety and national security, as well as ensure compliance with immigration proceedings and decisions, including removal.” More broadly, it has pointed to her backing of the bipartisan Senate package that emerged from negotiations in the chamber earlier this year, which increases funding for the border, including ICE bed space and a mechanism to limit asylum entries into the U.S. Conservatives said that bill would only serve to codify high levels of illegal immigration. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS “The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention. He tanked the bipartisan border security deal because, for Donald Trump, this has never been about solutions, just running on a problem,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement.  “Like everything with Donald Trump, it’s never been about helping the country, it’s only about helping himself. There’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security, and that’s Vice President Harris,” he said. Homan, however, says he isn’t trying to tell voters who they should pick in November, just to present the facts. “We want to show the American people the truth so they can make their own decisions,” he told Fox News Digital.

Trump’s former ICE chief turns the tables on Harris’ ‘border hawk’ narrative

FIRST ON FOX: The head of immigration enforcement under former President Trump is seeking to sound the alarm about Kamala Harris’ “open borders” policies and the truth about the crisis at the southern border — just as Harris is claiming she is the right candidate to tackle the border. Tom Homan, a Fox News contributor who previously served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under former President Trump, is preparing to engage in a series of virtual town halls with his nonprofit, Border911 Inc. He intends for the town halls to bring awareness to the facts about the consequences of the ongoing crisis at the southern border, including sex trafficking and the smuggling of fentanyl into the United States. MEXICAN GOVERNMENT BUSES MIGRANTS TO US BORDER AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BECOMES TOP ELECTION ISSUE As part of that, he is challenging the narrative by Vice President Kamala Harris that she is tough on border security. A recent ad by Harris said that “fixing the border is tough, so is Kamala Harris.” Border911 Inc., which is led by experts on border and national security from both Republican and Democratic administrations, is releasing a video that instead points to past comments by Harris that it says conflict with that narrative.  They include her saying she was open to “starting from scratch” with ICE, decriminalizing illegal crossings, saying she supported “sanctuary” city laws and comparing ICE to the Ku Klux Klan as a senator. “Kamala Harris wants everyone to believe she’s some border hawk now. But going all the way back to her days as DA in San Francisco, her statements and policies make it clear where she stands,” Homan, who served under multiple administrations, told Fox News Digital. “The fact is, she’s an open borders radical and, along with Joe Biden, she’s personally responsible for the current crisis.” HARRIS SHIFTS POSITIONS ON BORDER, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS CAMPAIGN PROMISES ‘PRAGMATIC’ APPROACH Republicans and the Trump campaign have zeroed in on the border, including Harris’ role in tackling root causes of migration. They have linked the historic highs seen during the border crisis to the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, including the ending of Trump-era policies they see as having successfully brought the border under control. Conservatives have sought to paint Harris as a radical on illegal immigration, pointing to many of the same remarks featured in the video, just as the Harris campaign has sought to present her as the right candidate for border security. A Harris campaign adviser told Fox News last month that Harris’ positions have been “shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris administration.” Her campaign said she believes illegal border crossings are illegal and supports “continuing to ensure sufficient resources to enforce our laws and prioritize detention and removal for individuals who pose threats to public safety and national security, as well as ensure compliance with immigration proceedings and decisions, including removal.” More broadly, it has pointed to her backing of the bipartisan Senate package that emerged from negotiations in the chamber earlier this year, which increases funding for the border, including ICE bed space and a mechanism to limit asylum entries into the U.S. Conservatives said that bill would only serve to codify high levels of illegal immigration. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS “The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention. He tanked the bipartisan border security deal because, for Donald Trump, this has never been about solutions, just running on a problem,” spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement.  “Like everything with Donald Trump, it’s never been about helping the country, it’s only about helping himself. There’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security, and that’s Vice President Harris,” he said. Homan, however, says he isn’t trying to tell voters who they should pick in November, just to present the facts. “We want to show the American people the truth so they can make their own decisions,” he told Fox News Digital.

