‘Unprecedented’ agreement releases emergency oil reserves as gas prices spark concerns
After deliberating and assessing the global oil market situation in the face of Middle Eastern conflicts stemming from the United States’ attack on Iran, 32 different developed nations agreed to make an “unprecedented” move to help address “oil market challenges.” The International Energy Agency (IEA) held an emergency meeting at its Paris headquarters Tuesday with energy representatives from the cohort of G7 countries, to “assess market conditions,” which IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol says “have been significantly affected by the conflict in the Middle East.” After that meeting Thursday, the 32 member countries of the IEA unanimously agreed to collectively release the largest quantity of emergency oil reserves they ever have as a coalition, amounting to 400 million barrels. HOUSE GOP URGES TRUMP TO CHOKE OFF IRAN ALLY’S OIL PROFITS AS MIDDLE EAST TURMOIL SPIKES US GAS PRICES “The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore, I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” Birol said after the announcement about the release of the emergency oil reserves. “Oil markets are global, so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too.” President Donald Trump touted the IEA agreement during remarks in Kentucky Wednesday afternoon, saying the move “will substantially reduce oil prices.” Before the outbreak of war with Iran, oil was trading in the range of $60 to $70 a barrel, but prices soared after the conflict began, with crude oil futures reaching upward of $115 a barrel on Monday, the highest level since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. However, some experts suggest the market is correcting itself already from an initial scare that the conflict in the Middle East would have a major impact on oil prices. “The market realized that maybe things aren’t that bad. The U.S. is having incredible military victories. President Trump is saying, ‘Hey, you know what, the war is probably not going to be going on that long.’ And even some signals that the world doesn’t have to just sit and stand and take it,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group and a FOX Business contributor. The members of the IEA hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels and another 600 million barrels of oil industry stocks. This coordinated release of an unprecedented amount of oil will be the sixth in its roughly half-century history. Previous collective action was taken in 1991, 2005, 2011 and twice in 2022. TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST ENVOY REVEALS WHAT LED TO BREAKDOWN IN IRAN TALKS BEFORE OPERATION EPIC FURY The previous record for the largest collective action was the latest release of emergency oil stocks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In combination, the two actions in March 2022 and April 2022 amounted to a release of 182.7 million barrels, according to the IEA. President Trump said repeatedly this week during remarks to the press that the war in Iran would be over shortly but stopped short of providing an exact timeline. In his comments to the press Wednesday, President Trump quipped, “We don’t want to leave early, do we?” “We gotta finish the job, right? Over the past 11 days, our military has virtually destroyed Iran,” Trump said. “It’s a tough country.” Iran’s ongoing retaliatory attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime choke point for oil transportation, has led to questions about what they will do to prices at the pump. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum scoffed this week at claims that the Trump administration was caught off guard by how much Trump’s military actions have affected the oil market and responded to questions about the impact of attacks on the Strait of Hormuz. “As you know better than anybody else, it’s a global market, so we could be producing more, or other countries could be producing more, but it all goes into one vat where we get the prices from,” said Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade. “So, if the Strait of Hormuz presents a challenge, how could you circumvent that challenge?” In response, Burgum slammed Iran for “holding the entire world hostage economically by threatening to close the strait.” “President Trump has made it very clear the consequences if they try to do that,” he continued. “There’s a lot of options between ourselves and our allies in the region, including our Arab friends in the region, to make sure that those straits remain open and energy keeps flowing through the global economy.”
House Oversight Committee demands depositions from Bondi and Lutnick in Epstein probe
The House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein wants U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to appear in 30 days for a deposition in a bipartisan push to uncover the extent of the disgraced financier’s network and the Trump administration’s handling of the case, Fox News has learned. The committee also wants Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to appear for a deposition “within the next ten days,” a source close to the committee said. Fox News was told last week that Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wanted Lutnick to appear within 10 days, then, potentially this week. NEW DETAILS EXPOSE HOW A FORMER TOP TRUMP OFFICIAL GOT CAUGHT IN EPSTEIN’S WEB OF INFLUENCE The committee voted to subpoena Bondi last week, but Comer has not issued that subpoena. Multiple sources with the Republican Party told Fox News there was some disappointment with Bondi. One Republican lawmaker said “the Senate” may begin to dig deeper into Epstein if it doesn’t receive more information from Lutnick and Bondi soon. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Justice and Commerce departments. Lawmakers have pressed for greater transparency into the department’s handling of the investigation into Epstein and his associates and the Trump administration’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. EPSTEIN VICTIMS USE SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL TO PRESSURE PAM BONDI OVER WITHHELD FILES Some have questioned whether Bondi is doing all she can to release documentation on Epstein in accordance with the 2025 law. It requires the Justice Department to release any documents and files related to its investigation into the disgraced financier without revealing the identities of any of his victims. The Trump administration has so far released thousands of documents related to Epstein. Lutnick is one of several high-profile people in business, entertainment and politics whose name has come up in the trove of Epstein files being released by the federal government. He appeared in photos with Epstein, prompting scrutiny on the businessman-turned-Trump administration official. Lutnick has denied having had any improper ties related to Epstein. Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Leo Briceno contributed to this report.
