The Justice Department and a group of FBI agents reached an agreement in federal court Friday over the dissemination of information about FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigation.

According to the text of the deal, the Trump administration cannot release information about the FBI agents who investigated the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot without giving plaintiffs at least two days’ notice so that the matter can be considered again in federal court.

It does not, however, place such a time limit on the dissemination of agents’ identities to other government agencies or the White House. 

The deal resolves, at least for now, a dispute over the release of information that agents said they feared could be used for retaliation or leaked to the public.

The agreement comes after active FBI agents and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association, a voluntary agents’ group, sued the Justice Department earlier this week seeking to block the release of any identifying information about FBI agents involved in the January 6 investigations.

The two parties tussled for hours in court on Thursday in front of U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, who questioned both parties at length on the nature of DOJ’s questionnaire, the potential for disclosures or retaliation and how the Justice Department intends to use information divulged in the questionnaires.

The agreement defers any immediate relief for plaintiffs, pushing to March 27 their hearing for a preliminary injunction. 

Cobb previously granted the two parties a brief administrative stay on Thursday evening, saying that if the information was released she believed it ‘would put FBI agents in immediate danger.’

The agreement comes just days after FBI leadership said it had provided the Justice Department with a list of agents who worked on Jan. 6 investigations and criminal cases, in keeping with an earlier deadline set by U.S. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.

‘Plaintiffs assert that the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action,’ lawyers for the FBI agents said, adding that they ‘reasonably fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons.’

Lawyers for the agents argued that any effort to review or discriminate against agents involved in the investigation would be ‘unlawful and retaliatory,’ and a violation of civil service protections under federal law.

They also cited ‘profound concern’ that the list of thousands of FBI agents involved would be leaked to the public, threatening their safety. 

Meanwhile, lawyers for the Justice Department stressed that their intent in issuing the questionnaire was to conduct an ‘internal review’ of activities in the Jan. 6 probe, not to punish individuals for carrying out orders. 

Bove also sought to emphasize this message in an all-staff email to FBI personnel earlier this week. In the email, Bove stressed that the questionnaire was not intended to be a first step to mass layoffs, and stressed it was simply intended for review.

President Donald Trump may soon meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  

‘He may meet next week, yeah. Whenever he would like. I’m here,’ Trump told reporters while hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday. 

Trump said that the meeting would likely be held in Washington, D.C., because he would not go to Ukraine. 

Trump also said there was a possibility he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting that the two have always had a ‘very good relationship.’ 

‘That’s why it is so sad that this happened,’ Trump said, appearing to reference Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. ‘This never would have happened if I were president.’ 

Trump, who met with Zelenskyy in New York in September 2024, urged Putin to cease the war — or face sanctions — in a post on Truth Social on Jan. 22. 

‘Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,’ Trump said. If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said he backed issuing harsher sanctions on Russia during his confirmation hearing Jan. 16 to expedite the end of the war. 

According to retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Trump is the only person who could end the conflict. 

‘The only person that Putin will really want to talk to — because he’s kind of denigrated other leaders that are out there — is President Trump, and President Trump’s the only one who can bring this to a conclusion,’ Kellogg told ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ on Sunday. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Rachel Wolf contributed to this report. 

The head of the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) is cautiously optimistic that newly minted U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will steady the ship at the Department of Justice (DOJ) after turbulent weeks since President Donald Trump took office.

FBIAA president and CEO Natalie Baratold Fox News Digital in an interview this week that she is eager to see if Bondi will make good on her pledge to end political weaponization at the FBI and the Justice Department. 

This new leadership could reduce some of the heat agents have felt in recent weeks, she said, citing firings and forced departures of some personnel – as well as a questionnaire requiring agents to detail their roles in the Jan. 6 investigation. 

Bara pointed specifically to Bondi’s vows to not go after Trump opponents or chase down any so-called ‘enemies lists,’ two promises Bondi cited repeatedly last month during her confirmation hearing.

‘I’m optimistic about her statements moving forward, in that she has stated that people would not be targeted for simply doing their job,’ Bara said. ‘So I think we are optimistic in moving forward.’

