A top Virginia Democrat’s support for his state’s redistricting referendum ironically backfired after a judge he previously appointed helped torpedo his party’s bid to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who endorsed the referendum and appeared at pro-referendum events, gave $100,000 to the campaign behind Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort, which voters approved in April. On Friday, a judge Warner appointed when he was governor in 2002, D. Arthur Kelsey, was among the four justices who voted to strike the referendum down on constitutional grounds. In fact, Judge Kelsey authored the 4-3 prevailing opinion.

The voter-approved ballot measure was poised to give Democrats a major advantage heading into November’s midterm elections, and they vastly outspent Republicans in their bid to get it passed. However, Kelsey wrote in the prevailing opinion that the sequencing in which Democrats held the referendum vote violated the state’s Constitution, which requires an intervening election between the state legislature’s mandatory first and second passage of the proposed constitutional amendment.

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Warner, who was the Governor of Virginia from 2002 until 2006, previously appointed Kelsey, then a Circuit Court judge, to the Virginia Court of Appeals. Kelsey served two terms before a GOP state legislature elevated him to the state’s Supreme Court, where Kelsey has been serving since 2015.

When Warner appointed Kelsey to the Virginia Court of Appeals in 2002, he praised the then-Suffolk circuit judge as having shown “a keen intellect, a strong work ethic and a commitment to equal justice,” according to a report from Virginia Lawyers Weekly at the time.

“Although I had not met Judge Kelsey before this process began, I have spoken to him at length, reviewed his numerous opinions and consulted with those who know him well,” Warner added in 2002.

Following the ruling by Virginia’s Supreme Court, Warner put out a statement in a news release saying he respected the decision, but added that “it’s impossible to ignore that more than three million Virginians already cast their ballots on the amendment and deserved to have their voices heard.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Warner to inquire whether he felt the ruling was fair, but a spokesperson for the senator only referred Fox News Digital to the news release with his public statement.

“Donald Trump assumed he could tilt the playing field and lock in political advantage before a single ballot was cast. But Virginians are paying attention,” Warner also said in his public statement. “They want leaders who will protect their rights, defend their freedoms, and actually focus on lowering costs and getting things done. Democrats will still show up this November, we will still compete everywhere, and when the votes are counted, Virginians will send a strong message about the kind of leadership they want.”

The prevailing opinion written by Kelsey said that Democrats’ proposed map would have replaced Virginia’s current 6-5 congressional split “with a highly partisan gerrymandered map” expected to create a 10-1 advantage for a single party.

Kelsey went on to highlight that under Democrats’ proposed new map, roughly 47% of Virginians who voted for one political party during the last congressional election would end up being represented by just 9% of Virginia’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives, while 51% of Virginians who voted for the other major political party would be represented by 91% of Virginia’s congressional delegation.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Friday she was “disappointed” with the Supreme Court’s decision and, along with other Democrats, blasted the state’s High Court for invalidating the will of voters.

“More than three million Virginians cast their ballots in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, and the majority of Virginia voters voted to push back against a President who said he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress with a temporary and responsive referendum. They made their voices heard,” Spanberger said after the ruling.

“I am disappointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s ruling, but my focus as Governor will be on ensuring that all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard this November in the midterm elections because in those elections we — the voters — will have the final say.”

Democrats exploded in fury Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a party-backed redistricting map central to their midterm election strategy, with at least one prominent leftist voice going so far as to call violent revolution “inevitable.”

In a 4-3 decision, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a voter-approved map, which would give Democrats a 10-1 advantage in U.S. House races, violated the state’s constitution because of procedural errors in the map’s passage. Virginia voters will cast ballots in the 2026 midterms using the same district maps from the 2022 and 2024 elections, which Democrats currently hold 6-5.

But Democratic lawmakers and commentators alike have framed the Supreme Court’s ruling as an act going against the will of the people. Hasan Piker, a popular leftist streamer who has espoused antisemitic rhetoric and campaigns with congressional candidates, accused the Virginia Supreme Court of denying the results of the state’s redistricting referendum.

