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President Donald Trump on Friday announced he is revoking former President Joe Biden’s security clearances and stopping his daily intelligence briefings.

‘There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,’ Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Friday night.

The privileges will be revoked immediately, according to the president.

He added the precedent was set by Biden himself.

‘He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents,’ Trump wrote. 

The president noted the Hur Report, which he claimed ‘revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information,’ according to the post.

Special Counsel Robert Hur submitted a report on Biden’s alleged improper retention of classified records, which confirmed the former president’s frequent memory lapses and contradicted his claims.

Hur also testified in March that he found evidence that ‘pride and money’ motivated Biden to retain classified documents.

However, he did not recommend criminal charges against Biden.

Trump wrote in the post that he will always protect National Security.

‘JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,’ he wrote.

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Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk’s efforts to clean up waste and fraud in the federal government will soon shift its focus to the Social Security Administration (SSA) in a move likely to create a firestorm with Democrats.

The SSA, created by the Social Security Act under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 and tasked with establishing a federal benefits system for older Americans, will soon become a focus of DOGE, according to a report from Semafor that was not denied by the White House when contacted by Fox News Digital.

While several Democrats — including Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., in a post on X — have been quick to accuse this move as being aimed at slashing Social Security benefits for the elderly, several areas with potential waste exist in the agency that don’t involve cutting current benefits. 

Just Facts, a nonprofit research institute, previously reported that the agency disbursed roughly $2 billion in fraudulent or improper payments in 2022, which it calculated was enough ‘to pay 89,947 retired workers the average annual old-age benefit of $21,924 for 2023.’

Just Facts explained that through a policy known as ‘administrative finality,’ once the ‘SSA mistakenly overpays a beneficiary for more than four years, it does not recover past overpayments and deliberately continues to make future overpayments excepting cases of fraud.’

The SSA sent roughly 7,000 federal employees disability benefits in 2008 while they were still taking wages from federal jobs, according to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The GAO estimated that about 1,500 of those individuals ‘may have improperly received benefits’ since their wages went beyond maximum income thresholds. The GAO investigation also found that over 71,000 ‘stimulus checks’ were sent by the Obama administration to people who were deceased, including 63,481 people whose deaths had been previously reported to the agency.

‘Social Security will not be touched, it will only be strengthened,’ President Donald Trump said during a press conference on Friday. ‘We have illegal immigrants on Social Security and we’re going to find out who they are and take them out.’

Trump added, ‘We’re going to strengthen our Social Security, etc. We’re not going to touch it other than to make it stronger. But we have people that shouldn’t be on, and those people we have to weed out, most of them, or many of them, so far, have been illegal immigrants.’

On Friday afternoon, White House Principal Deputy Communications Director Alex Pfeiffer posted a report on X from the Center for Immigration Studies in 2021 that said, ‘We estimate that there are 2.65 million illegal immigrants with Social Security numbers.’

Trump added that DOGE will go through ‘everything’ when it comes to waste and fraud in the federal government.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the SSA said, ‘We remain focused and vigilant on the integrity of our programs and take seriously our responsibilities to deter fraud, waste, and abuse.’

DOGE has dominated news headlines over the past week as Musk’s team has moved to slash USAID’s $40 billion spending budget and put on leave the vast majority of its employees, as photos of the sign at the door of the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters being taken down have circulated on social media.

Musk has said that both he and Trump ‘agreed’ that the agency should be ‘shut down.’ Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been named acting director of the independent agency, on Monday echoed the sentiment, telling reporters, ‘USAID is not functioning.’

‘It needs to be aligned with the national interest of the U.S. They’re not a global charity, these are taxpayer dollars. People are asking simple questions. What are they doing with the money?’ Rubio continued. ‘We are spending taxpayers’ money. We owe the taxpayers assurances that it furthers our national interest.’

Democrats held a rally outside the Treasury Department earlier this week blasting the DOGE efforts as a threat to democracy. 

‘Elon Musk is a Nazi nepo baby, a godless lawless billionaire, who no one elected,’ Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said at a rally, sparking pushback from conservatives on social media.

