Author: NOVA Corp

A cohort of Senate Republicans joined Democrats to sink a late-night attempt to attach a version of voter ID and citizenship verification legislation to the GOP’s bill funding federal immigration enforcement.

Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., all voted against a modified version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act early Thursday morning.

Their defection came during the Senate’s marathon “vote-a-rama,” where lawmakers could force votes on any number of amendments, regardless of whether they mesh with the underlying budget blueprint.

The amendment’s 48-to-50 failure crystallized what several Republicans had warned for weeks before launching a quasi-floor takeover to debate the SAVE America Act last month — it didn’t have the support among the GOP to pass.

SENATE GOP RAMS THROUGH BLUEPRINT TO BANKROLL ICE, BORDER PATROL THROUGH END OF TRUMP ERA

It appears the proposal was doomed even if Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., launched an oral filibuster to advance the measure with a simple 50-vote majority.

Still, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pushed his version of the SAVE America Act after threatening to hold up the process until Thursday.

Kennedy acknowledged that his effort may not comport with the strict Senate rules that guide the reconciliation process, known as the Byrd Rule, but countered that critics of his move “can’t predict the future.”

“I respect everybody in this body, everybody,” Kennedy said on the Senate floor. “If you vote against this bill, I’m not going to say a word. And I’m sure as hell not going to go on social media and call you an ignorant slut. That’s not the way I roll, unless I’m pushed too far.”

SENATE GOP LAUNCHES ALL-NIGHT VOTE-A-RAMA TO FUND ICE, BORDER PATROL THROUGH END OF TRUMP’S TERM

Had Kennedy’s bid been successful, it could have instructed the Senate Rules Committee to craft legislation that would require voter ID to register and cast ballots in federal elections, limit voting to Election Day only and require that ballots be counted within 36 hours of an election.

It also would have set a $10 billion ceiling for the committee to use in crafting and implementing the legislation.

Notably, McConnell chairs the Senate Rules Committee and would have been tasked with creating the new legislation if Kennedy’s idea worked out.

Collins previously said she would support the SAVE America Act, but rejected this version of the legislation. Meanwhile, Murkowski and Tillis pushed back against the proposal ever since Republicans launched their floor takeover. 

SENATE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL IMMIGRATION FUNDING PLAN WITH $140 BILLION PRICE TAG AS DIVISIONS SIMMER

President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed for passage of the SAVE America Act. Last month he vowed not to sign any other bills until it gets through, and said he wouldn’t approve of a “watered down version.”

Top Senate Rules Committee Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., charged that Kennedy’s amendment was a “solution in search of a problem.”

“We’ve already gone down this road for several weeks now to debate the so-called SAVE America Act,” Padilla said. “But I think, despite how you felt about the SAVE America Act, which certainly cannot pass the Senate, even my Republican colleagues would say the measure suggested by our colleague from Louisiana is an even more extreme version.”

Kennedy’s failed attempt comes as debate over the SAVE America Act has taken a back seat in the Senate in recent weeks.

The GOP’s reconciliation gamble, reauthorizing the nation’s controversial spy powers, and the war in Iran have all dominated the Senate floor. Still, Republican leadership has no immediate plans to end its floor takeover.

West Virginia leaders renewed calls for like-minded Virginians to join their neighbors across the Allegheny Front after voters approved a Democratic Party-favored 10-1 congressional map on Tuesday.

West Virginia’s 55 counties seceded from then-Confederate Virginia in June 1863 to remain with the United States. Since then, there have been varied calls for those in the old Commonwealth who believe they’ve lost their political voice to discover redder pastures.

West Virginia state Sen. Chris Rose, R-Morgantown, announced his “VEXIT” movement — a portmanteau of Virginia and British conservatives’ “BREXIT” bid — is inviting “every true Virginian to take those country roads home to Best Virginia.”

Rose said it is west of Richmond where “your Appalachian heritage, values, and freedom are still honored and protected.”

LAWMAKERS REVIVE MAJOR, CENTURY-OLD OFFER TO VIRGINIANS AS SPANBERGER, JONES SET TO TAKE OFFICE

In a statement, Rose said he watched “the swamp score another victory” on Tuesday as a “YES” vote passed to redistrict Virginia in favor of Fairfax County and the Richmond-Petersburg metro area.

