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James Biden to testify in brother’s impeachment inquiry behind closed doors

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James Biden is expected to testify in the impeachment inquiry against his older brother, President Biden behind closed doors on Wednesday morning.

The president’s brother is set to appear for a deposition before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees Wednesday at 10 a.m.

JOE BIDEN RECEIVED $40K IN 'LAUNDERED CHINA MONEY' FROM BROTHER IN 2017, COMER SAYS

James Biden, also referred to as Jim Biden, had been subpoenaed in November to appear for a deposition as part of the impeachment inquiry — prior to it being formalized by the full House.

James Biden was involved in the Biden family business ventures with his nephew, Hunter Biden.

So far, during the investigation, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he has found that Biden family members, their business associates and their "related companies" received "significant payments from individuals and companies in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania."

Comer said the committee has learned throughout its investigation that the Biden family and their business associates brought in more than $24 million between 2014 and 2019 by "selling Joe Biden as ‘the brand’ around the world."

James Biden is expected to be questioned on whether Joe Biden was involved in the family's foreign business ventures.

James Biden is also expected to be questioned on "loan repayment" checks — one for $200,000 and another for $40,000 — that he wrote to the president.

JAMES BIDEN GIVEN LOAN, DIDN'T PROVIDE SERVICES TO AMERICORE DESPITE PROMISES TO USE LAST NAME, TRUSTEE SAYS

Comer said his panel had uncovered evidence that the president, in 2018, received a "$200,000 direct payment" in the form of a "personal check" from James Biden and Sara Biden. That check was labeled "loan repayment." 

Comer said that James Biden "received $600,000 in loans from Americore — a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator." 

"On March 1, 2018, Americore wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account — not their business bank account," he continued. "And then, on the very same day, James Biden wrote a $200,000 check from this same personal bank account to Joe Biden."

Comer said James Biden "wrote this check to Joe Biden as a ‘loan repayment.’"

"Americore — a distressed company — loaned money to James Biden, who then sent it to Joe Biden," Comer said.

The White House said the committee found that as a private citizen, the president loaned his brother his own money when his brother needed it, and after reviewing bank records, there is a record that he was repaid. 

Comer also said the president received another $40,000 "loan repayment" from James Biden, which the chairman described as "laundered China money."

COMER RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT $200K 'DIRECT PAYMENT' FROM JAMES BIDEN TO JOE BIDEN IN 2018

Comer said the "money trail" began in July 2017 when Hunter Biden demanded a $10 million payment from a CEFC associate. In a WhatsApp message, he claimed "he was sitting with his father and that the Biden network would turn on his associate if he didn’t pony up the money," Comer explained.

Hunter Biden in the WhatsApp message allegedly told a Chinese business associate from Chinese energy company CEFC that he and his father would ensure "you will regret not following my direction."

Hunter requested the $10 million wire for his joint-venture with CEFC called SinoHawk Holdings. 

"I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled," Hunter Biden told Henry Zhao, the director of Chinese asset management firm Harvest Fund Management. "And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."

Zhao responded, in part, "CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family."

Comer, citing bank records he and his committee have obtained, said that on Aug. 8, 2017, the $5 million in funds were sent to Hudson West III, a joint-venture established by Hunter Biden and CEFC associate Gongwen Dong. The same day, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to Owasco, P.C.— a separate entity controlled and owned by Hunter Biden, Comer said.

BIDEN MET WITH CHAIRMAN OF CHINESE ENERGY FIRM HUNTER DID BUSINESS WITH IN 2017, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIES

Days later, on Aug. 14, 2017, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by James Biden and his wife Sara Biden. By Aug. 28, 2017, Comer said Sara Biden withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group and later deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account.

"A few days later, Sara Biden cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000," Comer said, referring to the Sept. 3, 2017, check his committee obtained. "The memo line of the check said, ‘loan repayment.’"

James Biden's expected testimony comes days after his former business associate Tony Bobulinski testified before the committee, telling congressional investigators that Joe Biden was involved in the family's business ventures, and testifying that he personally met with him. 

Days before Bobulinski's testimony, another former business associate, Rob Walker, testified that Joe Biden met with the chairman of the Chinese energy firm his brother and son did business with. 

After Walker's testimony, the House Oversight Committee said it was able to "now confirm Joe Biden met with nearly every foreign national who funneled money to his son." 

Meanwhile, the president, last week, called for the House impeachment inquiry to be dropped, calling it "an outrageous effort from the beginning." 

Liberal pundits, urging Biden to withdraw, pushing convention scenario

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A growing number of left-leaning pundits are hopping off the Biden train and they’re trying to come up with a plan to enable the president to jump off as well.

The attacks from the right are one thing, but these are Joe Biden’s people, who say he’s been a good president, who say he’s accomplished a great deal, but who say his age renders him either too likely or too certain to lose to Donald Trump. It’s the one problem he can’t fix.