‘Elon, this is the American people. This is not your trashy Cybertruck that you can just dismantle, pick apart, and sell the pieces of.’

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

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Rep. Jim Jordan, GOP chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., sent employees from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office requests Thursday to hand over documents and interviews related to the Jan. 6 Committee as they continue investigating District Attorney Fani Willis. 

‘The committee previously wrote to District Attorney Willis requesting documents relating to her coordination with the January 6 Select Committee. Because District Attorney Willis has declined to cooperate, the committee must pursue other avenues to obtain this information,’ a press release states. 

Jordan and Loudermilk sent letters to Assistant Chief Investigator Michael Hill, Assistant Chief Investigator Trina Swanson-Lucas, Chief Senior District Attorney Donald Wakeford and Deputy District Attorney Will Wooten, requesting ‘all documents and communications’ between the employees and ‘any member, staff member, agent, or representative of the January 6 Selection Committee.’ 

The letters also request the employees hand over ‘all documents and communications referring or relating to records in your possession obtained’ from the Jan. 6 Committee. 

All employees were asked to submit the requested documentation no later than Feb. 20. 

The letters sent Thursday say the lawmakers had previously written to Willis ‘requesting documents relating to her coordination with the January 6 Select Committee.’

The lawmakers say they received a letter from Willis in December in which she confirmed the requested documents existed ‘but declined to produce such materials on the grounds that the materials were ‘protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege, work product privilege, and other common law protections.”

The DA’s office asserted the same claim in a court filing that same month when it declined to turn over any new communications between Willis and special counsel Jack Smith, who had also been investigating alleged efforts by President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The filing asserted that the documents either did not exist or were exempt from disclosure under Georgia law.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney had previously ordered Willis to produce any records of communication with either Smith or the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 within five business days. In doing so, the judge sided with Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group that had filed suit against Willis, determining that Willis had violated the state’s open records act by failing to respond to the lawsuit. 

The House Judiciary Committee launched its investigation into whether Willis coordinated with the House Jan. 6 Committee in December 2023. Jordan and Loudermilk took the lead on the probe after learning that Willis’ office ‘coordinated its investigative actions with the partisan Select Committee.’

The lawmakers said at the time that Willis asked the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 to share evidence with her office.

Willis charged Trump with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act, three counts of criminal solicitation, six counts of criminal conspiracy, one count of filing false documents and two counts of making false statements. 

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hill, Swanson-Lucas, Wakeford, Wooten and the DA’s Office but did not immediately hear back. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

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President Donald Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House Friday and said the U.S. will have relations with the North Korean regime of dictator Kim Jong Un.

‘We will have relations with North Korea, with Kim Jong Un. I get along with them very well,’ Trump told reporters alongside Ishiba.

Trump, who first met Kim in 2018 in Singapore and became the first sitting president to meet with the leader of North Korea, is looking to build off his personal diplomacy he established with Kim during his first term.

‘We had a good relationship. And I think it’s a very big asset for everybody that I do get along with them,’ the president said. 

Trump met Kim again in 2019 and became the first president to step foot inside North Korean territory from the demilitarized zone.

Trump said Japan would welcome renewed dialogue with North Korea because relations between Japan and North Korea remain tense since diplomatic relations have never been established.

‘And I can tell you that Japan likes the idea because their relationship is not very good with him,’ Trump said.

Ishiba said it’s a positive development Trump and Kim met during Trump’s first term. And now that he has returned to power, the U.S., Japan and its allies can move toward resolving issues with North Korea, including denuclearization.

‘Japan and U.S. will work together toward the complete denuclearization of North Korea,’ Ishiba added.

Prime Minister Ishiba also addressed a grievance involving the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Although North Korea released some of the prisoners in the early 2000s, Pyongyang never provided Japan with any explanation for the abduction of its citizens, and there can be no normalization of relations between Japan and North Korea until the issue is resolved.

‘And so our time is limited,’ Ishiba warned.

