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U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales vastly outraises challenger Brandon Herrera ahead of heated congressional runoff

A majority of donors have been from out of state for both candidates.

Legal experts say Biden admin’s legal theory in Jan 6 prosecution ‘on the ropes’ after Supreme Court argument

Legal experts said the Biden administration was “on the ropes” in Tuesday’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court in a case questioning whether a Jan. 6 rioter can be charged with a federal “obstruction” crime, which carries implications for former President Trump. On Tuesday, Jeffrey Green, lawyer for Joseph Fischer – who is one of more than 300 people charged by the Justice Department with “obstruction of an official proceeding” in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol – argued that the federal statute shouldn’t apply and that it had only ever been applied to evidence-tampering cases.  The Justice Department argued that Fischer’s actions were a “deliberate attempt” to stop a joint session of Congress directly from certifying the 2020 election, thus qualifying their use of the statute that criminalizes behavior that “otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do” and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. But legal experts told Fox News Digital that the government’s argument started to “fall apart” after questioning from the justices.  SUPREME COURT TO DEBATE ‘SLEEPER’ CASE THAT COULD AFFECT TRUMP FEDERAL PROSECUTION Jonathan Turley, a practicing criminal defense attorney and professor at George Washington University, praised Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar as one of “the best appellate litigators” but said she appeared “clearly on the ropes” and “made some uncharacteristic concessions” on Tuesday. At one point, Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned whether, under the government’s argument, heckling at the State of the Union address or the recent incident of Rep. Jaamal Bowman, D-N.Y., pulling a fire alarm and diverting a House vote would constitute “obstruction.” “There are multiple elements of the [statute] that I think might not be satisfied by those hypotheticals,” Prelogar replied, adding that obstruction requires “meaningful interference” and “corrupt intent.” SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH HITS BACK AT JUDGE FOR ‘FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED LEGAL PREMISE’ IN TRUMP DOCUMENTS CASE “Gorsuch laid bare the problems for the government’s argument,” Turley said. “This is where the government’s arguments seem to fall apart in that.” “When pressed … Prelogar started to introduce contextual standards and said that these would just not be strong cases. And that was not the way to go, in my opinion.”  Carrie Severino, former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas and president of the Judicial Crisis Network, noted that the government “had a hard time explaining how this wasn’t going to be such a broad, open door that it could allow a lot of behavior that we clearly understand to be protected First Amendment speech – peaceful protests, etc. – to get swept in the way that they’re charging it.” “There’s not a First Amendment right to trespass or to block things. But I think you do have to worry about … this is an incredibly draconian type of response that could be applied to things that we absolutely wouldn’t believe should be subjected to a 20-year prison sentence,” she said. Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told Fox News Digital that the government “shouldn’t be trying out untested or ‘novel’ theories in high-profile cases.” TRUMP TRIALS: HERE’S WHERE EACH CASE AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT AND PRESUMPTIVE GOP NOMINEE STANDS “I’m a big believer in the rule of lenity. That basically means criminal statutes should be construed narrowly, and when in doubt, you err on the side of the individual and not just throw stuff against the wall,” he said. Chief Justice John Roberts pressed Prelogar about an opinion issued in 2019 by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) – an office that serves as a legal adviser to the department and other executive agencies – which said the obstruction statute should be viewed narrowly and contradicts DOJ’s position in Tuesday’s case. Prelogar said that opinion was never “formally” adopted, but she couldn’t say what the DOJ’s process is for formerly accepting an OLC paper. “It was not a good moment or a good look for the government,” Turley said. “There were a lot of shrugs coming from the government in this oral argument. I mean, time and time again, when pushed to the wall, the government would simply shrug off the contradiction. That’s not going to work with these justices,” Turley added. Turley said that should the justices decide the case in favor of the Jan. 6 defendant, it could mean that Special Counsel Jack Smith drops the two obstruction counts against Trump. “The obstruction counts allowed Smith to frame the president’s remarks in a conspiracy to obstruct and prevent the counting of votes. The elimination of those counts makes the narrative more challenging for Smith because those two counts were emblematic of his narrative,” Turley said. “That is, they specifically alleged an effort to obstruct the proceeding. Those two counts amplified that aspect of the government’s theory.” A decision in the case, Fischer v. United States, is expected in early summer.

