Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a swipe at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, mocking him for his ongoing legal battles.

‘Multiple indictments and half a billion dollars in civil liability later, pretty much the only person who can say they were better off four years ago is Donald Trump,’ a message from Clinton’s official account states.

Clinton made the remark on social media platform X Tuesday after an onslaught of legal woes for the former president. Trump defeated Clinton in 2016 to become president.

The comment came after a storm of anger from Trump due to New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling against him in a highly publicized civil fraud case.

In late February, Engoron denied Trump’s request to delay payment of the $464 million owed to the state after Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit but said he will temporarily allow the 2024 frontrunner and his sons to continue running their business during the appeals process.

Trump has not been able to secure a $464 million appeal bond he needs following a New York civil fraud judgment against him, his attorneys say.

In a court filing Monday, his lawyers said obtaining one is a ‘practical impossibility under the circumstances presented.’

The former president was less composed in his protests, writing a long complaint on his social media platform, Truth Social.

‘Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision. In other words, he is trying to take my Appellate Rights away from me. Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before.

‘I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!’

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.

A Florida Republican congressman says he has helped another 13 Americans evacuate Haiti, vowing that U.S. citizens ‘deserve support from their government’ and ‘not the pattern of abandonment this [Biden] administration has shown.’ 

Rep. Cory Mills wrote on X that the Americans were airlifted from Port-au-Prince, which has become overrun by violent gangs in recent weeks despite Prime Minister Ariel Henry declaring that he would step down. 

‘It’s with great pride I announce that our team successfully conducted another rescue of 13 Americans out of PAP Haiti,’ Mills said, his second in the country after extracting 10 U.S. citizens last week. 

On Sunday afternoon, 30 Americans landed in Miami after being evacuated from the northern Haiti city of Cap-Haïtien on a U.S. government-chartered flight. 

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said Monday that nearly 1,000 Americans have filled out a ‘crisis intake form’ seeking assistance in Haiti.  

‘It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world,’ Patel added. ‘Gang violence continues to make the security situation in Haiti untenable, and it is a region that demands our attention.’   

The 10 Americans evacuated by Mills from Haiti last week had worked at the Have Faith Orphanage in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.  

‘This mission reiterates a disturbing reality under President Biden’s leadership: American lives are continually jeopardized,’ Mills told Fox News Digital at the time. ‘I have led missions to rescue Americans multiple times when Joe Biden has deserted them.’ 

‘There’s a clear pattern of abandonment,’ Mills added, citing his rescue missions in Afghanistan following the U.S. military drawdown in 2021 and the rescue of Americans from Israel in late 2023. ‘Yet again, this group was left behind by Biden and his State Department after requesting their help in-country.’ 

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., promoted former President Trump’s plan for a loan to Ukraine, rather than aid, to continue supporting the country in their war with Russia during his meeting in Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday.

‘I informed him that given the crisis at the United States’ southern border and our overwhelming debt, President Trump’s idea of turning aid from the United States into a no-interest, waivable loan is the most likely path forward,’ Graham announced Monday night. 

A spokesperson for Graham said the visit to Ukraine wasn’t on Trump’s orders, but that the two had discussed his plan for loans rather than foreign aid. 

Trump unveiled the idea last month, saying the U.S. should not give money to other countries anymore as foreign aid, but as loans instead. ‘It can be loaned on extraordinarily good terms, like no interest and an unlimited life, but a loan nevertheless,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. 

Graham quickly agreed with Trump’s proposal, claiming last month, ‘President Trump is right to insist that we think outside the box,’ Axios reported. The South Carolina senator did not vote in favor of the $95 billion aid package designed to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, citing domestic concerns about the southern border. 

‘It is clear Ukrainians appreciate the United States’ support. I know Americans want to help our friends and allies, but I also believe we must consider our economic situation as we help others,’ Graham continued on Monday. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, ‘President Trump has repeatedly stated that a top priority in his second term will be to quickly negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Also, President Trump believes European nations should be paying more of the cost of the conflict, as the U.S. has paid significantly more, which is not fair to our taxpayers.’