‘So, I don’t know if the president of the United States, if President Trump is able to resolve this issue. We do understand that it’s a Japan issue, first and foremost. Having said that, we would love to continue to cooperate with them,’ the prime minister added.

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President Donald Trump on Friday announced he is revoking former President Joe Biden’s security clearance and stopping his daily intelligence briefings.

‘There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,’ Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Friday night.

The privileges will be revoked immediately, according to the President.

He added the precedent was set by Biden himself.

‘He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents,’ Trump wrote. 

The president noted the Hur Report, which he claimed ‘revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information,’ according to the post.

Trump said he will always protect National Security.

‘JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,’ he wrote.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the Court’s 2024 presidential immunity case in her first public appearance since the start of the second Trump term, saying it places the Court’s legitimacy on the line. 

Sotomayor made the comments during an appearance in Louisville, Kentucky, during which she was asked a range of questions, including the public’s perception of the high court, according to the Associated Press. Sotomayor’s comments are her first in public since President Donald Trump took office last month. 

‘If we as a court go so much further ahead of people, our legitimacy is going to be questioned,’ Sotomayor said during the Louisville event. ‘I think the immunity case is one of those situations. I don’t think that Americans have accepted that anyone should be above the law in America. Our equality as people was the foundation of our society and of our Constitution.’

In a 6-3 decision in July 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts.

The case stemmed from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal election interference case in which he charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. 

Sotomayor notably wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying the decision ‘makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law.’

‘Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law,’ the dissent continued. ‘Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.’

During her Louisville appearance, Sotomayor shared that she ‘had a hard time with the immunity case,’ saying the Constitution contains provisions ‘not exempting the president from criminal activity after an impeachment.’

Sotomayor warned that if the Court were to continue down the same path, the Court’s legitimacy would ultimately be at risk. 

‘And if we continue going in directions that the public is going to find hard to understand, we’re placing the court at risk,’ Sotomayor said. 

When asked for comment, a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘This historic 6-3 ruling speaks for itself.’

The justice suggested that one way to resolve the public’s distrust in the Court would be to slow down in overturning precedent. The Court has, in recent years, overturned various landmark decisions, including Roe v. Wade in 2022, and striking down affirmative action in college admissions in 2023 and the Chevron doctrine in 2024. 

‘I think that creates instability in the society, in people’s perception of law and people’s perception of whether we’re doing things because of legal analysis or because of partisan views,’ Sotomayor said. ‘Whether those views are accurate or not, I don’t accuse my colleagues of being partisan.’

Sotomayor made similar comments in 2023, saying she had a ‘a sense of despair’ about the Court’s direction following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe. Sotomayor did not name the case specifically. 

However, the justice said she did not have the luxury to dwell on those feelings.

‘It’s not an option to fall into despair,’ Sotomayor said. ‘I have to get up and keep fighting.’

Fox News Digital’s Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been told to remove words frequently associated with progressive gender ideology from research manuscripts that they intend to publish.

A screenshot of a leaked internal email sent out to CDC staff, obtained by the newsletter Inside Medicine, showed a list of terms and phrases that must be removed from scientific manuscripts produced by the agency’s researchers and intended for publication. 

Those terms included: ‘gender,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘pregnant person,’ ‘pregnant people,’ ‘LGBT,’ ‘transsexual,’ ‘non-binary,’ ‘nonbinary,’ ‘assigned male at birth,’ ‘assigned female at birth,’ ‘biologically male’ and ‘biologically female.’ According to the Washington Post, the list includes about 20 terms. They indicated that the directive also ordered the removal of any use of ‘they/them.’ 

The rule affects manuscripts under review, as well as those accepted but not yet published, no matter whether they are intended for internal circulation only or circulation outside the CDC.

A CDC spokesperson told Fox News Digital that ‘All changes to HHS and HHS division websites/manuscripts are in accordance with President Trump’s January 20 Executive Orders.’

