DOJ reaches plea deal with Dem donor who sought to bribe her way to Kennedy Center seat
A Los Angeles County woman, who served on a presidential advisory committee under the Biden administration and has an extensive history of donating to Democrats, reached a plea agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for making tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to reportedly secure a seat on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, the DOJ announced Wednesday. Teena Maria Hostovich, 66, was charged Wednesday with making contributions in the name of another aggregating to more than $10,000 in a year, which is a felony, the DOJ reported. She revealed in her plea agreement that she carried out the scheme in part to secure a spot on the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, the DOJ stated in the press release. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. and is located in Washington, D.C. Hostovich is an insurance broker who used the identities of 11 other people, including co-workers and family members of co-workers, to illegally contribute more than $75,000 to political candidates between 2020 and 2023, the DOJ stated in a press release. DOGE SAYS IT’S REFERRED DOZENS OF POTENTIAL VOTER FRAUD CASES TO DOJ “According to her plea agreement, from May 2020 through 2023, Hostovich knowingly and willfully made a total of $75,700 in contributions to federal candidates’ principal campaign committees and federal joint fundraising committees in the names of other people,” the DOJ said in a press release. “For the calendar years 2021 through 2023, Hostovich’s conduit contributions aggregated to more than $10,000 during each of those years.” Hostovich agreed in a court filing Wednesday to plead guilty to the federal criminal charge and pay a $43,500 fine. Her scheme included contacting co-workers, their family members and other people “who performed personal services for Hostovich and her family” to ask them to make a donation to a political campaign or fundraising committee, according to the press release. She would then use PayPal to reimburse the individual for the contribution or pay them up front before the contribution was made, the Justice Department explained. STACEY ABRAMS-FOUNDED GROUPS SLAPPED WITH HISTORIC FINE FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE VIOLATIONS “To execute these conduit contributions, Hostovich sometimes explicitly stated that she would advance the money for the contribution or pay the person back for that contribution,” the press release outlined. “Other times, the person had an implicit understanding that Hostovich would advance the money or reimburse them based on her history of advancements and reimbursements of political contributions. Hostovich generally advanced or reimbursed these individuals in amounts that exceeded the exact contribution amount but often the amounts were very close to the contribution amount.” Fox News Digital reviewed a website promoting a book Hostovich wrote in 2024 on climbing America’s corporate ladder, which also touted Hostovich as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and that former President Joe Biden appointed her to serve on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts. “She is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and the White House Historical Association. President Biden recently appointed her to the President’s Advisory Committee for the Arts, and she is the Co-Chair of the Advisory Council to the Kennedy Center’s President and Chairman,” the bio states, which is accompanied by photos of Hostovich with high-profile Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton and Biden. Fox News Digital reached out to the Clinton Foundation for comment but did not immediately receive a reply. An archived official White House press release from 2023 under the Biden administration detailed Hostovich’s position on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, including touting her “corporate governance responsibility, political activism, and philanthropic work.” “She has combined her lifelong passion for the arts, history, and education with her corporate governance responsibility, political activism, and philanthropic work,” the bio states. “In addition to serving on the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for over a decade, she has been one of the Chairs (along with her husband and son) of Hollywood Bowl Opening Night many times (including 2023) honoring significant artists and showcasing the LA music community while raising money for Music Matters benefitting music/arts programs in public schools.” It is unclear how donations made in other people’s names would bolster her reported efforts to secure a spot on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. The president appoints general trustees to the board, while other members are appointed by Congress. CALIFORNIA WOMAN AND MAN CHARGED WITH ALLEGEDLY STEALING OVER $2 MILLION IN ILLEGAL COVID RELIEF FUNDS A representative for Hostovich told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement Tuesday morning that “Teena Hostovich has agreed to plead guilty to one count of making contributions in the name of another, involving five donations of $2,900 each in 2021. In doing so, she is accepting responsibility