‘He will do what is necessary to restore peace and rebuild American strength and deterrence on the world stage, and he is the only person who can make that happen. The war between Russia and Ukraine never would have happened if Donald J. Trump were President. So sad,’ he added. 

It’s unclear whether Zelenskyy is in support of the shift proposed by Trump and reiterated by the senator, but the Ukrainian president shared a video of his and Graham’s meeting on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

According to Zelenskyy, ‘We discussed further comprehensive assistance for Ukraine.’ 

He added that U.S. and other international support is ‘now more important than ever’ as Ukraine looks to implement its plans to beat Russian occupation of its territories. 

Graham additionally said he is ‘urging the Biden Administration to send longer-range artillery, accelerate F-16 training for the Ukrainians, and designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law.’

The White House did not provide comment when contacted by Fox News Digital.

The $95 billion aid package passed the Senate last month, without the support of Graham. But the measure has stalled in the House, where Republican leadership is unlikely to bring it for a vote. Several attempts to bypass the speaker have started among representatives in the form of discharge petitions to force legislation out of committee and onto the floor. A petition would require a majority of members to sign it in order to bypass leadership. 

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are having businessman Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani’s, come to Capitol Hill to participate in the second impeachment inquiry hearing into President Biden on Wednesday.

The Oversight Committee’s GOP majority is investigating accusations that Biden and his family enriched themselves by using his political connections, particularly when he was vice president.

‘This hopeless impeachment investigation originated with a bunch of lies told by an indicted liar in close proximity to Russian agents. So who better than Lev Parnas himself — Rudy Giuliani’s right-hand man on the original mission to smear Joe Biden — to tell the story of how this campaign of lies and slander works? Lev Parnas can debunk the bogus claims at the heart of the impeachment probe and, in the process, explain how the GOP ended up in this degraded and embarrassing place,’ Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the panel, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Parnas previously claimed that he worked with Giuliani in his effort to pressure Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into the Biden family in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison for charges linked to soliciting foreign money for U.S. elections, wire fraud and making false statements, among others. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams had accused him of ‘pumping Russian money into U.S. elections and lying about the source of funds for political contributions.’

Parnas is going to be joined at the Wednesday hearing by former business associates of Hunter Biden, whose foreign business dealings are a particular concern to GOP investigators. One is Tony Bobulinski, who has personally told investigators that the Biden family was selling access to the now-president. The second is Jason Galanis, who is in prison after he pleaded guilty to securities fraud.

Republicans on the Oversight Committee pointed out that Parnas was found guilty of lying and said it was ‘telling’ Democrats did not invite an associate of the Bidens.

‘It’s telling the Democrats didn’t call any of Hunter Biden’s business associates who claim his father’s innocence because they know their testimony won’t withstand public scrutiny. Instead, they are relying on a convicted liar who claims Joe Biden never met with a Burisma official when in fact he dined with one,’ a spokesperson for the committee said.

Fox News Digital previously reported that Democrats were considering inviting Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s ex-lawyer, in a bid to focus attention on Trump’s own foreign business dealings.

A source familiar with those discussions indicated to Fox News Digital that Democrats thought Parnas would be more relevant to their goal of pointing out flaws in the GOP’s investigation. They said, ‘Cohen can speak directly to how Trump used the White House to enrich himself, but Parnas can speak directly to how Trump used discredited sources to fabricate dirt on Biden.’

A spokesperson for Giuliani told Fox News Digital in a statement on his former associate’s upcoming testimony that ‘Lev Parnas is a convicted felon, who was sentenced to prison for serious crimes, including wire fraud and making false statements. In fact, the U.S. attorney’s office refused to use Parnas as a witness because he is a confirmed liar on the very subject matter that partisan Democrats are now calling on him to testify about.’

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan likened a journalist asking about a report that President Biden had grown angry and swore over tanking poll numbers to a ‘when did you stop beating your spouse question.’ 