After taking office last month, President Donald Trump signed a slew of Day One executive orders, including one that attempts to root out ‘gender ideology extremism’ and restore ‘biological truth’ to the federal government. Meanwhile, in line with that order, the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management issued a memo a little over a week later calling on all federal agencies to ‘take prompt actions to end all agency programs that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology.’

In addition to the terms, CDC web pages titled ‘Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth | Adolescent and School Health’ and ‘April 18 is National Transgender HIV Testing Day’ have also been removed.

The removal of the terms may make it hard to read surveys and research that utilizes them as demographic identifiers, The Post reported. 

‘If you are trying to optimize society, you can’t just pretend some people aren’t in it,’ executive director of the National LGBTQI+ Cancer Network, Scout, who legally goes by only one name, told The Post.

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: Republican lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to investigate President Biden’s dismissal of a lawsuit claiming millions in fraud from a green energy project the day after the 2024 election.

In 2011, President Barack Obama’s Treasury Department granted Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC hundreds of millions of dollars for the construction of a green energy solar plant, the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, in Nevada.

However, the energy group was eventually sued by CMB Export, LLC for alleged fraud involving approximately $275 million of taxpayer dollars in a qui tam lawsuit, which is a case on behalf of the government claiming fraud against federal programs. The case was being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ), until the Biden administration filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Nov. 6, 2024 – the day after the presidential election.

In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, obtained first by Fox News Digital, Republican Reps. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and Carol Miller, R-W.Va., are sounding the alarm over the previous administration’s decision to halt the potential recovery of taxpayer funds.

‘Despite investing three and a half years in investigating this case, it is deeply troubling that the DOJ reversed its position shortly after the presidential election, claiming the dismissal was in public interest and citing undue burdens on federal agencies,’ the letter reads. ‘This decision is perplexing, given that the government stands to lose nothing by allowing CMB Export, LLC, to proceed with the case.’

The letter asks that Bondi investigate the Biden administration’s rationale for dismissal, potential conflicts of interest, timeline of events, and accountability regarding the possible misuse of taxpayer funds.

‘The American people soundly rejected the Biden administration’s radical Green New Deal agenda and fraudulent coverups when they voted for President Trump,’ Miller told Fox News Digital. ‘Our understanding is the Crescent Dunes project was an energy proposal that cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, produced less energy than promised, and posed safety concerns for individuals working on the project. With President Trump back in the White House, transparency is now the standard for the federal government.’

Biden’s DOJ claimed the dismissal was ‘commensurate with the public interest,’ and that litigation obligations would impose ‘an undue burden’ on the government, two claims that are being called into question in the new letter.

The letter asks if there is any evidence that the timing of the motion was politically influenced, coming right after the election loss, and if the DOJ’s decision to dismiss a case that seeks to recover taxpayer dollars conflicts with its responsibility to uphold accountability in cases of alleged fraud against the government.

‘The allegations in this case represent not just potential financial fraud but a breach of public trust,’ the Republican lawmakers wrote. ‘The Crescent Dunes project, like other failed ‘green energy’ initiatives, has already cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and the dismissal of this case raised serious concerns about the previous administration’s commitment to protecting public funds and prosecuting fraud.’

The lawmakers asked that the DOJ conduct an internal investigation into the case, and upon reevaluation, consider allowing CMB Export, LLC, to continue its charge against the solar company.

‘The American people deserve accountability and transparency in how their tax dollars are used, especially in cases involving allegations of fraud on such a significant scale,’ the letter reads.

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Senate Republicans are moving full steam ahead with their plans for a massive conservative policy overhaul through the budget reconciliation process, despite House GOP leaders still insisting their chamber is set to go first. 

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., unveiled a 61-page resolution that would fund President Donald Trump’s priorities for border security, fossil fuel energy and national defense.

It would fund completion of Trump’s border wall, as well as provide dollars for more beds in detention centers at the border. The bill would also include funds to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, hire more personnel patrolling the border and increase the number of immigration judges in order to process the backlog of existing asylum cases.

On energy, the bill is aimed at ramping up offshore drilling leases and stopping the Biden administration’s methane emissions fee.