for her conduct early and swiftly.” The statement continued that Hostovich’s “mistakes are out of character,” arguing that her “career, accomplishments, and numerous charitable deeds reflect a lifetime of hard work and generosity.” “Her generosity and commitment to her community led to her involvement in donating and fundraising for causes and candidates that she believed would champion fairness, equality, and improve society,” the spokesperson continued. “She deeply regrets that her ardent support of some candidates led to lapses in judgment in a fraction of the donations she helped to raise and make. She is even more remorseful for the shadow that this investigation may cast on the candidates to whom the donations were made, as they had no knowledge of any wrongdoing.” “Throughout this process, Ms. Hostovich has cooperated fully and worked transparently with law enforcement authorities. She is committed to making the appropriate amends.” The DOJ did not identify in its press release which political party Hostovich favored, though Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reviewed by Fox News show Hostovich made hundreds of donations across the years to Democrat politicians, the Democratic Party and left-wing political action committees. Hostovich has nearly 1,000 entries on the
GOP Georgia Senate candidate targets vulnerable Jon Ossoff in ad depicting transgender ‘fan’
FIRST ON FOX: House Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., is taking aim at Georgia’s senior senator in a new ad highlighting the vulnerable Democrat’s stance on transgender student athletes. Carter, who is running for Senate, is releasing a 30-second advertisement titled, “Ossoff Fan,” which features a purported transgender woman complaining about Carter’s own Republican stances. It opens by showing a transgender woman, played by a stubble-chinned biological male wearing a wig and a dress, sitting in a living room beside a dumbbell watching Carter on Fox News. “He’s been MAGA from the beginning,” the person says on the phone. “He’s been loyal to Trump, defended him during impeachment.” The person on the other line says, “And Buddy helped Trump at the border with deportations.” HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUT The transgender person picks up a trophy and says, “And preventing people like me from competing in women’s sports. Buddy Carter even believes there’s only two genders.” “Now Buddy wants to help Trump in the Senate and beat Jon Ossoff,” the individual says. “It’s just not fair.” Meanwhile, the voice on the phone quips, “After all Ossoff has done for us!” The ad ends with the transgender person picking up a sign with pink lettering that says, “Ossoff for Senate,” putting on a pair of wedge sandals, and stomping to their car. The short but punchy advertisement signals that Republicans still believe the debate surrounding transgender inclusion is a potent issue for turning out voters in favor of the GOP. It proved to be a key issue in the 2024 general election, with moderate Democrats spending weeks after the fact decrying their own party’s intolerance to differing views. Ossoff is a first-term lawmaker who was the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the Peach State in roughly two decades. Republicans now view Ossoff’s seat as one of the most viable flip opportunities in the upcoming 2026 midterm cycle, when the GOP hopes to keep and expand upon its thin majority in the upper chamber. Carter was the first Republican to jump into the contest after Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was considered a heavy favorite to run against Ossoff, opted to forgo a Senate bid. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King is also running in the race as a Republican. Ossoff joined with all other Democratic senators to filibuster the bill from Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, both Alabama Republicans, in March, effectively killing the legislation after it advanced out of the House earlier this year. Their bill, called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, is designed to bar transgender athletes from participating in federally funded school athletics at all levels, from elementary school to college. It would amend Title IX to make it a violation for any school athletic program that receives federal funding to allow a biological male to participate in sports or activities that are meant for women or girls, and defines a person’s sex by their reproductive biology and genetics at birth. MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE The measure is similar to an executive order from President Donald Trump in February that argued that the participation of biological men in women’s and girls’ sports was “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.” The Carter campaign’s ad is also not the first time in the early days of the looming midterm cycle that the vulnerable senator has been targeted for his vote against the measure. One Nation, a nonprofit advocacy group closely aligned with Senate Republican leadership, ran an ad last month that accused Ossoff of “running point for the radical left” with his vote to block the men in women’s sports bill. Fox News Digital reached out to Ossoff’s campaign for comment on Carter’s ad but did not hear back by press time.