Posting an image of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag to social media as used by then-Gen. George Washington during the Revolutionary War, Rose invited disaffected Virginians to consider becoming Mountaineers.

Much of what is now West Virginia abhorred or did not utilize slavery, and abolitionist John Brown famously led a raid against the federal armory in Jefferson County in what became the easternmost point in the Mountain State, hoping to spur a slave revolt.

Brown was ultimately hanged for treason in Charles Town in 1859, while the 1863 secession passed in the then-capital of Wheeling. Today, the two Virginias’ differences are largely based on urban-vs.-rural geopolitical divides and issues such as gun control and taxation.

VIRGINIA DEMS FLIP ON GERRYMANDERING, BLAME TRUMP FOR REDISTRICTING REVERSAL

When asked, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey told Fox News Digital he is onboard with the “VEXIT” idea in that regard, saying that Charleston will welcome people and businesses looking for a better environment.

“West Virginia is open for business and is ready to welcome those freedom loving neighbors who were disenfranchised by the radical left this week,” Morrisey said.

“While the commonwealth is attacking democracy, hiking taxes, and reinstating woke nonsense, our shining state in the mountains offers hope and opportunity.”

The effort follows the introduction of a bill in Charleston to formally invite a several-hundred-mile swath of western Virginia counties — from Big Stone Gap up through Luray — as well as rural counties in Maryland’s panhandle, long represented in Congress by Democrats from the D.C. suburbs, to secede to West Virginia.

That move would likely provide West Virginia an additional congressional seat, as Reps. Riley Moore’s and Carol Miller’s districts currently split the state generally crosswise.

TRUMP FACTOR: ELECTIONS IN THIS KEY STATE ARE SEEN AS A PARTIAL REFERENDUM ON THE PRESIDENT

Fox News Digital also reached out to current Sen. Jim Justice — who as governor championed similar ideas.

In 2020, Justice joined prominent Virginia preacher Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr. to push for “VEXIT” as the then-governor said Appalachian Virginia has more in common with West Virginia than denser parts of the commonwealth.

“If you’re not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or wherever you may be,” he said in Martinsburg, West Virginia, just a stone’s throw from Frederick County, Virginia.

Meanwhile, West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Charles Trump IV put forth a bill as a then-senator from Martinsburg arguing Frederick County should already be part of West Virginia.

The rural county at Virginia’s northern tip surrounds but does not include the otherwise bluer city of Winchester, and Trump said in his bill that counties formed from the original Frederick are part of the original West Virginia.

Hampshire County, which features the city of Romney, is considered West Virginia’s oldest county and was formed from greater Frederick to the east.

Trump’s bill requested that Frederick County voters consider joining West Virginia, citing an 1862 Virginia state law consenting to “Berkeley, Jefferson and Frederick” joining West Virginia. The other two form West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, but Frederick never acted and therefore still can.

Del. Gary Howell, R-Keyser, a proponent of the Trump-era effort told WVMetroNews that Virginians in the Shenandoah Valley and southwestward are culturally, demographically, and geographically similar to West Virginia.

“They share more with us than they do with Tidewater, Richmond and Northern Virginia. We look at it like, they’re coming home,” he said.

The issue also arose during the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial race, when Republican Winsome Sears pledged to create a “second governor’s office” west of the Blue Ridge Mountains to serve constituents she said are geographically closer to five other capitals and are forgotten by their own.

Indeed, lawmakers and locals in far southwestern Virginia toward Wise and Cumberland Gap have often said “Virginia ends at Roanoke” as far as Richmond is concerned.

Navy Secretary John Phelan was removed from his post after months of tensions with senior Pentagon leadership, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Multiple officials told Fox News Digital that both War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg had concerns with Phelan’s leadership, and tensions had simmered for months. One flashpoint came after Hegseth fired Phelan’s chief of staff, John Harrison, in October 2025, according to sources.

Those frustrations were in part fueled by concerns over Phelan’s execution of major shipbuilding programs, one source confirmed.

But President Donald Trump struck a different tone publicly, praising Phelan in a post on Truth Social Thursday afternoon. 

