President-elect Donald Trump filed a motion to stay the Jan. 10 sentencing in the New York v. Trump case, Fox Digital has learned.
"Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed," Trump spokesman and incoming White House communications Director Steven Cheung told Fox Digital on Monday morning.
"The American People elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that demands an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunts. We look forward to uniting our country in the new administration as President Trump makes America great again," Cheung continued.
New York Judge Juan Merchan set Trump's sentencing date in the case earlier this month, ahead of his inauguration as president on Jan. 20. Trump is set to be sentenced on Friday, Jan. 10 at 9:30 a.m.
Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Manhattan case in May. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office worked to prove that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and repeatedly railed against it as an example of lawfare promoted by Democrats in an effort to hurt his election efforts ahead of November.
"Virtually ever legal scholar and pundit says THERE IS NO (ZERO!) CASE AGAINST ME. The Judge fabricated the facts, and the law, no different than the other New York Judicial and Prosecutorial Witch Hunts. That’s why businesses are fleeing New York, taking with them millions of jobs, and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TAXES. The legal system is broken, and businesses can’t take a chance in getting caught up in this quicksand. IT’S ALL RIGGED, in this case against a political opponent, ME!!!" Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday evening of the case.
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to do what only two other vice presidents in recent history have done - preside over her defeat in a White House election.
Harris on Monday afternoon will preside over a joint session of Congress where lawmakers will certify President-elect Trump's victory over the current vice president in November's election.
The vice president says her mission is to ensure a peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.
Harris, in a recorded video message released ahead of congressional certification of the 2024 Electoral College vote, said it's a "sacred obligation" which she will uphold, "guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people."
And pointing to four years ago, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to upend congressional certification of Trump's 2020 election loss to President Biden, Harris said "as we have seen, our democracy can be fragile."
"It is up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles," the vice president emphasized.
The Capitol was attacked hours after Trump, at a large rally on the National Mall near the White House, repeated his unproven claims that the 2020 election was riddled with massive voter fraud and stolen from him. And Trump urged then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election results.
Harris, in her role of presiding over the Senate, becomes the first vice president to oversee the congressional confirmation of their electoral loss since then-Vice President Al Gore did it in January 2001, following his razor-thin defeat to then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the 2000 election, which was decided by a Supreme Court ruling.
Four decades earlier, then-Vice President Richard Nixon presided over the certification of his narrow election loss in a 1960 showdown with then-Sen. John F. Kennedy.
Biden, in comments Sunday night, joined Harris in emphasizing that he was "determined to do everything in my power to respect the peaceful transfer of power."
And the president, pointing to the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol, told new Democrats in Congress that "now it's your duty to tell the truth. You remember what happened, and I won't let January 6th be rewritten or even erased."
President-elect Donald Trump is urging congressional Republicans to send him "one powerful Bill" as swiftly as possible once he takes office later this month.
Republicans hold the majority in both chambers of Congress and later this month will regain the White House when Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.
"Members of Congress are getting to work on one powerful Bill that will bring our Country back, and make it greater than ever before. We must Secure our Border, Unleash American Energy, and Renew the Trump Tax Cuts, which were the largest in History, but we will make it even better - NO TAX ON TIPS," Trump declared in a post on Truth Social.
"IT WILL ALL BE MADE UP WITH TARIFFS, AND MUCH MORE, FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE U.S. FOR YEARS. Republicans must unite, and quickly deliver these Historic Victories for the American People. Get smart, tough, and send the Bill to my desk to sign as soon as possible," Trump urged.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had noted during an appearance on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures" that he thinks Trump will "prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill."
Johnson, who described it as "One big up or down vote which can save the country," noted that he thinks the measure, which will tackle various issues, will also address the debt ceiling.
He indicated that lawmakers are aiming to hold the House vote during the first week of April — the lawmaker said it could potentially clear the chamber as soon as April 3, then head to the Senate, and eventually arrive on Trump's desk by the end of April, or by Memorial Day in a "worst case scenario."