Rahm Emanuel calls Democrat’s party brand ‘weak,’ appearing to weigh White House run
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appears to be teasing a 2028 presidential run, urging reforms to a Democratic Party he described as “weak and woke” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Emanuel blasted the current Democratic platform as “toxic,” arguing party leaders need to get back to basics rather than getting dragged into unpopular cultural debates. Emanuel is one of many names in Democratic circles who has been floated as a potential 2028 candidate, alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg. “If you want the country to give you the keys to the car, somebody’s got to be articulating an agenda that’s fighting for America, not just fighting Trump,” Emanuel said. “The American dream has become unaffordable. It’s inaccessible. And that has to be unacceptable to us.” Emanuel recently returned to the U.S. after serving as U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Joe Biden’s administration. In addition to serving as Chicago mayor, Emanuel also worked as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff and served in Congress representing Illinois. LESS THAN 4 MONTHS INTO TRUMP’S 2ND TERM, DEMS ARE ALREADY EYEING THE 2028 RACE The longtime Democratic insider also argued that U.S. education needs to be more focused on meeting high standards than proliferating social doctrine. “I’m empathetic and sympathetic to a child trying to figure out their pronoun, but it doesn’t trump the fact that the rest of the class doesn’t know what a pronoun is,” he said. So far, no Democrats have openly declared their intentions to run for president in 2028, though several have toyed with the idea. Walz told reporters that he would do “whatever it takes” to run if he is “asked to serve.” Similarly, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has said he “would consider” a White House bid. Buttigieg has also played coy about his all but certain intentions to run, telling Fox News after a town hall appearance in Iowa that, “Right now I’m not running for anything.” LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS INTO TRUMP’S SECOND TERM, DEMOCRATS ALREADY EYEING 2028 PRESIDENTIAL RACE Other likely 2028 Democratic candidates include California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Supreme Court declines to review free speech case involving student who wore ‘only two genders’ shirt
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a Massachusetts student who was banned from school for wearing a shirt criticizing the transgender movement on Tuesday. The student, Liam Morrison, brought the case through his father and stepmother, Christopher and Susan Morrison. The plaintiffs argue Nichols Middle School violated his free speech rights when it banned him from wearing two T-shirts to school with the words “There are only two genders” and “There are [censored] genders” on the front. Liam was sent home both times after he refused to change shirts. The school argued the shirts made his classmates feel unsafe, and a federal court agreed, saying the message was demeaning for transgender students. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito both issued separate dissents, arguing the court should have taken up the case. JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA The decision comes nearly a year after the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Liam and his parents in June 2024, finding that the school was justified in asking to remove the shirt and sending him home when he refused. Morrison, who was in seventh grade at the time, was sent home with his father in May 2023 after he refused to take off the shirt, according to court documents. He later wore the same shirt with the words “only two” covered with a piece of tape on which “censored” was written. The school also told him to take this shirt off. JUDGE ORDERS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA WORKERS TO END STRIKE PROTESTING RESPONSE TO ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS In a 2023 interview with Fox News Digital, Liam stressed that his T-shirt was not directed toward anyone, specifically people who are “lesbian or gay or transgender or anything like that.” “I’m just voicing my opinion about a statement that I believe to be true,” he said at the time. “And I feel like some people may think that I’m imposing hate speech, even though it’s not directed towards anyone.” The Morrison family was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Massachusetts Family Institute. This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.