NAVY SECRETARY DEPARTS IMMEDIATELY AS UNDERSECRETARY TAKES OVER IN ACTING ROLE

“John Phelan is a long time friend, and very successful businessman, who did an outstanding job serving as my Secretary Of The Navy for the last year,” Trump wrote. “John helped my Administration rebuild Sleepy Joe Biden’s rapidly depleted, and almost abandoned, Navy. Now, because of John, and all of the Great Men and Women lovingly and tirelessly involved, we have the strongest Navy in the World — BY FAR!”

Trump added that he would “certainly like to have him back within the Trump Administration sometime in the future” and said Phelan “decided to move on,” a characterization at odds with what other administration officials have told Fox News Digital.

A senior administration official said Trump and Hegseth “agreed new leadership at the Navy is needed.” 

The official added that Hegseth informed Phelan of the decision before Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the move in a post on X Wednesday. 

The leadership shakeup comes at a critical moment for the Navy, as U.S. forces confront escalating tensions amid a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks and mine threats have disrupted a vital global oil choke point. It also comes as Trump has pushed the Navy into a “wartime footing” for expanding the nation’s lagging shipbuilding capacity. 

Phelan, a billionaire and former fundraiser for Trump, and his wife, Amy, hosted a bridal shower for Donald Trump Jr’s fiancé at Mar-a-Lago in mid-April. 

Other Navy insiders described the tensions as more personal, saying Hegseth grew frustrated that Phelan at times bypassed him and took issues directly to Trump.

Phelan declined to comment to Fox News Digital. Hegseth aides could not be reached for comment on the tensions. 

Phelan is the second senior level Pentagon official to lose his job in April after Army chief of staff Randy George, in the midst of the U.S. operation against Iran. His exit also comes amid a broader Cabinet shakeup: Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer all departed their roles since March.

Phelan’s departure also comes amid heightened pressure on the Navy to address persistent shipbuilding challenges. The Navy’s Columbia-class submarine program — its top priority — remains behind schedule and over budget, with delivery of the lead vessel now expected to be delayed by roughly 17 months into 2029.

More broadly, major Navy shipbuilding programs have continued to face delays and cost pressures during Phelan’s roughly yearlong tenure, even as he made shipbuilding a central focus of his leadership. He launched reviews of major programs and pushed changes aimed at accelerating production, while the Navy has invested heavily in efforts to address workforce shortages and production bottlenecks, including a $900 million initiative in 2026 to automate submarine manufacturing.

Tensions escalated as Feinberg moved to centralize oversight of major shipbuilding programs, in some cases stripping Phelan of authority over key efforts, according to New York Times reporting citing a congressional official.

Phelan also drew scrutiny in recent days after suggesting the Navy could explore alternatives such as outsourcing shipbuilding as it grapples with capacity constraints.

“Everything’s on the table,” Phelan said at the Sea-Air-Space conference Monday. “We just need to look at it, understand it, understand the implications behind it and decide if we think that makes sense or not.”

ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF ORDERED TO RETIRE IMMEDIATELY AS HEGSETH CONTINUES PENTAGON SHAKEUP

Hung Cao, the Navy’s under secretary, has stepped in as acting Navy secretary following Phelan’s removal, bringing a sharply different background and leadership profile to the role. Unlike Phelan, a businessman, Cao is a retired Navy captain and special operations officer who served more than two decades in the military, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, before entering politics and later joining the Pentagon’s civilian leadership.

Cao has also emerged as a prominent voice within the Trump administration on military culture and readiness, taking a hardline stance on recruiting and force standards.

In a political debate while he was running for the Virginia Senate seat in October 2024, Cao said: “When you’re using a drag queen…to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we need. What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick repeatedly shut down questions about his past ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein during a budget hearing Thursday.

He refused to address discrepancies in his statements and insisted the setting was “not” the place to discuss them because he was appearing before the House Appropriations Committee to discuss the budget.

Lutnick deflected as Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., pressed him on why he claimed to have cut off contact with Epstein in 2005 despite evidence they remained in touch for years afterward, amid mounting calls for his removal from the Trump administration.

TRUMP COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK TO APPEAR FOR HOUSE EPSTEIN PROBE, COMER SAYS

The clash underscores intensifying scrutiny over Lutnick’s past relationship with Epstein and raises fresh questions about the consistency of his account, as lawmakers weigh oversight of the Commerce Department and demand greater transparency from senior officials tied to the late financier’s network.

