Meta donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund as the social media giant takes steps to improve relations with the president-elect.

The donation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Meta confirmed the donation to the Journal.

Inaugural fund expenses are designated for expenses associated with the presidential inauguration.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Trump’s feud stretches back to Trump’s first presidency.

In 2020, after Facebook was criticized over Trump’s violent remarks on the platform, Zuckerberg said he was “deeply shaken and disgusted by President Trump’s divisive and incendiary rhetoric.”

Trump was removed from Facebook and Instagram in 2021 for what Meta called praising “people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6.” Meta reversed the decision two years later.

In 2021, Trump filed suit against Facebook, Google, then-Twitter, and the companies’ respective CEOs, alleging they unlawfully censor him and other conservatives.

Mending the relationship

The feud carried over into this election cycle.

In August, Trump threatened that Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to interfere in the 2024 US election.

But recently, Zuckerberg, who did not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, has been working to mend relations with Trump.

Last month, Zuckerberg visited Trump at his resort in Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving Eve dinner.

“It’s an important time for the future of American Innovation. Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming Administration,” Meta said in a statement about the dinner.

The CEO is looking to take a role in tech-policy conversations, a senior Meta executive told The Verge.

To be sure, the $1 million donation is a drop in the bucket for Meta.

Meta made over $39 billion in profit in 2023 and is worth about $1.6 trillion. Zuckerberg, who owns about 300 million Meta shares, would need to sell around 1,600 shares to pay the donation amount himself. He’s currently worth $224 billion, Bloomberg estimates.

Meta is preparing to face an antitrust trial next year over accusations that it bought Instagram and WhatsApp to crush competition in social media.

Loyal supporters

Trump is stacking his administration with people who have supported him throughout his campaign — and who could take a lighter touch on tech regulation.

Last month, Trump named Brendan Carr, a big tech critic, to head the Federal Communications Commission. Carr wrote the FCC chapter of the conservative playbook Project 2025.

Other key Trump appointments include Elon Musk as the co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency, David Sacks as AI and crypto czar, Paul Atkins as the lead of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary.

Zuckerberg is far from the only powerful person in tech and politics who’s been seen at Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s election win.

Musk, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Argentine President Javier Milei, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson have all been spotted at Trump’s resort.

On Tuesday, Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said he has spent about “half” his time at Mar-a-Lago discussing policy issues with Trump.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign manager and daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy is making a push to serve as deputy director at the CIA next year — and RFK Jr. is making calls on her behalf, Axios has reported.

Fox Kennedy, an integral member of Kennedy’s campaign, wrote a memoir detailing nearly a decade working at the CIA. The deputy director position does not require Senate confirmation.

President-elect Trump, who has signaled plans to try to overhaul U.S. intelligence agencies during his second term, has already named former intelligence director John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA.

The deputy position is one of the highest-profile intelligence jobs that remains open. Politico reported last month that Kash Patel, who has been tapped for FBI director, and Cliff Sims, a former Trump administration official, were jockeying for the role.

Fox Kennedy in 2019 published a memoir, “Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA,” that provided one of the most detailed personal accounts of life in the agency.

Fox Kennedy has said she was recruited by the CIA in her early 20s, becoming one of the youngest female officers at the agency.

She said she was a “nonofficial cover,” meaning she posed as a citizen under a fake identity and had no diplomatic protections.

Fox Kennedy reportedly submitted the memoir to the book publisher without getting sign off from the CIA’s Publication Review Board, stirring controversy within the agency.

The board is supposed to approve any material from officers before becoming public to ensure that key intelligence matters remain secret, NBC News reported at the time.

Fox Kennedy, who took over as Kennedy’s campaign manager in October 2023, led his presidential bid as he navigated the arduous task of trying to get on the ballot in all 50 states as an independent candidate.

Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and backed Trump.

In November, Trump nominated Kennedy to serve as director of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“President-Elect Trump has made brilliant decisions on who will serve in his second Administration at lightning pace,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“Remaining decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made.”

“Hey guys, some of you have heard the rumors online, and the rumors are mostly true,” Brett Cooper began her YouTube video, posted Tuesday evening, very tactfully. “Today, December 10 will be my last day hosting the Comments Section, and working for the Daily Wire. It is not true that I am being forced out; it was my own choice to leave.”

Cooper had frequently been dubbed the “female Ben Shapiro” during her tenure as one of the Daily Wire’s other podcast hosts. She was also set to star in the Wire’s production of Snow White and the Evil Queen, out next year for some reason. The video announcing her exit has garnered over 5 million views on X in the twelve hours since publication.