‘The Kamala Excuse’: Tensions between Biden and Harris plagued their campaigns, new book reveals
Former Vice President Kamala Harris had 107 days to convince the American people to elect her the next president. Tension between Harris’ team and former President Joe Biden‘s inner circle did not do her any favors, a new book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson reveals. “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” has returned questions about Biden’s cognitive decline and his administration’s alleged cover-up to the national conversation. The book also pulls back the curtain on the complicated relationship between Biden and Harris, spotlighting the distrust that had been brewing between their teams since Biden tapped Harris as his running mate in 2020. NEW BOOK REVEALS BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE WORRIED ABOUT HIS AGE YEARS BEFORE BOTCHED DEBATE PERFORMANCE The choice for Biden’s vice president came down to Harris or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., according to Thompson and Tapper. NEW BOOK EXPOSES HOW TOP BIDEN COMMS STAFFER WAS ‘TIP OF THE SPEAR’ COVERING UP BIDEN’S COGNITIVE DECLINE “Many on the Biden team felt that Harris didn’t put in the work and was also just not a very nice person. Several quietly expressed buyer’s remorse: They should have picked Whitmer.” To Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, Whitmer represented the “next generation of Biden Democrats,” Thompson and Tapper said. Additionally, former first lady Jill Biden resented Harris after hitting him hard during the first Democratic primary in 2019 for opposing the Department of Education’s busing program to integrate public schools. “That little girl was me,” Harris said on the debate stage. “Still, Biden’s advisers did not fully trust her. Harris and her advisers felt it. Her aides got the impression that doing more than the bare minium to help was considered an act of disloyalty to Biden,” Tapper and Thompson said of Harris’ involvement in the 2020 campaign. “Some of that culture carried over into the White House.” Biden privately called Harris a “work in progress” and was not confident she could beat then-former President Donald Trump in 2024. However, Harris’ team thought building up the vice president should have been a priority for Biden’s transitional presidency as a “bridge” for the next generation of Democratic leadership, as he said back in 2020. An excerpt of the book reads, “In the eyes of Harris’s team, the Biden White House was setting her up to fail. They gave her assignments her team considered politically toxic, such as dealing with the migration crisis, rarely offered to help, and knifed her to reporters along the way. Harris’s camp didn’t understand the hostility and the reluctance to offer her opportunities to shine.” The Fox News Voter Analysis in 2024 found that 52% of voters said Trump was the better candidate to handle immigration, while just 36% said Harris. Additionally, it was a top issue for voters, with 20% saying it was the most important issue facing the country. Harris faced the brunt of criticism for the surge in border crossings during the Biden-Harris administration as the Trump campaign trolled her as the “border czar.” When Biden dropped out of the race after his disastrous debate performance in summer 2024, Harris inherited his struggling campaign, and her old boss soon became a “liability.” “From the beginning of her campaign in July to the August weeks of picking a running mate, presiding over the convention, rolling out wave after wave of ads, and on through September debate prep, it was clear that Biden was a liability,” Tapper and Thompson wrote. Harris was caught in the crosshairs of Biden’s relentless gaffes and missteps as she tried to walk a fine line between loyalty to Biden and distancing herself from his failing campaign, as the journalists described. While Harris had “great affection for Joe,” her loyalty fired back when she told “The View” she would not have done anything differently than Biden as president. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said – an instant attack ad for the Trump administration as they highlighted the Biden-Harris administration’s record on immigration, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and inflation. “What is he doing?” Harris asked her team after Biden donned a Trump 2024 hat at a 9/11 memorial gathering at the Shanksville Fire Station, less than a month before the election. “This is completely unhelpful. And so unnecessary,” Harris told her team, according to the book. “That would be, the Harris campaign decided, the last time she would do a public event with the president before the election.” However, Biden still wanted a role in the campaign, Tapper and Thompson said, as he saw former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama speaking at rallies on the campaign trail. “He didn’t seem to understand what a liability he had become.” When one of Trump’s supporters called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a Madison Square Garden rally about a week before the election, what should have been a political layup for Democrats, became another mess for Harris to clean up. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said on a Voto Latino Zoom call. While Biden was creating a political mess for Harris to clean up, Trump seized the opportunity to claim the narrative, sporting a high-visibility vest at a rally in battleground Michigan and hosting an impromptu press gaggle from the front seat of a garbage truck that was decked out in Trump decals. “By the end of the campaign, she had helped the Democratic Party, but her own candidacy was barely treading water. And the albatross that was Joe Biden kept getting heavier,” Tapper and Thompson said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden’s cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up. Representatives for Biden and Harris did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
