Yet another member of a family within Minnesota’s Somali community is expected to plead guilty Thursday in the massive fraud scandal that has drawn national attention and prompted criticism of Attorney General Keith Ellison over a meeting he held with members of the family in question. 

Gandi Mohamed, 45, is expected to either plead guilty at a change of plea hearing scheduled for Thursday or choose to enter a plea of no contest, which would allow him to accept conviction and be sentenced without admitting guilt, according to court records.

Mohamed is the sixth member of his family who would be pleading guilty in the scheme prosecutors say fraudulently claimed to be serving meals while instead pocketing $14 million from the federal child nutrition program, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.

Center of the American Experiment policy fellow Bill Glahn told Fox News Digital that “it’s good that he and his co-conspirators have all been convicted in the case, however, a courtroom trial would have been a useful exercise to show the public the scope and scale of the fraud.”

TOM EMMER CALLS FOR TIM WALZ, KEITH ELLISON TO ‘SERVE JAIL TIME’ IF FRAUD COVERUP ALLEGATIONS ARE TRUE

The Mohamed family was present at the now infamous 2021 meeting between Ellison and members of the Somali community where would-be fraudsters could be heard asking the state’s attorney general to help them secure more funding, before the conversation turned to campaign donations.

“The only way that we can protect what we have is by inserting ourselves into the political arena. Putting our votes where it needs to be. But most importantly, putting our dollars in the right place. And supporting candidates that will fight to protect our interests,” one of the Somali community members says in the recording.

“That’s right,” Ellison responds.

JOSH HAWLEY STANDS BY ACCUSATIONS AFTER FIERY SENATE HEARING CLASH WITH MINNESOTA AG ELLISON

Ellison has denied any wrongdoing regarding the recording, saying he was completely unaware of the fraudsters’ crimes at the time of the meeting. The meeting occurred before any convictions in the case and before President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice had indicted anyone. 

“I took a meeting in good faith with people I didn’t know and some turned out to have done bad things. I did nothing for them and took nothing from them,” Ellison wrote in an April 2025 op-ed for the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Following that meeting, Gandi gave the maximum $2,500 campaign donation to Ellison that the attorney general returned to the Department of Justice in 2025.

TRUMP ADMIN SCORES MINNESOTA COURT WIN IN MEDICAID FRAUD CRACKDOWN

“Our Attorney General, Keith Ellison, is not only looking the other way but doing so after taking donations from these very fraudsters,” Republican Dalia al-Aqidi who is running for Congress in Minneapolis against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told Fox News Digital. “This is a betrayal of every Minnesotan who trusted him with that office.”

Al-Aqidi explained that the voters in her district are “furious” about the fraud scandal.

“Which is why I’ve rolled out a five-point plan to prevent fraud before it starts,” al-Aqidi said. “This isn’t just about taxpayers, it’s about people who really need food and housing. Preventing fraud isn’t complicated, it just takes the political will to stop this type of abuse. It’s clear that this scheme is being used to buy votes, and that has to stop.”

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Alexis McAdams contributed to this report.

A federal judge has postponed the Trump administration’s termination of temporary protected status (TPS) for Ethiopia.

“Plaintiffs brought suit to challenge the lawfulness of the termination, arguing that Defendants had violated the TPS statute, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Equal Protection Clause. Before the Court is Plaintiffs’ motion to postpone the effective date of the termination pending resolution of the merits. Because Defendants terminated Ethiopia’s TPS designation without regard for the process delineated by Congress, the Court will grant Plaintiffs’ motion,” Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote.

The judge was nominated by then-President Joe Biden in 2024, according to the court’s website.

BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE TWICE SHUT DOWN BY SCOTUS FACES ‘ACTIVIST’ FIRE AFTER LATEST TRUMP POLICY BLOCK

Last year, then-Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem issued a notice indicating that the TPS designation for Ethiopia would be terminated as of Feb. 13 at 11:59 p.m. But that move did not take effect, as it was stymied amid legal wranglings.

“Fundamental to this case — and indeed to our constitutional system — is the principle that the will of the President does not supersede that of Congress. Presidential whims do not and cannot supplant agencies’ statutory obligations,” Murphy wrote in the April 8 memorandum and order.