Even so, she added, ‘there are still real concerns about compiling lists when looking at this stuff and being able to potentially release agents’ names.’

FBIAA, a voluntary professional association, represents more than 14,000 active and retired FBI special agents. The agency joined nine anonymous FBI employees earlier this week in suing the Justice Department to block access to records of agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigation, citing fears of internal punishment or retaliation, as well as threats to the agents or the agents’ families should their names be made public.

The judge in the case, U.S. Judge Jia Cobb, is expected to rule on their request for emergency injunctive relief early Friday afternoon.

The interview comes as rank-and-file DOJ and FBI employees have been roiled by recent firings at DOJ, forced resignations or retirements of FBI personnel and a detailed questionnaire sent to thousands of FBI agents asking them to detail their involvement in the Jan. 6 investigations. 

Justice Department acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove attempted to assuage FBI agents’ fears. He stressed in a recent email that the effort was simply to obtain and review what role agents played in the Jan. 6 investigation, and was not intended to be a precursor to a mass expulsion of employees.

The lawsuit filed this week emphasized their intent to ensure their identities were not released to the public and that they were not retaliated against for doing their jobs. 

Bara underscored these deep-running concerns to Fox News, noting that FBI employees and the agent association ‘didn’t have much clarification on what that list was going to be utilized for, besides a broad statement of just personnel actions,’ when the DOJ issued its request.

‘So it raised a lot of concern within the bureau – mainly because we have seen over the past few weeks the associate U.S. attorneys on the investigation be terminated, and then our seventh floor leadership be presented with ultimatums to either retire or be terminated.’ 

Other former department officials cited similar concerns in recent days, expressing fear that any mass purge of employees could compromise decades of agency experience across the bureau’s more than 52 field offices, who have deep knowledge of complex issue areas ranging from counterterrorism and violent crime to drug trafficking, cartel activity and more. 

‘It takes a really long time to get an agent hired and through the process,’ Bara told Fox News Digital, citing the lengthy background check and clearance process, as well as training at Quantico, Virginia. 

‘We can’t just pick somebody up off the street tomorrow and make them an FBI agent,’ she said. ‘So when we lose FBI agents – whether it be through retirement or some sort of ‘mass purge,’ to use a term that’s been thrown around in the media, it will take years and years and years, if not decades, to replace that experience.’

‘That’s scary for everyone at the bureau because we need to be able to have those people standing next to us to be able to get this work done.’ 

Bara said the ‘best case scenario’ is that the identities of the FBI agents are kept private and that the installation of permanent leadership at DOJ and FBI will resolve the controversy as DOJ commits to a process for looking at the Jan. 6 investigations.

‘I don’t know of an FBI agent who doesn’t stand by their work, so we welcome a review of the work,’ she said. ‘But we are just concerned that it will be done in a thorough and fair manner.’

A top House Republican is moving to make it harder for China to procure advanced U.S. technology amid longstanding concerns about intellectual property theft by Beijing.

‘My proposed legislation will establish safeguards to prevent future shocks like China’s development of DeepSeek using American technology. In addition to the chips China reportedly stockpiled, it appears China used chips under the current export control threshold to achieve this AI breakthrough,’ House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital.

‘This scenario should be a wakeup call — if you give the CCP an inch, it will take a mile. The CCP’s craftiness is coupled with a total disregard for legal and security considerations. We already know that the CCP uses technology to oppress its own citizens and to commit acts of espionage and sabotage against the United States, including major cyberattacks.’

DeepSeek is an artificial intelligence (AI) software company based in Hangzhou, China. Its AI chatbot is known to be similar to ChatGPT, which was made by California-based OpenAI.

DeepSeek’s release of the new high-profile AI model that costs less to run than existing models like those of Meta and OpenAI sent a chill through U.S. markets.

Its popularity in U.S. app stores has also renewed concerns about Chinese companies collecting American data, as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) censorship practices.

The surprise DeepSeek release also displayed how China’s economic competitiveness has far outpaced the ability of U.S. business leaders and lawmakers to agree on what to do about it. 