At the same time, a new report says the Resistance is growing frustrated and burned out.

Nate Silver, the data guru and hardly a right-winger, says: "Personally, I crossed the rubicon in November, concluding that Biden should stand down if he wasn’t going to be able to run a normal re-election campaign — meaning, things like conduct a Super Bowl interview. Yes, it's a huge risk and, yes, Biden can still win. But he's losing now and there's no plan to fix the problems."

MEDIA DEEM TRUMP THE NOMINEE, DESPITE HALEY TYING HIM TO PUTIN

After noting that an improving economy hasn’t helped him, Silver says "it’s become even clearer that Biden’s age is an enormous problem for him. As many as 86% of Americans say he’s too old in one poll, though numbers in the 70-to-75% range are more common — still an overwhelming majority in a bitterly-divided country." 

And that wasn’t helped by the special counsel’s report calling him an elderly man with a poor memory.

"But even the most optimistic Democrats, if you read between the lines, are really arguing that Democrats could win despite Biden and not because of him. Biden is probably a below-replacement-level candidate at this point because Americans have a lot of extremely rational concerns about the prospect of a Commander-in-Chief who would be 86 years old by the end of his second term. It is entirely reasonable to see this as disqualifying."

Wait, there’s more. 

FANI WILLIS IS IN A ‘DANGEROUS SPOT’: JACQUI HEINRICH

"I can now point you to moments when he is faltering in his campaign for the presidency because his age is slowing him. This distinction between the job of the presidency and the job of running for the presidency keeps getting muddied, including by Biden himself. And what I think we’re seeing is that he is not up for this. He is not the campaigner he was, even five years ago…The way he moves, the energy in his voice."

Ezra Klein, the uber-liberal New York Times podcaster, also wants the president out. 

"Step one, unfortunately, is convincing Biden that he should not run again. That he does not want to risk being Ruth Bader Ginsburg — a heroic, brilliant public servant who caused the outcome she feared most because she didn’t retire early enough."

Despite what he called the "Kamala Harris problem," Klein says to assume that Biden steps aside. "Then what? Well, then Democrats do something that used to be common in politics but hasn’t been in decades. They pick their nominee at the convention." 

Silver agrees with this scenario as well.

I’m here to tell you, barring a major health scare, that’s not happening. Biden has been running for president since 1987 (I did a long interview with him during that campaign). He finally got the job. He likes being in charge. He’s not going to walk away.

And in fairness, Biden has made adjustments in the last two weeks. He now takes on-camera questions from reporters almost every day, sometimes longer than others. Just yesterday, he walked over to say, in the wake of Alexei Navalny’s murder, he’d be announcing a package of sanctions against Russia on Friday. And he’s given two televised speeches.

Still, liberal Times columnist Michelle Goldberg has been arguing since 2022 that Biden should step aside, and without a major change in strategy, "he should find some medical pretext to step aside in time for a replacement to be chosen at the Democratic convention."

Moderate conservative Ross Douthat says flatly in his Times column that Biden should not be running for re-election.

As if the Times might be in danger of under-covering this issue, the paper also says that "anti-Trump voters are grappling with another powerful sentiment: exhaustion."

"Some folks are burned out on outrage," Rebecca Lee Funk, founder of the liberal activist group Outrage, told the paper. 

A Pittsburgh security guard said  "It’s crisis fatigue, for sure."

DEMOCRATS WIN SEAT, REPUBLICANS WIN IMPEACHMENT, TWO PRESIDENTS CLASH OVER NATO

How about the right? National Review’s Noah Rothman, who thinks Biden will narrowly win, explains the grand voting shift that has the Democrats in trouble:

"Despite his self-set reputation as a lunch-pail-toting nine-to-fiver with familial roots set deep in the carbon-rich soil of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe Biden has presided over the hemorrhaging of his party’s support among non-college-educated voters. The Democratic Party is increasingly dominated by degree-holders…The party is pinning all its electoral hopes on driving up turnout among this relatively affluent, highly educated slice of the electorate. The big problem with that plan is that there just aren’t enough of those voters…

"In 1999, according to Gallup’s historical surveys, working-class Americans identified more as Democrats than as Republicans by 14 points. Today, that has flipped, with the GOP enjoying a 14-point advantage over Democrats among those voters. Democrats have suffered similarly with young voters: Today, only 8% more voters between the ages of 18 and 29 associate themselves with the Democratic Party than with the GOP." 

This is eye-popping for those of us who grew up with the Republicans holding the monopoly on wealthier college graduates and favoring aggressive military intervention abroad.

Rothman concludes: "Even with Trump at the top of the ticket, Democrats appear committed to a strategy that will produce, at best, the narrowest of re-election victories."

