FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is taking the opportunity to renew two key bills aligned with the incoming advisory board known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) now that the GOP controls the Senate.
DOGE was previously announced by President-elect Donald Trump, who tapped billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the charge in eliminating government waste.
The ERASER Act would target regulations by requiring agencies to repeal three rules before issuing any new major rule and ensure that the new rule does not exceed the cost of the repealed rules. The Separation of Powers Restoration Act (SOPRA) would address the Administrative Procedure Act by ending the standards of executive deference and allowing courts to weigh arguments without affording deference to either party.
"Reining in an out-of-control administrative state has long been one of my top priorities, and I look forward to working hand-in-hand with the incoming Trump Administration to [accomplish] the shared goal of gutting the administrative state and clawing power out of the hands of nameless, faceless bureaucrats and returning it back to the people," Schmitt told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"The ERASER Act would require agencies who wish to enact a new regulation to pull three regulations off the books. And, the Separation of Powers Restoration Act would put a stop to courts’ deference to agency interpretation on regulations and enact a much stricter review, putting power back in the hands of the people, where it belongs … This is a critical, one-two punch to the bloated administrative state."
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is a co-sponsor of the ERASER Act. SOPRA is also backed by co-sponsors Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Rand Paul, R-Ky., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Ted Budd, R-N.C., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.
The bills were debuted by Schmitt in the last Congress but never received consideration on the floor due to Democratic leadership in the Senate.
However, with Republicans leading the upper chamber, and an increased emphasis on government efficiency, it's much more likely the measures will get voted on. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is already expected to tee up votes on a couple other re-introduced GOP bills that never got floor time.
The Biden administration secured an agreement to implement police reforms in Minneapolis ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
The consent decree agreement Monday with the Minneapolis Police Department follows a similar decree that the department agreed upon with Louisville, Kentucky, police last month. The agreements follow the Biden administration's initiation of 12 investigations in 2021, which probed possible "pattern or practice" of civil rights abuses by police departments around the country following the anti-police riots that took place after the death of George Floyd in 2020.
Both decrees await approval by the courts. The 171-page Minneapolis agreement would overhaul the city's police training and use of-force-policies, while requiring officers to "promote the sanctity of human life as the highest priority in their activities." The decree also mandates that officers must not allow race, gender or ethnicity "to influence any decision to use force, including the amount or type of force used."
Other elements of the Minneapolis agreement include bolstering protections for protesters, new data collection requirements aimed at reducing racial discrimination, guidelines restricting officers from going after fleeing subjects, new interrogation requirements, a mandate against racial profiling in investigations, traffic stop reforms and more.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division was asked repeatedly during a Monday press conference from Minneapolis whether the Trump administration could derail the agreement.
"I can’t predict the future," Clarke said. "What I can tell you is that the findings we identified in Minneapolis are severe. These are real issues that impact people’s lives. The community wants reform. The city wants reform, the police department wants reform, and the Justice Department stands here today as a full partner in the effort of achieving reform and transformation for this community."
Meanwhile, in an email to constituents, Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley said she has no faith that the incoming Trump administration will be a "serious partner" in supporting the recently agreed-upon consent decree.
A similar consent decree agreed upon by the Biden administration and the Loisville police roughly three weeks ago also compels the department to revise its use-of-force policies, places new restrictions around traffic stops and police searches, and challenges how law enforcement deals with protesters.
A local police union in the city is challenging the reforms, calling on a judge not to approve the agreement. Meanwhile, the conservative Heritage Foundation has argued that the point of the consent decree coming so late in Biden's term is "to bind the Trump 47 Administration and future elected Louisville administrations who may well vehemently and categorically disagree with the Proposed Consent Decree."
Both Minneapolis and Louisville were flash points for debates around police reform after both cities saw the high-profile deaths of Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. Both cities, and numerous others, saw protesters rampage through the streets following their deaths, leading to multiple fatalities and billions of dollars in damage that year.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department for comment, but they declined to comment.
President-elect Trump addressed the nation for the first time since the certification of his November election victory on Tuesday.
Trump held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home just one day after Congress and Vice President Kamala Harris certified his electoral college victory. Trump took the opportunity to announce $20 billion in new data centers across the country.
Trump says the $20 billion will come over a "short period of time" from DAMAC Properties. The company's owner, Hussain Sajwani, detailed that the investment will center around Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana and other Midwestern states.
EXCLUSIVE: President-elect Donald Trump reacted to Meta's move to end its fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram and its other platforms, telling Fox News Digital that the company has "come a long way."
Fox News first reported that Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across its platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have "gone too far."
Trump's comments come after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a video Tuesday morning, saying his company is "going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms."
Meta plans to replace fact-checking with a "Community Notes" model similar to the one used on X, formerly Twitter.
Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system has "gone too far."
Meta's chief global policy director, Joel Kaplan, told Fox News Digital that Meta is also changing some of its own content moderation rules, especially those that they feel are "too restrictive and not allowing enough discourse around sensitive topics like immigration, trans issues and gender.
"We want to make sure that discourse can happen freely on the platform without fear of censorship," Kaplan told Fox News Digital. "We have the power to change the rules and make them more supportive of free expression. And we’re not just changing the rules, we are actually changing how we enforce the rules."
Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make "too many mistakes" and removes content "that doesn’t even violate our standards."
He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation.
But as for the timing of the changes, Kaplan told Fox News Digital the company has "a real opportunity now."
"We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression," Kaplan said, referring to the incoming Trump administration. "It gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on."
Last year, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee in which he admitted that he felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID-19 content, and even subjects like satire and humor.
"The thing is, as American companies, when other governments around the world that don’t have our tradition or our First Amendment, when they see the United States government pressuring U.S. companies to take down content, it is just open season then for those governments to put more pressure [on their companies]," Kaplan explained. "We do think it is a real opportunity to work with the Trump administration and to work on free expression at home."
Kaplan also said Meta sees "opportunities for partnership" with the Trump administration, not only on issues of free expression but also in "promoting American business and America’s technological edge."
"Those are issues of great importance to Meta and our sector," Kaplan said. "And we’re excited to work with the Trump administration to advance those goals."
Meanwhile, Meta also said it plans to take a more personalized approach to political content, so that users who want to see more posts of that kind can do so.
Meta said it will refocus its enforcement efforts to "illegal and high-severity violations."
Meanwhile, this week, Trump ally UFC CEO Dana White joined Meta’s board.
"I love social media," White wrote. "And I’m excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies."
Also joining the Meta board is former Microsoft Corp. executive Charlie Songhurst, who has been working with the company already on artificial intelligence products, and Exov NV CEO John Elkann. Elkann’s company has stakes in many European businesses, including Ferrari NV and Italy’s popular soccer team, Juventus Football Club.
Conservatives on social media took a victory lap on Tuesday in response to the news that Meta had ended its controversial fact-checking practices and promised to move toward a system more focused on free speech.
"Meta finally admits to censoring speech…what a great birthday present to wake up to and a huge win for free speech," GOP Sen. Rand Paul posted on X on Tuesday in response to news, first reported by Fox News Digital, that Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have "gone too far."
"Jaw dropping—he explicitly says Meta will ‘adopt a system like X has of community notes’ because of the bias/abuse of 3rd party fact checkers," Independent Women's Forum visiting fellow Lyndsey Fifield posted on X in response to Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, speaking to Fox News Channel’s "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning for an exclusive interview to discuss the changes.
"There is absolutely 0 chance this would have happened if Trump didn’t win," Abigail Jackson, communications director for GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, posted on X.
"Here is the full video from Mark Zuckerberg announcing the end of censorship and misinformation policies," Breaking Points co-host Sagaar Enjeti posted on X. "I highly recommend you watch all of it as tonally it is one of the biggest indications of ‘elections have consequences’ I have ever seen."
"Zuck is committed to cleaning house," journalist Jordan Schachtel posted on X. "Question the motives or not, this is a very real commitment and it's good news for speech on the internet. Of course, probably not possible to pull off without Trump winning."
Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system has "gone too far."
Since then, the process has drawn the ire of conservatives who have accused the platform of politically driven censoring while pointing to several examples of content being silenced, including the bombshell New York Post reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which Zuckerberg admitted the Biden White House pressured him to do and later called the move a mistake.
Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make "too many mistakes" and removes content "that doesn’t even violate our standards." He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation.
Zuckerberg also pointed out in his video message on Tuesday that moderation teams will be moving from California to Texas, where he suggested there will be "less concern about the bias of our teams."
"We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg said. "More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S."
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a regulatory rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which could end up boosting business for cartels operating on the black market, an expert tells Fox News Digital.
"Biden's ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it's cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia. It's going to keep America smoking, and it's going to make the streets more violent," Rich Marianos, former assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the current chair of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital of the proposal.
The FDA confirmed to Fox Digital on Monday that as of Jan. 3, the Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products had completed a regulatory review, but that the proposed rule has not yet been finalized.
"The proposed rule, ‘Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products,’ is displaying in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) ROCIS system as having completed regulatory review on January 3," an FDA spokesman told Fox Digital. "As the FDA has previously said, a proposed product standard to establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products, when finalized, is estimated to be among the most impactful population-level actions in the history of U.S. tobacco product regulation. At this time, the FDA cannot provide any further comment until it is published."
Fox New Digital reached out to the White House regarding concerns over the proposal if it were to take effect but did not receive a response.
Former President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009, which granted the FDA the power to regulate tobacco products. In the years since, the agency has worked to lower nicotine levels, including in July 2017 under the Trump administration, when then-FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced it would seek to require tobacco companies to drastically cut nicotine in cigarettes in an effort to help adult smokers quit.
In 2022, the FDA under the Biden administration announced plans for the proposed rule that would lower levels of nicotine so they were less addictive or non-addictive.
"Lowering nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels would decrease the likelihood that future generations of young people become addicted to cigarettes and help more currently addicted smokers to quit," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said at the time.
Lowering the levels of nicotine in commonly purchased cigarettes and other tobacco products would open the floodgates to the illicit trafficking of tobacco products into the U.S., Marianos told Fox News Digital.