“Scotus gutted the voting rights act and tennessee carved up the last dem district destroying black voter power in the state,” Piker wrote on X. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”

VIRGINIA’S MAP WAR LAYS BARE STATE’S SHARP PARTISAN TURN AS LEGAL FIGHT LOOMS

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., suggested that Democrats won their redrawn map fair and square by holding a statewide election.

“Unlike Republican-led states that have redrawn their maps through backroom deals, the Virginia General Assembly let the people decide for themselves in a free and fair election,” Kaine said in a statement. “If the Virginia Supreme Court had legitimate concerns about this referendum, the time to stop it would have been before three million Virginians cast their ballots.

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“But the Court let the process move forward, and Virginians sent a message loud and clear: we see President Trump’s brazen power grab in states across the country, and we won’t stand for it,” Kaine continued.

Kaine also echoed Piker’s sentiment that the ruling “eviscerates” the Voting Rights Act.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said they’re “exploring all options” to fight back against Virginia’s high court’s ruling.

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“The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand,” Jeffries said in a statement.

“MAGA Republicans have adopted voter suppression as a strategy, as also evidenced by far-right extremists on the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act to open the door to a Jim Crow-like attack on Black representation across the American South,” Jeffries continued.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Don Scott took a more pragmatic approach, saying he respects the high court’s ruling.

“We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters — not politicians — have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people.”

As Democrats describe the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling as a violation of the Voting Rights Act, Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, who spearheaded the lawsuit over the maps, said Virginia’s ruling was not based on politics but on the “rule of law.”

“Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose,” said Chairman Gruters. “The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters. We took them to court, and we won.”

The Trump administration’s decision to declassify a batch of UFO and UAP files Friday drew unexpected praise from a prominent Democratic lawmaker. 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the leader of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, cheered the release of dozens of never-before-seen images and videos, stating, “Transparency is the only path to truth.” 

“I am encouraged that the administration has finally heard my call and the call of millions of Americans to begin unsealing these files,” Gillibrand wrote on social media, adding that she has long advocated for the declassification and release of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) files.

“This is another important step, but there is much more work to do,” the New York Democrat went on. “I will continue to fight to ensure the administration finally meets its legal obligation to the American people.”

DECLASSIFIED APOLLO MOON DOCS DESCRIBE UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES, UFO LIGHTS ‘LIKE THE FOURTH OF JULY’

The Trump administration’s file dump, available on the newly created website war.gov/UFO, contains records related to UAP, including inexplicable lights and phenomena captured during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972.

President Donald Trump in February directed the Department of War and other agencies to declassify and publish files related to alien and extraterrestrial life. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday that the administration would continue its declassification work.

GOP lawmakers widely praised the administration’s effort to bring more transparency to UAP-related material.

“This is a massive first step in the right direction,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who has long pushed for the file release, said Friday.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., also called the move “historic” and said he hoped the file release would be the first of many.

The Pentagon’s disclosure also prompted tepid enthusiasm from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who omitted the Trump administration in his statement.

“For decades, UFO disclosure has been a distant object — unidentified and unexplained,” he said. “That’s starting to change. I’ll keep pushing until we land on the truth.”

TULSI GABBARD TELLS PODCASTER ALIENS MAY BE REAL: ‘WE’RE CONTINUING TO LOOK FOR THE TRUTH’

Trump argued Friday that his administration’s transparency efforts related to government secrets far surpassed those of his predecessors.

“Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social announcing the release of the files. “Have Fun and Enjoy!”

The Trump administration also declassified records last year related to former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

Rep. Thomas Massie’s campaign has raked in more than $1 million so far since launching a “Moneybomb” fundraiser on Monday morning, according to a running tally displayed on the fundraising website.

The embattled Republican, who represents Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, is competing in a GOP primary showdown against former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, the candidate backed by vociferous Massie critic President Donald Trump.

“This race has become a national referendum on whether our country is better served by Congressmen like me who keep their promises, or whether Congress needs yet another ‘warm body from central casting’ like Gallrein who pledges to be a rubber stamp for the uniparty,” Massie wrote in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

“He’s like central casting,” Trump said of Gallrein while speaking in Kentucky in March, adding moments later, ” … give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie. And I got somebody with a warm body, but a big, beautiful brain, and a great patriot. He’s unbelievable.”