On the other side, meanwhile, Nikki Haley gave a South Carolina speech to declare she’s not going anywhere. Plenty of Republicans have "surrendered" to pressure because "they didn’t want to be left out of the club. Of course, many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party…I feel no need to kiss the ring. I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him, my own political future is of zero concern."

But the most important part of her appearance was when she choked up while discussing her husband (who Trump has taken vague shots at). He is a National Guardsman now serving a year-long deployment in Africa after an earlier one in Afghanistan.

"Michael is at the forefront of my mind," Haley said, her voice breaking. "I wish Michael was here today, and I wish our children and I could see him tonight, but we can’t. He’s serving on the other side of the world."

It was a striking moment because Haley is usually so scripted and disciplined. A burst of emotion in 2008 helped Hillary Clinton win the New Hampshire primary. The problem is that the press will write off Haley if Trump clobbers her in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, no matter how long she keeps campaigning.

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A reporter asked Biden yesterday whether he’d rather run against Trump or Haley. He responded, "I don’t care," while walking away.

But given that Haley is 52, I believe he and his advisers very much care. At 77, while projecting a much more vigorous persona, Trump is the one opponent who might help Biden neutralize the issue that most threatens his re-election campaign.

FBI informant who lied about the Bidens’ ties to Ukrainian energy company had high-level Russian contacts: DOJ

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A former FBI informant charged with lying about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme between a Ukrainian energy company and the Bidens had contacts with Russian intelligence officials, prosecutors said Tuesday. 

In court filings, prosecutors said Alexander Smirnov admitted during an interview before his arrest last week that "officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story" about the president’s son, Hunter Biden. They said Smirnov's contacts with Russian officials were recent and extensive, and said Smirnov had planned to meet with one official during an upcoming overseas trip.

They said Smirnov has had numerous contacts with a person he described as the "son of a former high-ranking government official" and "someone with ties to a particular Russian intelligence service." They said there is a serious risk that Smirnov could flee overseas to avoid facing trial.

Prosecutors revealed the alleged contact as they urged a judge to keep Smirnov behind bars while he awaits trial. 

HUNTER BIDEN WAS PAID $100K A MONTH THROUGH CHINESE FIRM VENTURE, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIED

Smirnov, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, is charged with falsely reporting to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016. 

Smirnov had only routine business dealings with the company starting in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he "expressed bias" against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate, prosecutors said. Special Counsel David Weiss said Smirnov’s lies were aimed at affecting the 2024 presidential election. 

Smirnov is charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where he lived for 16 years before relocating to Las Vegas two years ago.

Smirnov was due in court later Tuesday in Las Vegas. He has been in custody at a facility in rural Pahrump, about an hour drive west of Las Vegas, since his arrest last week at the airport while returning from overseas.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts allowed Smirnov to be released from custody on electronic GPS monitoring while he awaits trial. He must stay in Clark County, Nevada, and is prohibited from applying for a new passport.

Before his arrest, Smirnov had been scheduled to leave the U.S. for a months-long, multi-country trip that – by his own admission – involved meetings with officials of foreign intelligence agencies and governments, prosecutors said. 

Ahead of Tuesday's hearing, Defense attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld had argued for Smirnov's release while he awaits trial "so he can effectively fight the power of the government."

Smirnov's claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. Democrats called for an end to the probe after the indictment came down last week, while Republicans distanced the inquiry from Smirnov's claims and said they would continue to "follow the facts."

Hunter Biden is expected to give a deposition next week.

The Burisma allegations became a flashpoint in Congress as Republicans pursuing investigations of President Biden and his family demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations. They acknowledged they couldn't confirm if the allegations were true.

Fox News' David Spunt and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Texas AG Paxton sues NGO aiding migrants, accuses it of encouraging illegal immigration

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FIRST ON FOX: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a Catholic non-governmental organization operating in the state and wants to have its registration revoked, alleging that it is encouraging illegal immigration and operating a stash house for those entering illegally.

Paxton has sued Annunciation House — a Catholic nonprofit set up in the 1980s — and is seeking to revoke its registration to operate in Texas.

Annunciation House describes itself as a volunteer organization that "offers hospitality to migrants, immigrants, and refugees in El Paso, Texas."

TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON SAYS STATE WON’T COMPLY WITH BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ORDER TO REOPEN PARK TO FEDERAL AGENTS

"Rooted in Catholic social teaching, the volunteers of Annunciation House live simply and in community, in the same houses as the guests we serve, who are mostly from Mexico and Central America," the group’s website says. "We also participate in advocacy and education around immigration issues. We seek to be a voice for justice and compassion, especially on behalf of the most marginalized of our society."

But Paxton’s lawsuit accuses the group of "openly and flagrantly violating many provisions of law in a systemic fashion." Specifically, it accuses it of providing shelter to illegal immigrants who have evaded law enforcement, of encouraging illegal immigration, of engaging in human smuggling and of operating a "stash house."

