EXCLUSIVE: WASHINGTON—A previously identified anti-Trump FBI agent allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau’s original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Donald Trump to the probe without sufficient predication, whistleblower disclosures obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed. 

That investigation into Trump was formally opened at the FBI on April 13, 2022, and was known inside the bureau as "Arctic Frost," Fox News Digital has learned. 

EX-FBI OFFICIAL WHO SHUT DOWN HUNTER BIDEN LINES OF INVESTIGATION VIOLATED HATCH ACT WITH ANTI-TRUMP POSTS 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson shared internal FBI emails and predicating documents — legally protected whistleblower disclosures — exclusively with Fox News Digital. 

The senators say the documents prove the genesis of the federal election interference case brought against Trump began at the hands of FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault. 

Fox News Digital exclusively reported in 2024 that Thibault had been fired from the FBI after he violated the Hatch Act in his political posts on social media. Previous whistleblowers claimed that Thibault had shown a "pattern of active public partisanship," which likely affected investigations involving Trump and Hunter Biden. 

Grassley first publicly revealed the existence of the whistleblower disclosures during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to serve as FBI director, Kash Patel, on Thursday. 

One email, obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, revealed Thibault communicating with a subordinate agent on Feb. 14, 2022. 

Thibault said: "Here is draft opening language we discussed," and attached material that would later become part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector case. 

Another email, sent by Thibault on Feb. 24, 2022, to a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, John Crabb, states: "I had a discussion with the case team and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject." 

Sources told Fox News Digital, though, that Thibault took the action to open the investigation and involve Trump, despite being unauthorized to open criminal investigations in his role — only special agents have the authority to open criminal investigations. 

Another email, sent on the same day, notes that he would seek approval from Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to open the case. 

Next, an email on Feb. 25, 2022, sent by a subordinate agent, Michelle Ball, to Thibault states that they added Trump and others as a criminal subject to the case. 

Thibault responded: "Perfect." 

The fifth email, reviewed by Fox News Digital, reveals Thibault emailing a version of an investigative opening for approval. However, this email did not include Trump as a criminal subject. 

The sixth email, from April 11, 2022, shows Thibault approving the opening of Arctic Frost, and the next email, on April 13, 2022, was from an FBI agent to Thibault stating that the FBI deputy director approved its opening. 

Another email reviewed by Fox News Digital shows Thibault emailing DOJ official John Crabb notifying him that the elector case was approved. 

Crabb responded, "Thanks a lot. Let’s talk next week."

"Between March 22 and April 13, other versions of the document opening the investigation existed, because a ninth email shows that the FBI General Counsel’s office made edits on March 25," Grassley said during Patel's confirmation hearing Thursday. "Was Trump still removed as an investigative subject?  If so, which Justice Department and FBI officials – other than Jack Smith – later added him for prosecution?" 

The email records appear to show that an official in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, Richard Pilger, reviewed and approved the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation, authorizing DOJ to move forward with a full field criminal and grand jury investigation that ultimately transformed into Special Counsel Jack Smith's Trump-elector case. 

Grassley, in 2021, published a report which raised concerns regarding Pilger’s record at DOJ.

Fox News Digital first reported in July 2022 that Grassley warned Attorney General Merrick Garland that Thibault and Pilger were "deeply involved in the decisions to open and pursue election-related investigations against President Trump."

GRASSLEY PRESSES DOJ, FBI FOR TRANSPARENCY ON 'PARTISAN' POLITICIZATION OF AGENCIES, HUNTER BIDEN PROBE

At the time, whistleblowers told Grassley that the Thibault-Pilger investigation's predicating document was based on information from "liberal nonprofit American Oversight." 

In the investigation’s opening memo sent to the upper levels of the DOJ for approval, however, whistleblowers claimed Thibault and Pilger "removed or watered-down material connected to the aforementioned left-wing entities that existed in previous versions and recommended that a full investigation — not a preliminary investigation — be approved."

Based on Smith’s scope memo, Grassley and Johnson, in 2022, wrote that the Thibault-Pilger investigation was included in the special counsel’s jurisdiction.