Massie added in his statement to Fox News Digital on Friday, “We are ahead in the polls, ahead in Kentucky fundraising, and way ahead in national support as shown by our million dollar moneybomb… as long as you don’t count the three liberal out-of-state billionaires propping up my opponent.”

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Gallrein’s campaign fired back, providing Fox News Digital with the following statement from senior advisor Tim Murtaugh: “These are the last gasps of a member of Congress who promised to term limit himself to three terms, but is now seeking his 8th. He’s turned his back on Kentucky, he’s pointlessly antagonized President Trump, and has tried to obstruct the entire America First agenda. Thomas Massie serves only one person — Thomas Massie — and the voters of Kentucky’s 4th District are about to show him the door. Ed Gallrein is a heavily decorated, retired Navy SEAL a solid conservative who will support President Trump and the America First agenda.  Massie’s ego and his act are worn out.”

Massie fired back in another statement to Fox News Digital, declaring, “In typical fashion, Ed has a surrogate repeating his lies. Ed is scared to debate me and even afraid to speak to the press.”

Before taking office in 2012, Massie signed a pledge declaring that he would support a term limits amendment to the Constitution. “I, Thomas Massie, pledge that as a member of Congress I will cosponsor and vote for the U.S. Term Limits Amendment of three (3) House terms and two (2) Senate terms and no longer limit,” the pledge read.

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During an appearance on KET’s “Kentucky Tonight,” Massie, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since late 2012, was asked about the issue.

“After 14 years, are you not wading into career politician territory? And for those curious about you re-upping your Washington service, how is that better than honoring the spirit of that pledge you signed back in 2012?” host Renee Shaw asked.

“Well I’ve honored both the spirit and the letter of that pledge. I have cosponsored the bill that I said I would cosponsor and I voted for it. In fact, now I serve on the Judiciary Committee where that bill starts. All Constitutional amendments begin in the Judiciary Committee,” Massie replied. “So I’ve had the opportunity … and taken it, to vote for that … amendment to the Constitution several times.”

MASSIE SAYS MUSK NEVER DONATED TO HIS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN DESPITE PRIOR PLEDGE

The upcoming May 19 primary in Kentucky is less than two weeks away.

EXCLUSIVE: Alabama Republicans are moving to force through a new congressional map that could reduce Democratic representation amid a narrow national GOP House majority, while rebuking Yankee Democrats traveling to the Yellowhammer State to gin up opposition.

State leaders argue the new Supreme Court ruling limiting the use of race in redistricting has changed the legal landscape, giving Alabama grounds to revisit and undo a court-imposed map that recently reshaped its congressional districts to help minority voters.

As attention shifted from Louisiana to Alabama after the high bench tossed the Pelican State’s map last week, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., traveled south to stump in Birmingham with fellow Democrats bemoaning legislators’ attempts to force the high bench to reconsider a partially conflicting order from three years prior.

“Well, I’m probably guessing that’s first time Cory Booker’s ever been in Alabama,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainville, told Fox News Digital.

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“The thing about it is the people that we represent have lived here most of all of their lives and they’re the ones that ask us to do something for them — not the Cory Bookers,” Ledbetter said. “And he can nationalize it all he wants to, but it’s not going to change facts.”

Booker joined Rep. Terri Sewell of Birmingham, the state’s lone Democrat, until the court-mandated redraw produced a Democratic flip by Rep. Shomari Figures of Mobile.

“We are in a storm right now — the question is, where will you stand, will you hold up your light,” Booker addressed a redistricting town hall in Birmingham, where he declared voting rights are on the ballot, according to the Alabama Reporter.

The Yankee Democrat said he came south out of obligation to recognize that the Supreme Court upended decades of progress made by Alabamians, according to the city’s NBC affiliate.

Late last month, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s 2-Democrat congressional map, in which Reps. Cleo Fields and Troy Carter’s Democratic districts were drawn with race as a significant factor.

Alabama faced a similar fight after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Allen v. Milligan forced the state to redraw its map, leading to a court-imposed plan that shifted its delegation from a 6-1 Republican split to 5-2 after Republicans created but were rebuked for the so-called “Livingston map” that gave minorities districts with 55% and 40% representation respectively.