FBI reopening investigation into cocaine found at Biden White House
The FBI is taking another look at the cocaine found inside the Biden administration White House in 2023, according to Deputy Director Dan Bongino. “Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest. We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases,” Bongino said in a post on X. “These cases are the DC pipe bombing investigation, the cocaine discovery at the prior administration’s White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case. I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress. If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us, then please contact the FBI,” he added. The FBI did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for further comment from Fox News Digital. TRUMP REVEALS WHO HE BELIEVES LEFT INFAMOUS BAG OF COCAINE AT WHITE HOUSE Earlier this year, President Donald Trump said in an interview he believes former President Joe Biden or his son, Hunter Biden, left behind the infamous bag of cocaine at the White House. “So … who actually left the cocaine in the White House?” The Spectator’s Ben Domenech asked Trump. “Well, either Joe or Hunter,” Trump responded. “Could be Joe, too.” The bag of cocaine was discovered on July 2, 2023, in a storage locker near the entrance to the White House’s West Wing. NEWLY RELEASED PHOTOS SHOW MYSTERIOUS COCAINE DISCOVERED IN WHITE HOUSE The Secret Service discovered the cocaine and launched an investigation, which turned up inconclusive for a suspect. “On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons,” it said in 2023. “Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals. The FBl’s evaluation of the substance also confirmed that it was cocaine.” “That was such a terrible thing because, you know, those bins are very loaded up with … they’re not clean, and they have hundreds and even thousands of fingerprints,” Trump also said in the interview. “And when they went to look at it, it was absolutely stone cold, wiped dry. You know that, right?” The Biden family, including the former president and Hunter, were not staying at the White House when the cocaine was discovered. Instead, the family was staying at presidential retreat Camp David in Maryland. Hunter Biden has a long and well-documented history with substance abuse, and he detailed his hourly need for crack cocaine in his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things.” He has since gone through recovery efforts and has been sober since 2019, according to sworn testimony in federal court in 2023. Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
Trump admin asking federal agencies to cancel remaining Harvard contracts
The Trump administration is asking all federal agencies to find ways to terminate all federal contracts with Havard University amid an ongoing standoff over foreign students’ records at the Ivy League school. The General Services Administration is planning to send a letter Tuesday instructing all federal agencies to review the estimated $100 million remaining in federal contracts with Harvard and potentially “find alternative vendors,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News. The remaining federal contracts include a $527,000 agreement for Harvard ManageMentor Licenses, which was awarded in September 2021, a $523,000 contract for Harvard to conduct research on energy drinks and the health outcomes on other dietary intakes overtime, which was awarded in August 2023, and a $39,000 contract fir gradate student research services, which was award in April 2025. The New York Times first reported about a draft of the letter. Harvard has already sued in federal court seeking the restoration of about $3.2 billion in federal grant funding already frozen by the administration since last month. TRUMP ACCUSES HARVARD OF BEING ‘VERY SLOW’ TO TURN OVER FOREIGN STUDENT INFO In a separate suit, the university was granted a temporary restraining order on Friday that temporarily blocks the government from canceling the school’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The program permits the university to host international students with F-1 or J-1 visas to study in the U.S. Harvard said the revocation would impact more than 7,000 visa holders – more than a quarter of its student body. Another hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Boston federal court. President Donald Trump said in a TRUTH Social post on Monday that he is “considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land.” “What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!” he wrote. JUDGE TEMPORARILY PAUSES TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL HARVARD STUDENT VISA POLICY AFTER LAWSUIT The president also accused Harvard of being “very slow” in handing over documents about foreign students and of having “shopped around and found the absolute best judge (for them).” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday she revoked Harvard’s certification after the university refused to comply with multiple requests for information on foreign students while “perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.” The requested records include any and all audio or video footage in Harvard’s possession regarding threats to other students or university personnel, “deprivation of rights” of other classmates or university personnel, and “dangerous or violent activity, whether on or off campus” by a nonimmigrant student enrolled at Harvard in the last five years. Noem is also asking for any and all disciplinary records and audio or video footage of any protest activity involving nonimmigrant students. DHS said that Harvard’s responses so far have been insufficient. Fox News’ Sarah Tobianski contributed to this report.