During the hearing, Meng pointed to reports that Lutnick visited Epstein’s private island in 2012 and exchanged business emails as recently as 2018.

She asked why Lutnick had previously said he was never “in a room” with Epstein after 2005.

Lutnick did not answer her inquiries, instead saying he had agreed to address “any and all questions” in a separate session with lawmakers in the coming weeks. “Today I am here to testify about the budget,” he said, repeating that he had “nothing to hide.”

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS BID TO CENSURE DEMOCRAT OVER EPSTEIN LINKS GOES DOWN IN FLAMES

The same pattern played out later in the hearing when Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., confronted Lutnick more forcefully, accusing him of lying about the extent of his relationship with Epstein and pressing him on past business ties.

“Why did you lie about your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?” she pressed, urging the Commerce secretary to respond publicly rather than in a closed-door setting.

Lutnick again declined to engage, pointing to a future appearance before another committee and refusing to answer directly. Dean cut him off, saying, “Let the record reflect—you’re dodging the question. The cover-up continues,” before raising the possibility that President Donald Trump could remove him from his post.

Lutnick has sought to downplay his past relationship with Epstein amid pressure from the public for the late sex offender’s associates to be revealed.

The two lived next door to each other in New York, but Lutnick told Congress he “barely had anything to do with that person.”

The Trump administration has so far dismissed calls for his resignation, even as questions about his past ties continue to mount, and Lutnick is expected to face more direct questioning from lawmakers in May.

President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, is inviting the head of the world’s largest religious group to join U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on a ride-along in an American city.

While speaking at a Turning Point USA panel on Wednesday, Homan, who has identified himself as a “lifelong Catholic,” confirmed he would like Pope Leo XIV to join federal officers for a ride-along because “They’re talking about something they don’t understand.”

This comes amid an ongoing feud between the pope and the Trump administration over immigration policy and the conflict in Iran. While maintaining that “every country has a right to determine who and how and when people enter,” Leo has criticized the administration’s interior immigration enforcement as “extremely disrespectful, to say the least.” In response, President Donald Trump has criticized the pope as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” Vice President JD Vance, who is also Catholic, has suggested that “in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality.”

However, Homan, who oversees Trump’s border security efforts, has taken a different approach. Asked on the panel Wednesday whether he was inviting the pope to participate in a ride-along with ICE, he responded emphatically, “Yes.”

“I will sit down and talk to him,” he said. “Because they’re talking about something that they don’t understand.”

DC ARCHBISHOP HITS ‘OUT OF CONTROL’ ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION UNDER BIDEN, BUT CRITICIZES ‘ROUNDUP’ UNDER TRUMP

Homan said, “I’ll explain to them what happened under the Biden administration. An open border is the most inhumane thing you can do.”

He went on to rip into former President Joe Biden and former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over their handling of the border from 2021 to 2025. He said the previous administration used tax dollars to provide illegal immigrants with transportation, lodging, and work authorization.

“When you make that promise to the whole world, the most vulnerable people will give their life savings to the cartels to make that dangerous journey,” said Homan.

“The most humane thing you can do,” he said, “is secure the border.”

“President Trump has illegal immigration down 96.7 percent … When 97 percent less people are coming, how many women aren’t being raped? How many children aren’t dying? How many pounds of fentanyl is not getting in to kill Americans? How many known suspected terrorists aren’t making it into the United States?” he asked.

CBP OFFICERS SEIZE OVER $2.8M IN COCAINE AND METH IN BACK-TO-BACK BUSTS AT CALIFORNIA PORT OF ENTRY

Homan has previously gone on the record on the administration’s spat with the Vatican, saying, “I welcome discussion with any of them, because they don’t understand illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.”

Speaking outside the White House earlier this month, he told reporters, “If they wore my shoes for 40 years, and talked to a 9-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet, including a 5-year-old boy that baked to death, if they understood the atrocities that happened on the open border, I think their opinion would change.”

“Human traffickers are out of business, right? The cartels are going bankrupt because of that secure border. I wish they’d understand that,” he lamented. “Because if they did, I think they’d have a different opinion.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Holy See for comment.

HOMAN WARNS SPANBERGER BLOCKING ACCESS TO VIRGINIA JAILS COULD FORCE MORE ICE STREET OPERATIONS: ‘DO THE JOB’

While maintaining “I have no fear of the Trump administration,” the Roman pontiff has emphasized that the feud with the president has been overblown.

“Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary, trying to interpret what has been said,” he has said. “It was looked at as if I was trying to debate, again, the president, which is not my interest at all.”

Virginia’s redistricting fight is headed to the state’s high court Thursday after a red-county judge who previously tried to spurn the “yes” camp threw a wrench into the certification process late Wednesday.

The situation sets up a clash between the judge who halted certification and the state Supreme Court, which allowed the referendum to proceed while challenges remained under review. Virginia Republicans are urging the courts to take up their challenge to the ballot measure, which voters approved 51%-49% and is expected to redraw the state’s congressional districts to give Democrats a 10-1 majority in the House delegation. 

GOP officials argue the ballot measure process was illegitimate, and pressure is on to save every Republican-held House seat they can with the U.S. midterm elections fast approaching and the Republican majority in Congress hanging by a thread. 

JEFFRIES DEFENDS VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING AS ‘TEMPORARY MEASURE’ TO STOP TRUMP FROM TRYING TO ‘RIG’ MIDTERMS

“[On Tuesday] Virginians saw exactly what happens when a misleading, rigged question is shoved onto the ballot,” state Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, told Fox News Digital. “If this were really about fairness, the advocates wouldn’t have needed to blow $90 million-plus to trick voters. Litigation is still pending with the courts, but the bottom line is clear: Virginians deserve far better.”

The Supreme Court of Virginia (SCOVA) in March stayed an earlier injunction from Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr., clearing the way for the referendum to advance while making clear it had not ruled on the merits. Hurley ruled again late Wednesday, declaring the ballot language unconstitutional and blocking certification of the results.

A legislative source familiar told Fox News Digital that SCOVA is not likely to play ball on that matter and instead will continue its own litigation of the cases and potentially rebuke Hurley. Still, certification of the election is now paused despite Thursday’s SCOVA filing date.

Shortly after the ruling came down, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat who beat GOP incumbent Jason Miyares in November, indicated his office will “immediately file an appeal.”

“As I said last night, Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote.” Jones said in a statement.

Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) chairman Jeff Ryer told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday interview that the party is directly involved in a case before Richmond City Circuit Court that is also challenging the new maps.

According to an RPV statement, that case is titled RNC v. VA State Board of Elections, and a decision on any injunction blocking the new maps is expected next week.

Koski v. RNC and another case, Scott v. McDougle, were filed challenging the allegedly misleading ballot language and procedures that led up to the map redraw and the election itself.

Reps. Morgan Griffith and Ben Cline, R-Va., joined the RNC in its Koski case, which focuses in part on state law requiring an “intervening election” to be held before a referendum can go to voters and argued that early voting having begun before the referendum-drafting process started made the vote “void ab initio.”

DAVID MARCUS: RICH MEN NORTH OF RICHMOND SET TO STEAL THE VOTES OF RURAL VIRGI

McDougle’s case argues lawmakers improperly used an old special session called by then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin to push through the referendum, among other procedural violations — a claim that goes to the heart of whether the process itself was constitutional.

Hurley ruled in McDougle’s favor on January 27 before SCOVA intervened after a Democrat appeal on February 13 to let the election move forward, but said it would still review the merits of that case.

Former U.S. Attorney John Fishwick Jr., of the Roanoke-based Western District of Virginia, told Fox News Digital that the Virginia Supreme Court had issued its postponement hoping that voters would vote “no” and moot any necessary legal action.

“Now there is white heat on this Court but there are strong arguments that the legislature did not follow its own rules when it passed this proposed amendment,” Fishwick said, predicting a “prompt” decision.

FEDERAL COURT CLEARS CALIFORNIA’S NEW HOUSE MAP BOOSTING DEMOCRATS AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, an attorney who had favored allowing counties to decline election preparations until SCOVA stayed Hurley’s ruling, argued the referendum was illegitimate and the results should be tossed.

“There are huge constitutional issues with this process to begin with,” said Williams in an exclusive interview. “There’s a 1952 case where Arlington threw out their own referendum. And in this case, people can say the voters decided all they want, but they didn’t decide based on the process that we have in the Constitution.”

Williams said a short time before Hurley’s ruling that everything is essentially “parked” at SCOVA in Richmond, waiting to be consolidated and ruled upon.