Trump risks losing key voter base with opposition to Arizona abortion law, pro-lifers say

Former President Trump’s opposition to a strict abortion ban in Arizona has put him at odds with pro-life and Christian activists, who represent a voter base key to his presidential election effort.  Last week, the Trump presidential campaign released a statement saying that states should decide how to regulate abortion. Days later, that position was tested when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 law banning abortion without exception for rape or incest should be enforced.  Trump, who claims to be the most pro-life president in U.S. history, said the court’s decision “went too far” and urged lawmakers to “ACT IMMEDIATELY, to remedy what has happened.” He said that “ideally” anti-abortion laws must contain exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. In other comments, he expressed confidence that the Arizona law will be “straightened out.”  That message was ill-received by Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life activist, who leads the group “And Then There Were None.”  TRUMP SAYS ARIZONA PRO-LIFE LAW WENT ‘TOO FAR’ AS BIDEN CAMP CLAIMS POLICY U-TURN “What I heard was that [Trump] is a person that does not believe in banning abortion,” Johnson told Fox News Digital in an interview. She said there was a conflict between Trump’s position that states should decide for themselves and his statement that Arizona went “too far.”  “So, here was a state that said we’re going to ban abortion. And now he says, ‘well, no, I don’t want you to,’” Johnson said. “That tells me he doesn’t want to ban it at the federal level. But he also doesn’t believe the states should have a right to ban it at the state level.”  It was a disappointing development for Johnson, who spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention in support of Trump’s re-election. In her speech, she said Trump “has done more for the unborn than any other president.” She pointed to several of his accomplishments, including reinstating the Mexico City policy — critics call it the “global gag rule” — which blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that support abortion services, as well as appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, making state abortion restrictions possible. Indeed, Trump takes credit for his pro-life record regularly on the campaign trail. But he has also repeatedly criticized fellow Republicans for taking a hard-line stance on the issue, blaming candidates who did not allow for exceptions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the pregnant person is at risk, for the GOP’s setbacks in the 2022 midterm elections. “A lot of politicians who are pro-life do not know how to discuss this topic, and they lose their election. We had a lot of election losses because of this, because they didn’t know to discuss it. They had no idea,” he said last year at a leadership summit of the Concerned Women of America. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.  TRUMP SAYS ABORTION SHOULD BE DECIDED BY THE STATES, ‘WILL OF THE PEOPLE’ The pro-life cause has also suffered a handful of defeats on ballot initiatives that enshrined abortion rights protections even in red states like Ohio and Kansas. Similar initiatives in Arizona and Florida, among other states, are expected to drive up turnout in the November election.  William Wolfe, a former Trump official who served in the State and Defense Departments, said those defeats show that “the culture in America still loves abortion, or deeply misunderstands what is happening in an abortion.”  Wolfe is the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership (CBL), a newly-founded nonprofit that exists to revitalize the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), America’s largest Christian protestant denomination. Though the group does not endorse or support political candidates, it released a statement last week chastising Trump for his abortion position and urging him “to forsake the advice of compromising political consultants.”  In an interview, Wolfe described the Arizona abortion ban as “a great law” and encouraged Trump to make an “unapologetic moral argument” about how abortion “ends innocent life” and “should be recognized as murder.”  “Evangelicals and Southern Baptists are eager to support candidates who show unflinching courage and make moral arguments against the civilizational suicide that is abortion. I would encourage everybody to stand strong on this issue and run to it and not away from it, because we know that human life is valuable and should be protected from the moment of fertilization until the natural death,” he said. ARIZONA SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN Walker Wildmon, vice president and spokesman of the American Family Association, said the Arizona Supreme Court ruling was a valid ruling that recognizes the pro-life position, that life begins at conception and should be protected until natural death. While giving Trump credit for his record, Wildmon said the former president’s most recent statements are “out of line with his party and the entire pro-life movement.”  “Just as slavery was a stain on our country, abortion is also a stain on our country. So in our view, since we believe that every life begins at conception, any abortion is too many abortions,” he said.  Wildmon warned that Trump risks alienating a significant number of Evangelical Christian voters by attempting to appeal to independents or suburban women by watering-down his pro-life stance.  “The reality is that wiggling or squirming on the abortion issue isn’t going to pick him up many voters,” he said. “It will really suppress the Evangelical Christian vote. There’s already Evangelical Christians out there, a large voting bloc in the Republican Party, that have some concerns about President Trump and how he handles things and his self-control.”  He added that Trump “really needs to be moving to the right on this issue” to consolidate his supporters ahead of a general election showdown with President Biden.  BILL MAHER SKEWERS TRUMP, GOP’S SHIFT ON ABORTION: ‘SO KILLING BABIES IS OK IN SOME STATES?’ While Republicans triangulate their position on the