"Annunciation House appears to be engaged in the operation of an illegal stash house by potentially allowing others to use its real estate to engage in human smuggling," the lawsuit says.

Paxton’s office had requested records from the organization to evaluate potential violations of federal law. However, the organization in turn sued the AG’s office, seeking a restraining order and accusing it of making an impossible demand due to its limited volunteer staff and of violating its "constitutional rights of association."

EAGLE PASS MAYOR SAYS SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TEXAS, FEDS OVER BORDER CONTROL IS 'FRUSTRATING,' A 'CONSTANT STRUGGLE'

The lawsuit requests that its right to operate in Texas is terminated and also asks the court to appoint a receiver to liquidate its assets.

"The chaos at the southern border has created an environment where NGOs, funded with taxpayer money from the Biden Administration, facilitate astonishing horrors including human smuggling," Paxton said in a statement. "While the federal government perpetuates the lawlessness destroying this country, my office works day in and day out to hold these organizations responsible for worsening illegal immigration."

In a statement, Annunciation House said it "does its work of accompaniment out of the Gospel mandate to welcome the stranger."  

"This is no different from the work of schools who enroll migrant children, the clinics and hospitals who care for the needs of their ill, the churches, synagogues, and mosques who welcome their families to join in worship," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "For the Attorney General to suddenly attack Annunciation House after forty-six years of service to the poor is simply shameful."
 

The legal battle comes amid a broader fight between Texas, which has promoted border security and sought to block illegal immigrants entering the U.S., and the federal government, which has embraced the role of NGOs in processing and aiding illegal immigrants and has sought millions in funding from Congress for groups and communities that receive them.

There was a record 2.4 million migrant encounters in fiscal 2023, and December set a record for encounters with more than 301,000 in that month alone. The House last week impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the crisis. Articles of impeachment now go to the Senate for a trial.

Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

Pence’s organization demands Congress release government funding agreement as deadlines loom

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FIRST ON FOX: Former Vice President Mike Pence's public policy think tank Advancing American Freedom urged congressional leaders on Tuesday to release the government funding agreement as the current temporary spending patch, known as a continuing resolution (CR), will expire the first week of March.

"Three weeks ago, your committees reached a private agreement on the 302(b) allocations for the next fiscal year. Since then, the American people have been kept guessing as to the negotiated funding levels for each of the twelve subcommittee appropriations bills," executive director Paul Teller wrote in a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committees on Tuesday.

House and Senate leaders came together in mid-January to pass a CR to give themselves more time to hash out a deal for the rest of fiscal 2024.

It was the third CR passed since the previous fiscal year ended Sept. 30 and preserved funding for some agencies through March 1 and others through March 8.

MIKE PENCE'S THINK TANK PUSHES BACK ON JD VANCE'S ‘IMPEACHMENT TIME BOMB’ CLAIM IN FOREIGN AID PACKAGE

Both chambers are currently in recess.

"The American people deserve transparency on the spending levels of their government as Congress looks to pass additional spending bills," Teller told Fox News Digital in a statement. "With another deadline rapidly approaching, the American people and rank-and-file members are kept in the dark as to the true spending levels, and this needs to change. Advancing American Freedom is calling on these numbers to be immediately released to the American public."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed upon a top-line funding agreement of $1.66 trillion last month. That figure was part of an agreement mandated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act last year, a compromise reached during debt limit talks between President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

"Now, disconcerting rumors are swirling that the 302(b) allocations that were agreed upon blow out the already excessive $1.7 trillion Johnson-Schumer 'cap,' itself built on Speaker Pelosi’s COVID-19 level spending," Teller wrote.

"Although it has become ‘business as usual,’ airdropping an appropriations package on Congress at the last second is no way to govern," he wrote.

MIKE PENCE'S AAF SENDS MEMO TO LAWMAKERS: 'BIDEN DOESN'T SEEM TO WANT ISRAEL TO WIN'

On the Senate floor, only three of the 12 appropriations bills have been passed.

"There isn’t a funding agreement to release," a House appropriations aide told Fox News Digital. "The bills are still being negotiated."

The CR continues funding for four appropriations bills through March 1: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration; Energy and Water Development; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

Additionally, the CR allocates funding for the remaining eight appropriations bills through March 8: Commerce, Justice, Science; Defense; Financial Services and General Government; Homeland Security; Interior, Environment; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education; Legislative Branch; and State, Foreign Operations.

The aim of having two separate deadlines is to prevent Congress from passing a comprehensive "omnibus" spending bill, a practice widely opposed by Republicans. 

However, the staggered approach may not eliminate the possibility of an omnibus as Congress will only have a few days to pass appropriations bills before the current CR expires. If they fail to either extend current funding levels or reach an agreement on new levels, the government could fall into a partial shutdown, with federal programs on pause and thousands of federal workers potentially furloughed.

Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

Chinese illegal immigration on pace to break records at US southern border

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A dramatic increase in Chinese illegal immigration is on track to break records at the southern border, with apprehensions from the communist country in one sector alone already eclipsing fiscal 2021 in just a few days.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources tell Fox News that between Saturday and Monday there were 452 Chinese nationals apprehended by Border Patrol in the San Diego Sector alone.

That’s more than the 450 apprehended in fiscal 2021 altogether across the entire southwest border.

The number of Chinese nationals has been increasing since fiscal 2021. In fiscal 2022, numbers increased to more than 2,000 border-wide. In fiscal 2023, that number then surged to more than 24,314.

CHINESE MIGRANTS POURING ACROSS SOUTHERN BORDER SPARK NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS

So far in fiscal 2024, which began in October, there have been more than 18,750 encounters by the end of January, meaning that the fiscal year is already on track to exceed last year’s numbers. There were nearly 6,000 encounters in December alone.

The increase in migration from China is an indicator of how global the U.S. border crisis has become. Officials previously said they have encountered migrants from more than 150 countries. Fox News witnessed migrants from countries including Brazil, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ecuador and China crossing into the U.S. at San Diego this week.

Chinese nationals have quickly become the fastest-growing demographic entering the country illegally. Some officials and Republican lawmakers have raised concerns that single adults entering from the geopolitical rival could pose a national security threat.

Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all rank-and-file Border Patrol agents nationwide, told Fox News last week that the majority of the Chinese border crossers are single adult males of military age.

INFLUX OF ILLEGAL CHINESE MIGRANTS THREATENS US TERRITORY; ISLAND MUST SHOW 'STRENGTH OF THE NATION'

"That is a very scary prospect. We know that China does not like us, we know that we are in the crosshairs of China," Judd said.

"And they are exporting so many people to our country, and you have to really fear about that."

"There have been numerous documented instances of Chinese nationals, at the direction of the CCP, engaging in espionage, stealing military and economic secrets," a group of Republican senators warned last year.

The Republican-held House impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of the migrant crisis. The articles of impeachment now go to the Senate for a trial.

Overall, there have been more than 961,000 migrant encounters this fiscal year after a record-setting 2.4 million in fiscal 2023. December saw a record 301,000 encounters, followed by a sharp drop to 176,000 in January.

Fox News' Aubrie Spady and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

7.2M illegals entered the US under Biden admin, an amount greater than population of 36 states

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Nearly 7.3 million migrants have illegally crossed the southwest border under President Biden's watch, a number greater than the population of 36 individual states, a Fox News analysis finds.

That figure comes from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has already reported 961,537 border encounters in the current fiscal year, which runs from October through September. If the current pace of illegal immigration does not slow down, fiscal year 2024 will break last year's record of 2,475,669 southwest border encounters — a number that by itself exceeds the population of New Mexico, a border state. 

The total number of southwest land border encounters since Biden assumed office in 2021 is 7,298,486, CBP data shows. 

That is larger than the population of 36 U.S. states, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 

MIGRANTS CAUGHT ON NEW VIDEO STREAMING DOWN REMOTE CALIFORNIA MOUNTAINSIDE TO ILLEGALLY CROSS THE BORDER

Compared to the largest U.S. states, the 7.3 million number is about 18.7% of California's population of 39 million, 23.9% of the state of Texas and its 31 million residents, 32.3% of the population of Florida and 37.3% of New York. It's more than half the size of Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio. 

Were the number of illegal immigrants who entered the United States under President Biden gathered together to found a city, it would be the second-largest city in America after New York. And the total does not include an estimated additional 1.8 million known "gotaways" who evaded law enforcement, which would make it bigger than New York. 

Taken together, nearly 10 million migrants have crossed into the U.S. illegally during the Biden administration, a record Biden's critics assert could only be achieved by intentionally refusing to enforce the law. 

"This unprecedented surge in illegal immigration isn't an accident. It is the result of deliberate policy choices by the Biden administration," said Eric Ruark, Director of Research for Numbers USA, a nonprofit that advocates for immigration restrictions.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.  

MIGRANT CRISIS: NOEM SENDS NATIONAL GUARD TO SOUTHERN BORDER'S ‘WARZONE’

Republicans and anti-illegal immigration activists have for years blamed Biden for allowing the current overwhelming surge of migrants by reversing former President Donald Trump's border policies. The Biden administration has denied responsibility for the crisis and pointed to external "push" factors like violence and economic instability in South and Central America as the culprit responsible for vast waves of migration to the U.S. 

However, the president's critics say migrants face more of a "pull" factor in the form of job opportunities and government benefits because they know they will not face deportation under Biden's lenient policies. 