What are the rumors? Cockburn, of course, has been keeping up with all the Wire drama. Online whisperers implicate the other, non-Ben Shapiro co-founder, Jeremy Boreing, often referred to as “the God-king” of the Daily Wire. A number of rumors center on spats between prolific movie producer Boreing (he cast himself as the lead in Lady Ballers, which he also produced, co-wrote and directed) and Cooper.

After Cooper gives some grateful farewells at the beginning of the her video, she segues into a clip of the “God-king himself.”

“Bittersweet indeed. We’re sad to see Brett go, but we’re excited to see her take the next step in her journey,” Boreing began. “It’s been a pleasure to see her bring the Comments Section to life these last three years.”

Brett’s YouTube show, the Comments Section with Brett Cooper, has garnered about half the YouTube subscribers that Ben Shapiro has accrued in just three years, a remarkable feat compared to Shapiro’s many years in the business.

Amid all the rumors, Reagan Rohrbach, Brett’s producer, had been “filling in” for Brett periodically, and Brett announced Rohrbach would take over the show as many predicted. Online sleuths noted that Cooper had deleted all photos featuring her with her producer from her Instagram in the week leading up to Cooper’s announcement.

Cockburn would like to host a quick comments section of his own and point out that many people are unhappy with Brett’s departure from the Daily Wire, with several on X claiming they will no longer watch.

Fortunately for the Daily Wire, they can apparently afford to lose a few of the Gen Z viewers Cooper garnered. “Daily Wire raised an undisclosed round of capital in 2023 at a valuation well north of $1 billion,” a source told Axios Tuesday, conveniently shortly before the Cooper announcement. The Daily Wire is reportedly on track to surpass $200 million in revenue by the end of this year. The companies streaming service has well over a million subscribers. Boreing and Shapiro have been long described as shrewd businessmen, and the numbers are supporting that fact.

But as Cooper said, the rumors are “mostly” true, whatever that means. In the video where Cooper says farewell, she happens to be wearing a dark blue sweater. In her days of absence, TikTok fans had been encouraging Cooper to wear blue in her next broadcast if she was subject to an NDA — very pro-free-speech of the Wire if so! Was Cooper’s “choice” to step away much of a choice after all? She declined to comment for this story.

“But, as an actor, it is so freeing, because I don’t feel like I’m censoring myself at all,” Cooper said in an article last year on the Daily Wire, addressing her role as Snow White. That aged well…

When a panel known as a door plug blew off an Alaska Airlines flight minutes after takeoff earlier this year, a quality investigator at the factory where the Boeing plane was manufactured says he wasn’t surprised; he said he was almost expecting something like this would happen.

Whistleblower Sam Mohawk is speaking publicly for the first time about the problems he’s seen during his 13 years working in quality assurance at Boeing’s commercial airplane factories. Months before the door plug incident, Mohawk said he warned both Boeing and federal regulators about lapses in safety practices inside the company’s Renton, Washington factory, which is responsible for building about 30% of the world’s commercial jet fleet. Mohawk believes defective or “non-conforming” parts are not being properly tracked there and could be making it onto Boeing planes – a concern he said could lead to a catastrophic event without a proper investigation.

“It might not happen within the first year, but down the road they’re not going to last the lifetime that they’re expected to last,” he said. “It’s like Russian roulette, you know? You don’t know if it’s going to go down or not.”

“A desperation for parts” at Boeing’s Renton factory

A month after the Alaska Airlines incident, the National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded the four bolts required to secure the door plug that blew off the Boeing 737-9 Max were removed during production at that Renton facility and never reinstalled. After an extensive search, NTSB investigators determined the records to document the removal of those four bolts don’t exist. Boeing said it can’t find any paperwork to explain how a plane left its factory without the bolts.

Mohawk said he started noticing problems at the Renton facility during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Boeing was ramping up production and dealing with supply chain issues.

“The idea is to keep those airplanes moving, keep that line moving at all costs,” he said.

As a quality investigator, part of Mohawk’s job is to keep track of defective airplane parts in what some employees call “the parts jail.” It’s called that, Mohawk said, because the parts are meant to be under lock and key and tracked like a chain of evidence. But Mohawk says that amid pressure to keep production moving, some employees sidestepped Boeing protocol and took bad parts out of the “parts jail” when his team wasn’t looking.

Mohawk’s concern is that those bad or “non-conforming” parts he says are getting lost or taken, could be ending up on planes.

“There’s so much chaos in that factory,” Mohawk said. “There’s a desperation for parts. Because we have problems with our parts suppliers. So there’s, in order to get that plane built and out the door in time, I think unfortunately some of those parts were recycled back onto the airplanes in order to build, keep building the airplane and not stop it in production.”

Mohawk believes it’s happening repeatedly.

“We have thousands of missing parts,” he said.

