Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors said that former President Trump’s handling of classified documents is not ‘remotely’ similar to how President Biden also handled sensitive national security information as laid out in dueling Special Counsel Rob Hur’s report released this month. 

The 12-page filing Monday countering Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment ‘based on selective and vindictive prosecution’ serves as Smith’s first response to the blistering Hur report. 

‘The defendants have not identified anyone who has engaged in a remotely similar suite of willful and deceitful criminal conduct and not been prosecuted. Nor could they. Indeed, the comparators on which they rely are readily distinguishable,’ Assistant Special Counsel David Harbach wrote.

Harbach said the ‘primary comparator’ of Trump and co-defendants, body man and valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, is President Biden, whose conduct is described in the recently issued Hur report on the investigation of classified documents recovered from Biden’s primary residence in Delaware and the Penn Biden Center.

‘But as the Hur Report itself recognizes, ‘several material distinctions between Mr. Trump’s case and Mr. Biden’s are clear,’’ Harbach wrote. ‘Most notably, Trump, unlike Biden, is alleged to have engaged in extensive and repeated efforts to obstruct justice and thwart the return of documents bearing classification markings. And the evidence concerning the two men’s intent – whether they knowingly possessed and willfully retained such documents – is also starkly different, as reflected in the Hur Report’s conclusion that ‘the evidence falls short of establishing Mr. Biden’s willful retention of the classified Afghanistan documents beyond a reasonable doubt.’’

Hur’s report, which concluded that no criminal charges were warranted, surmised that at trial, Biden ‘would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ 

The special counsel, therefore, asserted that it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him, ‘by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.’ It also cited how Biden mixed up the date of the death of his son, Beau. 

The White House and Biden allies have deemed the details from the Hur report on Biden’s age and mental fitness as ‘gratuitous’ political attacks.

Although, as Harbach laid out Monday, many government officials have possessed classified documents after the end of their terms in office – often inadvertently, sometimes negligently, and very occasionally willfully – as well as a ‘very small number of cases in which former government officials who have been found in possession of classified documents have briefly resisted the government’s lawful efforts to recover them,’ the special counsel’s team considers Trump’s actions unique.

‘There has never been a case in American history in which a former official has engaged in conduct remotely similar to Trump’s,’ Harbach wrote. 

‘He intentionally took possession of a vast trove of some of the nation’s most sensitive documents – documents so sensitive that they were presented to the President – and stored them in unsecured locations at his heavily trafficked social club,’ he wrote. ‘When the National Archives and Records Administration (‘NARA’) initially sought their return (before learning that they contained classified national defense information), Trump delayed, obfuscated, and dissembled. Faced with the possibility of legal action, he ostensibly agreed to comply with NARA’s requests but in fact engaged in additional deception, returning only a fraction of the documents in his possession while claiming that his production was complete.’

Harbach goes on to highlight how, when presented with a grand jury subpoena demanding the return of the remaining documents bearing classification markings, ‘Trump attempted to enlist his own attorney in the corrupt endeavor, suggesting that he falsely tell the FBI and grand jury that Trump did not have any documents, and suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents rather than produce them to the government.’ The prosecutor said Trump enlisted Nauta ‘in a scheme to deceive the attorney by moving boxes to conceal his (Trump’s) continued possession of classified documents’ and continued a pattern of ‘obstructive conduct’ by allegedly seeking to have some security camera footage deleted.

Trump has said the security camera footage in fact was never deleted, dismissing the assertion as ‘prosecutorial fiction.’

Republican presidential candidate Ryan Binkley dropped out of the race on Tuesday and immediately endorsed former President Trump.

‘Today, I am suspending my campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America and offering my endorsement and unwavering support for President Trump,’ Binkley wrote on X.

Binkley, a Texas pastor and businessman-turned-presidential candidate, thanked his family, friends, campaign team, his more than 80,000 financial supporters and hundreds of volunteers.

‘When I began this journey, it was with a message in my heart that our country needs to awaken to the fact that the unsustainable deficit spending and debt path we are on will undoubtedly lead us to a generational economic disruption,’ Binkley wrote Tuesday. ‘I believe that we can get off that path and begin a journey to balance the federal budget by transforming and demonopolizing the healthcare system which has been bankrupting our nation. I also felt deeply that as bad as the U.S. fiscal and monetary policy is, the political corruption and cultural divide in our country is an even greater threat. Throughout my campaign, I have seen our party struggle to find a place for a new vision while weighing the corrupt allegations and indictments against President Trump. He will need everyone’s support, and he will have mine moving forward.’