"The administration has refused to enforce existing immigration law and taken every opportunity to aid and abet illegal border crossings — through policies such as catch-and-release, mass parole, and offering temporary work permits to tens of thousands of foreigners who make dubious claims for asylum," Ruark told Fox News Digital. "In actual effect, the United States government is completing the human smuggling and trafficking process for the Mexican cartels."

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said migrants have learned in the last three years that they won't face deportation for entering the country illegally. 

"They have sent the signal that if you come to the U.S. illegally, if you abuse the asylum system, you'll be released into the country and allowed to remain here, in most cases given work authorization," Mehlman said. "Even if you neglect to show up for your hearings, the odds of you being removed are negligible. The president claims he doesn't have the authority to enforce our laws. He absolutely does. He is deliberately not enforcing those laws."

LARGE MAJORITY OF ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSING SHIFT TO ARIZONA AND CALIFORNIA, PIVOTING AWAY FROM TEXAS

Biden has called on Congress to pass new laws he claims would let him solve the border crisis. He endorsed a bipartisan deal in the Senate that included an "emergency border authority" to mandate Title 42-style expulsions of migrants when migration levels exceed 5,000 a day over a seven-day rolling average. It would have also limited the window for people to apply for asylum, provided immediate work permits for asylum seekers and funded a massive increase in staffing at the border and more immigration judges. 

But conservatives tanked the deal in the Senate after House Republicans declared it a non-starter. They argued the bill would have normalized record-high levels of illegal immigration and said Biden currently has all the authority he needs to reenact Trump's policies and secure the border. 

While the debate rages, House Republicans have impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for allegedly refusing to enforce immigration laws. Two impeachment articles advanced against Mayorkas accused him of having "refused to comply with Federal immigration laws" and violating the "public trust."

DHS has criticized the effort as politically motivated and insisted the Biden administration is enforcing the laws on the books. 

Biden said that "history will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games."

Fox News' Bill Melugin, Adam Shaw and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

Media deem Trump the nominee, despite Haley tying him to Putin

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Nikki Haley is campaigning hard, making the television rounds and ramping up her rhetoric against Donald Trump.

She is fighting on her home turf – South Carolina, the state that knows her best – and yet the media are acting in many ways as if the campaign is over.

That’s largely because the state’s former governor trails Trump by 22 to 36 percentage points, according to the last several South Carolina polls.

RON DESANTIS ACCUSES NIKKI HALEY OF APPEALING TO 'LIBERAL' T-SHIRT WEARERS: 'SHE'S POISONED THE WELL'

Haley is not only way behind Trump, she’s not closing the gap in a way that makes it a competitive contest on Saturday.

And if she loses by more than 20, the pundits will view that as the final nail in her political coffin.

Beyond that, I can’t think of a single state that Haley can win outright. She says she’ll continue at least through Super Tuesday, but the former president may have mathematically clinched the nomination by then, or shortly afterward.

This is not a knock on Haley (though contemporaries say she burned some bridges in South Carolina). The former U.N. ambassador managed to be the last woman standing, well after Pence, DeSantis, Scott, Christie and the others dropped out. But it’s instructive to look at how she’s campaigning, and why Trump – despite his four indictments and $355 million civil fraud penalty – seems unstoppable.

In a Sunday interview on ABC’s "This Week," Haley increasingly tried to tie Trump to Vladimir Putin’s murderous tactics in the wake of the Arctic prison killing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny:

"When you hear Donald Trump say in South Carolina a week ago that he would encourage Putin to invade our allies if they weren’t pulling their weight, that’s bone-chilling, because all he did in that one moment was empower Putin. And all he did in that moment was, he sided with a guy that kills his political opponents, he sided with a thug that arrests American journalists and holds them hostage, and he sided with a guy who wanted to make a point to the Russian people, don’t challenge me in the next election or this will happen to you too."

TRUMP’S NATO COMMENTS TRIGGER FIERCE MEDIA AND EUROPEAN OPPOSITION: HOW SERIOUS IS HE?

What’s more, Haley told Jonathan Karl, "it’s actually pretty amazing that he – not only after making those comments that he would encourage Putin to invade NATO, but the fact that he won’t acknowledge anything with Navalny. Either he sides with Putin and thinks it’s cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents, or he just doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal." 

Trump had said he wouldn’t protect any NATO country that didn’t spend 2% of its funds on defense, and in that case he would encourage Putin and Russia to "do whatever they hell they wanted." He has made no mention of Navalny’s death, which President Biden quickly blamed on Putin.

Haley reminded viewers that if Ukraine falls, Poland or the Baltics could be next.

Now think about this. If a candidate not named Trump had made comments interpreted as potentially blowing up the Atlantic alliance – drawing condemnation from top European leaders – and stayed silent when Russia’s dictator had the opposition leader killed, after a previous poisoning attempt, wouldn’t there be a political uproar?