It’s not just parts like bolts that are going missing, according to Mowhawk, but also rudders, one of the primary tools for steering planes. Mohawk said 42 flawed or “non-conforming” rudders, which he says would likely not last the 30-year lifespan of a jet, have disappeared..

“They’re huge parts,” he said “And they just completely went missing.”

NTSB safety reports show the number of Boeing plane accidents has declined over the last two decades, but Mohawk is still concerned.

“Right now, the Max is a new program,” he said. “So these airplanes that are having the quality issues are brand new to the fleet. We don’t know what’s going to be coming in the future.”

The Max line, certified by the FAA in 2017, has drawn scrutiny since its first year in service.

Workers at the Renton factory, where they make the Max, returned to work last month after a seven-week strike, After their return, there was a focus on training and making sure the factory had “the supply chain sorted out.” Production has now resumed at Renton.

Mohawk still works there. In June, he filed a federal whistleblower claim to protect himself from potential retaliation. Mohawk also reported his concerns to the FAA, which is investigating his claims, and hundreds of others directed at the company.

“I put a big target on my back in there,” he said.

Despite that, he felt it was important to come forward.

“At the end of the day my friends and family fly on these airplanes,” he said.

Stories out of Renton echo those in Charleston

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, whistleblowers at Boeing submitted more than 200 reports over the last year. Their safety concerns include mismanagement of parts, poor manufacturing and sloppy inspections at Boeing.

Mohawk’s story echoes another Boeing whistleblower at another Boeing plant, John Barnett. He spent three decades at Boeing and began working as a quality manager on the long-haul 787 Dreamliner at the company’s South Carolina factory in 2010.

Barnett said managers there pressured workers to ignore FAA regulations, such as not tracking defective parts properly. He said Boeing then retaliated against him for speaking up. Boeing has denied his claims.

In 2017, Barnett retired and contacted Charleston attorney Rob Turkewitz, who’s worked with dozens of Boeing employees over the last decade. Turkewitz said Barnett had more than 3,000 internal documents — emails and photos from Boeing — to support his whistleblower claims.

Seven years later, Barnett was in the final stretch of his case.

“I think that John Barnett was probably the best witness I have ever seen testify,” Turkewitz said. “He knew the facts up and down.”

Barnett was scheduled to complete his final day of depositions on March 9. He never showed.

Turkewitz went to Barnett’s hotel to search for him and learned the 62-year-old whistleblower had been found dead inside his truck. Police said it was a suicide.

Turkewitz called Barnett’s family, including his mom, Vicky Stokes, and his brothers, Rodney Barnett, Robby Barnett and Michael Barnett.

“He put up a good front with us, but you, you know, times when we really had heart-to-heart conversations, you could tell it just wore on him,” Michael Barnett said. “You know, I’d ask him, ‘Why do you want to — why do you just keep pursuing it?” And he’s just, like, ‘Because it’s the right thing to do. Who else is going to do it?'”

The Barnett family is continuing his legal fight.

More Boeing workers speak up

Barnett’s death also inspired other Boeing workers to speak up. Merle Meyers, who’d worked with Barnett, said he was angry when he learned how Barnett was allegedly treated.

Meyers started his 30-year career at Boeing as a parts inspector. He worked as a quality manager at the company’s largest plant, located in Everett, Washington, before he left last year. Meyers’ concerns first began in 2015, when he said he discovered defective 787 landing gear axles that had been scrapped, back at the factory.

“They were corroded beyond repair,” Meyers said.

Meyers said workers, driven by schedule pressure, took the axles to avoid stalling production.

Photos provided to 60 Minutes show the axles spray-painted red and clearly marked as “scrap.” Meyers said he learned scrap parts marked like this had been taken without authorization for over a decade. Sometimes people used chemical cleaners to remove the paint, Meyers said.

Boeing says it thoroughly investigated Meyers’ claims and that the defective axles did not make it onto airplanes. But Meyers says the competition for airplane parts continued.

“They would talk openly about it at the stand-up meetings, senior managers,” Meyers said.

They’d compete for parts, both good and bad, he said.

“They’re not too picky,” he said.

Meyers alleges company vice presidents were at those meetings and would do nothing about what they heard.

“Speak up until my face is blue”

Boeing employee Sam Salehpour worked in aerospace as an engineer for 40 years. Earlier in his career he worked on rockets, including for companies supporting the Challenger Space Shuttle, which exploded in 1986, killing seven people, though Salehpour didn’t work on the Challenger.

“Ever since that explosion I have promised myself, ‘If I see problems that they are concerning, or safety-related, I am going to speak up until my face is blue,'” Salehoupour said.

He now works on the 777 line in the Everett factory, where Meyers worked. Salehpour says when the jet is assembled, pre-drilled holes are supposed to line up to join pieces together. Salehpour told federal investigators that when they didn’t, he witnessed Boeing employees trying to force them to line up.