The U.S. Commerce Department is now looking into whether DeepSeek used chips that were banned from entering China via sanctions, Reuters reported. 

Green’s bill would put export controls on certain national interest technology and intellectual property to China.

It would also call for sanctions against foreign actors who sell or purchase such items to and from China, as well as Chinese entities who knowingly use items covered by the export controls.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will resume important meetings and travel associated with the critical grant-review process amid an agency-wide communications freeze at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

While the agency is working its way back to normalcy, its operations are still not completely back to what they were before President Donald Trump took office. The advisory council and scientific review meetings associated with the NIH’s grant-making process, in which outside scientists provide a final grant review and strategic advice before the finalization of a new program, have continued but will not yet meet in open session.  

When Trump took office, he initiated a freeze on external communications at HHS and all of its sub-agencies. Earlier this week, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said that ‘several types of external communications’ are no longer subject to the pause, and ‘all HHS divisions have been given clear guidance on how to seek approval for any other type of mass communication.’

NIH is currently taking things day-by-day to ensure they are meeting their obligations under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which governs the operation of federal advisory committees and emphasizes public involvement through open meetings and reporting.

Last week, NIH director Matthew Memoli sent a letter to staff seeking to clarify the ongoing communications pause. According to Memoli, the freeze had been issued to ‘allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization,’ but noted that due to ‘confusion on the scope of the pause’ he wanted to provide additional guidance.

In addition to halting announcements, press releases, website and social media posts, new guidance, and new regulations, the freeze also halted public appearances and travel by agency officials, and prohibited new purchases or service requests related to agency work. The move caused anger and confusion among both HHS officials and those in the broader medical community, particularly due to the potential pause of critical health research.

In his memo to staff, Memoli clarified that any research or clinical trials initiated before Jan. 20 can keep going ‘so that this work can continue, and we do not lose our investment in these studies.’ Officials working on these studies may also purchase any ‘necessary supplies’ and conduct meetings related to such work. Although new research projects are still prohibited, NIH staff were told they could continue submitting papers to medical journals and can communicate with those journals about submitted work.

Travel and hiring for such work can continue as well, Memoli indicated, but his office must grant specific exemptions for new hires as Trump also initiated a freeze on the hiring of new federal civilian employees across all agencies during his first week in office. Routine travel planned for after Feb. 1 ‘does not need to be canceled at this time,’ Memoli added. Patients receiving treatment at NIH facilities can also continue to do so. 

NIH can also submit documents to the Federal Register and send correspondence to public officials.

While the pause at HHS has caused a firestorm of concern and criticism, Dr. Ali Khan, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who is now the dean of the University of Nebraska’s school of public health, told the Associated Press that such pauses are not unusual. Khan said concern is only warranted if the pause was aimed at ‘silencing the agencies around a political narrative.’

Dem. Sen. Chris Murphy was ripped on social media on Thursday morning over a post where he explained how he stayed up most of the night drinking Red Bull because democracy is ‘on the line’ if Democrats do not stop Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts.

‘After taking the 2-5am shift on the Senate floor last night for our overnight protest, got 2 hours of crappy sleep on my office couch and right back at it today,’ Murphy posted on X. ‘We don’t rest. Keep going. Democracy on the line.’

Murphy, whose post was accompanied by a photo of a Red Bull energy drink and video explaining his cause, was on the Senate floor late Wednesday night attempting to block the confirmation of Office of Management and Budget nominee Russ Vought until the ‘crisis’ of Musk’s DOGE crackdown ‘passes.’

Murphy’s post on social media was widely mocked by conservatives who questioned Murphy’s motives on the Senate floor. 

‘So brave,’ Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe sarcastically posted on X.

‘Area man has to work overnight one time,’ New York Post reporter Jon Levine posted on X.

‘Stunning and brave,’ the Trump White House rapid response account posted on X.

‘Imagine bragging about doing something that basically every college student has done at some point,’ conservative journalist John Hasson posted on X.

‘Men used to go to war and now they cry about working overnight and post their little sugar free red bulls like they’re battle scars,’ conservative commentator Ashley St. Clair posted on X. 