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy confronted Sullivan during the White House’s daily press briefing about a report published by NBC News with the headline, ‘Behind the scenes, Biden has grown angry and anxious about re-election effort.’ 

Citing an unnamed lawmaker, the report claims that during a private meeting at the White House in January, Biden ‘began to shout and swear,’ when allies of the president told him about slumping poll numbers in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. 

‘There’s a report that when President Biden was told his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas was starting to affect his poll numbers, the quote is he began to shout and swear. So when he does that, is he shouting and swearing about Netanyahu or about Hamas or about his poll numbers?’ Doocy asked Sullivan on Monday. 

‘This is the ‘when did you stop beating your spouse’ question because I don’t think he ever did that,’ Sullivan responded. 

‘Excuse me?’ Doocy interjected, before Sullivan continued. 

‘Well you use that as the premise of your question, which is when he does that. He – I’ve never seen him do that shout or swear in response to that. So from my perspective, that particular report is not correct,’ Sullivan said. 

Earlier, Doocy had asked Sullivan about why Biden has allowed 32 days to pass between phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

‘First of all, our teams are in contact every single day at every level. President Biden gets a daily – twice daily, sometimes nine times daily – update on what is going on. And he reserves his calls for the prime minister for when he believes there’s a clear, key strategic moment that needs to come forward,’ Sullivan said. 

‘Point two, the prime minister, of course, knows how to reach President Biden. If the Prime Minister felt he needed the president for some reason, he would have picked up the phone and called. And of course, in the last 32 days, President Biden has never declined a phone call from Prime Minister Netanyahu,’ he added. 

Parts of Haiti – including an area outside the U.S. embassy – have now plunged into darkness following attacks by vandals on a power plant and four power substations in Port-au-Prince, the country’s national utility says. 

Électricité D’Haïti (EDH) said in a statement on X that ‘several of the company’s premises were sabotaged,’ numerous materials were damaged and documents were destroyed ‘during the latest acts of vandalism perpetrated in recent weeks.’ 

‘Such acts of theft and sabotage only further worsen the financial and technical situation of the company,’ it added, noting that four power substations and the Varreux Power Plant in Port-au-Prince were ‘destroyed and made completely dysfunctional,’ cutting off electricity to dozens of areas including the ‘USA Embassy Entrance’ and a local hospital. 

‘Important documents, electrical installations, cables, inverters, batteries as well as computer and office equipment were taken by these thugs,’ EDH also said. Authorities are working to restore power to the affected areas. 

The development comes after the State Department revealed Monday that nearly 1,000 Americans have filled out a ‘crisis intake form’ seeking assistance in Haiti. 

‘It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world,’ State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said. ‘Gang violence continues to make the security situation in Haiti untenable, and it is a region that demands our attention.’  

‘This is a fluid situation and the number of individuals who have reached out to us through the crisis intake form is approaching a thousand,’ he added, referring to the form on the State Department’s website. 

‘And we’re continuing to monitor the situation closely and evaluate the demand of U.S. citizens, evaluate the overall security situation, evaluate what is feasible when it comes to commercial transportation options, what is feasible for other transportation solutions,’ Patel also said, emphasizing that ‘we have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.’  

The State Department previously has said it is aware of several hundred U.S. citizens being stuck in Haiti. 

If you watch the nine-part series ‘Masters of the Air’ on Apple+ you may not notice that it does not spend much time on the civilian casualties brought about by the unrelenting air war waged by the Allies against the Axis in World War II.

The series was produced by Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg and you will be satisfied at the conclusion of the episodes which are based on the bestseller of the same name by Donald L. Miller. The first few episodes are not for the faint of heart, but neither were any Army Air Corps bombing missions over Europe in World War II.

There are some moments in the course of the series when the viewer glimpses the utter devastation of the bombing of first France and then Germany. The Wehrmacht troops and German civilians are seen repeatedly referring to downed American airmen as ‘terror bombers’ and no doubt the German civilians of 1943-1945 thought of the Army Air Corps and the Royal Air Force in just those terms because precision munitions had not been invented and the dumping of ‘dumb bombs’ was effective only in part, even with technology advances in our bombers sights.