TRUMP ADMIN UNLAWFULLY TERMINATED LEGAL STATUS OF MIGRANTS WHO USED BIDEN-ERA APP, JUDGE RULES

“The Constitution requires that the President ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ a directive which includes enforcing the laws in accordance with congressional commands. And administrative agencies granted executive authority by Congress may operate only within the bounds Congress has set. Yet, in this case, Defendants have disregarded both that foundational principle and the statutory scheme enacted by Congress,” he asserted.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.

BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE WHO SLAPPED DOWN TRUMP DEPORTATION POLICY PREVIOUSLY REBUKED BY SCOTUS

“This stay by radical, Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy is just the latest example of judicial activists trying to prevent President Trump from restoring integrity to America’s legal immigration system,” a DHS spokesperson declared in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Temporary means temporary. Country conditions—including armed conflicts—in Ethiopia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status. The Trump administration is putting Americans first.”

FIRST ON FOX: A conservative watchdog urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to toss Washington, D.C.’s National Guard lawsuit, arguing the city cannot sue itself because it is part of the federal government.

“To start, one cannot sue oneself,” Oversight Project lawyers wrote in a brief in the case. “And that is what this case ultimately is—the United States suing itself. Moreover, it is a foundational principle of the law that a municipal corporation cannot sue its sovereign creator.”

The appeal sits at the intersection of Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington last year and D.C.’s long-running fight over self-government. What began as a lawsuit over the president’s deployment of forces into the capital has now evolved into a threshold legal battle over whether the district has the right to challenge that move in federal court at all.

Oversight Project lawyers told Fox News Digital in an interview that if the appellate court judges in Washington were to agree with them, the decision would reach far beyond the National Guard lawsuit, which arose last year when the Trump administration began deploying military forces to blue cities in several jurisdictions to support immigration officials and, in D.C.’s case, to make the city “safe and beautiful.”

NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS WILL LIKELY REMAIN IN DC THROUGH 2026, OFFICIAL SAYS

“If the judges find our argument valid, it’s going to kind of restore the normal system, which is D.C. is entirely subordinate to the federal government and these disputes are resolved politically,” Oversight Project lawyer Sam Dewey said.

The proper recourse for D.C. against the federal government on any issue would be for the D.C. Council to turn to the president and Congress, not the courts, Dewey said.

The case stemmed from D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb suing last September, arguing Trump encroached on the city’s perceived independence by disregarding “Congress’s decision, half a century ago, to afford the residents of the District ‘the powers of local self-government.’”

A three-judge panel temporarily paused a lower court’s injunction against the administration while the appeals court continues to examine the merits of the case. Two of the judges on the panel, both Trump appointees, wrote in a concurring opinion that the pause was necessary because D.C. did not, in fact, have standing to sue, echoing what the Oversight Project detailed in its new amicus brief in the case.

“We have never recognized that the District possesses an independent sovereignty that can give rise to an Article III injury from actions of the federal government,” the two Trump-appointed judges wrote.

PIRRO TOUTS DC CRIME IS BEING PROSECUTED ‘LIKE NEVER BEFORE’ IN ANNOUNCING YEAR-END STATS

President Donald Trump began deploying National Guard forces to cities across the country last year as part of an effort to support immigration authorities, who faced waves of protests and riots over their deportation efforts. The Supreme Court stepped in, however, saying the deployment was likely unlawful under the law Trump invoked. The order applied to cities including Portland, Oregon; and Chicago, but not D.C., because of the district’s unique status.

In D.C., Trump extended roughly 2,600 National Guard soldiers’ presence through the end of 2026, and the president has signaled he hopes to further extend that timeline, despite continued opposition from D.C.’s Democratic leadership.

“This is actually training. I never want to take them out of D.C. I mean, maybe somebody later on will do it,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting last month.

ALITO RIPS SUPREME COURT MAJORITY AS ‘UNWISE’ FOR BLOCKING TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD PLAN

Briefing in the lawsuit is set to stretch through May and the appeals court could schedule oral arguments after that before making a decision on the legality of the National Guard’s presence and activities.

Fox News Digital reached out to Schwalb’s office for comment.

Virginia’s Democratic Governor, Abigail Spanberger, took credit for billions in economic achievements secured under her GOP predecessor, earning her backlash from Republican leaders and their representatives running the state before she got there. 

Spanberger touted signing legislation that authorized four separate investments from the aerospace, energy, and pharmaceutical industries earlier this week. The investments, according to a press release from Spanberger’s office, would welcome 3,250 new jobs and $7.1 billion in business investment to the state. 