Bipartisan housing push advances, but Trump-backed investor ban faces resistance
The Senate moved closer Wednesday to advancing a sweeping housing package aimed at boosting affordability, but a Trump-backed provision banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes is emerging as a flash point. Lawmakers cleared another procedural hurdle for the bill Wednesday, setting up a likely final vote before they leave Washington Thursday. The Housing for the 21st Century Act passed the House last month by a 390-9 bipartisan vote. The legislation includes a wide-ranging slate of measures designed to increase the supply of affordable housing. HOUSE PASSES BIPARTISAN HOUSING BILL AS TRUMP ZEROES IN ON AFFORDABILITY CRISIS Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chair of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., its top Democrat, teamed up to advance and modify the bill in the Senate. “When President [Donald] Trump and Elizabeth Warren and Senate Republicans can all come to the same place on a housing bill, it shows that if you put partisan politics aside and focus on the issues impacting the American people, you can get results,” Scott told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” In its original form, the legislation was primarily intended to help first-time homebuyers and lower-income Americans enter the housing market or gain access to more affordable housing options. BIPARTISAN PLAN AIMS TO MAKE THE AMERICAN DREAM AFFORDABLE AGAIN FOR MILLIONS OF FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS But the initial bill lacked a key policy Trump wanted — a ban on institutional investors, such as hedge funds or large corporations, buying single-family homes. Trump earlier this year signed an executive order banning the practice and urged Congress to codify it during his State of the Union address. “I’m asking Congress to make that ban permanent because homes for people — really, that’s what we want,” Trump said. “We want homes for people, not for corporations.” Scott and Warren added that provision to the bill. If passed, the package would also incorporate several policies from the ROAD to Housing Act, a separate Senate housing proposal that previously stalled. The provision would prohibit large-scale investors from purchasing single-family homes and would require companies that exceed a certain ownership threshold to divest within seven years. PRO-TRUMP GROUP UNLEASHES BLUEPRINT FOR CRUCIAL HOUSING INITIATIVE FEATURING TOP MAGA INFLUENCER But the institutional investor ban is drawing concerns from some Senate Democrats and industry stakeholders who argue it could eliminate build-to-rent housing units. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said on the Senate floor that “there is a problem” with the bill. He argued the ban on corporations and hedge funds buying single-family homes was written in a way that would force “anybody who owns and rents out more than 350 units, single family or duplexes” to sell after a seven-year period. “There’s literally no reason for this,” Schatz said. “And the problem is that it was written in such a way that it was trying to capture the hedge fund problem, but they wrote it wrong. “And, so, the definition of institutional investor says, essentially, anyone who owns and operates more than 350 units to rent. That’s bananas.” Several members of the housing and rental industry wrote in a letter to Scott and Warren that the seven-year clause would “effectively shut down build-to-rent development, leading to less supply and fewer options for renters.”