‘Bureaucratic and wasteful’: DOGE sniffs out eye-popping spending on Biden DEI efforts in key agency
FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Labor announced on Tuesday that it has terminated $400 million dollars in spending it has deemed wasteful through its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts by rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-related grants from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The department said DOGE had terminated all of its Unemployment Insurance (UI) ARPA grants, totaling around $400 million in savings, which it said addresses an unemployment system that has been in an “infrastructure crisis riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse.” Some of the cuts from the $2 trillion piece of legislation signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2021, included creating an “Office of the Unemployed Workers’ Advocate” and funding an “Equitable Access Director.” Other cuts included initiatives to “conduct a business process analysis for equity,” developing an “equity analytics dashboard,” studying the “equity of the unemployment system,” conducting a “DEIA assessment” and funding “equity monitor staff.” WATCH: GOP SENATORS RAIL AGAINST STAGGERING $4.7 TRILLION IN UNTRACEABLE TREASURY PAYMENTS “America’s unemployment benefits system is facing an infrastructure crisis, riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse,” Labor Department spokesperson Courtney Parella told Fox News Digital. “The Biden administration was given a historic opportunity by Congress to fix it but instead squandered it on bureaucratic and wasteful projects that focused on equitable access rather than advancing access for all Americans in need.” Parella added that the department will continue working with state workforce agencies nationwide to focus on ways to improve the UI system to better “meet the needs of the American worker” and cut down on fraud, which has been prevalent in recent years, according to several news reports. Earlier this year, DOGE announced that it had discovered tens of thousands of unemployment claims for improbably old and young claimants that were approved in the years after 2020. AMERICANS GRADE DOGE AND ELON MUSK’S EFFORTS WITHIN THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION “This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told FOX Business in April. “The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans’ stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud – accountability is here.” The Labor Department announcement on Tuesday comes after Fox News Digital first reported in April that the department revealed $1.4 billion of unspent COVID funding would be “returned to taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Treasury’s General Fund,” and added that “action” was “being taken to recover the remaining $2.9 billion.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP According to the department leaderboard on the DOGE website, last updated on May 11, the Department of Labor ranks in the top 5 of departments that have made DOGE-related cuts, and DOGE overall says it has saved each American taxpayer $1,055.90. Fox News Digital’s Eric Revell contributed to this report.
Battle over Space Command HQ location heats up as lawmakers press new Air Force secretary
Years after the first Trump administration moved to designate Alabama as the home of a permanent Space Command headquarters (HQ), the political tug-of-war for the base continues. Colorado Republicans are urging the president to rethink the decision while Alabama lawmakers insist it will and should move forward. After his May 13 confirmation, new Air Force Secretary Troy Meink can now expect a lot of calls from Capitol Hill pulling him in different directions over the HQ. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said he had already discussed the matter with him. “I look forward to his recommendation that he concur with the last two secretaries of the Air Force and recommend to Huntsville,” he said. “And I fully expect, based on our conversation, that’s going to be what happens.” The Space Force’s home for the time being — Colorado Springs, Colorado — makes sense from the money that has already been invested in setting up shop there, according to Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., whose district encompasses the current HQ. “It would mean $2 billion in savings to leave it where it is,” Crank told Fox News Digital, pointing to savings from not having to build a new HQ building. CHINA ACCUSES US OF ‘TURNING SPACE INTO A WARZONE’ WITH TRUMP’S GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE PROJECT President