“They were jumping up and down like this,” Salehpour said. “When I see people are jumping up and down like that to align the hole, I’m saying, ‘We have a problem.'”

Salehpour described how he believes that kind of pressure on parts could impact the lifespan of a plane.

“That’s like going one more time on your paperclip, OK? And we know that paper clip doesn’t break the first time, the second time, the third time,” Salehoupour said. “But it may be breaking on the 30th or the 40th time.”

Salehoupour alleges this is still happening at Boeing.

Boeing responds to whistleblowers

In a statement to 60 Minutes, Boeing said it carefully investigates all quality and safety concerns, including those of the whistleblowers 60 Minutes spoke with. Boeing said:

“Every day, thousands of Boeing airplanes take off and land around the world, and we are dedicated to the safety of all passengers and crew on board. Our employees are empowered and encouraged to report any concern with safety and quality. We carefully investigate every concern and take action to address any validated issue.

The current and former Boeing employees interviewed by 60 Minutes previously shared their concerns with the company. We listened and carefully evaluated their claims, and we do not doubt their sincerity. Some of their feedback contributed to improvements in our factory processes, and other issues they raised were not accurate. But to be clear: Based on investigations over several years, none of their claims were found to affect airplane safety.

Commercial air travel is the safest form of transportation – and our industry continues improving its exceptional safety record – in part because people do speak up about potential issues. We encourage and welcome employees’ feedback and will continue to incorporate their ideas to make Boeing better.”

Alarming ‘wanted’ posters of top healthcare executives popping up across New York City prompted police to issue a bulletin warning leaders of the rising threats.

In the wake of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, video shared on social media showed ‘wanted’ signs featuring other healthcare corporate leaders plastered across traffic control boxes in Manhattan.

The menacing posters were erected on Canal Street – one of Manhattan’s busiest thoroughfares – flanked with the red and black words: ‘Wanted. Denying medical care for corporate profit. Health care CEOs should not feel safe.’

The signs also included the phrase suspected shooter Luigi Mangione allegedly wrote on the bullets found at the crime scene – ‘Deny. Defend. Depose.’

The alliterative trio of words reference a book by Jay Feinman’s titled ‘Delay, Defend, Deny: Why insurance company don’t pay claims, and what you can do about it.’

A New York Police Department bulletin issued Tuesday emphasized the heightened risk on healthcare executives following Thompson’s slaying, reported ABC News.

‘Both prior to and after the suspected perpetrator’s identification and arrest, some online users across social media platforms reacted positively to the killing, encouraged future targeting of similar executives, and shared conspiracy theories regarding the shooting,’ the bulletin said.

The bulletin highlighted social media posts sharing information about the other executives – and the NYPD said that menacing users are posting ‘that it is a hitlist and that CEOs should be afraid.’

Health insurance companies have started removing images of their leadership teams from their websites following Thompson’s assassination.

Mangione, 26, appeared in court on Tuesday, fighting against extradition to New York – where he is charged with second-degree murder after Thompson was slain.

The former Ivy League student had been apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday, when he was found with a 3D-printed pistol and black silencer, as well as a manifesto condemning the American healthcare system.

Authorities have said Mangione’s three-page manifesto is currently being investigated, which they have labeled a ‘claim of responsibility.’

He wrote about the grandiose size of UnitedHealthcare and how much profits it makes, and went on to condemn health insurance companies more broadly for placing profits over care.

‘To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, [and] a lot of patience,’ Mangione allegedly wrote in the manifesto, according to the Daily Beast.

He went on to say he had ‘respect’ for federal investigators, and apologized for causing any ‘traumas,’ but seemed to defend his alleged actions.

‘Frankly these parasites had it coming,’ the manifesto wrote.

It claimed that the United States had the ‘most expensive healthcare system in the world,’ but blasted the system for making America only the 42nd in life expectancy.

Thomas Dickey, Mangione’s lawyer, said on Tuesday night that his client will also plead not guilty to the gun possession charges he is facing in Pennsylvania.

He made a court appearance after being charged with murder on Tuesday – pouting as he was escorted out of the hearing, after suffering a ferocious public meltdown hours earlier.

The orange jumpsuit-clad suspect had to be restrained as he screamed at police while heading into court in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Pete Hegseth’s lawyer and Sen. Tom Cotton slammed West Point on Wednesday for falsely claiming the defense secretary-designate was never accepted into the nation’s top military academy — in potential violation of federal privacy laws, according to letters exclusively obtained by The Post.

Attorney Tim Parlatore and Cotton (R-Ark.) fired off a pair of letters to the US Military Academy’s superintendent, expressing concern that a public affairs officer shared “false information” with a journalist that could have blocked President-elect Donald Trump’s defense pick from confirmation.