Trump administration puts key Biden-era immigration policy on notice: ‘Unsustainable cycle’
The Trump administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to allow it to terminate the protected legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants living in the U.S. It’s the latest effort by the administration to unwind Biden-era protections of hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the U.S. as part of the president’s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the high court Wednesday to immediately intervene and overturn a lower court order that blocked the administration’s effort to immediately revoke the temporary protected status designation for some 350,000 Haitian migrants living in the U.S. A majority of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end the program, citing the “substantial” and “well-documented harms” the migrants would likely face as a result, clearing the way for the administration to appeal the case to the high court. BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TRUMP’S ‘THIRD COUNTRY’ DEPORTATION POLICY IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL In his filing Wednesday, Sauer urged the Supreme Court to review more broadly the issue of whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS protections for other migrants living in the U.S. “Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders,” Sauer said Wednesday. “This court should break that cycle.” The TPS program in question allows individuals from certain countries to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.” Haitians were first granted TPS status in 2010 after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left some 1.5 million in the country homeless. The protections were extended several times, including under the Biden administration in 2021 after the July assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s last democratically elected president. ‘BLANKIES,’ ICE TACTICS AND LUXURY JETS: TOP MOMENTS FROM NOEM’S HOUSE TESTIMONY DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced in November that the U.S. would be ending TPS protections for Haitians in the U.S., prompting a group of individuals living in the U.S. with protected status to file suit. The Trump administration’s Supreme Court filing marks the second time this year the administration has asked the high court to immediately intervene and allow it to strip TPS protections for certain migrants. Lawyers for the Justice Department also asked the Supreme Court last month to allow it to revoke TPS designations for Syrian migrants in the U.S., though the high court has yet to rule on that request. The appeal comes just weeks after U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blocked the Department of Homeland Security from immediately revoking the TPS designations for Haitians in the U.S. FEDERAL JUDGES IN NEW YORK AND TEXAS BLOCK TRUMP DEPORTATIONS AFTER SCOTUS RULING Reyes described the administration’s effort to abruptly wind down the designation as “arbitrary and capricious” and accused DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of failing to consider the “overwhelming evidence of present danger” in Haiti, which she noted had prompted the Biden administration to extend TPS protections for Haitians in the first place. “The government cannot name a single concrete harm from maintaining the status quo,” Reyes said. “And so instead it argues that the court’s decision is ‘an improper intrusion by a federal court into the workings of a coordinate branch of the government.’” The appeal comes as the Trump administration has sought to wind down most TPS designations, arguing the programs have been extended for too long under Democratic presidents. Trump officials have also taken aim at lower courts that have sought to block or pause their efforts to wind down TPS protections, accusing the lower court judges of exceeding their authority and unlawfully intruding on the executive branch’s authority on immigration policy.
Newsom knocked for ‘insane’ California gas prices after blaming Trump for rising costs
While California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom blames President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran for the price of gas, critics are calling him out for “insane” climate policies as the state’s prices at the pump soar significantly above the national average. On Tuesday, Newsom, who is widely considered a top contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, took to X to slam “Trump’s war with Iran” over gas prices. Newsom wrote that “Americans will pay $1.5 BILLION MORE at the gas pump just this week because of Donald Trump’s war with Iran.” He added that California “will continue using the tools we’ve spent years developing to help fight price spikes and lessen the blow from Trump’s recklessness.” In response, Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for California governor, slammed Newsom, saying, “California has the highest gas taxes and fees in America.” CALIFORNIA VOTER ID INITIATIVE CLEARS SIGNATURE THRESHOLD, SETTING UP NOVEMBER SHOWDOWN WITH NEWSOM “Gavin Newsom is trying to shift blame,” said Hilton, “and he’s blaming these insane gas prices in California, $5.49, $5.69, heading to $6, on the war in Iran. It’s not the war in Iran, because in the rest