Biden-Harris’ taxpayer-funded electric school bus program is ‘enriching’ the CCP: House report

Lawmakers are claiming the Biden-Harris administration’s billion dollar clean bus project is promoting reliance on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in a new scathing report that details the taxpayer-funded price tag for the energy initiative. The Biden administration authorized the Clean School Bus Program in 2021, which appropriated $5 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to incentivize the replacement of school buses with “clean” alternatives.  The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations released a 51-page report on the project, reviewed by Fox News Digital, that highlighted the push for electric school buses over “cheaper” low-emissions alternatives and how “vulnerabilities for waste, fraud, and abuse riddle this program.” “Costly subsidies for ESBs are a poor use of federal taxpayer money at a time when school budgets are increasingly strained,” the report said. “Currently, it is only the existence of massive taxpayer-funded subsidies that enables ESBs to compete with diesel buses and low emission buses in the market.” BLACK ACTIVIST TO BLAST BIDEN ADMIN ENERGY AGENDA ALLEGEDLY CAUSING LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS TO ‘SUFFER MOST’ The committee claims that the EPA funding structure “incentivized districts” to choose the electric school bus options. The average diesel school bus costs roughly $100,000, while the average electric school bus in the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate Program costs $381,190, according to the committee’s findings. Advocates of electric buses told lawmakers that the initiative promoted lower operating costs compared to diesel buses, but the committee argued in the report that the “savings don’t come close to offsetting the tremendous upfront costs.” TRUMP’S EPA CHIEF OF STAFF SAYS HARRIS ‘HASN’T EVOLVED’ ON HER ENERGY POLICIES: ‘POLITICS AT ITS WORST’ The committee also cited a “serious security vulnerability” over the reliance on China for mineral mining. “ESB batteries rely on opaque supply chains rife with national security risks and that pose grave human rights concerns, and are to the benefit of adversarial regimes, such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which largely has a monopoly on certain parts of the supply chain for these products,” the report reads. “Promoting EVs like ESBs means enriching the People’s Republic of China and the CCP because, as Morgan Stanley estimates, 90% of the EV battery supply chain relies on China.” The committee also noted that Chinese companies will mine lithium in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, “thus enriching both China and the Taliban,” citing Paul A. Brinkley, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense. During its investigation, the committee said they reached out to some of the schools that received funds from the EPA and found the agency “did not require attestations of truth from applicants, lacked procedures to verify applicant claims, and relied on insufficient self-certification to determine that applicants met EPA requirements.” “The program, led by the radical Biden-Harris EPA, props up a market that relies heavily upon a supply chain dominated by the Chinese Communist Party. Further, the program was constructed without the necessary safeguards to prevent fraud and incentivizes schools to use buses they otherwise would not choose,” the committee chairs wrote in a statement. Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic nominee for president, has been a vocal proponent of replacing older buses with electric vehicles. “Who doesn’t love a yellow school bus, right? Can you raise your hand if you love a yellow school bus? Many of us went to school on the yellow school bus, right? It’s part of our experience growing up,” Harris said while speaking at Lumen Field in Seattle in 2022. “It’s part of a nostalgia, a memory of the excitement and joy of going to school to be with your favorite teacher, to be with your best friends and to learn. The school bus takes us there.” Asked about the report, the EPA told Fox News Digital that the program is “creating the future that our children deserve – a future with cleaner air on the bus, in bus loading areas, and in the communities in which they operate.” “EPA appreciates Congress’ continued interest in the EPA Clean School Bus Program. EPA is committed to oversight and accountability and to ensuring that these funds are delivering clean air and climate benefits to communities. EPA continues to work with a diverse set of stakeholders, including the OIG, to continually improve the design, implementation, and monitoring of the program,” the agency said in a statement.

At this South Texas political convention, everyone has a voice, regardless of legal status

Inspired by the work of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the biennial “cumbre” helps South Texans organize for political change.

Iran envoy Malley may have been on ‘classified White House call’ after clearance suspended, watchdog finds