"This decision is being thrown down the public's throat without one ounce of thought and preparation. Nobody sat down with law enforcement, nobody sat down with any doctors, No one sat down with any regulators to find out, ‘Hey, look, what are the unintended ramifications of such a poor choice,’ and that's what I'm going to call it, a poor choice," Marianos said.
He explained that Mexican cartels are well-positioned to bring illegal tobacco across the border, as they do with substances such as fentanyl that have devastated communities across the U.S., while Chinese criminal organizations have some of the best counterfeit operations stretching from baby formula to cigarettes, and Russian organized crime groups have their foot in the door in cities across the nation, including in bodegas and other stores that sell tobacco products.
Marianos said that criminal groups would likely quickly catch on to the proposal if it takes effect and subsequently amplify their tobacco operations – which he says will serve as an economic boon for the criminals.
Americans who want to purchase cigarettes with higher levels of nicotine would then need to go through the illicit channels to obtain them, similar to buying "loosie" cigarettes on the streets of New York, putting average Americans at further criminal risk while also offering them cigarettes that are not regulated and originating from foreign nations.
Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers have already warned that tobacco trafficking in the U.S. poses a grave national security threat and already has its foot in the door.
"In 2015, the State Department cited activity by terrorist groups, and criminal networks who have used tobacco trafficking operations to finance other crimes, including ‘money laundering, bulk cash smuggling, and the trafficking in humans, weapons, drugs, antiquities, diamonds, and counterfeit goods,’" Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; and then-Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., wrote in a 2023 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"Recently, public reporting has also noted these financial linkages between Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) involved in narcotics and fentanyl trafficking, and these tobacco smuggling activities. Mexican TCOs pose a grave threat to American national security and public health."
Marianos added that in addition to the criminal effect posed to America and its residents, lowering nicotine levels would also defeat the stated mission of weaning smokers off cigarettes and instead lead to an increase in smoking.
"You're going to create more smoking. And I thought that's what we're trying to get away from, right? Smoking is bad. I thought we're trying to do everything possible to get away from that and get the country safer. Well, if you take down the nicotine levels, people are going to smoke more. That is proven. All you have to do is just drive here in DC and see, you know workers on their smoke break," he said, saying work productivity will even be driven down as people take more smoke breaks in alleys to get their nicotine fix.
The Biden administration previously attempted to outright ban menthol cigarettes, in what was described as a "critical" piece of President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative, but announced last year it was abruptly delaying such regulations as the public decried the move. A handful of groups argued that banning menthol unfairly targeted minority communities, while others argued the ban would open the floodgates to illicit menthol sales.
The House of Representatives is poised to vote on its first piece of federal legislation on Tuesday afternoon.
Lawmakers will be voting on the Laken Riley Act, a bill named after a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging on the University of Georgia's campus.
The bill would require federal immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants found guilty of theft-related crimes. It also would allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration.
Jose Ibarra, who was sentenced to life in prison for Riley's murder, had previously been arrested but was never detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the agency previously said.
The bill passed the House along bipartisan lines last year after it was first introduced by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga.
All voting Republicans plus 37 Democrats voted for the bill by a margin of 251 to 170. All the "no" votes on the bill were Democrats.
It was not taken up in the Senate, however, which at the time was controlled by then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
"[T]he Laken Riley Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Collins, holds the Biden Administration accountable for their role in these tragedies through their open border policies, requires detention of illegal aliens who commit theft and mandates ICE take them into custody, and allows a state to sue the Federal government on behalf of their citizens for not enforcing the border laws, particularly in the case of parole," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said in his daily House floor lookout.
"House Republicans won’t stop fighting to secure the border and protect American communities. When will Democrats finally decide enough is enough?"
The Senate is also poised to vote on the bill this week.
It is one of several border security bills House Republicans have reintroduced this year as they prepare to take over all the levers of power in Washington, D.C.
Republicans held the House and took over the Senate in the November elections. President-elect Donald Trump will take office on Jan. 20.
FIRST ON FOX:Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is reintroducing a measure to prevent biological male participation in women's and girls' sports in the newly Republican-led Senate, and with the approval of leadership, it's expected to get a floor vote.
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act has been a yearslong crusade for the Alabama Republican, who originally introduced it in 2023.
The measure would maintain that Title IX treats gender as "recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth" and does not adjust it to apply to gender identity.
Tuberville's legislation would ban federal funding from going toward athletic programs that allow biological men to participate in women's and girls' sports.
This would apply to biological men and boys who identify as transgender and seek to participate in events and leagues for women and girls.
"President Trump ran on the issue of saving women’s sports and won in a landslide," the senator said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "70% of Americans agree—men don’t belong in women’s sports or locker rooms. I have said many times that I think Title IX is one of the best things to come out of Washington. But in the last few years, it has been destroyed."
"While I’m glad that the Biden administration ultimately rescinded the proposed rule, Congress has to ensure this never happens again. I am welcoming my first granddaughter this spring and won’t stop fighting until her rights to fairly compete are protected. I hope every one of my colleagues will join me in standing up for our daughters, nieces, and granddaughters by voting for this critical bill."