of the country, they don’t have $5.49, they have $3 gas.” “It’s entirely because of Gavin Newsom’s insane climate dogma that we have the highest gas taxes in the country,” he continued. Hilton called on Newsom to end his national book tour and to immediately “suspend the gas tax.” At approximately $5.33 per gallon, California has by far the highest average gas prices in the U.S., according to AAA. California gas prices significantly exceed those in the next two highest-priced states, Washington and Hawaii, which have average prices of $4.72 and $4.69 per gallon, respectively. Meanwhile, the national average in the U.S. is $3.57 per gallon. California has the highest gas tax, at roughly 70 cents per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In a 2025 opinion piece on Fox News Digital, Hilton wrote that “California’s sky-high gas prices” are the “direct result of 15 years of one-party Democratic rule.” He added that “Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and every other leading Democrat in the state have been cheerleaders for this ‘war on fossil fuels,’ endlessly bragging about ‘leading the world’ on climate change.” SUPREME COURT BLOCKS CALIFORNIA BAN ON NOTIFYING STUDENTS’ PARENTS ABOUT GENDER TRANSITIONS Hilton is not the only one criticizing Newsom’s oil and gas policies. Roxanne Hoge, chair of the Los Angeles County GOP, called Newsom’s take “a textbook case of projection, pointing fingers at others while his own record is riddled with mismanagement and failure.” “Californians have seen the cost of gas be higher than the rest of the USA for reasons having nothing to do with President Trump. He has driven supply down by banishing producers while not fixing infrastructure with gas tax money as promised,” Hoge told Fox News Digital, adding, “We all know that Gavin Newsom has moved on to campaigning for president in spite of his atrocious record at home.” On Wednesday, Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted on X that “California is KILLING their economy!” The secretary wrote that while Newsom “continues to close refineries & drive up gas prices for California,” the department approved over 6,000 drilling permits “to advance [Trump’s] American Energy Dominance Agenda & lower gas prices nationwide.” Chevron President Andy Walz also recently sounded the alarm, warning California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state regulators that newly proposed “cap-and-invest” amendments are a death knell for California’s remaining refineries. ‘UTTERLY UNAFFORDABLE’: STUDY REVEALS HOW DEEP BLUE CITY’S MINIMUM WAGE LAW IS RAVAGING KEY INDUSTRY The California Air Resources Board is aiming to make companies cleaner by aggressively lowering the cap on how much total pollution is allowed in the state. Specifically, the board is proposing to pull 118.3 million allowances out of the state’s market between 2027 and 2030 and has more recently increased its carbon reduction target to 90% by 2045. The energy giant warns the move will kill more than half a million jobs, threaten national security and spike gas prices by more than a dollar per gallon — all to fuel a state-run “shakedown” of the energy sector — in a letter addressed to Newsom and obtained by The California Globe. “The proposed regulation will cripple the survivability of the state’s remaining refineries, which will result in California losing the entire industry to this misguided program,” Chevron President Andy Walz wrote. “This regulation will increase transportation and aviation fuel prices for consumers. It will risk significant job losses, including many high-paying union jobs, while reducing funding for essential public services,” he continued, adding that “it will upend California’s fuels market and threaten critical energy and national security assets.” In the same vein, Tim Stewart, a spokesperson for the U.S. Oil & Gas Association, told Fox News Digital that “California’s energy malaise is beginning to infect the other western states’ economies and unless there is a course change immediately, we will all feel the pain of decades of horribly bad California energy policy led by Governor Newsom.” “California’s gross mismanagement of its energy production and distribution economy is becoming a national security issue, and it now impacts all of us,” Stewart continued, adding that in addition to this, “agriculture, manufacturing, housing, the financial system is all impacted.” “It doesn’t have to be this way, and Governor Newsom knows it,” said Stewart. “He also knows that no matter how hard he tries – he can’t pin this on Trump or our industry. The public isn’t buying it anymore.”
Hillary Clinton caught on video stepping back after pushy former president nudges her at busy NYC intersection