Johnson retained the speaker's gavel last week after Trump backed him. House Republicans, with the exception of Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted for Johnson to remain in the role he has occupied since late October 2023. Two Republicans who initially did not vote for Johnson, ultimately switched their votes to Johnson, handing him the win.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, has warned that the U.S. "Senate will be one of the biggest barriers to cutting spending and shrinking government," and "will need public pressure."
He added the hashtag "#DOGE," referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, an outside of government effort to advocate for decreased government spending, which is being spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says she will apply the lessons learned from the 2024 elections and other recent cycles as she works to win back the Senate majority for the Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections.
"If we've learned anything in the last few cycles, if you're not in the field early, talking to voters about what they're worried about, what’s their kitchen table issues, and then coming up with legislative solutions to help them, they're not going to feel that you have their back. And so it's about a relationship with your voters," the new chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
Gillibrand, the longtime senator from New York who was re-elected in November, was named on Monday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow New Yorker, to steer the Senate Democrats' campaign committee in the 2026 cycle.
"Electing more Democrats to the Senate in 2026 is the most important thing we can do to limit the damage of Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans and do more for working families," Schumer argued in a statement. "I have worked side by side with Kirsten Gillibrand for nearly two decades and I know she will be an outstanding DSCC Chair. With her hard work, tenacity, and discipline, Sen. Gillibrand is the right person to lead our campaign to victory in 2026."
Gillibrand pledged in a statement to "work my hardest to support our Democratic incumbents, recruit the strongest possible candidates, and ensure they have every resource needed to win. I am confident that we will protect our Democratic seats, mount strong challenges in our battleground races, and look to expand our efforts into some unexpected states."
The senator, as she looked ahead to her new mission to win back the Senate majority or at the least, cut into the GOP's newly won 53-47 control of the chamber, pointed in her Fox News Digital interview to her own re-election and her efforts to help House Democrats flip Republican-controlled seats in the 2024 cycle.
"I made sure that for my race and for the House races in New York that our candidates were in the community talking to voters two years before the election, talking to them about what mattered to them. People were concerned about crime; they were concerned about immigration. They were concerned about fentanyl and gun trafficking. They were also concerned about the economy and the cost of food, the cost of housing," she said.
Gillibrand emphasized that "we really did the outreach and engagement that you really need to do in this day and age to make sure you're talking about the things that voters want you to be working on."
"President-elect Trump is a formidable candidate. He showed in this last election that he was able to win over voters in states across this country, not just red states," Gillibrand noted. "I think it's important to learn the lessons of last cycle."
Senate Democrats faced an extremely difficult map in the 2024 cycle as they lost control of the majority. An early read of the 2026 map shows they will continue to play defense in some states, but also offers opportunities to go on offense.
Among them is the southeastern battleground state of North Carolina.
"There's a number of places where Democrats can win if they have the right candidate in the community early enough talking about the issues that voters care about. A state like North Carolina might be one where we got very close last time.," Gillibrand said.
There is plenty of speculation that former Gov. Roy Cooper, who just finished steering the state for two terms, may make a bid for the Senate against Republican incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis.
"There are some really remarkably good candidates in North Carolina, considering the former governor would be one of them. That's the kind of state I'm going to be looking at around the country, states where Democrats have won in the past, where they might be able to win again if they have a candidate that really resonates and does the hard work of engaging voters early," Gillibrand said.
Another potential pickup opportunity for Gillibrand may be blue-leaning Maine, where moderate Republican Susan Collins is up for re-election in 2026.
"Susan is quite tough to beat," Gillibrand acknowledged. But she added that "if we get a great candidate there, that's a race where we will be competitive."
The 2026 map also gives Republicans opportunities to flip Democrat-controlled seats.
In swing state New Hampshire, longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who's taking over as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is up for re-election.
Sen. Gary Peters, who steered the DSCC in the 2022 and 2024 cycles, is up for re-election in battleground Michigan. So is first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff in swing state Georgia.