Binkley, the co-founder and current CEO/president of Generational Equity Group, a merger and acquisitions business advisory firm in Texas, announced his bid in April of last year.

‘Currently our nation is lost, divided, and in financial trouble. Here’s the good news: united, we can rise to change it as we restore our faith in God, freedom, and each other,’ Binkley’s website says.

He withdrew his 2024 bid for the White House after less than a year on the campaign trail. Binkley’s campaign focused on issues like immigration reform and border controls, boosting the economy, privatizing health care, utilizing cheap energy sources like nuclear energy and supporting pro-life policies.

‘While it is time for me to go back to my family, business, and church and care for the responsibilities I have been given, I remain steadfast in my commitment to my plans for the economy, border security, and healthcare,’ Binkley’s message continued Tuesday. ‘I look forward to considering other ways I can make an impact and promote my policy positions. Thank you again for being with us on this journey. Let’s continue to pray for our nation, and our leaders. When we look to each other for wisdom and strength, our future can be better than we can imagine. I look forward to seeing what tomorrow holds.’

Fox News’ Andrew Murray contributed to this report.

President Biden is running out of time to fulfill his 2020 presidential campaign promise to abolish the death penalty, leaving an opening for his opposition to capitalize on the issue.

During Biden’s 2020 campaign, he vowed to end the federal death penalty and, after taking office three years ago, his incoming administration considered several possible options to do so.

However, none came to fruition, and there are about eight months until the November election.

While Biden has yet to act on capital punishment, former President Trump has taken the issue on the campaign trail with him, vowing to extend the penalty to drug dealers.

In January 2021, Biden initially considered an executive order, people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press, but the White House did not issue one.

It also did not push Congress for legislation barring it.

Six months into the administration, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study it further. The narrow action has meant there have been no federal executions under Biden, but it simply put the death penalty on a temporary hold.

A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Biden remains concerned about how federal executions are applied.

‘The President has long talked about his concerns about how the death penalty is applied and whether it is consistent with the values fundamental to our sense of justice and fairness,’ said White House assistant press secretary Robyn Patterson. ‘He supports the attorney general’s decision to issue a moratorium on federal executions while the Department of Justice conducts a comprehensive review of the practice.’

The hold has been apparently lifted as the Justice Department has pushed for the death penalty against the suspects charged in the Pittsburgh and Buffalo, New York, mass shootings — Payton Gendron, who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo’s Tops supermarket in 2022, and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.

Biden is the first president to openly oppose capital punishment, and his 2020 campaign website declared that he would ‘work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.’

Similar language does not appear on his website this year.

Whether Biden intends to act on the death penalty before November is not immediately clear, although such action is not usually pursued in an election year. Additionally, Biden does not discuss the death penalty much today.

Some Biden supporters have been left frustrated as the president has been empty-handed on executions.

Conversely, Trump has consistently vowed in campaign speeches across the country to implement capital punishment against those who sell or transport deadly fentanyl as part of his national crackdown on crime.

‘It’s always been used as a political talking point. It has for centuries, and it probably always will be,’ said Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. ‘But I think the American public is seeing through that now and is really looking for more serious answers to these very serious problems in our communities.’

According to Gallup, support for the death penalty has continued to fall over the last 30 years.

In 1994, 80% supported executions for convicted killers. This support has fallen to 53% last year. In November, Gallup found in a separate poll that a majority of Americans believe the death penalty is unfairly applied, 50% to 47%.

In addition to the federal government, 21 states allow the death penalty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced a resolution that would reverse the Biden administration’s recent action allowing beef imports from Paraguay.

Late last year, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), after diplomatic engagements, finalized a rule to lift a long-standing ban on beef imports from Paraguay, which had been in effect for years due to the South American nation’s history of cattle-borne disease. Tester, Rounds and a broad coalition of livestock and agricultural associations have loudly opposed the action over its potential impact on U.S. food supplies.

‘My message to the Biden Administration is simple: cutting corners to resume beef imports from a country with a recent history of foot and mouth disease is bad news for both Montana consumers and producers, and I won’t let it stand,’ Tester said in a statement. ‘Montana ranchers produce the best beef in the world, and it’s clear that the USDA doesn’t have the data to show that Paraguay meets the same animal health standards.’