Viral video shows former President Bill Clinton appearing to nudge former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toward a busy New York City intersection crosswalk Tuesday, prompting her to pull back and protest as the couple attempted to cross the street. The Clintons were walking in New York City after attending an event and visiting their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, when the awkward encounter unfolded. Video showed the former president smiling as he pushed his wife into an adjoining crosswalk, in an apparent jaywalking attempt. Hillary Clinton pulled back and raised her hands in front of her to avoid being thrust into the street, saying, “No, no, no, no, no. Don’t do that. Don’t do that.” HILLARY CLINTON COMES OUT SWINGING AFTER GOP GRILLED HER DURING MARATHON EPSTEIN DEPOSITION “That’s not a good idea,” Bill Clinton replied with a grin. Moments later, the crosswalk signal changed, and the pair — accompanied by what appeared to be a security detail — crossed the street without incident. The appearance came days after the Clintons wrapped up their testimony in a probe related to the government’s handling of the case against disgraced late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. CLINTONS CAVE: COMER SAYS BILL AND HILLARY TO TESTIFY IN EPSTEIN PROBE In an unprecedented deposition, the former president and first lady testified under subpoena to the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation. Bill Clinton had publicly acknowledged a past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, including shared trips. However, the Clintons have not been accused of misconduct related to Epstein. Investigators agreed to examine how Epstein cultivated ties with prominent individuals to help obscure his criminal activity, prompting former President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump‘s inclusion in Epstein document releases. Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
Minnesota human services officials skip fraud hearing as Walz promises reform
Minnesota Department of Human Services (MNDHS) officials skipped a key hearing this week held by a state House fraud prevention panel, earning the ire of its chairwoman as Gov. Tim Walz separately promised reform. MNDHS was expected to face tough questions at the hearing, which featured a former judge and Catholic diocesan official appointed by Walz to investigate “program integrity” in the state. “I’m incredibly frustrated that they ghosted us,” House Fraud Prevention Committee Chair Kristin Robbins said, as she has since sent a letter to the department demanding answers. Robbins, a suburban Minneapolis Republican who is also running for governor, previously said state leaders “knew this was going on and they allowed it to continue.” YOUTUBER TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS ON MINNESOTA’S MASSIVE $9B FRAUD NETWORK INVESTIGATION At the top of Monday’s hearing, Robbins verbally recognized the absence of MNDHS, as she introduced the session as one “discussing the roadmap to program integrity and fraud prevention, followed by an informational hearing and discussion of periodic data matching.” “Before we begin, is there anyone in the Department of Human Services in the audience? I don’t see anyone,” she said. “So I just want to note for the record that [MN]DHS was invited to be available in the audience to answer questions today after Judge O’Malley’s presentation. And they have apparently declined to come, which is very frustrating.” MINNESOTA ‘ON THE CLOCK’ AS HHS THREATENS PENALTIES OVER CHILDCARE FRAUD SCANDAL Robbins said it was the second such hearing that MNDHS ignored, and that she would be contacting MNDHS Commissioner Shireen Gandhi. “She may not always be able to attend, but there are a lot of employees at that agency [including] someone who especially can speak to periodic data matching should have been here for that portion of the hearing.” Instead, Robbins moved on to testimony from Tim O’Malley, a retired judge and St. Paul archdiocesan official, who was recently appointed by Walz as state director of Program Integrity. “Minnesota has experienced extensive, well-documented fraud in programs designed to serve the state’s most vulnerable residents. The state’s ineffectiveness in combating that fraud has wasted taxpayer dollars, enriched criminals, eroded public confidence, and impeded the delivery of essential services to Minnesotans in need,” O’Malley said. In a video interview with Fox News Digital, Robbins expounded on her earlier reported comments, saying it was “very disappointing” to see MNDHS no-show. TAFOYA RIPS WALZ ‘DODGING’ ACCOUNTABILITY IN HEARING, UNVEILS PLAN TO FIGHT FRAUD: ‘FULL WEIGHT OF THE LAW’ “What was more shocking is, as we gaveled out, the next hearing was coming in, a Ways and Means Committee hearing, and all the [MN]DHS people walked in the door for the next hearing because they wanted to ask for money from the state … but they couldn’t bother to show up to react to the governor’s own program integrity report. It was unbelievable,” she said. When reached for comment, an MNDHS spokesperson said “the department had a prior commitment Monday morning.” “Monday marked the 19th hearing of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee since it began in February 2025. The Minnesota Department of Human Services has testified before the committee eight times. This was the second time the department was unavailable to attend at the chair’s request,” the spokesperson said, adding that the agency supports O’Malley’s work. Asked about MNDHS’ response to the no-show, Robbins said “it’s not true” and said that when she left the hearing at its end, she ran into MNDHS staff coming in to testify at an ensuing hearing. “[Ours] wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill hearing. It was the public hearing on the governor’s program integrity report with the guy the