The measure is co-sponsored by 23 Republican senators, including Sens. James Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Thom Tillis and Ted Budd of North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., James Lankford, R-Okla., Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy of Montana, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Mike Lee, R-Utah, John Kennedy, R-La., John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.
According to Tuberville's office, he is working closely with President-elect Donald Trump to ensure there is fair competition under his administration.
With the new Senate under the authority of Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Tuberville's bill has gotten the proper blessing to move forward. A vote on the measure could come as soon as the end of the week.
Democrats will be forced to put themselves on record about the transgender issue, which managed to rear its head during the 2024 presidential election and get pushback from Americans at the ballot box. One of the most memorable ads from the Trump campaign claimed, "Kamala is for they-them; President Trump is for you."
Last month, the Biden administration withdrew a proposed Title IX rule change in a lame-duck move after a long fight to adjust the policy.
During his term, the administration sought to expand the definition of sex discrimination to include both sexual orientation and gender identity in order to protect LGBTQ students.
The proposal received inordinate levels of resistance and delayed plans to implement the new rule.
Additionally, Biden's effort was tied up in legal challenges. His rule change was struck down in several states by a U.S. district judge over the summer.
The Biden administration reportedly has been negotiating with the Taliban to swap three Americans being held in Afghanistan for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner who is alleged to have been a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
The talks, which have been ongoing since at least July of last year, involve exchanging suspected senior Al Qaeda aide Muhammad Rahim al Afghani for American citizens George Glezmann, Ryan Corbett and Mahmoud Habibi, who were detained in Afghanistan in 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal.
After the White House proposed that swap in November, the Taliban counteroffered, asking for Rahim and two others in exchange for Glezmann and Corbett, the newspaper reported.
House Foreign Affairs Committee members told the newspaper that they later were informed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan during a Dec. 17, 2024, classified session that Biden was still mulling the offer. One attendee added that during the meeting, panel chair Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, expressed concern that the Taliban’s counteroffer wasn’t a good deal for the U.S.
"The safety and security of Americans overseas is one of the Biden-Harris Administration’s top priorities, and we are working around the clock to ensure George, Ryan and Mahmoud’s safe return," Sean Savett, a National Security Council spokesman, recently told The Wall Street Journal.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
An ex-Chicagoland police chief says violent ambushes and murder of on-duty police officers need to be punishable as a federal crime, and he's calling on President-elect Donald Trump to move the effort forward.
"Attacks on police officers are certainly on the rise since 2020, and what's really on the rise is ambush," retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel told Fox News Digital in an interview. "There's been more ambush attacks on police officers in the last two to three years than I've ever seen before, and that goes from everything from just an officer sitting in a squad car, either writing a report or he or she is on an assignment, and somebody walking up and just shooting the officer right in the squad car."
"That's happened several times over the last couple of years, or fake 911 calls where – the whole purpose of the calls [is] to get the officer to respond and to open fire on that officer and kill that officer. That's happened many times. We had never seen that, you know, 10 years ago," he added.
Currently, killing state or local law enforcement officers can lead to a federal penalty only if the killing is committed to influence or retaliate against the officer's official duties and involves interstate commerce or federal jurisdiction. While some laws have been passed in recent years to curb the uptick in police killings, there's no official federal law that killing a police officer in any state is a felony because most cases are prosecuted under state law.
States generally treat the murder of a police officer as an aggravated form of homicide that can carry harsh penalties, including life imprisonment or the death penalty.
"What I'm looking for is uniformity, and I'm looking forward to give the family and loved ones some relief that things are being done properly, and I know for a fact that they're not prosecuted and investigated the same in every state in America. That's not happening," Weitzel said.
Weitzel, who was almost killed in an ambush shooting during his time as a cop, said he's sent letters to his state legislators, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and both the Biden and previous Trump administrations, but he only heard back from Trump's DOJ with a list of best practices. Last week, Weitzel sent another letter to Trump urging him to look at the proposal.
"There's still an unsolved police murder in the west suburbs of Chicago, and that really that also made me think, like, we need to get an outside agency's experts in doing it. I'm not criticizing local law enforcement, I'm saying we just want it done uniformly," he said.
FBI data shows a significant rise in officer fatalities nationwide between 2020 and 2023, with nearly 200 officers feloniously killed over three years. In Chicago, the police department saw several of its officers killed last year: Officer Andres Mauricio Vasquez Lasso on March 1 and Officer Arenah M. Preston on May 6. Officer Enrique Martinez, 26, was killed in November during a traffic stop in the city's East Chatham neighborhood.
"President Trump has publicly stated he's a law-and-order president. He has stated he supports law enforcement, many of the law enforcement ideals and legislation," Weitzel said. "So, it's the right time to at least push this, because we have somebody who in the White House says he's willing to work and pass legislation and funding with local law enforcement."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump transition team for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Two of President-elect Trump's former co-defendants in the classified documents case want a judge to block Special Counsel Jack Smith's report from being released to the public.
Trump's valet Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, want U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to keep Smith’s report out of the public eye.
Fox News is told the report is days from being released. It could be later this week or sometime next week. Smith will resign from his position before Trump takes office on January 20.