But since it is Trump, who as president had a friendly relationship with Putin, there has been scant criticism from Republicans. If Trump believes it, most of the party falls into line.

It harkens back to his old 2016 line about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. Just as the Senate seemed on the verge of passing a bipartisan border bill that included aid to Ukraine and Israel, Trump torpedoed the measure by coming out against it.

DEMOCRATS WIN SEAT, REPUBLICANS WIN IMPEACHMENT, TWO PRESIDENTS CLASH OVER NATO

And in a FOX town hall Sunday night, Haley, who often says her ex-boss was a good president at the time, offered a more negative assessment:

"There were things that he did wrong," Haley told John Roberts. "His press conference in Helsinki, when he went and was trying to buddy up with Putin, I called him out for that. I explained that deeply in my book…how he was completely wrong. Because every time he was in the same room with him, he got weak in the knees. We can't have a president that gets weak in the knees with Putin."

About 20 minutes after Haley used the "weak in the knees" line yesterday on "Fox & Friends," saying Trump has "yet to say anything about Navalny’s death," the ex-president responded on Truth Social: 

"The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction." You might have noticed the pivot, and the failure to mention Putin at all. 

All this, in a nutshell, is why the press are far more interested in the veepstakes chatter surrounding Trump than in Haley’s dogged campaigning.

What most of the media and other critics fail to understand is that Trump represents the majority of his party. He has remade the GOP in his own image. Most leaders, with the notable exception of the strongly pro-Ukraine Mitch McConnell, follow their leader, as do rank-and-file members afraid of a Donald-backed primary challenger.

Speaker Mike Johnson admitted he consulted with Trump before declaring the border compromise DOA. Marco Rubio, who two months ago helped pass a law barring any president from withdrawing from NATO, said he had no problem with Trump’s remarks about the alliance.

There are even lines that Haley won’t cross. Asked repeatedly on ABC whether she still plans to endorse Trump if he wins, as she said at the campaign’s outset, Haley kept deflecting the question.

A decade ago, Haley’s pro-military and anti-Russia views would have been a comfortable fit for the Republican Party, but that party no longer exists.

Biden’s $200K payment from brother receives renewed scrutiny after report detailing failed hospital venture

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

A heavily scrutinized $200,000 check that President Biden received from his brother, James Biden, in 2018 has resurfaced in a new report detailing how the latter leaned heavily on his family's influence to promote a now-defunct hospital chain targeted by the Department of Justice for fraud.

According to the report published Sunday by Politico, James centered his consulting work for Americore, a company that operated rural hospitals, on his leverage as a member of the Biden family, but those connections never materialized into more financing for the company before it ultimately collapsed.

Fox News Digital reported last year that Americore loaned James approximately $600,000 on the promise that his name could bring in funding from the Middle East. On the same day, $200,000 of the $600,000 was transferred to James' personal bank account, prompting him to write Biden a $200,000 check from that same account.

GOP SENATOR FUMES OVER ‘WACKO’ DEMOCRATS' LACK OF ‘COMMON SENSE’ ON TRANS SPORTS: ‘GOING TO GET HURT’

Politico said that its investigation of James' work for Americore "did not find that Joe Biden involved himself in the firm or took actions on its behalf," but that the president "did benefit indirectly from his brother's work with the firm," citing the $200,000 payment.

The White House has consistently denied that the money was anything other than repayment for a loan Biden previously gave James as a private citizen, and redacted bank records appear to show a $200,000 payment made to James just weeks earlier from a bank account belonging to Biden.

However, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have emphasized the payment, whether a loan or not, "aptly demonstrates one way [Biden] personally benefited from his family’s shady influence peddling of his name and their access to him."

GOP SENATE HOPEFUL KEPT TIES TO GEORGE SOROS-BACKED GROUP WHERE HUNTER BIDEN SERVED ON BOARD

"Even if the transaction in question was part of a loan agreement, we are troubled that Joe Biden’s ability to recoup funds depends on his brother’s cashing-in on the Biden brand," Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital in October.

James is expected to be interviewed as part of the committee's impeachment inquiry against Biden on Feb. 21.

According to Politico, a number of former Americore executives said James, at the time, wanted to give Biden equity in the company, put him on its board, and promote its success in a future presidential campaign, none of which ever occurred due to the company's failure.

STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL OFFICIALLY CALLS ON KAMALA HARRIS TO INVOKE 25TH AMENDMENT, REMOVE BIDEN FROM OFFICE

Americore is facing an ongoing $100 million federal prosecution after the DOJ found one of its hospitals allegedly undertook a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing the government for medically unnecessary lab tests. However, James has not been accused of any crime.