governor appointed: Judge O’Malley. So, absolutely, they should have been there to ask questions.” Walz said during a press availability broadcast Tuesday that he and O’Malley are working to root out decades of institutional issues that he likened to a “Frankenstein” monster that saw additional “bolts” being soldered on it and complicating its structure instead of it being fixed. MINNESOTA AG BLASTS HOUSE HEARING ON FRAUD SCANDAL IN HIS STATE : ‘A LOT OF BULLS— FROM REPUBLICANS’ “When I came here, the discussion was, if you recall clear back in 2019, that reforms around [MN]DHS as a large organization that does multiple things that we needed to think about modernizing… I talked to my fellow governors and we talked to commissioners in other states, Minnesota system of delivery around social services is a bit of an outlier in how it’s done,” Walz said. The “topline” he said, will be to “moderniz[e] a proposal on how Medicaid is administered … Strengthening oversight of enrollment in these programs by centralizing eligibility decisions, and funding a comprehensive study to examine the role of state, counties, and tribal nations in the delivery of these to provide more transparency and effectiveness.” Walz underlined he was not blaming counties for issues in attempting to restructure the system to a more state-centralized one. The governor did not respond directly to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News’ Mike Tobin and Elise Oggioni con
‘You can cry about it’: Tempers flare in Senate as DHS shutdown debate erupts, stalemate digs deeper
The Senate floor erupted Wednesday as Republicans and Democrats sparred over funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with one point becoming clear: neither side was close to reaching a deal. While senators met behind closed doors just steps from the chamber, party leaders accused each other of refusing to negotiate over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the key sticking point in the standoff. “You can cry about it. You can whine about it. You lost an election over it,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said. “The White House has dealt with you in good faith. You want to prolong this until you get another incident, while your activists are on the street confronting ICE agents in sanctuary jurisdictions, hoping they get some viral moment.” So far, Senate Republicans have delegated final say over any agreement to the White House, though the back and forth between both sides has slowed to a grinding halt. KATIE BRITT BLASTS DEMOCRATS FOR PLAYING ‘POLITICAL GAMES’ WITH SHUTDOWN AMID AIRPORT CHAOS Republicans want DHS reopened in the short term, while negotiations over reforms to ICE continue. Democrats, meanwhile, have offered a funding proposal that would carve out immigration enforcement but reopen other key functions, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At the center of the dispute is whether either side will agree to formal negotiations. Republicans say Democrats are ignoring their offers to meet, while Democrats contend they have not received an invitation. KRISTI NOEM’S FIRING FAILS TO SWAY DEMOCRATS AS DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON “We are here today, and we are trying to close a deal that would enable us to fund all the agencies that the Democrats say they want funded with reforms to ICE,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said. “And I’ve seen the offer sheet from the White House, and they have gone a lot farther, a lot farther than any Democrat I thought was even possible.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said their demands for reform are straightforward, though Republicans have drawn red lines against proposals that would require ICE agents to obtain judicial warrants and unmask their identities, citing concerns about doxxing. “But the bottom line is they refused, probably because the right wing doesn’t like it,” Schumer said. “So then let’s fund everything else but ICE and Border Patrol.” SCHUMER WEAPONIZES MULLIN NOMINATION TO DEMAND DHS OVERHAUL, SAYS ‘ROT’ GOES BEYOND NOEM The floor fight was ignited by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and her attempt to force a vote on a DHS spending bill that stripped out funding for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But both ICE and CBP are flush with billions in funding for the next handful of years thanks to Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill.” Still, she argued that Democrats would not be “blackmailed” into funding immigration operations after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, who were shot and killed by ICE agents in Minnesota. “I am willing to talk to people, but I’m not willing to sit in a room, have coffee, give away a few things, and have Stephen Miller override whatever we all agreed to in a room,” Murray said. There has been little movement in the stalemate over DHS. The White House made its last offer nearly two weeks ago, and Democrats rejected it. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who was tapped by Thune to lead DHS negotiations for Senate Republicans, contended that Murray and Senate Democrats’ latest offer “would effectively defund our law enforcement.” “Look, we’re not going back to the era of ‘defund the police,’” Britt said. “We’re not doing it.”