"These Defendants will irreparably suffer harm as civilian casualties of the Government’s impermissible and contumacious utilization of political lawfare to include release of the unauthorized Report," Nauta and De Oliveira's attorneys wrote in an emergency motion filed on Monday. "The Final Report relies on materials to which Smith, as disqualified special counsel, is no longer entitled access— making his attempt to share such materials with the public highly improper."
The emergency motion asked the Court for an immediate hearing to "establish the impropriety of unchecked release; the scope of the resulting prejudice; and the specific materials contained in the Report for which release is impermissible."
"The Final Report promises to be a one-sided, slanted report, relying nearly exclusively on evidence presented to a grand jury and subject to all requisite protections—and which is known to Smith only as a result of his unconstitutional appointment—in order to serve a singular purpose: convincing the public that everyone Smith charged is guilty of the crimes charged," Nauta and De Oliveira's attorneys wrote.
"But Nauta’s and De Oliveira’s criminal cases are not over; the appeal of this Court’s dismissal order by Smith is still pending," the motion says. "The Government notably continued briefing the appeal even following the dismissal of the appeal as to President Trump. There remains the threat of future criminal proceedings as to Nauta and De Oliveira, and those proceedings will be irreversibly and irredeemably prejudiced by dissemination of the Final Report."
It is customary for a special counsel to release a final report when his or her work is done, detailing the findings of their investigation and explaining any prosecution or declination decisions they reached as a result of the probe. In Smith's case, the prosecution decision is immaterial, given Trump's status as president-elect and longstanding Justice Department policy against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.
The report would first go to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s office for review, according to standard practice.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche, who is poised to be in a senior role at the Department of Justice, is asking Garland not to release the report.
"Smith’s proposed plan for releasing a report is unlawful, undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest," Blanche wrote in an exhibit attached to the same motion. "Smith’s conduct also raises grave concerns under Article II because it unlawfully encroaches on the Executive authority of the incoming Administration of President Trump to resolve the issues surrounding Smith’s Office in accordance with President Trump’s commanding national mandate from the voters."
"The time has come to put an end to this weaponization of the justice system and move forward constructively," he argued further. "No report should be prepared or released, and Smith should be removed, including for even suggesting that course of action given his obvious political motivations and desire to lawlessly undermine the transition."
Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira all pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging they conspired to obstruct the FBI investigation into classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Smith was tapped by Garland in 2022 to investigate both the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump's keeping of allegedly classified documents at his Florida residence.
But he still must outline the investigation and its findings in his report to Garland, who will then decide whether to share it publicly.
Notably, Garland has opted to release the reports from two other special counsels whose investigations concluded during his tenure — publishing both the summary reports submitted by John Durham, who was tapped by then-Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019 to review law enforcement and intelligence gathering during the 2016 presidential campaign and the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, as well as the final report from Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney whom he tapped in 2023 to investigate President Biden's handling of classified documents.
These reports were made public at the same time as they were shared with members of Congress. It is unclear whether Garland will move to do the same with Smith's findings, given their sensitivity and Trump's status as president-elect.
Fox News' Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have "gone too far."
"We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video posted Tuesday morning. "More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S."
Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, will be on Fox News Channel’s "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning for an exclusive interview to discuss the changes.
Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system has "gone too far."
"We went to independent, third-party fact-checkers," Kaplan told Fox News Digital in an interview. "It has become clear there is too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check because, basically, they get to fact-check whatever they see on the platform."
Kaplan told Fox News Digital that Meta is "ending that completely" and will replace it with a "Community Notes" model similar to the one used on X, formerly Twitter.
"Instead of going to some so-called expert, it instead relies on the community and the people on the platform to provide their own commentary to something that they’ve read," Kaplan explained, noting that if a note gets support from "the broadest cross-section of users," that note can be attached to the content for others to see.
"We think that’s a much better approach rather than relying on so-called experts who bring their own biases into the program," Kaplan said.
Kaplan also told Fox News Digital that Meta is changing some of its own content moderation rules, especially those that they feel are "too restrictive and not allowing enough discourse around sensitive topics like immigration, trans issues and gender."
"We want to make sure that discourse can happen freely on the platform without fear of censorship," Kaplan told Fox News Digital. "We have the power to change the rules and make them more supportive of free expression. And we’re not just changing the rules, we are actually changing how we enforce the rules."
Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make "too many mistakes" and removes content "that doesn’t even violate our standards."
He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation.
But as for the timing of the changes, Kaplan told Fox News Digital the company has "a real opportunity now."
"We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression," Kaplan said, referring to the incoming Trump administration. "It gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on."
Last year, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee in which he admitted that he felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID content, and even items like satire and humor.
"The thing is, as American companies, when other governments around the world that don’t have our tradition or our First Amendment, when they see the United States government pressuring U.S. companies to take down content, it is just open season then for those governments to put more pressure [on their companies]," Kaplan explained. "We do think it is a real opportunity to work with the Trump administration and to work on free expression at home."
Kaplan also said Meta sees "opportunities for partnership" with the Trump administration, not only on issues of free expression but also in "promoting American business and America’s technological edge."
"Those are issues of great importance to Meta and our sector," Kaplan told Fox News Digital. "And we’re excited to work with the Trump administration to advance those goals."