AG Garland pressed on Hur report, says Biden ‘has no impairment’

Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed Wednesday that President Biden has “no impairment” after being pressed by a Republican lawmaker about the findings of special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s improper handling of classified documents.  Garland, speaking to Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the Justice Department’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request, said “I have seen the president effectively guide the members of the Department of his Cabinet and his military.”  Garland declined to comment when asked by Cline if he agreed with Hur’s characterization that Biden is a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” saying “I’ve said before, and I’ll say again with respect to the report that it’s improper for the attorney general to editorialize.”  “The president has no impairment. I don’t know how many ways I can say this. I have complete confidence in the president and I reject your characterization,” Garland also said.  SUPREME COURT TO DEBATE ‘SLEEPER’ CASE THAT COULD AFFECT TRUMP FEDERAL PROSECUTION  Hur said in his report that he would bring no criminal charges against the president after a monthslong investigation into his improper retention of classified documents related to national security.  During another part of his testimony, Garland said “I am glad to be able to report that last year we saw a significant decrease in overall violent crime across the country compared to the previous year, including an over 13% decline in homicides.   REPUBLICANS PRESSURE BIDEN DOJ TO PROBE ACTIVISTS CALLING FOR ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’  “That is the largest one-year decline in homicides in over 30 years,” he continued. “And data indicates that this decline is continuing.”  Garland said the Justice Department is “seeking a total of $21 billion to support the efforts of the FBI, ATF, DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Attorney’s offices, as well as the criminal Division and the National Security Division.” He said the funding would be used to fight gun violence and “strengthen our work to counter both foreign and domestic terrorism.”  Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Fetterman slams anti-Israel agitators, says disruption ‘makes you an a–hole’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., ripped anti-Israel agitators who have recently blocked bridges or yelled at Starbucks employees and customers, posting a strongly worded message on X Tuesday.  Fetterman responded to a video posted Sunday showing protesters with a megaphone and donning Palestinian flags and other garb entering a Starbucks in Ann Arbor, Michigan, chanting, “Starbucks, Starbucks, you can’t hide, not ‘til we free Palestine.”  “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but blocking a bridge or berating folks in Starbucks isn’t righteous, it just makes you an a–hole,” Fetterman wrote. “Demand Hamas to send every hostage back home and surrender.”  As hundreds of anti-Israel agitators stopped traffic in California along the Golden Gate Bridge and in Oakland on Monday, several other large protests have surfaced across the country.  ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS SHUT DOWN TRAFFIC, DISRUPT CITIES ALL ACROSS US IN DEMAND FOR GAZA CEASEFIRE In New York City, nearly 300 protesters gathered outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday morning. In Fetterman’s home state of Pennsylvania, dozens of protesters disrupted traffic during rush hour in Center City on Monday as they waved Palestinian flags during a teach-in, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The Philadelphia Police Department told the newspaper 67 people were arrested for obstruction of highway, as another coordinated group of anti-Israel protesters led a funeral procession of cars up I-95.  VIDEO SHOWS CHICAGO ACTIVISTS CHEER AFTER LEARNING IRAN LAUNCHED ATTACK ON ISRAEL: ‘HANDS OFF IRAN!’ The demonstrations come after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles at Israel in an attack over the weekend. The Israeli military said that 99% of the drones and missiles were intercepted by Israel’s own air defenses and warplanes and in coordination with a U.S.-led coalition of partners. Israel’s military chief said Monday that his country will respond to Iran’s attack, but he did not elaborate on when and how, as world leaders urged against retaliation, trying to avoid a spiral of violence in the Middle East. Fox News’ Stepheny Price and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Johnson likely forced to get Dem help on foreign aid plan as Republicans decry lack of border measures