Top US court hands Trump a win on deportations as SCOTUS challenge looms
A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted the Trump administration‘s request to pause a lower court order that blocked it from deporting illegal immigrants to so-called “third countries” — granting a near-term reprieve to the administration just hours before the lower court’s order was slated to take effect. Trump administration lawyers had appealed the ruling to the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last week, arguing that the order from U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy created an “unworkable scheme” that threatened to derail sensitive negotiations with outside countries, and risked derailing up to “thousands” of planned deportations. They also argued Murphy’s ruling cut against two previous Supreme Court emergency stays last year, after the high court intervened and allowed the administration to continue its deportation policy, for now. US JUDGE ACCUSES TRUMP ADMIN OF ‘MANUFACTURING CHAOS’ IN SOUTH SUDAN DEPORTATIONS, ESCALATING FEUD The case is all but certain to be punted to the high court for a full review on its merits, as senior Trump administration officials acknowledged earlier this year. Murphy, a Biden appointee, sided with migrants last month in his 81-page ruling, determining that the Department of Homeland Security’s third-country removal process — or the process by which migrants are removed from the U.S. to a country other than their country of origin — is unlawful and violates due process protections under the U.S. Constitution. He ruled that the Trump administration must first try to deport the migrants to their home country, or to a country of removal previously designated by an immigration judge. Only after that process, he said, could migrants be removed to a third country, so long as “meaningful notice” is provided, as well as the opportunity for the migrants to raise any fear of persecution in the third country identified for their removal under a so-called “reasonable fear” interview. The third-country removal policy “fails to satisfy due process for a raft of reasons, not least of which is that nobody really knows anything about these purported ‘assurances,’” Murphy wrote in his ruling, though he stayed it from taking force for 15 days in order to give the administration time to appeal. Barring intervention from the U.S. appeals court, the order was slated to take force on Thursday. FEDERAL JUDGES IN NEW YORK AND TEXAS BLOCK TRUMP DEPORTATIONS AFTER SCOTUS RULING DHS officials have previously claimed an “undisputed authority” to deport criminal illegal migrants to third countries that have agreed to accept them. “If these activist judges had their way, aliens who are so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won’t take them back, including convicted murderers, child rapists and drug traffickers, would walk free on American streets,” former Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in June, after the Supreme Court temporarily permitted the Trump administration to continue its deportation policy amid legal challenges. Murphy had presided for months over a class-action lawsuit filed by migrants challenging deportations to third countries, including South Sudan, El Salvador, and both Costa Rica and Guatemala, which the Trump administration has reportedly eyed in its ongoing wave of deportations. He has sparred with the Trump administration while overseeing the case, including in May, when he accused the administration of failing to comply with a court order requiring it to keep in U.S. custody six migrants who were deported to South Sudan without due process or notice. ‘WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT’: US JUDGE REAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR DAYS-LATE DEPORTATION INFO Murphy previously ordered that the migrants remain in U.S. custody at a military base in Djibouti until each of them could be given a “reasonable fear interview,” or a chance to explain to U.S. officials any fear of persecution or torture, should they be released into South Sudanese custody. Murphy previously acknowledged the criminal histories in question after Trump officials blasted the individuals removed as the “worst of the worst.” “The court recognizes that the class members at issue here have criminal histories,” Murphy wrote in an order last year. “But that does not change due process,” he wrote. “The court treats its obligation to these principles with the seriousness that anyone committed to the rule of law should understand.”
Epstein accountant testifies he never saw ‘any type of transaction’ with Trump, Comer says
Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime accountant testified behind closed doors that he was never aware of any payments the late financier and sex offender made to President Donald Trump, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said Wednesday. Richard Kahn, one of the executors of Epstein’s estate, is the latest person to be deposed in the committee’s investigation into how the federal government handled Epstein’s case. “Mr. Kahn testified under oath that — because the Democrats asked this question — that he had never seen any type of transaction to Trump or anyone in his family,” Comer told reporters. “That makes the fifth witness now that’s testified under oath that they’ve never seen any involvement by Donald Trump or the family.” NEW MEXICO DOJ ANNOUNCES SEARCH OF FORMER JEFFREY EPSTEIN PROPERTY ZORRO RANCH Comer said Kahn did confirm, however, that five people paid money to Epstein: ex-Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, businessman Steven Sinofsky, the Rothschilds and investor Leon Black. Epstein was known to have served as a financial advisor for each of them. HOUSE REPUBLICANS DESCEND ON CLINTONS’ HOMETOWN FOR HIGH-STAKES EPSTEIN PROBE GRILLING “What Kahn said is he was under the impression that Epstein made his money as a tax advisor and a financial planner. So, these were the five people that transferred significant sums of money to Epstein,” Comer said. But when it comes to Trump, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., gave a slightly different account of what Kahn said behind closed doors. He told reporters Kahn said a “person who was an accuser of Donald Trump was given a settlement by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate.” That does not necessarily mean that the alleged settlement was regarding Trump. A person familiar with the deposition told Fox News Digital, “Earlier testimony from Kahn about the Trump accuser receiving a settlement from the Epstein estate is incorrect. When the Democrats asked about Jane Doe 4, they were talking about someone else. Kahn’s attorneys went back on the record to clarify that the person the Dems thought was Jane Doe 4 was not an individual they had ever heard of.” The president was known to be a friend of Epstein’s until the two had a falling out before the late pedophile’s first federal investigation. He has not been implicated in any wrongdoing related to his crimes. Subramanyam said Kahn also testified that “there was another head of state that was mentioned as having financial transactions with Jeffrey Epstein,” though he did not elaborate on who that was.