The people of the United States, though, did not worry about hardships visited upon ‘innocent Germans.’ Had Joseph Goebbels put out newsreels featuring Herman Goering complaining about the devastation of civilian neighborhoods in Berlin brought about by Allied bombers, such propaganda would have elicited first enormous scorn and then calls for doubling down on the tonnage of bombs dropped. Millions of Germans were killed or injured because of the war begun by Hitler, and the same is true of Japanese civilians killed by the Allied bombings of the Japanese home islands: the rulers of Imperial Japan brought that upon themselves.

When the United States joined in the international effort to destroy ISIS which culminated in the battle of Mosul which took nine months, from October of 2016 through July of 2017, thousands of innocent Iraqis were killed in that battle which included American air strikes. Again, that terror group had to be destroyed. The inevitable byproduct of war in any urban setting is the death and wounding of civilians. And as with the German, Italian and Japanese aggressors of World War II, ISIS began the war which ended in the destruction of much of Mosul.

Now that the battlefield is the Gaza Strip and specifically the city of Rafah, however, intense pressure is being brought to bear on the Israel Defense Forces (‘IDF’) to limit or even vault their offensive as a result of ‘reports’ of casualties in Gaza put out by Hamas. Neither Israel nor any third party has anything like an exact figure of civilians killed or wounded in the war in Gaza. We cannot believe the Hamas numbers. What we do know is that Israel has no choice but to prosecute the war in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed, it’s senior leadership dead or fled, and a semblance of security returned to the people of Israel.

The mask came off Hamas on 10/7. For 17 years, Israel pursued a policy of co-existence with the terror organization that controlled everything in the Gaza Strip, with Israeli government after government counting on the evolution of Hamas into a governing authoritarian regime but not one devoted to massacring Jews. Now we know that Hamas, whatever else it says or does, is a death cult. If allowed to remain in Gaza in any significant size and with its underground fortress intact, it will be a matter of time until Hamas unleashes another wave of horrific barbarism. This is why Monday’s statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warning Israel against a major ground operation in Rafah makes no sense. Sullivan spoke of alternatives to such an operation but did not detail those alternatives. We have to suspect that Sullivan knows there is no alternative to the brutal tunnel battles ahead unless Sinwar and his fellow Hamas leaders arrange for their evacuation to their paymasters’ home in Iran.

The reliable estimates of Hamas terrorists who are cornered in Rafah and in the warrens of tunnels built over a decade and a half is 10,000 or more. Israel must absolutely enter and subdue all of Rafah, must absolutely map and destroy the underground fortress, and must re-take the ‘Philadelphi Corridor’ between Gaza and Egypt to prevent the reconstruction of tunnels used to smuggle the mind-boggling amount of weaponry that Hamas amassed in Gaza since Israel withdrew from the Strip in 2005.

There is no alternative for Israel unless it wants to wait for another massacre. Enormous majorities of Israelis want the war in Gaza prosecuted until the defeat of Hamas is complete.  When first President Joe Biden in his State of the Union and then Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the floor of the Senate attacked Israel over the past two weeks, they did so for their own selfish domestic political reasons. The president’s abysmal approval ratings and Schumer’s desire to remain the leader of Senate Democrats both required at least rhetorical blasts at Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to satisfy the left edge of the Democratic coalition.

These rhetorical attacks were gifts to Hamas terrorists hiding in their tunnels and hoping that somehow the world—read ‘the United States’—forces Israel to stop its drive to destroy Hamas. Instead of urging Israel to move quickly to end the war via victory, Biden and Schumer instead appear to want the IDF to camp outside Rafah and…wait? For what?

There is no grand strategy in the criticisms of Israel from Biden, Schumer and the even harder left members of the Democratic Party. But the blowback —from Israel, from the American Jewish community, and from Americans who stand with Israel as a reliable ally and a democratic state—directed at both men has been intense. It is hard to fall off the ‘favorability floor’ that Biden has hit but he is doing his best to test the depths those numbers can reach.