“From my very first day in office, I have been working to create a stable business environment so companies can hire, expand, and continue to invest in our Commonwealth,” Spanberger said in her press release. “I am signing these bills into law so we can continue to grow Virginia’s economy and create opportunities for Virginians.”

However, Spanberger’s signature was effectively just a formality, as the deals she touted were part of Youngkin’s broader push to spur economic development as governor of Virginia, which included a record of $156 billion in total CEO commitments during his term. As he was exiting office, the former GOP governor garnered more than the previous six gubernatorial administrations combined,  according to a press release from Youngkin’s team.

BIDEN ALLY TELLS SPANBERGER TO EXIT ‘BUNKER’ AS EX-GOV RENEWS DEBATE PUSH

“She’s trying to take credit for somebody else’s work,” former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares told Fox News Digital. “In grade school we call that cheating.”

“The last three months have been nothing but horrible news for Virginians as Abigail Spanberger broke every single promise she made on the campaign trail and now has the lowest approval rating of any Virginia governor this century,” added Youngkin spokesperson Justin Discigil. “Governor Youngkin is happy that Virginians are being reminded of some good news, even if it means Gov. Spanberger taking credit for the economic deals he secured for the Commonwealth.”

Spanberger did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the matter. 

WHO IS ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, AND WHY DID DEMOCRATS CHOOSE HER FOR TO THEIR STATE OF THE UNION RESPONSE?

The four bills she signed, which with her signature authorized the awards, were announced during Youngkin’s term as governor. 

The first, HB 1531, allocates $537 million to aerospace company Avio USA and is expected to create over 1,500 jobs. The award, according to public reports at the time, was announced in December 2025. The next bill, HB 799, will allocate $457 million and is expected to create over 825 jobs. This award was announced by Youngkin in September 2025. HB 800, allocating over $2 billion to pharmacuetical manufacturer Eli Lilly and expected to create more than 450 jobs to manufacture the active ingredient in major cancer, autoimmune and other advanced drugs, was announced in September 2025 as well. Meanwhile, rounding out the handful of investments touted by Spanberger this week was HB 1076, which invested $4 billion into pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and is expected to create around 500 jobs. That commitment was announced in October 2025.

“Attracting new businesses and jobs to Virginia is a core focus of my administration — and I’m proud of the hundreds of millions of dollars in investment we have already announced this year,” Spanberger continued in her press release this week announcing the Virginia investments. “I look forward to continuing to work with legislators, local communities, and business leaders as we make clear that Virginia is the top state in the nation to grow or start a business.”

In a background section of the press release, the announcement continues touting Spanberger’s commitment to growing Virginia’s economy.

FORMER VIRGINIA GOV GLENN YOUNGKIN HINTS AT POLITICAL FUTURE, SAYS HE’S ‘CHOMPING AT THE BIT’ AFTER EXIT

“My simple message for Abigail Spanberger is, to quote Elizabeth Warren, ‘You didn’t build that!’” Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities, said. “Spanberger has to take credit for her Republican predecessor’s accomplishments bringing jobs to Virginia because her policies are actually raising taxes, killing jobs, and hiking energy costs. Spanberger has to play make believe that she is delivering on her affordability agenda to impress the 2028 Democratic Party kingmakers. I expect that Spanberger will nevertheless persist in her false claims.”

Critics of Spanberger have questioned the moderate campaign message she campaigned on, as well as her economic strategy, which has included ushering in new taxes in the state despite campaigning on a message of affordability.

“Abigail Spanberger’s first 100 days in office have been a disaster when it comes to economic development, argued Miyares, who lost to current Democratic Attorney General Jay Jones in November. Jones infamously called for the murder of his GOP rival, something that ultimately did not matter enough for voters as he and Spanberger came out victorious in November. 

“Three pillars of a good business environment is a good tax environment, a good regulatory environment and an environment that – from a litigation perspective – is not anti-business. Spanberger has already indicated and done a rash of bills that will make Virginia less competitive. Virginia does not compete by itself, we compete with 49 other sates, and Spanberger seems hellbent to hurt us with her tax, regulatory and litigation.” 

Miyares added that he was aware of multiple Virginia businesses that former Governor Youngkin had recruited and were thinking about expanding in Virginia, but will no longer do so as a result of Spanberger’s policies. 

He also pointed out that Spanberger “does not believe in energy abundance” despite touting energy infrastructure investments this week. “I find it in some ways laughable and pathetic what she is attempting to do,” Miyares said.