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The interceding Livingston map, so named for Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, should be revisited and upheld by the Supreme Court in line with its more recent ruling, Ledbetter argued.

In passing the map, Ledbetter said he expects the Supreme Court will be forced to weigh in, via a new legal challenge or otherwise, and that the Louisiana ruling gives Alabama the precedent it needs to undo the high court’s prior ruling and imposed map.

“Once that happens, it gives the governor opportunity to call a special election.”

While any action taken by Ledbetter’s legislature would likely spur court action, he suggested quick passage is needed as Alabama’s primaries approach on May 19.

“If we did nothing, we had no shot, and doing this gives us the opportunity to have a ball in the air in case they do overturn [Milligan].”

Gov. Kay Ivey called the legislature to special session Monday to create plans for potential adjustment of upcoming primary elections, if the state is able to force the redistricting issue upon the Supreme Court.

Ledbetter said the Livingston map was fair, and attempted to follow the will of the court originally — adding that he plans to force the issue this week during the special session.

“Our goal is to pass the Livingston map and give the governor the opportunity if the 14th Amendment [provision] is removed; that gives us the opportunity to go forward with it,” he said, arguing the earlier ruling relied on legal standards that may now be affected by the court’s more recent decision.

“That’s really the only shot we got to be able to do this before the November elections is that map that’s existing,” he said.

SUPREME COURT JUST GAVE BLACK VOTERS A SHOT AT REAL POWER BEYOND SAFE SEATS

Pushing back again on Booker and critics of Alabama’s prior attempt to redraw, Ledbetter said the Livingston map, under today’s population footprint, actually gives all voting blocs a better shot.

“When that was redistricted that was a 50-50 seat,” he said of one of the Democrat-friendly districts on the map. “It gives everybody a shot and it’s got all seven seats open.”

He criticized national Democrats for descending on other states like Virginia to try to tip the scale of their own redistricting, noting that Alabamians elected a Republican supermajority in Montgomery and want to reflect that in Congress.

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“I don’t think it’s right for the courts to overstep their boundary and try to do legislation.”

Ivey said in a statement the state has been battling “federal courts and activist groups who think they know Alabama better than Alabama” since the 2020 census.

“By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn congressional and state Senate maps to be used during this election cycle,” she said.

With Ledbetter and his partners on the Senate side primed to repass the Livingston map, the Supreme Court would have about a week to step in ahead of the May 19 primary, while Secretary of State Wes Allen told the Montgomery Advertiser that no matter the result of the special session, that date is set in stone — setting up a reason for national attention to turn toward the Yellowhammer State.

Fox News Digital reached out to Booker and Ivey for additional comment.

New York’s political and financial leaders have launched efforts to combat Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policies that they say have driven multiple billionaires to look elsewhere for their business homes.

After Mamdani named Citadel LLC CEO and owner Ken Griffin in an advertisement for a new tax on second homes in the city, Griffin publicly rebuked him as “creepy.”

The COO of Citadel then indicated in a letter to employees that the company may not move forward with plans to continue a $6 billion renovation of a new Midtown Manhattan office skyscraper.

“What the mayor of New York has made clear to my partners… and principally my New York partners… is that we need to double down on our bet in Miami, because we want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom and liberty, and that embraces people having an opportunity to live the American Dream,” Griffin said during the Milken Institute Global Conference in New York City on Tuesday.

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Now, local business leaders are pledging time and money into a campaign hoping to keep business in the Big Apple. 

Andrew Murstein, founder of Medallion Financial Corp., launched Operation Boomerang in an effort to lure defectors back to New York.

Murstein pledged $1 million of his own money into the effort, which will see him sending New York hot dogs, bagels and Katz’s Deli to businesses that fled to Florida, he told the New York Post.

“The last 10 years with mayors and governors, those things pass, and they should be in it for the long run,” he told the Post. “I’m trying to convince them not to abandon ship. Whatever it takes.”

MAMDANI’S CLASS WARFARE AGAINST NEW YORK BUSINESSES IS ‘ECONOMIC VANDALISM’

Murstein also added that he’s going to leverage his initial contribution into the campaign to raise more money, which he anticipates will net the project between $20 million and $30 million, according to the Post.