The legislation would also fund increased military readiness, grow the U.S. Navy and build an ‘integrated air and missile defense to counter threats,’ according to a summary provided by Graham’s office.

Graham also signaled the bill would be deficit-neutral, with his press release stating that its $342 billion in new spending will be offset by the same amount of money in savings.

Per the Senate’s plan to split Trump’s reconciliation priorities into two bills, it is expected that extensions to Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – as well as other key Trump proposals, such as eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages – will be in a second plan released at a later date.

Republicans plan to use their majorities in the House and Senate to pass a wide swath of Trump policy initiatives, from extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to funneling more cash to operations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The budget reconciliation process makes that possible by lowering the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a simple 51-seat majority. Because the House already operates on a simple majority threshold, it will allow Republicans to skirt Democratic opposition to pass their agenda – provided the measures included involve budgetary or other fiscal matters, as reconciliation rules call for.

The first step in reconciliation is advancing a resolution through the House and Senate budget committees, which will then give instructions to other committees of jurisdiction that will eventually form a final bill.

The Senate’s plan differs significantly from the House’s intended approach.

While both sides agree on what should be passed via reconciliation, House GOP leaders and Republicans on the Ways & Means Committee are concerned that the intense political maneuvering the process takes will mean they run out of time before passing a second bill with Trump’s tax cuts at the end of this year.

A Ways & Means Committee memo sent earlier this year projected the average American household could see taxes rise by over 20% if those provisions expire at the end of 2025.

Trump himself has repeatedly called for ‘one big, beautiful bill’ but said he ultimately was not concerned about the packaging as long as all of his priorities were passed.

House Republicans had intended to move one bill through their budget panel this week, but the process was stalled as spending hawks pushed for deeper funding cuts than what GOP leaders initially proposed.

Conservatives have insisted that any plan Republicans pass must be deficit-reducing or deficit-neutral.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Friday morning that he was playing ‘phone tag’ with Graham due to their schedules but signaled he still intended for the House to move ahead with their plan next week.

‘I sent him a text message early this morning and explained where we are in the process and how it’s moving aggressively,’ Johnson said.

He told reporters he hoped for a House Budget Committee markup of the bill as early as Tuesday. 

Graham, meanwhile, intends to advance his bill through committee on Wednesday and Thursday.

Senate Republicans are meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night.

Fox News’ Daniel Scully contributed to this report.

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The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the attorney general are expected to release their proposed plan for the declassification of the JFK files on Friday. 

Both offices, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Counsel to the President, have until the end of the day Friday to release their proposed plan. 

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. 

‘Everything will be revealed,’ Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office.

The executive order came after Trump had previously promised on the campaign trail to declassify the documents upon entering his second term, saying at the time, ‘When I return to the White House, I will declassify and unseal all JFK assassination-related documents. It’s been 60 years, time for the American people to know the truth.’

Trump had initially promised to release the last batch of documents during his first term, but such efforts ultimately dissipated. Trump then blocked the release of hundreds of records on the assassination following several CIA and FBI appeals.

‘I have no choice,’ Trump said in a memo, where he cited ‘potentially irreversible harm’ to national security if he allowed the records to be released. Trump said at the time the potential harm to U.S. national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs is ‘of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure.’

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was sworn in on Wednesday, is in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the day to survey Super Bowl LIX security. Bondi’s first full day on the job is part of an effort to highlight the administration’s broader commitment to crack down on violent crime and acts of terrorism.

Bondi has yet to formally address Trump’s order to declassify the JFK assassination files and her approach to the task. 

Fox News Digital learned shortly after she was sworn in that the new AG would be issuing several major directives on her first day, including orders to combat the weaponization of the legal system and making prosecutors seek the death penalty when appropriate. 

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for DNI, successfully advanced out of the Intel Committee this week, with all Republican members voting in her favor. 

Gabbard has faced questions during her confirmation process regarding her past meeting with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, her previous FISA Section 702 stance and her past support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden

Fox News’ David Spunt, Breanne Deppisch, Julia Johnson and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

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