‘That’s why I’m teaming up with Senator Rounds to overturn this decision from the Biden Administration that is giving a raw deal to American ranchers and could have dangerous impacts on our food supply,’ the Montana Democrat added.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service finalized regulations in November allowing Paraguayan beef imports and issued a series of conditions importers must meet to ensure livestock diseases are not present in shipped products. The agency then began implementation of the rules one month later, despite criticism from lawmakers and U.S. industry groups.

Paraguay’s livestock industry has a history of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which spreads quickly among livestock and could severely threaten the U.S. economy. 

‘Paraguay, on the other hand, has historically struggled to contain outbreaks of foot and mouth disease,’ Rounds said. ‘Consumers across America should be able to confidently feed their families beef that they know has met the rigorous standards required in the United States.’

However, the South American country has for years lobbied the U.S. government to reverse the import ban, saying it would increase consumer choice for Americans.

According to a readout of a September meeting between the Paraguayan government and the White House Office of the United States Trade Representative, the two sides discussed the process to authorize the import of raw beef products. Paraguayan officials expressed their desire to resume raw beef product trade ‘as soon as possible.’

The USDA’s public comment period last year attracted letters from Paraguayan cattle industry associations and government agencies, including the Embassy of Paraguay to the United States, which stated that ‘Paraguayan beef will be a big success in the U.S. market.’

The comment period attracted widespread opposition from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), regional affiliates of the group, the United States Cattlemen’s Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation. Those groups also endorsed the resolution introduced by Tester and Rounds.

‘USDA’s decision to allow Paraguayan beef imports into the U.S. creates an unnecessary risk to the health and safety of the U.S. cattle herd. U.S. cattle producers are held to the highest food safety and animal health standards in the world and any trade partner must be able to demonstrate they can meet those same standards,’ said Kent Bacus, NCBA’s executive director of government affairs.

‘Given Paraguay’s long history of foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks, it is simply too risky to allow Paraguayan imports without recent site visits to confirm Paraguay’s safety claims,’ Baucus continued. ‘U.S. cattle producers are thankful for the leadership of Senators Jon Tester and Mike Rounds for applying the Congressional Review Act to hold USDA accountable and protect our nation’s cattle herd.’

U.S. Cattlemen’s Association President Justin Tupper noted in a statement that the last time U.S. government officials inspected a meat processing facility in Paraguay was in 2014.

‘That nearly ten-year gap since the last site visit does not inspire confidence in Paraguay’s animal health and food safety protocols,’ Tupper said. ‘Further, in its regulatory impact analysis, USDA fully admits that there is a real possibility we could import beef from an animal infected by FMD. An outbreak of FMD in the United States would be devastating for both producers and consumers, causing lasting financial losses between $33 and $93 billion.’

The Livestock Marketing Association, National Farmers Union, Montana Farmers Union, Montana Stockgrowers Association, Montana Farm Bureau Federation and R-CALF USA also endorsed the resolution from Tester and Rounds.

The resolution, meanwhile, was introduced under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a law dating back nearly three decades that allows Congress to revoke federal regulations with a simple majority vote. It represents one of the few times a Democrat has introduced a CRA resolution for a Biden administration rule.

USDA and the Embassy of Paraguay to the United States did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is threatening to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress, accusing him of failing to hand over key documents related to the U.S.’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

At the heart of the issue are interview notes that were used to put together the State Department’s After-Action Review (AAR) of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

‘The Committee’s patience has been exhausted, and it requires these files to complete its investigation and make legislative recommendations for this Congress to consider,’ McCaul wrote.

‘Should the Department fail to produce the… files outlined below by March 6, 2024, the Committee is prepared to hold you in contempt of Congress.’

He also accused Blinken of choosing ‘politics over policy’ with the State Department’s decision to ‘withhold’ the documents.

It’s notably harsh language for McCaul, whose relationship with Blinken is relatively more cordial than that of other House Republican committee chairs investigating the Biden administration.

In his letter, he noted multiple instances in which McCaul accused the department of stonewalling, including after he first requested notes from interviews with State officials taken by then-Ambassador Dan Smith, who led the AAR in September 2023. 

He also listed ways in which the committee sought to accommodate the department. For example, McCaul wrote that the committee offered to redact names and address security concerns after State officials told him providing the notes would have a ‘significant chilling effect on the Department’s ability to conduct thorough and impactful lessons learned efforts to improve our foreign policy-making.’