They also pointed out that Smith had a prior relationship with Pilger. Smith was in charge of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Unit while Pilger was in charge of the Election Crimes Branch.

Grassley and Johnson, in 2022, began sounding the alarm that Special Counsel Jack Smith was "overseeing an investigation that was allegedly defective in its initial steps and an investigation which his former subordinate [Pilger] was involved in opening." 

Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith, a former Justice Department official, as special counsel in November 2022. 

Smith, a former assistant U.S. attorney and chief to the DOJ's public integrity section, led the investigation into Trump's retention of classified documents after leaving the White House and whether the former president obstructed the federal government's investigation into the matter. 

HOUSE WEAPONIZATION PANEL RELEASES 17,000-PAGE REPORT EXPOSING 'TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT'

Smith also was tasked with overseeing the investigation into whether Trump or other officials and entities interfered with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, including the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Smith charged Trump in both cases, but Trump pleaded not guilty.

The classified records case was dismissed in July 2024 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Smith was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. 

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Smith charged Trump in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., in his 2020 election case, but after Trump was elected president, Smith sought to dismiss the case. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted that request. 

Grassley, during the confirmation hearing on Thursday, said he is requesting "the production of all records on this matter to better understand the full fact pattern and whether other records exist." 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

Google Maps is planning to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename several American landmarks, including the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a press conference on Wednesday that Mexico will send a letter to Google questioning its choice to update the body of water’s name. […]

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Six people from the Skating Club of Boston were killed when a passenger airliner collided with a U.S. Army helicopter near Reagan International Airport, CEO Doug Zeghibe said Thursday.

Two athletes, Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, two coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, and Jin Han, the mother of Jinna, and Molly Lane, the mother of Spencer, were identified as the victims with ties to the skate club.

"Our sport and this Club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy," Zeghibe said in a statement posted to social media. "Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together 6 of 7 days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family. Of the skaters, coaches and parents on the plane, we believe six were from The Skating Club of Boston. We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.

"These athletes, coaches, parents were returning from U.S. Figure Skating’s National Development Camp, following last week’s U.S. Championships in Wichita. This camp is for young competitive skaters of tomorrow with the promise to be a champion of tomorrow. The club sent 18 athletes to compete at the U.S. Championships. It sent 12 athletes to the National Development Camp."

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, confirmed earlier Thursday that Naumov and Shishkova were among those on board the plane.

This is a breaking news update. Check back for details.

EXCLUSIVE: House Republican leadership is encouraging lawmakers to back up President Donald Trump's desire to return the Panama Canal to U.S. ownership, a new memo suggests.

The House GOP Policy Committee, led by Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the No. 5 House Republican leader, sent the document to legislative directors across the conference on Wednesday.

The two-page memo, simply titled "Panama Canal," begins by highlighting Trump's past comments about China's influence over the Panama Canal and his goal of "taking it back." 

It also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be visiting Panama on his first trip as Trump's top diplomat.

MARCO RUBIO HEADING TO PANAMA ON FIRST TRIP AS SECRETARY OF STATE 

The next section details the history of the U.S. and the Panama Canal: "The Panama Canal was built by the U.S. between 1904 and 1914. The canal was leased to the U.S. for nearly 75 years under the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 which established the Panama Canal Zone and the subsequent construction of the Panama Canal."

It also points out that it was under the late former President Jimmy Carter that Panama was given control of the canal, via treaties later criticized by Trump.

The treaties with Carter "gave the U.S. the permanent explicit right to intervene to keep the canal open in the event of any threat that may interfere with the canal’s continued neutral service to ships from all nations," the memo said before laying out arguments for why Republicans believe Panama has since violated its end of the deal.

"About 5% of global maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal, saving 6,835 miles off a journey that would otherwise require a long and dangerous trip skirting the southern tip of South America," the memo states. "The United States is Panama’s largest provider of foreign direct investment—$3.8 billion annually."

RUSSIA SOUNDS OFF ON TRUMP’S THREAT TO RETAKE THE PANAMA CANAL 

Meanwhile, "Chinese companies now operate ports at both ends of the canal. Chinese construction companies in 2018 funded a $1.4 billion bridge project spanning the canal," it reads.