Meanwhile, Meta also said it plans to take a more personalized approach to political content, so that users who want to see more posts of that kind can do so.
Meta said it will refocus its enforcement efforts to "illegal and high-severity violations."
Former Vice President Mike Pence said it was "particularly admirable" that Vice President Kamala Harris oversaw certification of the 2024 presidential election, which she lost to President-elect Donald Trump.
"The peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of our democracy and today, members of both parties in the House and Senate along with the vice president certified the election of our new president and vice president without controversy or objection," Pence declared Monday in a post on X.
He congratulated Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance on their victory, and hailed the "return of order and civility" to the certification process.
"I also commend the members of the House, Senate and the Vice President who did their duty under the Constitution of the United States, it being particularly admirable that Vice President Harris would preside over the certification of a presidential election that she lost," Pence noted.
After Trump and Pence lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, then-Vice President Pence presided over the certification during a joint session of Congress in 2021 that was temporarily interrupted due to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Pence, who mounted then later dropped a GOP presidential primary bid in 2023, did not endorse Trump in 2024.
The last time a sitting vice president who lost a presidential bid presided over the certification of their own presidential election loss was in 2001, after outgoing Democratic Vice President Al Gore lost to Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 White House contest.
Pence congratulated House Speaker Mike Johnson last week after the congressman won the speakership again.
The Georgia Republican Party’s State Executive Committee has voted to expel former GOP Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan from being associated with the party, pointing to his alleged efforts to undermine Republican candidates.
The decision, approved unanimously, was finalized on Jan. 6, cutting Duncan’s ties to the GOP after years of accusations of disloyalty.
The resolution makes several allegations against Duncan, including accusations that he undermined GOP candidates, endorsed Democrat opponents and used his affiliation with the Republican Party for personal gain.
In a post on X, Duncan suggested that the resolution was not a good use of the party's time.
"Hard to believe this is a good use of time for a party that’s only got a limited amount of time to figure out mass deportations, world peace and global tariffs. Learn how to take a victory lap not light another dumpster fire @JoshMcKoon," he wrote, calling out the Georgia GOP chair.
According to the resolution, Duncan is "banned from all property owned or leased by the Georgia Republican Party and all events held by or under the authority of the Georgia Republican Party."
The Georgia GOP said Duncan is prohibited from qualifying as a candidate for the Georgia Republican Party. The group also said his previous GOP nominations for lieutenant governor and, before that, the state House of Representatives, both races in which he won the primary and general elections, have been expunged.
The resolution demanded Duncan cease calling himself a Republican for personal profit or to undermine and sabotage the Republican Party and its candidates.
The state party also urged media outlets to refer to Duncan as an "expelled Republican" in future references.
The resolution claims Duncan undermined and sabotaged some Republican candidates, including current Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and failed 2022 Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
It also notes Duncan's public endorsements during the 2024 presidential race of President Biden and, when Biden dropped out, his subsequent endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as a violation of his allegiance to the GOP.
FIRST ON FOX: Senate Republicans are preparing to take up several measures in the new year that were denied votes by Democrats in the last Congress. The first of these is the Laken Riley Act, being reintroduced by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and teed up for a vote by the end of the week.
The measure was named for the 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was found dead on the University of Georgia's campus in February. Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant, was found guilty of 10 total counts, including felony murder. He initially pleaded not guilty.
He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in November.
The bill would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest and detain illegal immigrants that have committed theft, burglary or shoplifting until they are deported. Additionally, states would have standing under the legislation to take civil action against members of the federal government that do not enforce immigration law.
"It’s impossible to fully describe what was taken from Laken and from our family on February 22, 2024. Laken’s life was abundantly and exceptionally full of promise. She was a beautiful, shining beacon in the life of everyone who knew her. Not only did the people who knew and loved Laken lose a beautiful soul, but so did our world. Laken shared her love for Jesus with everyone she encountered. Laken's passion for sharing her faith through acts of kindness were felt by everyone she met. Laken was selfless, hardworking and made those around her feel special. Laken did not just talk about her faith, she led by example," said Allyson and John Phillips, Laken Riley’s mother and stepfather, in a statement.
"The Laken Riley Act has our full support because it would help save innocent lives and prevent more families from going through the kind of heartbreak we’ve experienced. Laken would have been 23 on January 10th. There is no greater gift that could be given to her and our country than to continue her legacy by saving lives through this bill. Every single member of Congress should be able to get behind this purely commonsense bill that will make our country and communities safer. We thank Congressman Mike Collins, Senator Katie Britt, and Senator Ted Budd for continuing to work to honor Laken’s legacy and get this legislation enacted into law."
It was first introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., in March and in the Senate by Britt.
However, the bill never received a Senate floor vote relating to the standalone legislation.
Republicans have an incoming trifecta in the federal government, unified in its prioritization of the southern border and tackling illegal immigration, and GOP lawmakers see a big opportunity to push through key legislation.