Former Mayor Eric Adams also lent his voice to re-luring efforts, imploring Griffin to “stand your ground,” in a post on X.

Mamdani’s attacks on the rich have even spooked his own employees, according to the Post’s sources.

“The mayor’s office is feeling pressure around this, and they are looking for ways to change the narrative around business,” an anonymous local business leader reportedly told the Post.

“They’re in a pickle because he’s hearing all the business leaders are looking for exit strategies now and Mamdani needs money and needs to keep his base happy,” the source allegedly continued.

“This might be an inflection point because NYC is already a welfare state supported by very few people at the top who can leave,” the source concluded, per the Post.

Former special counsel Jack Smith unleashed on the Department of Justice in an unusually fiery speech to a few hundred people during a private event, accusing the department of being “corrupted” and targeting President Donald Trump’s enemies.

Smith’s remarks, given during a private dinner in D.C. in April and reported by the New York Times this week, zeroed in on the DOJ’s decisions to investigate and prosecute some of Trump’s top political rivals, such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The former special counsel accused the department of weaponizing its authority, the very same accusation that Republicans have widely leveled at Smith for bringing two criminal cases against Trump during the Biden administration.

“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” Smith said.

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A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital the department expected “nothing less from Jack Smith whose sole mission was to politically prosecute a former president in an attempt to stop him from assuming office again.”

“This DOJ has ended the weaponization perpetrated by the Biden Administration and will continue to ensure no one is above the law,” the spokesperson said.

Smith brought indictments against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election and that he retained classified national defense information. Smith faced significant hurdles in the election case, while the classified documents case was tossed out by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, who said he was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith’s office was appealing Cannon’s ruling when Trump won the 2024 election. Weeks later, Smith moved to dismiss both federal cases, citing the Justice Department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump raged at Smith repeatedly, calling him a corrupt “thug” who belonged in jail. In January, Trump said on Truth Social that Smith was a “deranged animal” who should lose his law license. Smith is a longtime attorney who prosecuted war crimes in the Hague and led the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section during the Obama administration.

JACK SMITH PUSHES FOR PUBLIC TESTIMONY TO CONFRONT ‘MISCHARACTERIZATIONS’ OF TRUMP PROBES

Trump said he hoped the DOJ was investigating Smith, “including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me. The whole thing was a Democrat SCAM — A big price should be paid by them for what they have put our Country through!”

The president’s remarks directly clash with Smith’s rare, heated commentary at the private event, as both accuse the other of weaponization and as Smith faces threats of federal prosecution for targeting Trump, despite the DOJ and congressional investigators yet to uncover criminal wrongdoing by Smith.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS DEMAND ANSWERS ON DOJ’S MOVE TO FIRE FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL OFFICIALS

Smith said the DOJ has “been corrupted” over the past year but that he believed the department would “ultimately come through this better.”

Smith also accused the DOJ of turning a blind eye to cases that might reveal “inconvenient” facts that would contradict “narratives the president would like to press.”

Smith praised career prosecutors, saying a “central component” of the current DOJ’s strategy was to punish those like the several Minnesota attorneys who resigned in protest over internal disputes with how to handle an investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killing Renee Good, a 37-year-old anti-ICE activist.

“To erode the rule of law in this country you need to attack these people, and that is what we have seen since January 2025,” Smith said.

Smith’s comments were not all negative, however, according to the New York Times. He praised the DOJ for being more vocal than it was under Biden, a comment that comes as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who replaced Pam Bondi a month ago, has taken on an aggressive, proactive media strategy. Blanche has held a series of press conferences where he has taken rounds of off-topic questions while also doing numerous wide-ranging interviews with friendly and tough media outlets.

A Smith representative had no comment. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

President Donald Trump on Friday announced a three-day ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.

“This ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prisoner swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

This story is breaking. Please check back for updates.

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The Department of Justice has ramped up its use of a rarely deployed legal tool to strip citizenship, targeting 12 naturalized Americans accused of hiding ties to terrorism, violent crimes and other offenses, and signaling more cases will follow.