In December, a Chapter 11 trustee for Americore testified before the Oversight Committee that the $600,000 loan was provided to James with no documentation in return for the promise of funding from the Middle East that never came. 

Carol Fox told the committee she filed a lawsuit against James, saying he made "representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections." 

The suit was ultimately settled with James required to pay back $350,000 of the loan.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and representatives of James Biden for comment.

Trump trials will make GOP frontrunner’s daytime campaign events a challenge, but ‘nothing will stop him’

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

Former President Trump will be on trial in New York City next month to defend himself against charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, taking the 2024 GOP frontrunner off of the campaign trail. 

But that won’t stop him. He says he’ll campaign at night.

"I'll do it in the evening," Trump said this week when asked how sitting in court to defend himself against charges brought by brought by Bragg related to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign would affect his 2024 presidential campaign. 

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

NEW YORK JUDGE SETS TRUMP TRIAL FOR MARCH 25, DENIES REQUEST TO DISMISS BRAGG CHARGES IN HUSH MONEY CASE

The former president, who will likely be the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the White House by the time the Bragg trial begins March 25, has been forced to tackle competing calendars for the last several months with presidential primaries and court dates in multiple jurisdictions.

So far this year, Trump dominated in the Iowa caucuses, left New Hampshire with a commanding victory, swept caucuses in Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands and is poised to win in South Carolina Feb. 24.

But Trump’s victories haven’t come just from crisscrossing the country stumping on the campaign trail. He’s spent days in court in New York for Bragg’s case, the civil fraud trial stemming from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against him and his businesses and E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial. 

TRUMP ORDERED TO PAY MORE THAN $80 MILLION IN E. JEAN CARROLL DEFAMATION TRIAL

He's also appeared in court in Washington D.C. for special counsel Jack Smith’s case related to the 2020 election and in Florida for Smith’s case related to classified documents.

"President Trump has been attacked by the Democrats for eight years. He has stood strong through two sham impeachments, endless lies and now multiple baseless political witch hunts," Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. "The Democrats want Donald Trump in a courtroom instead of on the campaign trail delivering his winning message to the American people, but nothing will stop him from doing that."

The first trial on the 2024 calendar was supposed to be in Washington, D.C., March 4 after special counsel Jack Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. 

Those charges stem from Smith’s investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Capitol riot Jan. 6, 2021, and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The trial was scheduled for March 4, the day before the March 5 Super Tuesday primary contests, when Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont vote to select a GOP nominee.

But Smith has asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether Trump can be prosecuted on charges relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump has also appealed to the Supreme Court a lower court’s ruling on presidential immunity.

TRUMP ASKS SUPREME COURT TO EXTEND DELAY IN ELECTION CASE, CLAIMING PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY

The trial is paused until the Supreme Court makes its decisions. It is now unclear when — and if — that trial could begin.

But that doesn’t make the month of March free for campaign events. New York Judge Juan Merchan this week rejected Trump’s request to dismiss the charges against him from Bragg’s investigation. Merchan set jury selection for March 25 and said the trial will last approximately six weeks.

Bragg alleged Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election."

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in New York.

Jury selection in that case will begin just after the Louisiana primary and ahead of April 2, when Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin voters hit the polls to select a GOP nominee.

Smith also charged Trump after his investigation into the former president’s alleged improper retention of classified records from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges from that probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump was then charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment from Smith’s investigation, an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty.

That trial was set to begin on May 20, 2024, ahead of the Kentucky primary on May 21, the Oregon primary on May 25 and New Jersey's primary June 4.

But U.S. District Judge of the Southern District of Florida Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the case, said that date may be delayed. A decision will be made March 1 during the next court date.

Should Trump win the GOP nomination, he would spend July 15-18 at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee.

However, Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has proposed her trial begin just weeks later.

Willis charged Trump as part of her investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Trump was charged with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act, three counts of criminal solicitation, six counts of criminal conspiracy, one count of filing false documents and two counts of making false statements.

TRUMP CALLS 'BADLY TAINTED' FULTON COUNTY CASE 'A SCAM' AFTER DA FANI WILLIS' COURTROOM DRAMA

He pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Fulton County prosecutors have proposed that trial begin Aug. 5, 2024.

But Willis has been in court defending herself after revelations that she had a romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she brought onto her team to help bring charges against Trump.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital this week, Trump blasted the case as a "sham." 

"There is no case here," Trump said during Willis’ testimony. "It is so badly tainted. There is no case here."

Trump told Fox News Digital "the case will have to be dropped."

"There's no way they can have a case," Trump said. "The whole thing was a scam to get money for the boyfriend."

Commenting on all of the cases against him, Trump said, "It’s all corrupt stuff. It is all politics — using the law to try to stop a party that is substantially ahead, and a particular person that’s substantially ahead in every poll, including against Biden.

"This is all meant to stop me."

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.