"Last year, Laken Riley was stolen from this earth—from her family and friends and from achieving her dreams—by a brutal, heartless killer. Make no mistake—he never should have been in the United States, much less allowed to freely roam American streets after being charged with multiple crimes. Laken’s murder was the direct consequence of willful open border policies," Britt said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"The American people did not just deliver a mandate on November 5, they delivered a verdict. They made it clear they want to remove criminal illegal aliens and protect American families. We will soon know whether Democrats hear, respect, and obey that verdict. Congress has an obligation to Laken, her family, and to families in every corner of our country to do everything in our power to help prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again. That’s why it’s imperative we pass the commonsense Laken Riley Act with all due haste. No other American family needs to feel the pain Laken’s family still feels 320 days after losing her," she added.
Collins said in his own statement, "An illegal criminal came into my district and killed Laken Riley because our local law enforcement did not have the tools to stop him. Laken fought until her last breath, and so will I until this bill crosses the finish line and lands on the President’s desk."
The measure was co-led in the Senate by Sen. Tedd Budd, R-N.C., who said in a statement, "What happened to Laken Riley should never happen to any American citizen. As we turn the page from the disastrous open-border policies of Joe Biden, the Laken Riley Act will empower the Trump administration to enforce our laws, keep our nation secure, and prevent tragedies. I thank Senator Britt for her partnership and her leadership in this bipartisan effort."
Now that Republicans control the Senate, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., at the helm, a vote is expected on the bill, and in short measure.
A source familiar shared with Fox News Digital that a vote in the upper chamber is likely to take place on Friday, and Democrats will be forced to go on the record.
If the measure is only backed by Republicans, it will fail to overcome the legislative filibuster, which requires that bills garner 60 votes in order to end debate and proceed. Notably, new Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., voted in favor of the bill in the House last year.
The vote will put a spotlight on the Georgia Senate delegation, as Riley was a constituent of theirs. In particular, all eyes will be on Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who is up for re-election in 2026 in the state that President-elect Donald Trump won.
A trio of special elections Tuesday in Virginia will give Americans their first look at suburban voting trends for the 2025 gubernatorial sweeps and 2026 midterms.
A federal election shakeup last cycle in once-deep-red Loudoun County led a pair of state lawmakers to vacate their seats and announce bids for the next legislative level above them.
Loudoun, halfway between Charles Town, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., has trended blue in recent years amid exurban sprawl from liberal Washingtonians leaving the District of Columbia – and has been the epicenter of national controversies over transgender policies and in-school assaults.
Additionally, the upset of now-former U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., in Lynchburg set the stage for a third special election as Democrats control the Virginia state Senate by a sole vote amid Republican Glenn Youngkin’s governorship.
While Democrats appear favored in the pair of Loudoun races, political watchers are keying into Republicans’ performance in the albeit typically low-turnout affairs as a sign of things to come once Youngkin is term-limited from his perch later this year.
Virginia and New Jersey – two states where President-elect Trump and the GOP overperformed but still lost – host odd-year governorship elections that the mogul’s 2024 performance already presaged as must-watch.
Youngkin’s performance in Loudoun and other blue counties didn’t win him the areas outright but drew enough votes from former Gov. Terry McAuliffe to score a major statewide upset in 2021.
The GOP is hoping for a similar performance this fall, and a win in both the one Loudoun and one Southside Senate seats would shift control of the chamber to Republicans.
A win by Republicans in the delegate seat would also lead to a tied lower chamber, knocking Democrats out of sole leadership. A GOP sweep would give the party full control in Richmond not seen since George W. Bush was president.
Youngkin told Fox News Digital on Friday he is bullish on Republicans’ chances on Tuesday, saying that the two Loudoun candidates particularly have a chance to build on what he has long dubbed Virginia’s success story:
"Tumay Harding and Ram Venkatachalam are commonsense conservative leaders who will be incredible partners in our work to provide further tax relief for Virginia families, address the most hated car tax, protect our communities from dangerous sanctuary city policies, and keep parents at the head seat of the table in their children’s lives," Youngkin said.
"I look forward to rallying with Tumay, Ram, and Virginians who are ready to bring strong representation for Loudoun County in Richmond."
Delegate Kannan Srinivasan, D-Brambleton, announced a bid to succeed U.S. Rep-elect Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., after the latter won the open seat of retiring Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va.
That left Srinivasan’s House of Delegates seat open.
Venkatachalam, an Indian immigrant and IT professional for Deloitte, highlighted on his campaign site his positions on several Loudoun community boards, and his focus on lowering taxes and heightening public safety.
Singh, a former adviser to Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., and a Peace Corps veteran, is the Democratic candidate.
"Voters are experiencing a range of emotions after Trump won the election – there’s anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness," Singh told Politico.
"But when you communicate the stakes of this special election… the enthusiasm jolts right up."
In turn, Srinivasan – who was then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s appointee to the state Medicaid board – is facing Harding, a teacher and small business owner, for the open state Senate seat surrounding John Foster Dulles International Airport.
In Southside Virginia, with Rep-elect. John McGuire, R-Va., having unseated Good in Congress, his heavily-Republican state Senate district has been left without an occupant.
The sprawling district, covering all or parts of nearly a dozen counties between Interstate 64 and US-460, includes a diverse mix of Richmond exurbs, iconic Civil War sites and agricultural lands.