VIRGINIA DEMS ACCUSED OF ILLEGALLY ‘STEAMROLLING’ STATE LAW THAT COULD UPEND REDISTRICTING CRUSADE

Williams said it was clear the election was made to be more about President Donald Trump than Virginia voters.

That assertion would help the case of Reps. Rob Wittman and John McGuire, R-Va., whose filing challenging Democrats’ “to restore fairness” language describing the referendum at the ballot box is being heard.

Ryer said Wittman and McGuire’s case has been consolidated into the Koski-RNC case.

He remained optimistic about all cases, and pledged that either way, the RPV will have nominees for all 11 seats, redistricted or not; calling Tuesday’s vote an encouraging sign.

“This is the best performance for anything that’s been Republican-aligned in the state since the 2021 election and i think it does demonstrate that Virginia is still a purple state,” Ryer said, as the results depicted about a 12-point swing to the right from former Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears’ loss in November.

House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, added that rural Virginia came out strong to try to offset the Washington suburbs.

“We’re still fighting. We’re still fighting in the courts. We think we’re going to win in the courts. The language was so misleading. They didn’t follow the statutes they were supposed to follow. There’s a lot of missteps that happened during the process. So we feel comfortable going on to the next phase,” he said.

Democrats remained bullish that the election results will stand in the wake of Hurley’s ruling and court activity commencing at SCOVA Thursday, with “Ready for Hillary” founder Adam Parkhomenko saying on X that “Virginia voters spoke. MAGA lost. And now a rogue Republican judge is trying to override the will of the people because they didn’t like the outcome.”

If the cases fail, many redistricting opponents still have faith.

Del. Delores Oates, R-Front Royal, said in a statement that the “YES” crew did not get a “mandate” and that the new 10-1 map may also be a sign.

“Isaiah 10:1 [says] woe to those who make unjust laws; to those who issue oppressive decrees.”

“Stop looking at Zillow and start planning for November,” Oates said. “We stay and we fight for Virginia.”

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

The Justice Department unveiled charges Thursday against two Chinese nationals allegedly behind an overseas cryptocurrency scam center, as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro vowed that the Trump administration is “just getting started” in combating these schemes. 

Pirro told reporters in Washington, D.C., that cyber-enabled and cryptocurrency investment fraud is “among the fastest growing and the most financially devastating form of cybercrime that is targeting Americans today.” The DOJ’s actions come after Pirro launched the Scam Center Strike Force in November last year, following an executive order from President Donald Trump. 

“Today, we announce significant milestones in that fight. We have charged Chinese bosses who ran a scam compound in Burma where thousands were trafficked, enslaved, beaten and then forced to steal from Americans for years. We have seized also a Telegram channel, and that channel was luring workers into a forced compound in Cambodia,” Pirro said. “There they were ordered to pose as U.S. banks, as the New York City Police Department, to steal Americans’ life savings.” 

“We have taken down more than 500 websites. They were used to steal Americans life savings. My office is going to continue to work to identify the funds stolen,” Pirro added. “We have also restrained more than $700 million in cryptocurrency from U.S. victims of fraud. The administration of President Trump is lockstep in combating these scams, and we are just getting started.”

PIRRO WARNS CAR THEFT RING USED NEW TECH TO QUICKLY ACCESS VEHICLES: ‘GONE IN 60 SECONDS’

The Justice Department said the two Chinese nationals, identified as Huang Xingshan and Jiang Wen Jie, were arrested in Thailand earlier this year after allegedly being linked to “cryptocurrency investment fraud operations” out of the Shunda compound in Burma. The pair were charged with wire fraud conspiracy and the U.S. is working to extradite them to face justice on American soil, according to Pirro. 

“The Shunda compound operated from at least January 2025 until approximately November 2025, when it was seized by the Karen National Liberation Army of Burma. The compound used scam websites and mobile applications disguised as legitimate investment platforms to defraud victims, including Americans,” the DOJ said. “Workers within the compound were trafficked individuals who were held against their will and forced to defraud victims under the threat of violence and torture.” 

“According to the investigation, Huang served at Shunda as a high-level manager and enforcer and personally participated in the physical punishment of trafficked compound workers. Jiang served as a team leader directly supervising workers who specifically targeted American victims,” the DOJ added. “Under Jiang’s supervision, one of the people under his command successfully defrauded a single American victim of over $3 million utilizing a fraudulent investment platform. The theft was celebrated within the organization as a paradigm of success.”