“Abigail Spanberger inherited a $2.7 billion surplus and benefitted from hundreds of thousands of new jobs created under Republican leadership,” the Virginia GOP added in February, in response to headlines about rising Virginia unemployment numbers. “Her and her Democrat allies are squandering it all in a matter of weeks while breaking every promise they made on ‘affordability.’”

President Donald Trump blasted former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Wednesday after Republican Clay Fuller won the special election runoff on Tuesday to fill Greene’s old seat in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.

“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown’s (GREEN TURNS TO BROWN UNDER STRESS!) seat in Congress has been taken over by a wonderful and talented man, Clay Fuller, who won convincingly, and right from the beginning, despite many people running for that ‘TRUMP’ +37 seat, and despite the stench left by Greene,” Trump declared in a Wednesday Truth Social post.

“Congratulations to Clay Fuller, a very large improvement over his deranged predecessor!” the president added.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SAYS TRUMP, GOP ‘GOVERNED AMERICA LAST,’ PREDICTS MIDTERM LOSSES

While Greene won re-election to the district by more than 28% in 2024, unofficial results for the April 7 contest indicate that Fuller won by more than 11%.

It also appears that far fewer people voted in the recent contest compared to the 2024 race, which occurred during a presidential election cycle.

Greene declared in a post on X that the district “was never in danger of flipping blue, but the results speak for themselves. Trump flipping MAGA from America First to America Last, covering up for the Epstein files, and betraying key campaign promises of no more foreign wars has been the best help for the Democrats. Sad!”

Greene, who was previously an ardent Trump supporter, had a falling out with the president last year and left office early this year in the middle of her two-year term.

EX-TRUMP ALLY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE JOINS LEFT-WING CALLS FOR THE 25TH AMENDMENT AS IRAN DEADLINE NEARS

On Easter Sunday after Trump’s controversial Truth Social post threatening Iranian power plants and bridges, Greene blasted the president in a post on X, saying he had “gone insane.”

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F[—]in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” Trump said in the post on Sunday.

In part of a lengthy post on X, Greene asserted, “Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”

Then on Tuesday, after Trump threatened that an entire “civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Greene called for removing the president from office via the 25th Amendment.

REPUBLICANS WIN BUT DEMOCRATS ALSO CLAIM VICTORY WITH BALLOT BOX SURGE IN TRUMP TERRITORY

“25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” she wrote in a post on X.

Colorado’s loss in the Supreme Court’s Kaley Chiles case last week marked the third time in recent years the justices have rebuked the state in a major culture-war dispute, adding to a growing pattern of high-profile reversals in cases over speech, religion and anti-discrimination law.

The high court’s decision was the latest in a trio of lawsuits that backfired for Colorado, after the Colorado Civil Rights Commission lost in court to a cake baker in a key religious liberty case and after a website designer won a similar battle against the state’s civil rights division. Conservative legal experts said the legal setbacks for the state were not a coincidence.

“Colorado seems hell-bent on enforcing its own new orthodoxy of thought, and the Supreme Court has had to come back time and time again to correct them and to remind them that the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, even when the state may disagree with a person’s opinions,” Carrie Severino, president of the legal watchdog JCN, told Fox News Digital.

The Supreme Court last week found that Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, signed into law in 2019 by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, violated the First Amendment because it only restricted talk therapy when the therapy aimed to prevent minors from embracing being transgender or gay.

SUPREME COURT BLOCKS COLORADO’S SO-CALLED ‘CONVERSION THERAPY’ BAN ON FIRST AMENDMENT GROUNDS

In response to a question from Fox News Digital about the apparent theme, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jim Campbell said the state “has proven itself to be no respecter of the First Amendment.”

“I don’t think at this point that it’s coincidental,” said Campbell, who represented Chiles before the Supreme Court during oral arguments. “The State of Colorado has shown an utter disregard for the First Amendment rights of people like Kaley Chiles.”

JONATHAN TURLEY: THIS BLUE STATE’S LATEST ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH IS AWFUL AND SNEAKY, TOO

In Chiles v. Salazar, the high court found 8-1 that the state law discriminated based on viewpoint. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority opinion that such laws suppressing speech on that basis amounted to an “‘egregious’ assault” on the Constitution. 

“The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country,” Gorsuch wrote.

The case centered on Chiles, a licensed faith-based counselor in Colorado Springs, who argued that she helped youths reach their own stated goals, which she said could include minors seeking counseling on their sexuality and gender identity.