“Not only did Mr. Hegseth apply, but he was accepted as a prospective member of the class of 2003,” Parlatore said in a letter to West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland, disclosing a copy later tweeted by his client of the offer of admission in 1999.

“The use of false statements to influence or damage a political nominee’s reputation is particularly concerning, as it may interfere with the democratic process and the fair consideration of candidate for public office,” he added.

Cotton claimed that West Point’s civilian press rep, Theresa Brinkerhoff, also showed “egregiously bad judgment to share such information about the nominee to be Secretary of Defense with a known liberal outlet like ProPublica,” claiming that the reporter at the outlet was preparing “a derogatory hit piece.”

“Perhaps there’s an honest mistake here, though I can’t imagine what it might be,” the Arkansas Republican said. “But I also can’t imagine this action was authorized or known to the West Point leadership.”

A West Point spokesperson later told The Post, “A review of our records indicates Peter Hegseth was offered admission to West Point in 1999 but did not attend. An incorrect statement involving Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024.”

“Upon further review of an archived database, employees realized this statement was in error,” the rep said. “Hegseth was offered acceptance to West Point as a prospective member of the Class of 2003. The academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error.”

Investigative nonprofit ProPublica, which bills itself as a “nonpartisan, careful and independent,” was reporting a piece on Hegseth’s links to West Point when it got the erroneous statement from the prestigious academy. The story never ran after the publication eventually received a copy of Hegseth’s admission letter.

“So: No, we are not publishing a story,” ProPublica editor Jesse Eisinger posted in a lengthy thread on X Wednesday. “This is how journalism is supposed to work. Hear something. Check something. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as many times as needed. The end.”

Both Parlatore and Cotton called for a thorough investigation into the matter and noted that West Point’s actions may have violated the Privacy Act of 1974, which prohibits federal agencies from disclosing personnel records without the individual’s express consent.

The only exceptions to the statute involve records that are demanded by law enforcement or asked for via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — neither of which applied here, according to Parlatore.

Technically, all West Point records are under the purview of the Department of the Army in the Pentagon, which Hegseth, an Army combat vet, will oversee if a majority of the Senate confirms him in the 119th Congress.

In addition to “reputational harm,” Parlatore added, the potentially criminal fabrication could also “undermine public trust” in the US military.

“In light of these concerns, I urge you to investigate this matter thoroughly and take appropriate corrective action to prevent future violations. As a fellow Service Academy graduate, I am sure that we both agree that it is imperative that our Service Academies uphold the highest standards of privacy, accuracy, and integrity in their communications.”

Making false statements as an executive branch employee with the intent to mislead is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine.

The attorney’s missive to the US Military Academy shows that Hegseth was accepted for admission to the US Military Academy in January 1999 — but he chose to enroll at Princeton University instead later that year.

The future defense nominee served in the Ivy League school’s ROTC program and graduated in 2003, going on to serve in the Minnesota National Guard and Army National Guard for nearly two decades and rising ultimately to the rank of major.

He served three deployments — including as a platoon leader during the Iraq war and teacher of counterinsurgency tactics in Afghanistan — and was awarded two Bronze Star Medals.

Hegseth, 44, has waded other accusations from anonymous former colleagues about being ousted from veterans groups he helmed between 2007 and 2016 for binge drinking and sexual impropriety — though those who worked alongside him have dismissed the allegations in their entirety as untrue.

Parlatore disputed other allegations of sexual assault in 2017 by pointing to police reports contradicting the accuser — who he believes made other false claims of misconduct against another person.

Hegseth’s confirmation appeared on the rocks for weeks as Republican senators expressed reservations about the “concerning” allegations against the defense appointee — but Trump, 78, refused to back down.

“Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” the once and future president wrote on Truth Social last week, rejecting reports he was reconsidering his pick.

“He was a great student – Princeton/Harvard educated – with a Military state of mind. He will be a fantastic, high-energy, Secretary of Defense” he added, predicting the former Fox News personality will be “one who leads with charisma and skill.

“Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!” he crowed.

Sen. Joni Ernst, who is a rape survivor, was the only Republican to indicate she was not ready to vote “yes” on Hegseth’s confirmation but has since warmed up to the Pentagon nom after private discussions.

“Following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks,” Ernst (R-Iowa) said.

It would only take four GOP senators voting “no” to torpedo a Trump nominee.

President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC next month.

The invite was made in early November, shortly after Trump’s Election Day victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, CBS News reported on Wednesday.

It’s unclear whether Xi has accepted the invitation.

A spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team would not confirm or deny the report of Xi’s possible historic appearance at the Jan. 20 inauguration.