HOW FLORIDA RETIREE LOST $200,000 IN FAKE PAYPAL REFUND SCAM

Officials said after the Shunda compound was seized, “Huang and Jiang relocated to another scam compound located in Cambodia where they attempted to continue their cryptocurrency investment fraud operation” before their arrests. 

“The Strike Force conducted a first-of-its-kind seizure of a Telegram channel with more than 6,000 followers that was used to recruit individuals to travel to Cambodia under false promises of high-paying employment. Once there, recruited workers were held against their will and forced to defraud victims, including Americans, as part of a sophisticated law enforcement impersonation scheme,” the DOJ also said. 

On Thursday, Pirro called on Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov to shut the channel down.

“Now, the workers, though, who responded to these jobs, they end up posing as banks, as police officers, as prosecutors. They sound like Americans, directing Americans to fork over their money or be prosecuted. They have backgrounds and backdrops where they actually look like they are from an official agency,” Pirro said. 

“Folks, this isn’t abstract. It is hitting your neighbors, your friends, and your parents’ retirement accounts. Some of these victims are so distraught that they end up taking their own lives. This is economic homicide,” she added. “We have seized the sites and we are coming for the rest. These criminals thought they were untouchable because they were overseas. Today we are proving them wrong and we are just getting started.” 

FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans say they’re ready to advance legislation that would crack down on widespread fraud in states like Minnesota and California.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., introduced legislation on Thursday that would tackle fraud in federal programs by curbing premature disbursement to “high-risk” recipients, Fox News Digital has learned. 

His panel will mark up the two bills — the Stopping Fraudulent Payments Act and the Pre-Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act — as soon as next Wednesday, a House Oversight Committee spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

“Americans are fed up with this abuse and expect action from the government entrusted with their money,” Comer said in a statement. “These long-overdue integrity measures will strengthen the federal payment system, and I look forward to advancing these bills next week at the Oversight Committee’s markup.”

COMER TARGETS WALZ IN NEW HOUSE INVESTIGATION, CITING NEARLY $1B IN ALLEGED MINNESOTA FRAUD

Comer’s fraud prevention push comes after the oversight panel launched sweeping investigations into state-administered social services programs in Minnesota and California. 

The committee rolled out an interim report in March that found Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison knew for years that their state’s federally-funded welfare programs were rife with fraud, but alleges they ignored whistleblowers’ concerns when they attempted to bring up the problem.

Fraudsters could have stolen at least $9 billion from Minnesota’s welfare programs, according to Comer’s probe. Federal prosecutors have charged at least 92 individuals in connection to the fraud schemes, most of whom are of Somali descent, and secured more than 60 convictions so far.

The oversight panel also opened an investigation into “rampant taxpayer fraud” in California’s hospice programs in March. 

Comer’s legislation would seek to better protect taxpayer dollars upfront by stopping “pay and chase” practices, which some fraudsters use as a way to go under the radar since fraud is only discovered after the benefits have been paid out.

MASSIVE MEDICAID FRAUD SCHEME PUTS MINNESOTA’S FEDERAL FUNDING AT RISK — AND FALLOUT COULD WIDEN

If the Kentucky Republican’s bills are enacted, federal agencies would be barred from sending out disbursements if they determine that the recipient is at “an elevated risk of fraud,” or the transfer is suspected to be an improper payment.

The legislation would also direct the Treasury Department to verify payments and recipient information to catch fraudulent disbursements prior to being issued. Treasury would also be equipped with new authority to block payment requests from federal agencies if it suspects fraud.

Sheila Clark, the CEO of a hospice advocacy group, told House lawmakers Wednesday that fraud is pervasive among some providers in the state. 

“You’d be amazed at how many hospices… the door you can walk up to in California and there is nobody there,” Clark said at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, adding there are “months’ worth of mail that you can see stacked.”

“And that passed a survey. How did that happen?” she questioned.

“How do you put a hospice in a burrito stand in California?” Clark went on, likely referencing a specific incident she encountered. “How do you put a hospice in an entire store in California? That all had to be vetted through licensure and through certification and accreditation.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, voiced support for Comer’s plans for fraud prevention legislation.