‘On November 28, 2023, the Committee once more requested the interview notes, stating that the Department had failed to produce any high-priority items in its last eight productions,’ the letter said. ‘For the next month, the Department stated the priority items requested, including the AAR team’s interview notes, ‘either belong to a third agency or implicate significant Executive Branch confidentiality interests.’’

When committee staff stressed that the documents were critical to the House’s probe, State officials responded that the decision was above their ‘paygrade,’ according to the letter.

‘The Department’s stated reasons for withholding the interview notes are not rooted in law and, in fact, contravene Congress’s constitutional and statutory oversight authority,’ McCaul wrote. ‘It is appalling that over two years after the deadly and chaotic withdrawal, the Department continues to choose politics over policy.’

The Afghanistan AAR placed blame on both the Trump and Biden administrations for the disastrous withdrawal in August 2021.

It said, ‘there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow.’

The report said President Biden’s decision to follow through with former President Donald Trump’s vow to withdraw troops from Afghanistan – and to set a Sept. 11 deadline for it – ultimately ‘compounded the difficulties the Department faced in mitigating the loss of the military’s key enablers.’

It was also critical of the Biden administration’s decision to hand over control of Bagram Air Base to the Afghan government, a decision that also earned Biden bipartisan condemnation from national security hawks.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department about McCaul’s letter but did not immediately hear back.

President Biden said Israel has agreed to a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, but Hamas is not prepared to call a truce.

The president’s remarks were recorded Monday and aired early Tuesday on NBC’s ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers.’ He suggested that a cease-fire during Ramadan would give the U.S. time to secure the release of American hostages still held by Hamas, but officials from the terrorist group called his comments premature as it studies the cease-fire agreement. 

‘Ramadan is coming up, and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan, as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,’ Biden told Meyers.

Earlier, the president told reporters he hoped that a cease-fire would begin by at least ‘the end of the weekend.’ 

‘At least, my national security advisor tells me that we’re close. We’re close. It’s not done yet,’ Biden said at an ice cream parlor near Peacock Network’s headquarters after recording his interview with Meyers. 

‘And my hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire,’ he added, mint ice cream cone in hand. 

Hamas is reviewing a proposal agreed at a meeting in Paris last week between Israel, the United States and mediators from Egypt and Qatar, the most serious push for a cease-fire since the last truce collapsed after a week in November. 

While Biden struck an optimistic tone about the prospects for a truce, two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters said his comments were premature.

One official said there were ‘still big gaps to be bridged,’ according to Reuters. ‘The primary and main issues of the cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces are not clearly stated, which delays reaching an agreement.’

Another Hamas official close to the talks told Reuters that the draft proposal sent to Hamas was for a 40-day truce during which Hamas would free around 40 hostages — including women, those under 19 or over 50 years old, and the sick — in return for around 400 Palestinian detainees at a 10-for-one ratio.

Under the proposal, Israel would reposition its troops outside settled areas. Gaza residents, except for men of fighting age, would be permitted to return home to areas previously evacuated, and more aid would flow to Gaza, including equipment to house those who have lost their homes. 

But Israel has not agreed to two key demands from Hamas — a commitment to end the war permanently and withdraw from Palestinian territory. 

The offer also does not address the release of Israeli hostages who are soldiers or healthy men of fighting age, or a Hamas demand for as many as 1,500 detainees to be freed, Reuters reported.

Delegations from Hamas and Israel are both in Qatar this week negotiating details of a potential cease-fire. They face an unofficial March 10 deadline, which would mark the start of Ramadan, a period that often sees heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. 

Biden told NBC that Israel risks losing international support unless it takes steps to mitigate civilian casualties. 

 has said Israel will invade the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where 2.3 million Palestinians currently reside, including displaced people sleeping in makeshift tents or public buildings, whether or not a truce agreement is reached.

‘There are too many innocent people that are being killed. And Israel has slowed down the attacks in Rafah,’ Biden said, adding that Israel has committed to let Palestinians flee Rafah before the invasion. 

Netanyahu earlier rejected as ‘delusional’ a Hamas counter-offer for a cease-fire in which all hostages would be released, Israel withdraws from Gaza and Israel and Hamas sign a treaty to end the war. 

The president also said a temporary cease-fire would create the conditions necessary for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

‘That gives us time to begin to move in directions that a lot of Arab countries are prepared to move in. For example, Saudi Arabia is ready to recognize Israel. Jordan is. Egypt — there are six other states. I’ve been working with Qatar,’ Biden said.