COLORADO HOUSE ADVANCES CONVERSION THERAPY LAWSUIT BILL

Colorado argued it was allowed to regulate Chiles’ therapy because it amounted to professional conduct and the state wanted to protect minors from Chiles’ perceived harmful counseling.

The decision followed a landmark ruling in 2023, when the Supreme Court found 6-3 in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis that the First Amendment barred Colorado from using the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act to force a website designer to create wedding websites for same-sex couples. The high court said in the ruling that the state could not force a person to create content conveying a message that he or she disagreed with.

That ruling was viewed at the time as a broad free speech win that followed the Supreme Court’s narrower 2018 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

In that case, the justices sided with baker Jack Phillips, finding that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had shown unconstitutional hostility toward his religious beliefs that the commission did not show toward other bakers.

“The Supreme Court found, at least at the time of Masterpiece Cakeshop, that Colorado’s state agency was acting in a way biased against a certain set of beliefs, and from what we can see that hasn’t changed in the intervening years,” Severino said. “Unfortunately, each time the Supreme Court has corrected them, they’ve only doubled down.”

KAGAN TURNS ON LIBERAL ALLY JACKSON WITH FOOTNOTE JAB OVER FREE SPEECH

Terry Schilling, president of the conservative American Principles, observed the trend in Colorado, saying in a statement provided to Fox News Digital that Democrats there “will stomp on the rights of anyone who stands in the way of the well-heeled gay and transgender lobby whether it is bakers, doctors, or desperate families.”

“It should not take the lengthy legal battles or the Supreme Court to rein in the liberal war against reality,” Schilling said. “That is why fed-up Colorado families are appealing straight to voters to protect children from extremist Democrats,” Schilling added, citing his organization’s efforts to pass conservative ballot initiatives in the state.

Outside the First Amendment cases, Colorado has also been a testing ground for other highly polarizing legal fights that made it to the Supreme Court.

The justices in Trump v. Anderson unanimously reversed the state Supreme Court’s decision to remove President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential primary ballot over allegations that he had incited an insurrection, finding the state lacked the authority to remove him.

The son of a former top-level Iranian official, who acted as the spokesperson for hostage takers occupying Tehran’s U.S. Embassy in 1979, is yet another relative of Iran’s hard-lined Islamist regime caught living a comfortable and affluent Western lifestyle in Los Angeles. 

Petitioners have been calling for Eissa Hashemi, 43, to be investigated and deported, arguing it is unfair for the relatives of these Iranian leaders to enjoy the freedom and privileges afforded to people in the West, and more particularly in the United States, while their government in Iran continues to oppress and restrict its people from exercising rights seen as basic within America.

In addition to Hashemi, the niece and grandniece of the late Iranian terror mastermind Qasem Soleimani, have also been living comfortably in Los Angeles until recently, when they were taken into custody by federal immigration officials and had their green cards taken away by the State Department. Sheila Nazarian, who fled Iran as a child, slammed the late-terror leader’s relatives for posting photos on social media of themselves in bikinis, on yachts, next to helicopters, and wearing other clothing that otherwise could get them killed in Iran.

Fox News Digital obtained photos of Hashemi at what the New York Post described as a “fancy” gym in Los Angeles, during which he reportedly brushed off a reporter’s questions. Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, dubbed by the American media as “Screaming Mary” amid her role acting as the spokesperson for the hostage takers who captured more than 50 American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 where they were held captive for over a year.

PHOTOS: INSIDE THE CALIFORNIA HOME OF QASEM SOLEIMANI’S RELATIVES AFTER ICE ARREST 

Ebtekar also served in a formal role as Vice President of Women and Family Affairs in Iran between 2017 and 2021. PBS’s Frontline dubbed her “one of the highest-ranking women in the Muslim world” during an interview with the Muslim leader in 2002. 

Meanwhile, Ebtekar’s son appears to be living in the Los Angeles area while holding down a job as an adjunct psychology professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. 

According to the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe, his now-deleted LinkedIn page previously indicated in 2015 that he was a doctoral student at the Los Angeles branch of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. 

The outlet also indicated that his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, also had her home listed in Los Angeles on her social media profiles, and added that the information had been confirmed through an anonymous source that Radio Free Liberty described as an “acquaintance” to the couple. A spokesperson identifying themselves as the administrator of Massumeh Ebtekar’s web pages reportedly indicated the couple made a “personal decision” to study abroad after completing their master’s programs in Iran.