The foreign aid plan Speaker Johnson, R-La., unveiled on Monday night is already facing a growing red wave of opposition from his own colleagues as of Tuesday morning, making it likely he will have to seek House Democratic support to get the proposal passed. Under Johnson’s tentative plan, aid for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel would all be considered as separate bills. A fourth bill would combine miscellaneous national security priorities, including the House’s recently passed bill that could pave the way to a TikTok ban and the REPO Act, a bipartisan measure to liquefy seized Russian assets and send that money to Ukraine. A lack of any border security measures, however, has prompted even reliable leadership allies to be wary of letting the bills move forward. “I’m thinking of voting against the rule,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. “Unless we vote to send something to the Senate the same day that addresses the border, requires the president to take action on his executive orders. Or we can put something with the underlying legislation that would actually do a couple of things – we can stop money from going to NGOs that are transporting individuals, we can stop Homeland Security from releasing criminals into the interior.” JOHNSON TO PITCH HOUSE GOP ON ISRAEL, UKRAINE AID PLANS IN CLOSED-DOOR MEETING While the four bills are designed to get separate House floor votes, they will first have to pass a procedural hurdle known as a rule vote, a House-wide measure that if passed will allow for debate and eventual votes on the four individual pieces.  Rule votes traditionally fall along party lines, and with Johnson’s razor-thin majority, he can only afford to lose two Republicans on any party-line vote – and it’s becoming increasingly likely that he might, meaning Democrats will need to break precedent to help get the bills over the line. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., whose disagreements with Johnson have led her to threaten his leadership role, said on Tuesday morning that she would vote against the rule unless the Democrat-controlled Senate took up the House GOP’s comprehensive border security bill known as H.R.2 – which Democrats have panned as a nonstarter. “NO, I am NOT voting for the rule on Johnson’s bundle of funding bills for billions more to Ukraine and other foreign wars. When Joe Biden signs HR2 into law and Schumer holds the Mayorkas impeachment trial in the Senate, I will agree to vote for the rule only,” Greene said on X. “Speaker Johnson is not holding Democrats accountable nor leading our Republican majority, he’s actually giving in to Democrats every demand. And he’s using dirty swamp tactics to push through the America Last agenda.” REPUBLICANS PRESSURE BIDEN DOJ TO PROBE ACTIVISTS CALLING FOR ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, would not say how he would vote on the rule but told reporters, “The rule that was proposed last night at conference will fail.” Other critics of foreign aid similarly declined to say how they would vote but signaled they were opposed to Johnson’s proposal itself. “I think it leaves much to be desired. It doesn’t have border control in it, it doesn’t have any pay-fors in it,” Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital. “I think those are two problems.” Other Republicans, however, argued it’s a better plan than the Senate-passed $95 trillion supplemental aid package that its leaders are now pressuring Johnson to take up. “No one wants to swallow the senate supplemental as a whole, and if we wait any longer without taking any action, that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. HOUSE TEES UP 17 BILLS RELATED TO IRAN/ISRAEL FOR THIS WEEK Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., urged his colleagues to remember that they had already passed H.R.2 and have furiously been pushing for Democrats to take it up. He also told Fox News Digital that there were “conversations” about including border provisions before the text is released. “I think we’re in a critical time that, obviously, our allies need our support more than ever, and I hope that there’s a way that we could include more border security into these packages,” D’Esposito said. “But I think we need to remind ourselves that we’ve as House Republicans done our job. We sent a comprehensive border bill over to the Senate. They have failed to act.”