“World leaders are lining up to meet with President Trump because they know he will soon return to power and restore peace through American strength around the globe,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

State Department records dating back to 1874 indicate that no foreign leader has ever attended a presidential inauguration, according to CBS News.

Xi, 71, may not be the only world leader that attends the swearing-in ceremony.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom Trump regularly referenced on the campaign trail and met with this week at Mar-a-Lago, is “still considering” whether to attend the 45th president’s second inaugural, according to the outlet.

The report of XI’s invite comes after Trump threatened to impose massive new tariffs on imports from China.

China-based ByteDance, the parent company TikTok, also faces a Jan. 19 – inauguration eve – deadline to sell the social media app or face a ban in the US.

Trump, 78, has met with several world leaders as he prepares to assume the presidency.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Argentinian President Javier Milei and Orbán have all made stops in Palm Beach, Fla., in recent weeks, where Trump’s transition efforts are headquartered.

The president-elect also traveled to Paris last weekend where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and Prince William of the United Kingdom.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday stopped the parody news site the Onion from buying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars website, ruling that a bankruptcy auction did not result in the best possible bids.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez rejected Jones’ claims that the auction was plagued by “collusion,” at the end of a two-day hearing in Houston.

But he said the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee who ran the auction made “a good-faith error” by quickly asking for final offers for Infowars instead of encouraging more back-and-forth bidding between the Onion and a company affiliated with Jones’ supplement-selling businesses, which was the runner-up

“This should have been opened back up, and it should have been opened back up for everybody,” Lopez said.

“It’s clear the trustee left the potential for a lot of money on the table.”

Lopez said neither of the two offers for Infowars were enough money given the scope of Jones’ debts, and told the trustee to work to resolve some of the disputes between the creditors before making a new attempt to sell Infowars.

The Onion was named the winning bidder for Infowars in a November auction, but Jones and First American United Companies, the Jones-affiliated company, had argued the sale process was tainted because the Onion received too much credit for having the support of families that won large court verdicts against Jones.

Jones declared bankruptcy in 2022 and was forced to liquidate his assets to pay over $1.3 billion in legal judgments to the families of 20 students and six staff members who were fatally shot in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Courts in Connecticut and Texas have ruled Jones defamed the families by making repeated false claims the mass shooting was staged as part of a government plot to take guns away from Americans.

Jones’ attorney Ben Broocks told Lopez at a hearing on Monday that the Onion only put up half as much cash as the $3.5 million offer from First American United Companies, but boosted its bid with “smoke and mirrors” calculations.

The Connecticut-based Sandy Hook families, who are Jones’ largest creditors, augmented the Onion’s bid by agreeing to forgo some repayment from the Infowars sale so that other creditors could receive more money. That concession caused a bankruptcy trustee to value the Onion’s bid at $7 million overall.

Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Connecticut-based Sandy Hook families, said the ruling was disappointing, but did not change the fact that Jones owes his clients huge sums of money.

“The families, who have already persevered through countless delays and roadblocks, remain resilient and determined as ever to hold Alex Jones and his corrupt businesses accountable for the harm he has caused,” Mattei said.

Jones celebrated the verdict on Infowars.

The Onion’s CEO Ben Collins said that the company was deeply disappointed in Lopez’s decision, but remains interested in purchasing Infowars and making a “better, funnier internet”.

The Onion had planned to re-launch Infowars in 2025 as a parody site filled with “noticeably less hateful disinformation” than before.

Christopher Murray, a court appointee trustee charged with selling Jones’ assets, testified Tuesday that the auction was fair, and First American United Companies only complained about the process after learning that its bid was not chosen.

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced on Wednesday he is resigning from the FBI, ending his term three years early after President-elect Donald Trump indicated he planned to replace him.

Wray, who was nominated by Trump in 2017, told employees during a bureau-wide town hall that his last day will be in January when President Joe Biden leaves office.

“This is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work,” Wray said, according to his prepared remarks.

The director added, “It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway — this is not easy for me. I love this place, I love our mission, and I love our people — but my focus is, and always has been, on us and doing what’s right for the FBI.”

The announcement comes after Trump revealed last month that he had nominated former intelligence aide Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist, to fill the director role. Patel welcomed the news of Wray’s planned exit.

“I look forward to a smooth transition,” Patel said in a statement. “I will be ready to serve the American people on day one.”

Trump initially praised Wray after firing former Director James Comey amid the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

Trump said at the time that Wray was “a man of impeccable credentials.”

Wray has, however, drawn ire from Trump and his Republican allies in recent years over accusations that the bureau has been, at times, weaponized against Republicans.

Trump called Wray’s planned departure a “great day for America.”

“I just don’t know what happened to him,” Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social. “We will now restore the Rule of Law for all Americans.”