"The great thing about Jean Shaheen is she is in her community every week, talking to people about the things she works on, on their behalf. She's common sense, she's bipartisan, and so I'm optimistic we will hold her seat," Gillibrand said. "I'm also optimistic about making sure Gary Peters holds his seat in Michigan. Again, he's extremely bipartisan. He's constantly working on behalf of the voters of Michigan to make sure they understand that he fights for them. The same is true, I'd say for Jon Ossoff. He hit the ground running as a new senator last term, and I think he really does resonate with Georgia voters."
President Biden announced an 11th-hour executive action on Monday that bans new drilling and further oil and natural gas development on more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal and offshore waters.
Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing. He invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, meaning President-elect Trump could be limited in his ability to revoke the action. Congress might need to intervene to grant Trump authority to place federal waters back into development.
"My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs," Biden said in a statement. "It is not worth the risks. As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren."
The move garnered quick condemnation from Trump's incoming White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
"This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill," Leavitt wrote on X.
Biden patted himself on the back for what he categorized as a legacy move in the fight against climate change.
"From Day One, I have delivered on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in our country’s history. And over the last four years, I have conserved more than 670 million acres of America’s lands and waters, more than any other president in history," Biden said. "Our country’s remarkable conservation and restoration progress has been locally led by Tribes, farmers and ranchers, fishermen, small businesses, and outdoor recreation enthusiasts across the country. Together, our ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative put the United States on track to meet my ambitious goal to conserve at least 30 percent of our Nation’s lands and waters by 2030."
"We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low," the statement added. "Those are false choices. Protecting America’s coasts and ocean is the right thing to do, and will help communities and the economy to flourish for generations to come."
Ron Neal, the chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America Offshore Committee, also slammed Biden's last-ditch offshore drilling ban as "significant and catastrophic."
"While it may not directly affect the currently active production areas in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and adjoining coastal areas, it represents a major attack on the oil and natural gas industry. This should be seen as the ‘elephant’s nose under the tent.’ The ban severely limits potential for exploration and development in new areas therefore chocking the long-term survivability of the industry," Neal, also the President of Houston Energy LP and CEO of HEQ Deepwater, said in a statement. "This move is a first step towards more extensive restrictions all across our industry in all U.S. basins including the onshore. If the activists come for anything, they are coming for everything. The policy is catastrophic for the development of new areas for oil and natural gas but, the environmentalists will eventually look to also shut down offshore wind farms for most of the same reasons. President Biden and his allies continue to push anti-energy policies that will hurt Americans."
Trump, during his 2024 campaign, promised to deliver American "energy dominance" on the world stage as he looked toward bolstering U.S. oil and gas drilling, as well as distance from Biden’s prioritization of climate change initiatives.
The Justice Department is considering charging up to 200 more people for their alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a report says.
The new figures released Monday on the 4-year anniversary of the incident include 60 people suspected of assaulting or impeding police officers, according to Politico.
President-elect Trump is set to be sworn in as the country’s next president in just two weeks. In December, Trump told NBC that he wanted to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters on the first day of his administration and said people on the Jan. 6 committee in Congress belonged in jail.
"I’m going to look at everything. We’ll look at individual cases," Trump said at the time. "But I’m going to be acting very quickly."
Around 1,600 people so far have faced federal charges relating to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 600 who allegedly assaulted or resisted police, Politico reported.
Nearly 200 of the defendants were charged with carrying a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds and 153 were accused of destruction of government property – but the new figures released Monday are the first time the Justice Department has estimated how many cases are yet to be prosecuted, Politico added.
The news outlet also reported that around 1,100 Jan. 6 defendants have been convicted and reached sentencing, but 300 of the already charged cases have not entered the trial stage yet.
President Biden on Sunday was asked by reporters if he still thought Trump was a threat to democracy.
"We've got to get back to establishing basic democratic norms," Biden told reporters in the White House East Room. "I think what he did was a genuine threat to democracy. I'm hopeful that we are beyond that."
Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
As New York’s "congestion pricing" inner-city tolling plan takes effect Sunday, one of its major proponents is questioning whether the timing is right for a policy meant to drive people to an increasingly dangerous mass transit system.
Through a spokesman, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed that he still backs the system that now tolls drivers $9 to cross below Central Park or enter Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn and New Jersey – but questioned whether now is best to implement it.
"Governor Cuomo believes congestion pricing is ultimately the right policy, which is why he fought and succeeded in passing it after more than a decade of failed attempts," longtime spokesman Rich Azzopardi told Fox News Digital on Friday.
Azzopardi said that Cuomo’s original plan, which found agreement from then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, was based on a "safe and reliable subway system" and a thriving city core. Prior Mayor Michael Bloomberg had proposed a similar plan in 2007, but it died in Albany.
"[G]iven the obvious lack of confidence the public currently has in the subway system – combined with the tenuous state of New York City post-COVID, [Cuomo] called for a data-driven study on the impact of congestion pricing to inform the timing of such a major policy change and to ensure New York was not creating additional obstacles to its comeback."
Cuomo previously wrote in a March op-ed that congestion pricing’s success hinges on confidence in the MTA and mass transit, which he noted has also statistically still not recovered from COVID levels.
He noted how congestion pricing is meant to "incentivize" subway use – but that that is hard to do when people are getting brutally attacked underground – and noted that it was his father, Gov. Mario Cuomo, who first beefed-up police presence after the "bad old days."
At the time of a prior column in the Post, Cuomo cited a conductor with 24 years of service to the MTA vowing never to go back underground after he was slashed in the neck and required 34 stitches while operating an A train in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
More recently, an Ocean County, N.J., woman was burned alive in Coney Island, and there have been several near-fatal cases of people being randomly shoved in front of trains, occurring from Morningside Heights to TriBeCa, since Christmas.
"It is undeniable that New York is in a dramatically different place today than it was in 2019, and without a study forecasting its consequences based on facts, not politics, it could do more harm than good to New York City's recovery," Cuomo’s spokesman said Friday.
But Cuomo’s onetime deputy, Gov. Kathy Hochul, appeared full-steam-ahead in enacting the policy, which is intended to drive commuters and residents to consider mass transit to head to work or play in Midtown.
In a recent statement lauding her current plan, Hochul’s office said the reduction of the congestion toll from its original $15 will save drivers $1,500 per year, and that commuters will see "new and improved subway services."
"By getting congestion pricing underway and fully supporting the MTA capital plan, we’ll unclog our streets, reduce pollution and deliver better public transit for millions of New Yorkers," Hochul said.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, who oversees the state-run metro subway, bus and rail network, said that Hochul is "stepping up" for people who want cleaner air, safer streets and less gridlock.
He also noted that upgrades have already taken place on the 7 subway from Times Square to Flushing, Queens, and the L train from Union Square to Canarsie.
However, Cuomo’s camp maintains that it was he who envisioned and oversaw the upgrades to New York’s transit network without the added tolls in effect – and ripped Hochul and Lieber for claiming that he had gotten cold feet.
When the New York Post asked Hochul for comment on Cuomo suggesting she "hit the brakes" on congestion pricing, the governor directed comment to a Lieber spokesman, who blasted Cuomo for "flip-flopping."
"What would really harm New York’s continuing recovery is starving subways of a desperately needed source of funding after decades of underinvestment," the MTA’s Aaron Donovan said.
"The $15 fee was passed by the MTA under Hochul’s watch, but please gaslight away," Azzopardi told Fox News Digital. "New Yorkers aren’t stupid."
Cuomo previously told WNYW that people have the option to work from home, which they didn’t have when he first pushed the plan in 2019 – and that if he were a commuter, he would likely balk at the idea of added costs at a time of "high crime and homelessness."
Cuomo’s camp also said that Hochul likes to take credit for the achievements of his three-term administration that presaged the new tolls.