Professor Jack Trammell, of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, is the Democrat facing off against Republican Luther Cifers.
Cifers, who grew up in a farming area outside Amelia Court House, Virginia, and now owns a company specializing in kayaking and fishing products, is heavily favored based on historical data.
"I’m not a politician, but I believe our government functions best when working citizens participate," Cifers said in a statement on his website.
Meanwhile, Trammell said in a statement released by the Henrico Democrats that he and his volunteers have been "out across the district talking to voters at events, on their porches, and over the phone."
Additional pardons, measures to prevent homegrown political extremism, and more military aid for Israel are among the plans that Biden and his administration have during their final days before passing the baton to President-elect Donald Trump and his team.
Biden will end his presidency with one more international trip, during which he will travel to Italy and Vatican City to meet with Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella. Biden's trip to the Vatican is aimed at discussing ways to advance peace around the world with Pope Francis, and his time with Italy's heads of state will serve to highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy alliance, the White House said. Biden also plans to thank Meloni for her leadership of the G7 over the last year and discuss future challenges facing the globe's leading nations.
Upon Biden's return from overseas, the president will address the nation twice more before Trump's inauguration, sources in the Biden administration told NBC News. The first speech will focus on foreign policy, while the second will serve as a farewell address for Biden to be held during his final days in the Oval Office. Neither speech has been fully drafted, sources said Saturday.
Sources familiar also indicated that Biden is considering additional pardons for people deemed to have been given unusually harsh sentences, measures to combat domestic violent extremism in the U.S., and additional military funding – roughly $8 billion, the State Department said – to Israel amid its ongoing war with Hamas.
The pardons come after Biden set a record for the largest single-day act of clemency when he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people in mid-December. Sources told NBC News that Biden was also still considering pre-emptive pardons for those who might face political retribution from Trump.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice indicated Monday that it was still weighing whether to prosecute an additional 200 Jan. 6 cases in the final days before Trump takes office, during which he is expected to grant pardons to many of those who were convicted of crimes related to their participation in the events of that day.
In addition to the plans of action that Biden and his administration plan to take ahead of Trump's inauguration, it is also notable that Biden will not act on pressure to bolster protections for transgender student athletes or cancel any additional student loan debt, according to the Associated Press.
Biden's actions after Trump's election victory in November have garnered criticism from both sides of the aisle.
"This is one of the lamest of lame ducks we’ve seen with a Democratic administration," a spokesperson for progressive nonprofit Justice Democrats said last month. "There is no leadership coming from the White House," a Democrat close to senior lawmakers also said. "There is a total vacuum."
Some Democrat lawmakers, such as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, were angry at Biden's lack of resistance to many of Trump's Cabinet picks.
Republicans, on the other hand, have challenged Biden's actions during the final weeks of his presidency as an affront to the American public who voted for Trump.
"On his way out the door, President Biden is governing as he has always wanted, as a far-left ideologue hellbent on pushing the country in a direction detached from the will of the voters," GOP campaign strategist Colin Reed said.
"While Trump can undo whatever Biden does, Biden is trying to create litigation traps for Trump that will discourage investors from projects on public lands," added American Energy Institute fellow Steve Milloy after news broke Monday that Biden was once again moving to restrict domestic energy production on certain land. This move is part of a series of actions Biden has taken in his final weeks to strengthen the country's defenses against Trump's plans to reverse many of his green energy initiatives.
Trump blasted Biden's last-minute policy decisions in an interview Monday, calling out the lame-duck president for making a "smooth transition" more difficult.
"I see it just came over that Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory. It's just ridiculous. I'll un-ban it immediately. I have the right to un-ban it immediately. What's he doing? Why is he doing it?" Trump said during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. "You know we have something that nobody else has. Nobody has to the extent we have it, and it'll be more by the time we finish, because I'll be able to expand."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Former President Jimmy Carter’s body will be brought to the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday afternoon where he will lie in state for three days before a state funeral in Washington, D.C.
Carter died last week on Dec. 29, at the age of 100. His death came just over a year after the passing of his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other congressional leaders announced last month that Carter would lie in state, writing a letter to his son, James Carter III.
"In recognition of President Carter’s long and distinguished service to the nation, it is our intention to ask the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate to permit his remains lie in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol," the leaders wrote.
"With your approval, we will move forward with these arrangements so that the American people have the opportunity to pay their respects to President Carter before he is laid to rest."
Carter’s ceremonial arrival to the Capitol Rotunda is expected on Tuesday afternoon, and will feature remarks from Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Members of the public will be able to view Carter’s casket from early Wednesday through early morning Thursday.
The former Democratic commander in chief’s body arrives in Washington, D.C., Tuesday afternoon lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
A week-long memorial began in Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia, on Saturday morning. Former U.S. Secret Service agents who protected Carter carried his casket as pallbearers when it left the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center.
"Every overpass had people on it. It was amazing and gave you goosebumps just to sit in the van and see the reactions of the people of Georgia," his son said at the funeral in Atlanta.
Carter’s state funeral service will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday morning. The former president will then end his final journey with a private funeral service in Plains, before being interred in a private ceremony at the Carter family residence.