The action on Friday against 12 immigrants included bringing civil complaints or charges against those from Iraq, Somalia, China and India. It comes as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche touts expanding the typically difficult effort to denaturalize people and also follows the DOJ Civil Division ordering more denaturalizations in a memo last summer about the Trump administration’s priorities, which include cracking down on illegal immigration and fraud.

Blanche said in a statement to Fox News Digital of Friday’s sweeping enforcement action that anyone “who intentionally concealed their criminal histories or misrepresented themselves during the naturalization process will face the fullest extent of the law.”

FEDS LAUNCH OPERATION TARGETING MINNESOTA REFUGEES FOR POTENTIAL DEPORTATION AMID FRAUD INVESTIGATION

One of the dozen, Ali Yousif Ahmed, gained citizenship after saying he fled Iraq in 2009 because al-Qaeda terrorists attacked his family, authorities said. But, authorities said, Iraq sought Ahmed’s extradition in 2019 for allegedly murdering two Iraqi police officers while a leader in al-Qaeda, a detail he allegedly omitted from the U.S. government.

Another, Salah Osman Ahmed of Somalia, naturalized in 2007 and pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support for terrorists and belonged to the terrorist group al-Shabaab, Fox News Digital learned. The DOJ alleged that joining a terrorist group within five years of naturalization was grounds for revoking citizenship.

Others included Abduvosit Razikov of Uzbekistan, who allegedly entered into a sham marriage to gain citizenship, and Oscar Alberto Pelaez of Colombia, a priest who was convicted in the United States of 13 counts of sexual abuse of a minor, including sodomy, and allegedly lied about the crimes during the naturalization process, Fox News Digital learned.

Denaturalization has long been an infrequent tool for immigration enforcement. In the span of about 30 years, the DOJ filed about 305 denaturalization cases. Then, when Trump first took office in 2017, the government brought 168 cases. The figure drastically reduced under President Joe Biden, and now with Trump back in office, the effort has returned to the fore.

SENATE REPUBLICANS PUSH TO DEPORT, DENATURALIZE FRAUDSTERS AMID MINNESOTA SCANDAL

Prosecutors must meet a high bar to denaturalize immigrants by proving with “clear and convincing” evidence that “material fraud” occurred during the naturalization process, Neama Rahmani, a California-based former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital, saying it was not an easy process.

Blanche warned during a recent CBS News interview that people “should be worried” if they obtained citizenship through fraud.

“Who are targets are? We are not limiting ourselves to anyone in particular except to say that unfortunately, and I think you’re going to hear more about this in the coming days and weeks, there are a lot of U.S. citizens who shouldn’t be,” Blanche said.

TRUMP IS TARGETING NONVIOLENT AND LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. AMERICANS ARE STARTING TO NOTICE

Pressed on denaturalization being a “very drastic penalty,” Blanche shot back, “It’s a very drastic reward being naturalized, committing fraud.”

Immigrants rights groups have raised worries that the some 24 million naturalized citizens in the United States have been left unsettled by the Trump administration’s broadened pursuit of revoking citizenship.

“There are concerns that the federal government’s denaturalization efforts could lead to the revocation of U.S. citizenship of many individuals who made minor or unintentional mistakes or omissions in their naturalization application,” Forum policy expert Christian Penichet-Paul wrote last summer.

Rahmani noted that the alleged fraud cannot be trivial or negligent, but instead must be significant and intentional.

“It has to be something material, and material means that the citizenship would not have been granted had DHS known,” Rahmani said. “That’s really the standard.”

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Communist and socialist activists are increasingly joining broader liberal protest movements, where they are promoting a 20-hour workweek, rent caps, seizure of private property and confiscating wealth from billionaires.

The proposals, outlined in interviews with Fox News Digital at a recent Minneapolis demonstration, would mark a dramatic shift away from private ownership and free-market principles toward a worker-controlled model if they were ever to come to fruition and would fundamentally change the United States as we know it.

The exchanges reflect a broader pattern identified in Fox News Digital reporting, where far-left ideas once considered fringe are increasingly appearing alongside more mainstream protest movements, often within demonstrations billed as broadly focused on workers’ or immigrant rights as well as “No Kings” protests.