"The difference here is that Governor Cuomo built the [new Amtrak/MetroNorth] Moynihan Train Hall and the Second Avenue Subway [extension to East Harlem], as well as fixed the L train and did the hard work to get [Grand Central’s] East Side Access and the LIRR Third-Track done. All Hochul wanted to do was cut the ribbons," Azzopardi said.
Cuomo’s calls for a pause were joined by several New York Republicans, yet the former governor and potential 2025 mayoral candidate remains supportive of congestion pricing, while the GOP wants it nixed entirely.
Commuters from New Jersey must still pay Port Authority tolls to cross the Hudson River, and outer-borough commuters the same via the East River – albeit with a slight credit toward their "congestion" fee.
Drivers who remain on the FDR Drive or Joe DiMaggio West Side Highway will not be charged unless they turn onto surface streets.
It is unclear what Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s day one priorities will be if he is confirmed to be the next Health and Human Services Secretary, but diet and nutrition experts suggest Kennedy could effectuate changes on a number of different fronts when it comes to healthy eating. These potential reforms might include overhauling school lunch programs, establishing new standards for seed oils and ultra-processed foods, setting limits on toxins, and more.
Kennedy, who wants to "Make America Healthy Again," has been a staunch advocate for reforms to the food industry and President-elect Donald Trump has said he will have permission to "go wild on health" if he is confirmed.
One major opening for Kennedy would be overseeing a revision of the federal government's "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," one of the most powerful tools in terms of shaping public perception about what is healthy. The guidelines must be revised every five years and the deadline for the next update arrives in 2025. Kennedy, if confirmed, would ultimately be in charge of hiring the experts who draft the guidelines.
"I know that they really want to focus on kids," Nina Teicholz, nutrition expert and founder of The Nutrition Coalition, told Fox News Digital.
Teicholz, who has been in discussions with Kennedy's team about the new national dietary guidelines, suggested that he could potentially use them to implement changes to school lunches, such as adding a limit on sugar, for which Teicholz said there currently is none, and bringing back whole milk to school cafeterias, which was prohibited under the Obama administration.
The addition of whole milk to school cafeterias could limit how frequently children consume high-sugar, flavored-milk beverages, Teicholz said. She also pointed out that current recommendations that are keeping whole milk out of schools "is based on the saturated fat content in milk, but there's really no good evidence to show that saturated fats have any negative effect on children."
"I think that Kennedy has aimed to stand for evidence-based changes to policy," Teicholz said. "So, that means not making policy based on weak science."
Teicholz added that in addition to school lunches, there is other "low-hanging fruit" associated with the guidelines that Kennedy could go after.
Kennedy could use the guidelines to narrow the definition of ultra-processed foods, she pointed out, which is a sector of the food industry that Kennedy has previously been critical of. Teicholz also said that research on "ultra-processed foods" is scant, and, therefore, you could see Kennedy commissioning more studies on such foods as well.
Dave Asprey, an author and nutrition advocate who has written several New York Times best-selling books about healthier eating, said he thinks it is likely Kennedy will also add toxin limits within the new dietary guidelines, aimed at pesticides and herbicides that have come under scrutiny. He also said he wouldn't be surprised if Kennedy and his team were to implement new standards around animal feed.
Asprey added that Kennedy's experience as a trial lawyer could aid him tremendously in initiating legal proceedings if he wanted to pursue companies that "are continuing to push outdated, unhealthy guidelines."
"Where can he actually impact real change? The dietary guidelines – because they control how we feed our kids, what we do in hospitals and a lot of our public policy," Asprey said.
Kennedy has recently been courting support for his nomination on Capitol Hill, and, according to GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Kennedy told him that he would exercise restraint and use a light touch when seeking to regulate the food and agriculture industries.
But, according to Mara Fleishman, CEO of the Chef Ann Foundation, a healthy-eating nonprofit, the Trump administration's desire for a more limited-government approach to governing could clash with Kennedy's efforts to reform the food industry.
"I think time will tell what – if anything – RFK Jr. can, or will, do," Fleishman said.
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Kennedy but did not receive a response.