‘These clowns are BEYOND pathetic,’ video journalist Nick Sortor posted on X. ‘This is so embarrassing.’

‘The purest form of love can be found in the relationship between Chris Murphy and a camera,’ former Trump campaign senior adviser Tim Murtaugh posted on X.

‘Overwhelmed at your level of Heroism for ‘democracy’ while your constituents in CT have $1300 electric bills,’ radio host Tony Bruno posted on X. ‘You’re a worthless clown!’

Despite efforts from Murphy and his fellow Democrats, Vought was confirmed as the new White House budget chief late Thursday night. 

In an Instagram live post, Murphy explained to his followers that he was not playing the hero.

‘I’m not trying to plead hardship here, right?’ Murphy said. ‘All I did was stay up late.’

Murphy added, ‘So yeah, the USAID workers, the domestic violence workers, the teachers, those are my heroes. But you guys are my heroes too. Because I get paid to do this job, I asked. I raised my hand. I said, ‘make me a United States Senator, I want to defend democracy.’ So I volunteered for this job. I get a paycheck. But the people that are showing up at these protests, the people that are going to show up at these protests, you got other stuff going on in your life. You don’t have to stand up and fight for democracy, but you are because you think the moment is important, and you are despite the fact that they are doing things to try to make you stay home, try to make you afraid of speaking up.’

Murphy’s Senate speech amid the Trump administration’s targeting of USAID after Musk’s DOGE efforts have resulted in the agency being effectively shut down over what the administration argues is wasteful spending. 

‘For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight,’ the White House said Monday.

In 1967, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting burst into being under the Lyndon Johnson administration with a mission of ensuring ‘universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services.’

By 1970, both PBS and NPR sprang forth from the CBP, and Americans were treated to the ‘News Hour,’ ‘Sesame Street,’ British comedies and science programming at a time when there were only three networks, cable TV was strictly for the boondocks, and VCRs were science fiction.

A big part of the reason that programming was limited was that production costs for broadcasting were incredibly high. In David Grzybowski’s book, ‘The Big Story,’ he cites Philadelphia news anchor Larry Kane talking about how hard it was during the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear scare to just get a live TV shot from Harrisburg to Philly:

‘I know we had a live microwave, but the microwaves didn’t go that far. I think we sought some satellite time. I’m not quite sure. The satellite times in those days were $5,000 a minute.’

Five grand a minute! Today, I have done broadcast-quality, live interviews from Harrisburg to New York with my phone. I could do them from Tokyo or Tora Bora, too.

In other words, the core mission of CBP, to ensure universal access to high-quality programming, has been rendered all but irrelevant by technology. The agency is getting $535 million in taxpayer funds in the current budget, yet anyone with a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection can access billions of hours of programming, and even broadcast content themselves.

Much of this online programming is non-commercial. Colleges and universities offer free classes, museums and libraries offer a universe of free archives.

What has clearly happened over the past two decades is that, absent its original mission, public broadcasting found a new one, and this new mission is purely ideological, ludicrously leftist, and has nothing to do with access.

Take this telling statement from NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher, ‘Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.’

Getting what done, exactly? It’s a radio station, it’s not a political body. In fact, the original 1967 CBP legislation requires ‘strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.’

Not even the staunchest defender of public broadcasting could suggest with a straight face that objectivity and balance are among its scant qualities these days.

Put simply, public broadcasting is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist anymore. In 1967, it might have made sense to fund alternatives to the expensive private programming funded by corporate advertising. Today, it makes no sense at all.

There is no reason or excuse for taxpayer dollars to go towards obviously biased news coverage in an age when information is quite literally at everyone’s fingertips.

Make no mistake, I am grateful that when I was 10, I got to see ‘Monty Python,’ ‘Dr. Who,’ Bob Ross, and the ‘McLaughlin Group’ on PBS. But for my son, and millions of Americans today, it doesn’t serve that purpose at all.

One of the hallmarks of President Donald Trump’s frenetic first few weeks in office has been to look at every program, every dollar, and ask if it is being spent wisely in furtherance of America’s goals. Another way of framing that is to ask, is this department or agency fulfilling its mission?