“Instead of hunting down stolen money after the fact, these bills prevent improper payments and fraud from happening in the first place,” Arrington, who is a cosponsor of the two bills, told Fox News Digital.

“If we’re serious about restoring fiscal sanity to Washington, we must get serious about eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse wherever they exist,” she added.

Christina Bohannan, a Democratic candidate in a battleground Iowa district, is facing scrutiny from Republicans over past remarks in which she said the state would be viewed as “backwards” without diversity training in schools and argued the nation’s founders were motivated by preserving slavery during the Revolutionary War.

Bohannan, a law professor and former Iowa state representative, is making her third attempt to unseat incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, in the state’s 1st Congressional District after losing by less than a percentage point in 2024. The razor-thin margin has set up a high-stakes rematch this cycle, as Republicans work to defend one of their most competitive seats while highlighting Bohannan’s past positions on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“DEI Queen Christina Bohannan thinks George Floyd is a role model, and George Washington should be cancelled,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Zach Kraft said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Iowans will channel the spirit of 1776 to reject this two-time loser once again so she can return to her day job calling everyone and everything racist.” 

Bohannan made the remarks now under GOP fire on the podcast “Under the Dome” in 2021.

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Bohannan, then a state representative, said she was “really concerned” about a bill in the Iowa legislature banning diversity training, including implicit bias training, from being taught at public schools and universities. She said that implicit bias, an unconscious attitude a person may have toward someone based on race, is “very real,” and is “serious.”

“I think that it is going to be very divisive if passed,” Bohannan said at the time. “I think that it’s going to send a very bad message about Iowa and that it is going to seem like are kind of this backwards state that doesn’t understand there are things like systemic racism.”

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed that bill into law in June 2021.

Bohannan also said on the podcast that she was “glad” that a Republican-backed bill banning the 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative that suggests slavery is central to the nation’s founding, failed during the legislative session.

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The 1619 Project focuses “on the fact that there were some Revolutionary leaders who became supportive of that Revolution because they wanted to preserve the institution of slavery,” Bohannan said, noting there were other reasons for the revolution, such as taxation.

Fox News Digital reached out to Bohannan for comment.

Bohannan has supported diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, as well as police reform and migrant rights groups, for years.

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While in the Iowa legislature, she co-sponsored a bill requiring implicit bias training for health professionals, but the bill never made it out of committee.

As chairwoman of the University of Iowa law school’s DEI Committee, she pushed students to support the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. In a letter to students, she listed five different funds students can donate to, including the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the National Bail Out Fund, which both support defunding the police.

During a candidate forum in 2020, at the time of Bohannan’s first congressional campaign, she said she was “very active” in Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa, a group focused on abolishing ICE, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A year prior, Bohannan donated money to the Prairieland Freedom Fund to help bail illegal immigrants out of jail. The Prairieland Freedom Fund seeks to establish a “world without police.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Miller-Meeks’ campaign for comment.

A Colorado district attorney charged a federal immigration officer with third-degree assault and criminal mischief on Tuesday in a move the Department of Homeland Security called “unlawful” and a “political stunt.”

Eric P. Murray, the district attorney for Colorado’s 6th District, announced Tuesday he’s charging U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Nicholas Rice with the two counts for an incident that occurred during an immigration enforcement activity in Durango, Colo., between Oct. 27–28.

Anne Francesca Stagi told investigators that Rice knocked her phone out of her hand while she was protesting outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Durango, according to The Associated Press.

Video of the incident shows Stagi holding her phone in front of a masked immigration agent’s face before the agent grabs it.

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Stagi then appears to grab the officer’s shoulder as he walks away at which point he grabs her and, along with other federal agents, brings her to the ground, the video shows.

Stagi claimed that the officer put her in a chokehold and that she still feels pain when she puts on a jacket.

The prosecution comes after the Colorado Bureau of Investigations (CBI) opened a probe into the incident at the behest of Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current, according to the AP.

DHS claimed that the prosecution was a political stunt and that states have no authority to investigate cases of this nature. “Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other Federal agencies,” DHS told the AP in a statement.

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The agency is still investigating the case, per the AP.

Fox News Digital contacted DHS, CBP, Colorado’s 6th district, CBI and the Durango Police Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.