Just 35% of US adults say Trump broke the law in New York hush money case, poll finds

Many U.S. adults are not convinced that former President Trump committed a crime in the hush money case that began jury selection in New York City on Monday, according to a new poll. Only 35% of U.S. adults say Trump did something illegal in the case that alleges he falsified business documents to cover up hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who has said that she and Trump had a sexual encounter, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies any extramarital sexual encounter with Daniels. The poll found that 31% of Americans believe Trump’s actions were unethical, but not illegal. Another 14% of respondents said Trump did nothing wrong, while 19% said they did not know enough to be sure.  LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP HUSH MONEY TRIAL ENTERS DAY 2 AS JURY SELECTION CONTINUES About half of respondents say that they are very or somewhat confident that state prosecutors in New York are treating Trump fairly, while 44% say they have little or no confidence that the prosecutors are unbiased. If convicted, however, about half of the public says Trump would be unfit for office. Respondents are more convinced that Trump did something illegal in the other three federal and state criminal cases pending against him. BIDEN RETURNS TO CAMPAIGN TRAIL AS TRUMP FORCED TO REMAIN IN COURT FOR SECOND DAY OF NEW YORK HUSH MONEY TRIAL Regarding Trump’s alleged election interference in Georgia, 47% of U.S. adults say the former president acted illegally. Another 47% say Trump committed a crime by keeping classified documents inside his Florida home, while 45% say his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election were illegal. Despite this feeling, about 40% of Americans overall still have little or no confidence that the state and federal prosecutors are unbiased. A verdict in the hush money trial is expected in roughly six weeks, well before the Republican National Convention, at which Trump is expected to formally accept the GOP nomination for November’s presidential election. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Newsom refuses to back fellow Dems taking on Google, Big Tech through news link legislation

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is staying silent on a Democrat-led bill moving through the legislature that would create a “link tax” requiring big tech companies, like Google, to pay media companies for linking to their pages. Last week, Google began removing news links to news pages while the legislation, dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), is under consideration. The bill, authored by Democrat Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, would effectively charge Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other big tech companies for linking to state news websites. The collected “link tax,” as Google calls it, would go toward supporting struggling newsrooms, according to the text. While Newsom’s office declined to “comment on pending legislation” pioneered by his Democrat counterparts to Fox News Digital, the governor previously partnered with Google on initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, such as incorporating the state’s “earthquake early warning technology into all Android phones.”  At the time, Newsom gushed over the partnership, saying, “It’s not every day that Silicon Valley looks to state government for state-of-the-art innovation, but that’s exactly what is happening today.” PRESSED BY GOP SENATOR, ZUCKERBERG APOLOGIZES MID-HEARING TO FAMILIES OF VICTIMS OF BIG TECH HARMS IN AUDIENCE Also in 2020, Newsom partnered with Google to give away 4,000 Chromebooks and free Wi-Fi hot spots for mobile users up to 90 days with unlimited broadband internet access to 100,000 households in rural regions of the state. In 2021, Newsom signed SB 7 into law, which changed real estate zoning laws to allow denser housing construction. Alongside him was Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker. “To be here with Google and the incredible private sector investment and the faith and devotion to the future of this city and this region and this state is exactly where we want to be and it’s why we are here,” Newsom said to reporters at the time.  However, Google said in a statement last week the proposed CJPA, in its current form, would “up-end” its model of helping publishing sites grow their audiences without financial penalties. “As we’ve shared when other countries have considered similar proposals, the uncapped financial exposure created by CJPA would be unworkable,” Google said in a statement. “If enacted, CJPA in its current form would create a level of business uncertainty that no company could accept.” CA REPUBLICAN CRITICIZES GAVIN NEWSOM’S HOMELESS STRATEGY: ‘YOU CAN’T KEEP THROWING MONEY AT THE SYMPTOMS’ The big tech company said that to “prepare” for possible CJPA consequences, they have begun a soft roll-out of removing links to California news websites to test the impact it would have on the company’s “product experience.” How much the companies would have to pay would be decided by a panel of three judges through an arbitration process under the bill. The bill aims to stop the loss of journalism jobs, which have been disappearing rapidly as legacy media companies have struggled to profit in the digital age. More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the U.S. since 2005, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade, according to Wicks.  BIDEN AGENCY ‘LIKELY’ VIOLATED FREE SPEECH BY WORKING WITH BIG TECH TO CENSOR ELECTION CONTENT: COURT “This is a bill about basic fairness — it’s about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose,” Wicks said. “We are committed to continuing negotiations with Google and all other stakeholders to secure a brighter future for California journalists and ensure that the lights of democracy stay on.” However, Google argues the bill “undermines news” in the Golden State. “To avoid an outcome where all parties lose and the California news industry is left worse off, we urge lawmakers to take a different approach,” the company said.  Big tech companies have also been targeted in recent years by state officials and Republican lawmakers, who claim the Biden administration’s alleged coordination with the search engine giants could unfairly impact the discourse around the 2024 election.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A Texas landowner can sue the state for flood damages to his property, US Supreme Court rules