Donald Trump announced plans to move headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama, in his first term — but former President Joe Biden undid those plans when he came into office. Space Command has operated out of Peterson Space Force base in Colorado Springs since its 2019 inception. The command is responsible for military operations in space and will play a major role in the Golden Dome project. Crank argues that geographically, Colorado makes more sense — it is also home to Northern Command, and the two will need to coordinate over Trump’s new Golden Dome missile defense project. “They’ve got to be seamless in their efforts to communicate,” said Crank. “We don’t want any delay in getting Golden Dome up and running.” He argued that Space Command HQ, nestled into Cheyenne Mountain, is already “one of the most secure facilities” in the country. Being in the middle of the U.S., he added, makes it harder for enemies to attack. “From the standpoint of survivability, having that as an asset right there as well is, is really important.” Rogers brushed off the complaints from his Colorado counterparts and argued Alabama had won fair and square. “They’re just doing their job, you know, they don’t want to see it leave,” said Rogers. But, “they lost two nationwide competitions. It’s not me saying it should be in Huntsville.” HEGSETH ORDERS SWEEPING ARMY OVERHAUL AND CONSOLIDATION AIMED AT COUNTERING CHINA AND GOLDEN DOME CAPABILITIES He argued that right now, the command is spread out across four to five different buildings, some of which are outside the base perimeter. “None of them were built for classified operations,” he said. “They just kind of make it work.” Rogers pointed to a recent Defense Department inspector general (IG) report examining Biden’s 2023 decision not to move the headquarters. That report found that then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall recommended that SPACECOM go to Redstone Arsenal, near Huntsville, Alabama, because the move would save $462 million. However, then SPACECOM Commander, Gen. James Dickinson, wanted to keep the permanent HQ in Colorado due to Air Force findings that the Alabama option would not be operational for three to four years. Dickinson and SPACECOM officers also worried that more than half of the highly trained civilian staff in Colorado would quit rather than move to Alabama for the job. “USSPACECOM leadership anticipated that the loss of civilian personnel might occur much sooner than (the Air Force) predicated and that USSPACECOM would be unable to secure the manpower investments needed to mitigate the impact of that loss on the command’s readiness,” the report states. However, Rogers argued, Colorado has had manpower issues as well. “The reason why Secretary Kendall didn’t concur with them and recommended that it still be moved was that over 300 of the current jobs in Colorado Springs couldn’t be filled,” he said. “They had to contract them out.” Crank argued that the cost findings in the IG report were flawed because it assumed Colorado would have to build a new HQ building, which he says it would not. “We don’t need to build a new headquarters building,” he said. “There is one there. If you say you need to build a new headquarters building, then I think it tips it in the favor of Alabama from a cost perspective by about $400 million.” “But if you don’t do that, and we don’t need it, already have a headquarters building there, it saves the taxpayers $2 billion,” he said. The IG report said it “could not determine” why Kendall never made a formal announcement decision for the SPACECOM transition after the September 2022 completion of an environmental impact assessment of the planned headquarters site in Alabama. Without a formal announcement, SPACECOM was able to declare full operational capability in Colorado, the report said. Rogers said the IG report proved the Biden administration’s move was political, and predicted in April that Trump would formally name Alabama as the home of the Space Force within the month. However, Crank, along with GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd, wrote to Trump and warned him that the move would affect readiness. “Moving the command would disrupt these established capabilities and partnerships, further diminishing our preparedness to face evolving threats,” they wrote in a letter dated April 8. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP However, Rogers seems confident the move will go forward. “There’s absolutely no national security implications for moving it,” he said. “It needs to be in a permanent headquarters, and it needs to be inside the fence. All that’s going to happen in Huntsville.”