After the Second World War the Allies did what they needed to do to rehabilitate Germany and Japan, and both countries are now solidly within the Western alliance. It is possible that a Gaza without Hamas could reach the potential of any major metropolitan region on the Mediterranean coast. But only if the future leadership of the Strip want economic growth and human flourishing there, which Hamas does not seek.

The IDF does not welcome civilian casualties in Gaza anymore than American pilots and crews wanted their bombs to hit other than the intended targets. Certainly Israel is not approving anything approaching the Tokyo firebombing of March 1945 where 100,000 civilians are believed to have perished.

The war in Gaza must, however, be won by Israel and the only reason there is a war at all is because of Hamas. Only the end of Hamas in Gaza —which means a ground operation in Rafah—will bring peace to that devastated region. What President Biden and Senator Schumer should be doing is standing resolutely behind our ally. Every day, all day. 

Hugh Hewitt is one of the country’s leading journalists of the center-right. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990, and it is today syndicated to hundreds of stations and outlets across the country every Monday through Friday morning. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and this column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio show today.

Former President Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee for president, will likely spend days in court defending himself against charges in multiple jurisdictions while also crisscrossing the country on the campaign trail until Election Day.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges in all cases. Many trials have been delayed or put on pause.

Here is where each case stands:

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on whether Trump is immune from prosecution next month. 

Arguments on presidential immunity are scheduled to begin on April 25. A ruling from the high court is expected by late June. 

Trump and his legal team, in requesting the Supreme Court review the issue of presidential immunity, said that ‘if the prosecution of a president is upheld, such prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination.’

‘Criminal prosecution, with its greater stigma and more severe penalties, imposes a far greater ‘personal vulnerability’ on the President than any civil penalty,’ the request states. ‘The threat of future criminal prosecution by a politically opposed Administration will overshadow every future president’s official acts — especially the most politically controversial decisions.’ 

Special Counsel Jack Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. 

Those charges stem from Smith’s months-long investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The trial was set to begin March 4 but was put on hold pending a resolution on the matter.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush-money payments case

The trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into Trump’s alleged hush-money payments during the 2016 election was scheduled to begin on March 25.

Last week, though, a judge delayed the trial until mid-April to give Trump’s lawyers additional time to go through 15,000 records of potential evidence the Justice Department shared from a previous federal investigation into the matter.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York said much of the newly produced material is unrelated to the state case against Trump. Federal prosecutors have already produced more than 100,000 pages of records for review. Fox News Digital has learned, though, that at least 74,000 pages of records initially were sent only to Bragg’s office and not to Trump’s legal team. 

Trump’s lawyers were seeking a 90-day delay or a dismissal of charges against him, arguing there were violations in ‘the discovery process,’ whereby both sides exchange evidence. Defense lawyers said a 30-day delay was ‘insufficient.’

Trump’s lawyers have said the materials from the federal investigation are critical for his defense in the state case being brought by Bragg.

Bragg indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Bragg alleged that Trump ‘repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.’

The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified records case

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Trump’s motion to dismiss charges of retaining classified documents on the grounds of ‘unconstitutional vagueness.’

Cannon has not yet ruled on Trump’s other argument, which is a motion to dismiss based on the Presidential Records Act. 

Trump was charged out of Smith’s investigation into his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith’s probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements.

Trump was also charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of the investigation — an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. 

Trump pleaded not guilty. 

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis’ election interference case 

A Fulton County judge recently quashed six counts in the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his 18 co-defendants. 

Judge Scott McAfee said in an order Wednesday that the state failed to allege sufficient detail for six counts of ‘solicitation of violation of oath by public officer.’ 

‘The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned opinion, fatal,’ McAfee wrote.

‘As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,’ the judge continued. 

‘They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.’  

Georgia state law prohibits any public officer from willfully and intentionally violating the terms of his or her oath as prescribed by law. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alleged that Trump and six of his co-defendants illegally attempted to persuade numerous state officials to violate their oaths in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

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 charges. 