The outlet also recounted a 2008 interview Hashemi conducted.

IRANIAN REGIME RELATIVES LIVING LARGE IN US AMID CONFLICT

“In an interview published in 2008, Hashemi provided a rare window into his views on the hostage crisis, saying he got a grasp of the reasons behind it after reading a book his mother published in Canada,” the outlet reported, adding a quote from Hashemi’s interview about his view on the hostage crisis his mom played a pivotal role in: “When mother’s book was translated from English, I understood the issue fully,” he said, according to PBS at the time. “The students then had a big move, an important cause.”

According to the New York Post, people have been protesting against Hashemi living in the United States for months. There are several petitions registered on Change.org calling on him to be investigated and deported, some of which have been put under review by the petition website, according to a Fox News Digital review of recent petitions on Change.org

The Post added that records show Hashemi is residing in Agoura Hills, inside Los Angeles County, with his fellow psychology professor wife Maryam Tahmasebi.

“The presence of these families often feels like a slap in the face to those advocating for freedom and justice in Iran. It is time to address this issue by taking a firm stance against hosting the families of those involved with a government that does not align with U.S. values,” one of the remaining petitions on Change.org states. “A concrete and actionable solution would be for immigration and Homeland Security officials to review and, where necessary, revoke visas or residency permits for families of officials complicit in human rights violations. This scrutiny would demonstrate the U.S.’s commitment to human rights and ensure its policies are consistent with its values.”

A U.S. Air Force crew had only seconds to react after their F-15E Strike Eagle was hit by enemy fire over Iran Friday. Both airmen ejected.

The escape from the aircraft — triggered in an instant — set off a high-risk rescue mission deep inside hostile territory, as U.S. forces raced to recover the crew before Iranian forces could reach them.

In those few seconds, the ejection seat transforms from a last-resort safety system into an explosive escape mechanism — launching the crew out of the aircraft and into open air before a parachute deploys.

RESCUE EXPERT SAYS MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT COMES AFTER ‘JACKPOT’ CALL IN RECOVERY BEHIND ENEMY LINES

That is the sequence the pilot and weapon systems officer aboard the F-15E over Iran would have experienced after their aircraft was struck Friday, forcing them to eject and triggering a high-risk rescue operation over the weekend. The incident — and the successful recovery of both airmen in recent days — offers a rare look at what happens in the split second a pilot ejects, and the extreme forces they endure to survive. 

“It’s a violent event,” Pete “Gunz” Gersten, a former F-16 pilot who flew special operations missions, told Fox News Digital. 

The moment a pilot pulls the ejection handle, the sequence begins almost instantly.

The canopy disappears in a fraction of a second. The seat rockets upward, forcing the body through intense acceleration.

When a pilot pulls the ejection handle, they are subjected to forces ranging from 14G to 20G (14 times to 20 times the force of gravity), according to military experts. For a 200-pound airman, this means their body feels as if it suddenly weighs 4,000 pounds.

“You’re no longer a decision-maker,” Gersten said, describing what happens to pilots who eject. “You’re a participant, and you’re on the ride.”

Within moments, the aircraft falls away behind them, while the crew is suspended in open air, waiting for the parachute to deploy.

That is the moment the two airmen over Iran would have faced after their aircraft was struck Friday, forcing them to eject and triggering a high-risk rescue operation over the weekend as U.S. forces worked to locate and recover them in hostile territory.

The successful recovery of both the pilot and the weapon systems officer in the F-15E in recent days underscored both the risks of operating in contested airspace and the importance of rapid rescue capabilities.

FORMER A-10 PILOT STRUCK BY MISSILE OVER BAGHDAD DETAILS TRAINING TO BE A ‘GOOD SURVIVOR’

Pilots never actually practice a real ejection.

Instead, they train for an emergency they hope never happens, relying on repetition, simulation and memorized procedures to prepare for a moment that unfolds in seconds.

“You’re relying on muscle memory for something you’ve never actually done,” Gersten said.

That training begins before pilots ever take their first flight.

“When they start flying, before they even get in the cockpit, they’ve been trained on how to get out of the aircraft in case something goes wrong,” Gersten said.

It starts in the classroom, where pilots learn how the ejection system works. From there, they move into simulators designed to replicate parts of the experience — without exposing them to the full force of a real escape.