Richie DeVillier, who owns land east of Houston, said the state owes him damages for constant flooding after Texas made changes to Interstate 10 near his property.

Soros nonprofit drops massive 8-figure donation to super PAC bankrolling left-wing groups

A nonprofit founded and funded by liberal billionaire George Soros funneled a massive eight-figure sum into a prominent liberal super PAC that bankrolls several left-wing groups, according to records reviewed by Fox News Digital. Soros’ Fund for Policy Reform poured $60 million into the Democracy PAC in the first quarter of this year, which then funneled millions of dollars into top Democratic committees benefiting House and Senate races, along with other liberal groups, FEC records posted on Monday show. Of the $21 million that Democracy PAC sent to a dozen left-wing groups, $8 million was evenly divided between a pair of top outside groups benefitting House and Senate Democrats, $2.5 million to Planned Parenthood, $2.5 million to BlackPAC and $1.8 million to American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research firm. Democracy PAC also sent $500,000 to Americans for Contraception Victory and $1 million to the ColorOfChange PAC. FOUNDER OF SOROS-FUNDED ‘PROPAGANDA’ NEWS NETWORK HAS VISITED BIDEN’S WHITE HOUSE NEARLY 20 TIMES Color of Change has been among the most active groups advocating to defund the police. In 2021, they were at the forefront of the unsuccessful push to “dismantle” and replace the Minneapolis Police Department, an effort that was fueled by $500,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Policy Center. “We know that policing doesn’t keep us safe, communities do,” reads a Color of Change petition calling on supporters to demand their local officials start the defunding process. “Policing doesn’t lead to thriving communities, investment does.” The $60 million figure was the second largest in the 2024 election cycle so far, eclipsed only by the $82.5 million a state-level super PAC gave to Never Back Down, the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ill-fated presidential campaign, Bloomberg reported. Fox News Digital reached out to Soros’ Open Society Foundations for comment, but did not receive a response. SOROS-LINKED ORGS BEHIND CELEB CAMPAIGN ACCUSED OF GLAMORIZING PALESTINIAN TERROR SYMBOL Soros recently handed control of his political empire last year to his son, Alex, and his various organizations have continued to exert significant financial influence, including millions of dollars aimed at flipping Texas to Democrats. Fox News Digital reported last fall that a Soros-funded group pushed more than $15 million to a nonprofit tied to President Biden’s main outside super PAC for the 2024 elections to evaluate crucial policy matters. The Soros network appears to be closely involved in doing what it can to help ensure President Biden is re-elected, as evidenced by Alex Soros huddling with high-ranking Democrats shortly after taking over the Open Society Foundations. Alex’s social media profiles have dozens of pictures of him and leading House and Senate Democrats since 2018. The two who appear the most are Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Alex had at least nine meetings with Schumer, whom he referred to as his “good friend.”   Alex had at least eight visits with Pelosi, calling her the “greatest Speaker of the House in American History!”  Fox News Digital’s Joe Schoffstall and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.