Meanwhile, Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade has withdrawn from the prosecution after McAfee said either he must go or Willis would be disqualified from prosecuting Trump. Four co-defendants had accused Willis of having an ‘improper’ affair with Wade, who she hired to help prosecute the case.

The defendants alleged that Willis benefited financially by hiring Wade in 2021 because they were in a preexisting romantic relationship and went on several trips together. Michael Roman, a Republican operative who worked on Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, alleged that Wade’s law firm billed taxpayers $650,000 at a rate of $250 an hour since his hiring — and that he used that income to pay for vacations with Willis.

Both Wade and Willis denied they were in a romantic relationship prior to his hiring. During a two-day evidentiary hearing in February, they each testified that they split the cost of their shared trips. Willis told the court she reimbursed Wade for her share of the trips in cash.

A trial date for Trump has not yet been set.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday confirmed reports that Israel has killed a top Hamas commander. 

Speaking to reporters, Sullivan said Israel has made ‘significant progress’ against Hamas, having broken battalions and killed thousands of Hamas fighters. 

Among those thousands of fighters was Hamas’ third in command, Marwan Issa, who was killed in an Israeli operation last week. 

‘The rest of the top leaders are in hiding, likely deep in the Hamas tunnel network, and justice will come for them too,’ Sullivan said. 

Sullivan is the first government official to confirm Issa’s death.

His comments come hours after Israeli forces launched a raid on Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, accusing Hamas militants of using it as a base. 

The military said it killed Faiq Mabhouh, Hamas’ top official in internal security. An IDF soldier was also killed in the operation. 

The military said Mabhouh operated and directed militant activity from inside the hospital compound. Gaza’s Health Ministry, meanwhile, accused the Israeli army of directing gun and missile fire at a building used for specialized surgeries.

Sullivan said it ‘was clear’ that Hamas fighters were firing back at Israeli troops from the hospital. 

‘We have seen Hamas over the course of this conflict use civilian facilities, including hospitals, to store weapons for command and control and to house fighters,’ Sullivan said. ‘And that places an added burden on Israel that very few militaries have to deal with, an entrenched insurgency, using the shield of civilian institutions to protect themselves during a fight, rather than meeting Israel on some open field to battle.’ 

Israel raided the same medical center in November after claiming that Hamas was concealing a major command and control center within and beneath the compound. It revealed a tunnel running to an underground bunker beneath the hospital, and some weapons discovered inside.

The ministry says around 30,000 people are sheltering at the hospital, including patients, medical staff and people who have fled their homes seeking safety.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesman, said the patients and medical staff could remain in the compound and that a safe passage was available for civilians to leave. 

Sullivan’s comments come amid growing concerns within the Biden administration over Israel’s prospective offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where roughly 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge to escape the worst of the conflict in the north. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Monday to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss the matter with Biden administration officials. 

‘We’ve arrived at a point where each side has been making clear to the other its perspective,’ Sullivan said.

Earlier Monday, Biden and Netanyahu had their first interaction in over a month. Sullivan said Biden questioned the Israeli leader over a lack of a ‘coherent and sustainable strategy’ to defeat Hamas.

Biden administration officials have warned that they would not support an operation in Rafah without the Israelis presenting a credible plan to ensure the safety of innocent Palestinian civilians.

Israel has yet to present such a plan, according to White House officials.

After the call, Netanyahu issued a statement, not indicating there were any tensions. 

‘We discussed the latest developments in the war, including Israel’s commitment to achieving all of the war’s goals: Eliminating Hamas, freeing all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never (again) constitutes a threat to Israel — while providing the necessary humanitarian aid that will assist in achieving these goals,’ Netanyahu said.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, says more than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Roughly two-thirds of whom are women and children, according to the Ministry’s estimates. Israel has disputed these figures. 

Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people and took another 250 people hostage in the surprise Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza that triggered the war. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 captives, as well as the remains of 30 others.