HIGH-RISK EFFORT TO SAVE ‘DUDE 44’ CREW IS MOST INCREDIBLE COMBAT RESCUE IN US HISTORY

In one system, the ejection seat is mounted on a rail and launched upward, giving pilots a partial sense of the acceleration they would feel in an actual emergency.

But the training doesn’t stop once the seat “fires.”

Pilots are then strapped into harness systems that simulate a parachute descent, often using virtual reality to recreate the sensation of floating above the ground. There, they rehearse a strict sequence of actions — clearing their visor, checking their canopy, preparing their gear and steering toward a safe landing zone.

“There’s no checklist you can reference when you’re hanging in a parachute,” Gersten said. “You actually have to memorize them.”

At the end of the simulation, trainees are dropped to the ground to practice the final —and often the most dangerous — phase: landing.

“You have to be prepared, you have to be trained, otherwise you can hurt yourself,” Gersten said.

Before pulling the handle, pilots are trained to press their bodies straight back against the seat, keeping their spine rigid and aligned to reduce the risk of serious injury.

In two-seat aircraft like the F-15E, either the pilot or weapon systems officer can initiate an ejection. Once triggered, the system automatically ejects both airmen in rapid succession, separated by fractions of a second to prevent midair collision.

Even after the parachute deploys, the danger isn’t over.

“The biggest concern … is where am I going to land?” Gersten said.

Pilots are trained to prepare for a wide range of scenarios — from water landings to mountainous terrain — each carrying its own risks. Landing injuries are common, particularly if a pilot is not properly positioned or prepared for impact.

For the two airmen who ejected over Iran, that training helped make a violent, unpredictable escape survivable deep inside hostile territory.

The pilot of the F-15E was picked up by U.S. forces later Friday. But the weapon system officer had to hide out in enemy territory until he was spotted by the U.S. and rescued Sunday. 

“The second crew member — a heroic weapon system officer — was in tough shape after ejecting,” Trump said in a press conference. “He scaled cliff faces bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds, and contacted American forces. He was besieged by Iranian militia, but he managed to evade capture by scaling treacherous mountain terrain … he is a brave warrior.”

Modern systems have a survival rate of roughly 90% to 95%, according to military and medical studies, but injuries are common. Research shows that up to 30% of pilots suffer spinal fractures during ejection, while broader reviews have found major injuries in roughly one-third of cases. 

If a pilot’s arms or legs are out of position, the extreme wind blast can cause what are known as “flail injuries,” leading to fractures or dislocations.

FIRST ON FOX: Advancing American Freedom (AAF), the conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, is launching a campaign to boost GOP messaging on the “One Big Beautiful Bill” as midterms ramp up.

The effort aims to give GOP lawmakers and staff a messaging playbook on taxes and energy as midterm campaigning intensifies, with the economy emerging as a defining issue for voters.

Central to the effort is a 90-page report, “One Big Beautiful Booklet: 60 Key Reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill,” obtained by Fox News Digital.

RNC CHAIR SAYS ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ KEY PART OF GOP’S STRATEGY TO WIN SEATS IN MIDTERM ELECTIONS

AAF will unveil the report on Capitol Hill Thursday, having already locked in more than 20 meetings with GOP offices.

President Donald Trump’s landmark “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed July 4, 2025, combines tax cuts, energy expansion and spending reductions into a centerpiece GOP policy package.

Pence praised the effort, telling Fox News Digital, “President Trump and congressional Republicans deserve all the praise in the world for extending the Trump-Pence tax cuts and defunding Planned Parenthood in the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

The group says the bill prevented tax hikes, including higher individual rates, a smaller standard deduction and cuts to the child tax credit, while also avoiding new burdens on businesses.

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It also touts roughly $800 billion in tax relief from 2025 to 2030 — about $6,000 per household — along with reduced spending and expanded domestic energy production.

AAF backed the legislation with a $10 million campaign supporting the extension of Trump-era tax cuts and launched a website to provide lawmakers with messaging and policy resources.

The effort comes as Republicans sharpen their economic message ahead of the midterms.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the team at Advancing American Freedom in releasing the ‘One Big Beautiful Binder,’” Pence said.

“This collection of 60 substantial policy memos highlights key reforms that will stimulate the economy and preserve America’s economic dynamism into the mid-21st century.”

Pence added that policy memos were critical throughout his time in public office and said he expects lawmakers to rely on the report as a “go-to resource.”

A top Virginia Democrat is defending support for the redistricting effort critics are calling a “power grab” on the part of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Richmond leadership, dismissing claims that rural Virginians will have their voices diluted by an urban-centric map.