Iran envoy Robert Malley may have taken part in a “classified conference call” with the White House after his security clearance was suspended, according to the State Department inspector general’s new report.  The State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) did not interview Malley and could not confirm that he had been on the call, but his deputy notified a White House official that “Rob will call in” and that Malley had “accessed the controlled office where the call would have occurred.”  At the time of the call, Malley’s clearance had been paused over misconduct allegations, but the envoy himself had not yet been notified. Malley – a controversial Washington figure who Republicans say is friendly to Iran – had been accused of storing classified information on his personal email account and phone.  ​​That material was later accessed by a “hostile cyber actor,” according to Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, the Foreign Relations Committee ranking member, and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chair. They revealed this information in May.  BLINKEN TRAVELS TO EGYPT FOR CEASEFIRE TALKS  The FBI is investigating whether Malley committed crimes in moving classified information over to his personal email. OIG found that State had “deviated” from the normal procedure of clearance suspension by not letting Malley know until senior department officials had been made aware.  Department officials also restored Malley’s access to sensitive but unclassified information after they had paused his clearance, worried that he might use a personal email account to conduct government business if they did not.  Sen. Bill Hagerty, Tenn., top Republican on the subcommittee on State Department Management, accused the Biden administration of colluding with Russia after the report.  “We see growing evidence of Iran collusion by members of the Biden-Harris administration amid the FBI’s reported ongoing investigation into Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley’s mishandling of classified information and news reports that Malley and other Biden-Harris administration officials were part of the Iranian regime’s malign influence network known as the ‘Iran Experts Initiative’,” said Hagerty.  IRAN SENT STOLEN TRUMP CAMP MATERIAL TO THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN, FBI SAYS  Two people who had been commissioned by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to bolster the regime’s image in the U.S. ended up as top aides to Malley, according to a Semafor report.  “The Inspector General’s report today includes new damning revelations about the cover-up, politicization, and systemic lack of accountability in the Biden-Harris Administration’s State Department.”  OIG found that a “lack of standard policies for political appointees and the lack of supervision of Special Envoy Malley led to significant confusion as to what work Mr. Malley was authorized to do following the suspension.” The department also “failed to consistently notify employees who regularly interacted with Mr. Malley that he was no longer allowed to access classified information,” according to the report. It did not report the allegations against Malley to OIG, as required by law.  The Biden administration made Malley special envoy to Iran in April 2021. He reported directly to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and was granted a top secret security clearance.  On April 20, 2023, the Director of the Department’s Office of Personnel Security and Suitability received a referral to suspend Malley’s clearance pending an investigation, and the next day the director signed off on the referral. Malley, however, was not notified until the following day, April 22.  On April 22, the department also issued an information and facility access restriction (IFAR) for Malley. Days later, his access to facilities was restored, and he was allowed to continue working on unclassified matters.  He continued working until June 29, 2023, when he was placed on leave without pay and told to cease all department work. He was told that without a clearance, he could not perform the duties of the job.  Malley retains the title of special envoy to Iran to this day, even as his employment and clearance remain suspended. He will continue to hold the title until he resigns or his clearance is officially revoked.  “Instead of taking this seriously, the State Department and the White House have tried to sweep this under the rug and bury Mr. Malley’s egregious violations of our national security. These revelations are quite damning, but not surprising,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul and Senate Foreign Relations top Republican Jim Risch said in a joint statement.  “Congress remains in the dark on how Mr. Malley’s infractions impacted the conduct of the administration’s disastrous approach to Iran, or affected the safety of Americans.”

NC GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson facing calls to drop out amid rumors of looming bombshell

Unrest has reportedly taken over the North Carolina GOP in anticipation of a forthcoming negative news story about Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the current candidate for governor. Reports say the story, which has yet to be published, has to do with Robinson’s activity on adult websites in the 2000s, according to The Carolina Journal. Robinson and his campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital. Sources told the Journal that members of Robinson’s staff and former President Donald Trump’s campaign are encouraging Robinson to drop out of the race. Michael Lonergan, the communications director for Robinson’s campaign, rejected the claims in a statement to the journal. “Whomever your sources are here, it is complete fiction,” he told the outlet. REPUBLICAN MARK ROBINSON ON HISTORIC LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR WIN: ‘THIS PARTY IS OPEN TO EVERYBODY’ The reports come after Robinson canceled two campaign events Thursday. He was scheduled to appear alongside Sen. JD Vance, but his campaign said Robinson tested positive for COVID. NRA SUPPORTS GOP CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR WHO WENT VIRAL FOR PRO-GUN SPEECH: ‘I’M THE MAJORITY’ A source reportedly told the Journal that Trump’s campaign told Robinson he is not welcome at campaign events earlier this week. The story reportedly originated from the campaign for Robinson’s opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, which leaked the information to CNN and a local outlet. Robinson secured the GOP nomination for governor in March. He would be the state’s first Black governor if he wins the election. NORTH CAROLINA’S REPUBLICAN LT GOV MARK ROBINSON LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO REPLACE DEMOCRAT GOV ROY COOPER Trump endorsed Robinson this spring, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.” The reported damaging news story about Robinson is expected to drop sometime Thursday, according to the Journal.