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has not been fulfilling its mission for decades now. In fact, it is often in rank violation of it, especially with its one-sided coverage of social and political issues.

As former NPR editor Uri Berliner, now with the Free Press, has outlined, the bias was unmistakable. In the Hunter Biden laptop story he wrote:

 ‘The laptop was newsworthy. But the timeless journalistic instinct of following a hot story lead was being squelched. During a meeting with colleagues, I listened as one of NPR’s best and most fair-minded journalists said it was good we weren’t following the laptop story because it could help Trump.’

That is really all you need to know. There is no reason or excuse for taxpayer dollars to go towards obviously biased news coverage in an age when information is quite literally at everyone’s fingertips.

There have been calls to reform PBS and NPR. Not even cheeky suggestions like a show for Steve Bannon to balance things out.

But as hilarious as the facial expressions would be on the Vermont couple in the Subaru with the ‘Coexist’ bumper sticker when Bannon’s voice came out of the speakers, there is no reform that can fix a government project that simply has no reason to exist anymore.

Thanks for the memories, public broadcasting, but it’s best that we all just move on.

Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., said on Thursday that she is leaving the congressional Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus due to Elon Musk’s cost-cutting measures in the executive branch.

Hoyle made the announcement via a statement and said her intentions on the caucus were to serve as a good steward for her constituents’ tax dollars and to make the government more streamlined and efficient. 

However, she said Musk’s actions, which are separate from the congressional caucus, have made that impossible, and she claimed DOGE’s work is to find funds to give tax breaks to billionaires at the expense of working people.

‘I joined to be a voice for working people and their interests. But it is impossible to fix the system when Elon Musk is actively breaking it, so I have made the decision to leave,’ Hoyle wrote on X late Thursday. 

‘It is impossible for us to do that important work when unelected billionaire Elon Musk and his lackeys [insist] on burning down the government—and the law—to line his own pockets and rip off Americans across the country who depend on government services to live with dignity,’ she wrote in an accompanying statement. 

The newly minted agency, a key promise of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, is tasked with slashing government waste and providing increased transparency when it comes to government spending. It was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months until July 4, 2026, carrying out its mission.

Hoyle said she was alarmed about Musk’s team accessing sensitive Department of Treasury payment systems. She also accused his team of using intimidation tactics to ‘terrorize the hard-working public servants’ who deliver these services.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the DOGE from obtaining access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service. On Wednesday, the Justice Department agreed in a proposed court order to limit access to the sensitive records to only two ‘special government employees’ within DOGE, who will have read-only permission. 

Hoyle said that if she thought that she, or Democrats or Republicans on the caucus had any influence, then she would stay. 

‘But, fundamentally, I don’t see how we can actually do this work when Elon Musk is blowing things up,’ she told NewsNation Thursday. ‘It’s like trying to replace your roof when someone’s throwing dynamite through the window.

‘So I’m leaving the DOGE Caucus, I will continue to do the work to find efficiencies, but right now I just don’t think it’s possible with what’s happening.’

DOGE has riled Democrats, particularly around USAID, and Hoyle’s announcement comes just days after DOGE targeted the agency, leading to the firing of 50 top officials and the organization being folded into the State Department. The actions came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting on Trump’s executive order, paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID.

The 90-day pause has halted thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide and forced aid organizations to lay off hundreds of employees because they cannot make payroll.

DOGE has focused much of its initial work on canceling DEI programs, consulting contracts and lease terminations for federal buildings.

The agency wrote on Tuesday that it canceled 12 contracts with the Government Services Administration and the Department of Education, resulting in a total savings of about $30 million. It also canceled 12 underused leases for savings of $3 million. On Monday, DOGE said it canceled 36 contracts, leading to savings of about $165 million across six agencies.

DOGE posted on Jan. 28 that the group is saving the federal government around $1 billion per day, mostly by stopping the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, deletion of DEI and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations.

Fox News’ Eric Revell, Greg Norman, Anders Hagstrom, Greg Wehner, Chris Pandolfo, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.