The redistricting referendum, before voters through April 21, would redraw Virginia’s 6-5 Democrat-majority congressional map to a likely 10-1 spread, leaving only Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., from the Old Dominion’s mountainous far southwest in office for the GOP.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., a first-term Loudoun County congressman, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the goal of the redistricting remains as stated in its referendum text: to “restore fairness” in congressional apportionment. 

When Virginians head to the polls, he argues, issues like the Iran conflict, health care funding and unease over the state of immigration enforcement will be on their minds.

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“There’s two different things here … there’s the redistricting amendment: the reason the general assembly pushed this forward was to be a response to Texas and other red states who are planning to do this — the idea was to even the playing field going into the midterms,” he said.

“The reason I believe people will vote for it is because they are angry at the Trump administration in Virginia,” he added.

Subramanyam pushed back on claims from Republicans, including rural Rep. Ben Cline of the Shenandoah Valley, that areas like his, primed to be chopped up by the new map, will suddenly see their next representative ignore their needs. His district’s population is centered in Loudoun, outside Washington, D.C., but it extends into rural Washington, Va., Sperryville and Warrenton, which together are geographically larger than the dense suburbs.

“I spend a lot of time in Fauquier and Rappahannock Counties, even though I live in Loudoun County, and they actually get a disproportionate amount of federal funding and appropriations requests from my office because we are working really hard in those counties and know they have a lot of needs.”

THIS CRUCIAL STATE IS THE LATEST BATTLEGROUND IN REDISTRICTING WAR BETWEEN TRUMP AND DEMOCRATS

Subramanyam said that even if lawmakers hail from Virginia’s cities or suburbs, they will often go “out of their way” to support the counties they don’t live in because they need a voice.

“What I would say to [critics] is they should talk to my constituents in Fauquier and Rappahannock, who may not vote for me in big numbers, but they appreciate that we’re working really hard for them anyway.”

In that regard, Democrats are already lining up to run for Congress in a district that includes part of Subramanyam’s current area — a lobster-shaped district that Republicans claim is drawn intentionally to include a tiny slice of Fairfax and Loudoun for population’s sake, then expand far south to Powhatan and west to West Virginia’s state line while remaining blue.

State Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, progenitor of the state’s new gun control panoply, along with former first lady Dorothy McAuliffe and Jack Smith prosecutor JP Cooney, are all seeking the drafted seat.

Cline previously told Fox News Digital he worries for his current constituents, adding that the Shenandoah Valley is Virginia’s top agricultural area and farmers’ voices will have to be divided among five new federal lawmakers.

Expanding on voter sentiment, Fox News Digital asked Subramanyam about recent polling showing Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s popularity taking a hit amid her support for redistricting and other liberal priorities moving through the state legislature.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE RUNS THROUGH VIRGINIA AS COURT OKS HIGH-STAKES REDISTRICTING VOTE

“I wouldn’t read too much into it,” he said.

“She certainly is very early into her administration and has a lot of time to show people what she’s all about.”

Subramanyam predicted that if there were a repeat election tomorrow, Spanberger would again defeat former Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears by the same 15 points as in November.

“We’re seeing that all over the country right now — backlash against the Trump administration is finding its way into school board races and Supreme Court races in Wisconsin and places like Georgia.”

Just down Leesburg Pike from Subramanyam’s district, Rep. Donald Beyer of Alexandria offered his own comments on the redistricting effort, telling NBC News a ‘yes’ vote is crucial for “those of us who believe that taking back the House is the most significant thing we can do to stop Donald Trump.”

Beyer — whose seat is considered safe with or without a cartographic change — did mention the “fairness” aspect, calling the new 10-1 Democrat-friendly map “totally fair for America” even if critics found it “unfair in Virginia.”

Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, whose rural district is closer to Birmingham than Washington, pushed back on the collective sentiment, telling Fox News Digital that the new map is “manifestly unfair” to the rest of Virginia.

“We’re a 51-49 state, not a 90-10 state. If they’re willing to silence nearly half the Commonwealth’s voters in the name of ‘fairness,’ what else are they willing to do?” he said.

Kilgore’s Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Ryan McDougle of Hanover, echoed him in recent comments to Fox News Digital, saying the new map is just the next step in the “con job” agenda from Democrats who claim to prioritize affordability but instead are “trying to shove another partisan power grab down our throats, this time wrapped in the phony label of ‘fairness.’”