The FBI’s decision, under Wray’s leadership, to execute a search warrant for classified material at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, as well as the bureau’s lack of progress on its investigation into pipe bombs found on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, have both been subjects of Trump’s wrath.

Under Wray, the FBI has also faced accusations from Republicans of being biased against Catholics and improperly pressuring social media companies to practice censorship, two matters the FBI has disputed.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is set to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee next Congress, wrote a scathing letter to Wray this week, saying he had “no confidence” in the director and that he should step down.

Grassley, who has served in the Senate for more than four decades, said Wray’s resignation paved the way for a “new era” at the bureau.

“Wray’s departure is an opportunity for a new era of transparency and accountability at the FBI,” Grassley said.

“Future FBI Directors ought to learn a lesson from Wray’s mistakes. Stonewalling Congress, breaking promises, applying double standards and turning your back on whistleblowers is no longer going to cut it.”

Raunchy texts between ex-Fox News anchor Ed Henry and a young female staffer revealed in a new legal filing threaten to undercut her shocking claims of rape.

A 2020 lawsuit by former Fox Business associate producer Jennifer Eckhart, 34, accused Henry, 53, of handcuffing, beating and raping her in 2017, after a campaign of predatory ‘grooming’ and ‘manipulation’.

But on Monday, Henry’s lawyers unveiled texts between the two that they claimed show an enthusiastic and ‘consensual’, albeit kinky, relationship.

Just days after she claimed he raped her, Eckhart, 34, texted Henry: ‘You wanna f*** me,’ ‘Come spread them and slide my bikini off’, ‘F***ing dirty boy. I love it,’ and ‘Want it. Badly,’ according to screenshots of text messages in his latest legal filing.

The new court papers also described 15 naked and explicit photos she allegedly sent Henry, who co-hosted the show America’s Newsroom, in the two weeks after the alleged rape.

Five of the 15 photos were not of her, but other women, Henry’s new motion stated.

The legal filing said they had sadomasochistic, kinky sex on February 10, 2017, that was prompted by Eckhart’s ‘highly provocative sexting.’ The physical encounter involved Henry hitting her with a belt, and restraining her with handcuffs.

Although rough, Henry claimed it was all agreed on beforehand, saying she ‘sent Ed a photograph of a belt’ and told him in a text message that she would ‘always obey and make myself available to u’, adding ‘You NEED my 26-year-old p***y.’

The day before the sexual encounter, Henry texted Eckhart: ‘Gentle little wh**e. Gonna get tossed around like a rag doll,’ and she replied ‘Love that,’ according to the WhatsApp screenshots.

Henry has been married to NPR Managing Editor Shirley Henry since 2010.

And his legal filing alleged that Eckhart cherry-picked excerpts of their text conversations to cast him as a rapist when he claimed that it was instead a steamy, consensual affair.

‘All the WhatsApp messages preserved for litigation are selectively chosen photographs of a portion of Jennifer’s communications with Ed,’ his lawyers wrote.

‘Many of these messages, including most of the ones Jennifer thinks are incriminating, have been cut off to obscure a final comment by Jennifer expressing pleasure, agreement or desire.’

The photos supposedly sent by Eckhart to Henry ten days after the alleged rape, included ‘a photograph of herself in black lingerie with the tips of the two middle fingers of her left hand inserted into her panties’; ‘a photograph of herself lying sideways in her underwear on the bed, breast thrust forward’; ‘a photograph of a woman from a side view showing a nearly naked bottom’; and ‘a photograph of her own fully exposed, slightly parted vagina lathered in soap’.

‘Ed and Jennifer also continued sexting in the weeks after and months after the alleged rape, with frequent references to rough, consensual sex, with Jennifer often initiating,’ the filing said.

In her original legal complaint, filed in June 2020, Eckhart accused Henry of having ‘groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced [her] into having a sexual relationship with him’, and that the alleged twisted process began ‘at the young age of 24, by exerting his abuse of power over her and her career.’

She stated he ‘sexually assaulted her on office property, and raped her at a hotel where Fox News frequently lodged its visiting employees’, and took photos of her while she was ‘naked, helpless and restrained’ to use for ‘blackmail’.

Their first sexual encounter was in 2014, in Henry’s room at the New York Marriott Marquis after they exchanged emails and met for a drink at the hotel bar.

Their second was at the Fox News offices on September 16, 2015. Henry claimed Eckhart initiated that tryst by handing him an envelope containing the panties she had been wearing that day while preparing to go to the New York Stock Exchange with Liz Claman – who Eckhart worked with as an assistant producer for The Claman Countdown.

She then ‘went up to see Ed in his office and performed oral sex on him’ while the cab was waiting outside to take Claman and Eckhart to their meeting, according to his legal filing.