"The treaties require that transit fees be ‘just, reasonable, equitable, and consistent with international law,"’ and that Panama maintain the canal’s permanent neutrality," the memo said. "The high fees charged by Panama as well as Panama’s openness to investment by the Chinese Communist Party in the canal zone are likely both in breach of the terms of the treaties."

Congress has already granted the president wide authority over international commerce in the event of an emergency, but GOP lawmakers have signaled they want to ease those guardrails further.

Main Street Caucus Chairman Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., introduced a bill earlier this month to let Trump re-purchase the Panama Canal for the U.S.

A short while later, freshman Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., unveiled legislation to widen Trump’s non-emergency tariff power.

And Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., has a bill to authorize Trump to enter into negotiations to buy Greenland.

The memo from Hern’s policy committee is notable, however, as an apparent subtle marching order to the House GOP conference to continue down that path.

It could also likely embolden Republican lawmakers to find legislative avenues to further back up Trump’s push to purchase the canal, particularly given the Panamanian government’s opposition to the U.S. president’s plan.

Amazon is letting go of some employees in its communications and sustainability divisions, CNBC reported, citing an internal memo from Drew Herdener, the executive overseeing those areas. According to the message viewed by CNBC, Herdener explained that the company is […]

The post Amazon lays off employees in communications and sustainability units in latest round of cuts first appeared on Tech Startups.

• An American Airlines flight collided with a Black Hawk helicopter in Washington DC.
• The nation's capital is home to some of the most congested and highly governed airspace.
• Reagan National Airport has the US' busiest runway, with over 800 flights a day.

An American Airlines flight and a military helicopter collided late Wednesday in one of the most congested and tightly controlled airspaces in the country.

Washington, DC's Reagan National Airport is home to the country's busiest runway, with over 800 takeoffs and landings a day, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. It's the closest of three area airports to the city, located about three miles south of the White House.

Military helicopters also frequently fly low over the nearby Potomac River, transiting between nearby military bases and the Pentagon, about a mile north of the airport.

Flying into and out of the airport, with short runways and such heavily restricted airspace nearby, is "like threading a needle," one pilot previously told Business Insider.

"It's a beehive of activity," Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and spokesperson for its pilot union, told The Washington Post. "It's extremely compact, and it's a high volume of traffic."

Search efforts for the 64 people on board American Eagle Flight 5342 continued through the night. At a press conference Thursday morning, Washington, DC's fire chief said that no survivors are expected.

The Bombardier CRJ700 was operated by PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary of American Airlines. It collided with a military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people.

Along with New York's LaGuardia Airport, Reagan is one of two in the country subject to a perimeter rule. At Reagan, this limits routes to a distance of 1,250 miles — although Congress has increasingly approved more slots to operate beyond this, making the airport busier.

Unions and regulators have raised concerns about the country's air traffic system after several near-misses in recent years.

"We've had so many close calls with runway incursions and commercial flights almost colliding, and when something repeats over and over again, we call that a trend," Anthony Brickhouse, a US-based aviation safety expert, told Business Insider.

"We've been trending in this direction for two or three years now, and unfortunately, tonight, it happened," he added.

The National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, and the Pentagon have announced investigations.

The incident brings an end to a remarkable period of aviation safety in the US.

It is the first fatal crash on US soil since 2013. Three people died in July that year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed short of the runway in San Francisco.

Wednesday's crash was also the first involving a US airline on US soil since February 2009, when a Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York.

Fifty people died after the aircraft entered a stall and the pilots failed to respond appropriately.

The Federal Aviation Administration consequently revised its pilot-fatigue rules and required that all airline pilots hold an airline pilot transport license — the highest level of certificate.

Since 2013, only two incidents involving flights on US soil have led to fatalities. One Southwest Airlines passenger died from her injuries in 2018 after she was partially ejected through a broken window.

And in 2019, a man died when PenAir Flight 3296 overshot the runway while landing in Alaska.

In a major security failing, Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek exposed chat history and other sensitive data in a database accessible without any authentication.

The security researchers who discovered the issue say that the exposure included more than a million lines of log entries, which included chat history and secret keys …