‘Monsters’: Far-left candidate’s office accused of fostering toxic environment for women
FOX DIGITAL REVIEW: Progressive Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka, one of the top Democratic candidates for New Jersey governor, has a record of associating with alleged abusers of women and has been accused of fostering a toxic work environment for women in his administration, a Fox News Digital review found. Baraka, who has been mayor of Newark since 2014, hired his brother, Amiri Baraka Jr., as his chief of staff. In June 2020, Sebrivious Scott, a woman who was hired through a prisoner reentry program, accused Baraka Jr. of silencing her after she raised concerns about being sexually assaulted. Scott alleged that she spoke with Baraka Jr. about being sexually assaulted by her boss and about being denied full-time employment for refusing sexual favors, Real Garden State reported. Instead of helping, Baraka Jr. allegedly informed Scott that no steps would be taken to address her complaints and said, “Don’t be coming here complaining about discrimination. You should be happy you have a job.” WATCH: NEWARK MAYOR COMPARES SELF TO BIBLICAL HERO IN WAKE OF ICE PROTEST ARREST: ‘THIS IS OUR DAVID MOMENT’ Scott further claimed that her inquiries about her full-time application were ignored by her supervisors, including Mayor Baraka. Scott claimed numerous men hired through the reentry program obtained full-time positions upon completing the program as she waited. In a 2020 Facebook post reacting to another user who posted support for Scott along with the Real Garden State article and a comment of “keep your head up cuzzo,” Scott wrote, “Cuzz I’m trying. Just need all the support I can get against these monsters. I’m not afraid.” When Fox News Digital reached out for comment, Scott said, “They actually just settled after fighting this since 2018.” However, she declined to go into details of the settlement, citing her lawyer’s advice. Baraka also hired another brother, Obalaji Jones, as a youth opportunity coordinator who was later accused of sexual assault. In 2017, Dannisha Clyburn, a former City of Newark employee, accused Jones of sexually assaulting her in 2013 and attempted sexual assault in 2015, TapInto Livingston reported. According to Clyburn, Jones called her into a dark room and inappropriately touched her without her consent at a 2013 political speech by Baraka. She further claimed that Jones attempted to assault her again by calling her into a private room during a children’s event in 2015. Clyburn, who previously served time in prison, told the outlet she had been a political supporter of Baraka but came forward because she did not want to see other women victimized. “Your brother Obalaji, he’s a whole other monster,” Clyburn posted on Facebook, addressing Baraka directly. “Your brother, you better get him out of here. He is a predator. He is a menace to our city. And if you know, you taught us best. If you see something, you say something. I learned that from you, Ras Baraka,” Clyburn said, according to Politico’s New Jersey Playbook. “So I’ve seen something, I heard something, and I’m saying something. I’m speaking for every person, every female, every male that can’t come forward and are afraid to come forward.” Former Newark Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, who ran against Baraka for mayor in 2018, accused Baraka’s administration of widespread abuse in which many women were pressured into sexual favors in exchange for jobs, according to a 2018 report from TapInto Newark. FAR-LEFT MAYOR ARRESTED AT ICE FACILITY DENIES IMPEDING LAW ENFORCEMENT, SAYS PROTEST ‘ABSOLUTELY’ EFFECTIVE Jenkins said during a council meeting, “I’m not on Team Baraka for a number of reasons, but one of the reasons is their abuse of power. I cannot believe that any of my council colleagues…that none of these women haven’t come up to you and told you what they’ve had to go through as far as having to have sex to get a job, or they’ve been abused, or they’ve been talked about, or they’ve been ridiculed.” Three years later, a lawsuit filed by a former Newark city employee said that Baraka ignored legislation directing him to appoint an independent task force to investigate claims of sexual harassment brought by Newark employees, according to Chaneyfiled Jenkins in a report from NJ.com. According to the suit, the legislation created an independent task force to investigate claims brought by Newark employees. The five-member panel was supposed to be appointed by the mayor and include a retired police officer from outside Newark, a clergy member, two members of the public and a final member to be nominated by Rutgers University. However, Baraka never appointed a member to the task force. Baraka has also associated himself with alleged abuser Kiburi Tucker, who was arraigned in 1996 in a Newark municipal court on allegations that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl, an archived version of the Star-Ledger reported. The girl’s parents filed a complaint, and Tucker was charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal restraint and endangering the welfare of a child for holding the victim and fondling her body, according to online records reviewed by Fox News Digital. He would end up serving a four-year prison sentence between 1997 and 2001 after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and drug possession charges. Tucker would later face more legal trouble, which led to him serving a 17-month prison sentence for wire fraud and tax evasion after racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for personal use using resources from a childcare nonprofit started by his father. After leaving prison, Tucker told TapInto Newark that Baraka was his “best friend” and that he was “doing a hell of a job.” Tucker has remained close to Baraka, as evidenced by several Facebook posts in recent years and months. Tucker, who was reportedly business partners with Baraka’s wife for several years, has posted in support of Baraka’s gubernatorial campaign several times this month and as recently as last week. On May 9, Tucker posted several pictures of Baraka and supporters at an event, saying, “Lets go ! Post your V for