“We are building a party of professional class fighters, people who are seriously looking at the system of capitalism and coming to the conclusion that we need a revolution… on a socialist basis,” said Owen Phernetton, a member of the Revolutionary Communists of America. He was holding a copy of the group’s newspaper, The Communist, and was wearing a sweater that read “Communism Will Win.”

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“This means handing political and economic power to the working class.”

A May Day demonstration also highlighted how these different left-wing groups operated within the broader event, with some marching behind immigrant rights organizers while others worked the edges of the rally, distributing literature and engaging directly with bystanders.

Phernetton said their vision includes placing factories, mines and businesses under collective control, limiting rent to a fraction of workers’ income and using confiscated wealth to fund government-backed healthcare, education and housing.

Phernetton, who was walking along the edge of the main rally with fellow members who were distributing newspapers, said the changes would require a fundamental restructuring of the economy and called for taking wealth from the richest Americans.

“Their wealth should be expropriated and put to use for the working class,” he said, while arguing for decreasing the workday to only 20 hours a week without any loss in pay.

“I’d actually say that the productivity will increase if the economy operates on a planned basis,” he said when pressed about a potential productivity dip on reduced hours, adding that the working class would control all productivity.

Andy Koch, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), also argued that wealth and power should be shifted away from the ultra-wealthy.

“The country is run by billionaires, for billionaires,” he said.

But when asked about reports that some protest groups have received support from wealthy donors, Koch said he would welcome such funding.

“If one billionaire wants to donate to progressive pro-worker causes, that’s great,” he said.

CCP-CONNECTED MILLIONAIRE ALLEGEDLY BANKROLLS MINNEAPOLIS AGITATOR GROUPS THROUGH DARK MONEY NETWORK

At another section of the march, a protester wearing a mask stood on the sidewalk with a small group holding copies of The Communist newspaper with the headline “Down with Trump’s War!” while openly engaging with bystanders as the demonstration passed.

“I’m a communist because the workers create all the value in society and we get to own none of it under capitalism,” she said. She argued that rent should be capped at 10% of income and dismissed the struggles of similar policies in cities like New York and California.

“The reason why rent control hasn’t worked is because it hasn’t been under workers’ control… under capitalism, it won’t work,” she said.

Cass Batica, another activist affiliated with the Revolutionary Communists of America, was standing among demonstrators carrying Soviet-style flags and believes capitalism should be replaced entirely.

“I came to the conclusion that capitalism is not the way to go. We need socialism, we need communism for the workers of the world,” Cass Batica said, pointing to the Soviet Union as an example.

The march that Batica and other far-left protesters attended was led by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), which gathered speakers in a public green space ahead of the march and displayed a large banner reading “Legalization for All, Sanctuary State Now.”

As speakers addressed the crowd, members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization remained toward the rear and did not take part in the main program, offering insight into their strategy within the demonstration. When the march began, they fell in line behind the immigrant rights groups and moved with the broader crowd. None of them spoke at the podium.

Other activists operated more independently, positioning themselves along sidewalks rather than within the main body of the march.

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Not every far-left supporter was part of an organization, including Caleb Batts, 24, who was draped in a hybrid LGBTQ pride and Soviet-style flag and described himself as a Marxist-Leninist.

“I like the way [Lenin] structured the economy and I believe the growth they saw under it was amazing. I believe China has seen some of the same growth,” Batts, who said he is a business major, said.

“The capitalist revolution in the 18th century was good, it freed millions of people from slavery under feudalism, and I believe after about 250 years capitalism has run its course and it’s just not productive anymore. I believe we should evolve as a society into socialism because we can afford to.”

Batts also said he does not believe borders should exist, a similar sentiment shared by members of groups such as the FRSO, who marched with banners calling for “No Deportations” and “ICE Out of Minnesota.”

“I believe that the most productive human society would be one without borders at all,” he said.

“My belief is that we need to develop into socialism with the workers owning the means of production, into communism with the government owning the means of production and then into anarchism, where we have a stateless, classless, moneyless society and work as neighborhoods.”

WATCH: Communist Party presence noted at Minneapolis May Day demonstration