‘If we get … that temporary cease-fire, we’re going to be able to move in a direction where we can change the dynamic and not have a two-state solution immediately but a process to get to a two-state solution, a process to guarantee Israel’s security and the independence of the Palestinians,’ he said.

Netanyahu has rejected a two-state solution while Hamas exists. Israel has vowed to continue the war until the terrorist group is eradicated.

Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that provoked the war. Israel retaliated with a bombardment campaign and ground invasion of Gaza, during which tens of thousands of Palestinians have died. 

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz and Reuters contributed to this report.

A new book out Tuesday alleges that the Biden administration’s relative ‘silence’ on the fentanyl crisis ravaging states across the country is because of the Biden family’s connections to China, which is responsible for a large portion of fentanyl imports. 

Author Peter Schweizer, who has written several investigative bestsellers, including ‘Clinton Cash’ and ‘Red Handed,’ just released ‘Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans,’ a new book that details ‘bombshell after bombshell, exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s covert operations in the American drug trade, social justice movement, and medical establishment to sow chaos and deca­dence in the United States.’

In one chapter of the book, which was reviewed by Fox News Digital, Schweizer says the Biden administration has not taken ‘aggressive action’ against China combating the fentanyl crisis, which the administration has previously said ‘bears responsibility.’

‘Joe Biden was outspoken in 1992 when it was exposed that Beijing was involved with the heroin trade. The then senator from Delaware showed initiative in calling out the Communist leadership for its illicit activities,’ Schweizer writes. ‘But now with the far more deadly fentanyl crisis, he has grown silent.’

‘When Joe Biden delivered the State of the Union address in 2023, he talked about fentanyl, acknowledging the stigma associated with substance abuse, and called for better substance abuse services. In other words, he treated it as a conventional drug problem. So he promised more drug detection machines and more inspections of cargo,’ Schweizer said. 

He continued: ‘What he never mentioned was Beijing’s hand in the matter. President Biden has been remarkably quiet in discussing China’s involvement in the drug trade; he does not challenge its leadership about their conduct.’

Schweizer said he previously reported that ‘members of the first family received some $31 million in deals from a small group of Chinese businessmen with deep ties to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence.’

But some of these businessmen who allegedly funneled money to the Bidens ‘have ties to the fentanyl trade, including $5 million from a Chinese national who was a business partner with a notorious triad leader.’ 

This ‘cash flow,’ he argues, connects the Bidens with Chinese triad associates.

Schweizer makes a connection between Ye Jianming – a mysterious Chinese tycoon referred to as ‘Chairman Ye’ by Hunter Biden who allegedly gave Hunter an $80,000 diamond as a gift and an interest-free $5 million loan – and a drug lord named White Wolf.

‘Ye and White Wolf set up the Shanghai Zhenrong Petroleum Company together. White Wolf’s gang, UBG [United Bamboo Gang], also has a ‘partnership’ with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and helps them in the production and distribution of fentanyl in the United States. UBG helped to turn ‘the Sinaloa Cartel into the King of Fentanyl,’ according to a Mexican investigation of the cartel,’ Schweizer writes. 

White Wolf had been arrested and convicted in the 1980s on drug-trafficking and racketeering charges in the U.S. The UBG, according to Schweizer, is involved extensively in the international drug trade, having sold heroin in the United States for decades. He cites one government report having stated, ‘It is believed the gang is active in several U.S. cities, including Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, and various California cities. The UBG has built up a sophisticated network capable of supplying members with guns, narcotics, and fraudulent identifications.’

White Wolf also allegedly has close ties with the Beijing government; senior Communist Party officials call him ‘Big Brother.’

‘The fact that a Chinese businessman who showered millions on the Bidens is partners with a crime syndicate partnering in the distribution of fentanyl into the United States might be shocking enough. But there is more,’ Schweizer writes. 

Schweizer claims in the book that Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, was also a legal representative for Ng Lap Seng, an alleged Chinese triad member who was convicted on bribery charges. Lowell has also allegedly represented Qin Fei, who is accused of being a Chinese intelligence officer, and Lum Davis, who pleaded guilty to illegally lobbying for the Chinese government.

Lowell did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

‘The problem of conflicting personal ties when it comes to confronting China on fentanyl extends beyond the Biden family to members of his administration. And so does the silence,’ Schweizer stated. 

The White House did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.