Her complaint told a similar story but said she did it ‘in fear knowing that she would face retaliation if she refused to comply’, believing Henry to be ‘a very powerful man’ at Fox and that he ‘physically forced her’ to perform oral sex on him in his office.

Henry’s new legal filing included quotes from their emails a month later.

On October 21, 2015, Eckhart emailed Henry that she had ‘wiped all the dirty pictures,’ which he said was a reference to a story at the time about suspect messages being wiped from Hillary Clinton’s email server.

He responded, ‘I’d like to wipe you with my tongue,’ and claimed that 20 minutes later she wrote back ‘I bet you would, dirty boy. Come n get it.’

Eckhart is not the only woman Henry was embroiled in a sex scandal with.

He was exposed in May 2016 for having an affair with Las Vegas stripper Natalie Lima and was suspended by Fox for several months while he had treatment for alleged sex addiction – returning in September that year.

He was eventually fired by the company in July 2020, following Eckhart’s New York federal lawsuit filed jointly with guest news analyst Cathy Areu – who claimed Henry also sexually harassed her with explicit text messages.

Federal Judge Gabriel Gorenstein later dismissed Areu’s claims.

In a filing in the case last month, Eckhart added new claims that Henry had engaged in an inappropriate ‘sexual relationship’ with another unnamed Fox colleague and had used a work electronic device in a ‘sexting incident’.

Eckhart’s attorneys filed a sworn statement from the anonymous current Fox staffer on Monday, saying she had a secret, consensual affair with Henry that began after he sent her an unsolicited picture of his penis, and that it went on from November 2016 until Spring 2020.

She called him ’emotionally abusive’, and described one incident in which during ‘a consensual sexual encounter’ he ‘slapped my face a little harder than I would have liked and I cried right away’.

‘Ed apologized when he realized that I was upset,’ the woman wrote. But maintained in her declaration that it their relationship was consensual.

Eckhart claimed that Fox knew about Henry’s alleged abuse and promoted him instead of disciplining him. The network says they only found out when she made her legal complaint on June 25, 2020.

‘I have maintained my innocence from day one and have consistently said the truth will win out, and here we are more than four years later,’ Henry told DailyMail.com in a statement on Monday.

‘I am elated by the fact that the judge has ordered evidence unmasked that proves my innocence against these false allegations.’

He claimed Eckhart’s story has ‘always been a lie, and with the judge now ordering the release of this exculpatory information, everyone can see the claims against me are false and motivated by clear and actual malice that led to me being defamed.’

A New Jersey congressman claimed Wednesday that the mystery drones over the Garden State are from Iran, and they’re being launched by a mothership parked off the East Coast.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, said the drones “very possibly could be” from Iran, citing confidential sources during an appearance on Fox News Wednesday morning.

“I’m going to tell you the real deal. Iran launched a mothership that contains these drones,” Van Drew said. “It’s off the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones.”

“These drones should be shot down,” he said, adding that “the military is on full alert with this.”

The Pentagon has later rebuked Van Drew’s claims, insisting there is “no evidence” the drones belong to a foreign adversary – but did not offer any explanation whatsoever as to what they actually are.

Van Drew has stood by his statements, however, sending a letter to President Biden imploring him to take action and laying out “circumstantial evidence” supporting his claims.

“We have information that a sea-based Iranian drone mothership is currently missing from port, and that its embarkation timeline would align with the appearance of the New Jersey Drones,” he wrote the president in a letter obtained by Agudath Israel of America news.

BREAKING REPORT – DRONES OVER NEW JERSEY ARE FROM IRAN: Congressman Jeff Van Drew claims Iran has stationed a “mothership” off the U.S. East Coast, reportedly launching drones now flying over New Jersey. pic.twitter.com/ayV8tYioXA

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 11, 2024

He added that Iran has previously sailed ships near the US, and that the country has a “sophisticated” partnership with China over drone technology.

“And of course, it is the policy of the Iranian government to bring about the destruction of the United States of America. While I remain open to alternate explanations, I have not been presented a single credible, cohesive narrative except for that Iran is controlling these drones,” Van Drew wrote.

Van Drew’s startling claim comes as officials have continually told Americans the drones pose no threat – even as the FBI has admitted they have no idea what they are or how to stop them.

The large drones have been spotted flitting across the night skies across Jersey for weeks, baffling residents with mysterious arrays of flashing lights and seemingly aimless movements.

Sometimes numerous objects have been spotted flying in formation, and they’ve begun appearing across parts of New York, too.

The first reported sightings started on November 18, and have continued every night since, according to New Jersey Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who partook in a legislature briefing with the State Police Wednesday.

Sightings have been reported from dawn through dusk, she said, with sometimes as many as 180 reports coming in per night. Last Sunday alone, there were 49 reported sightings, mostly in New Jersey.

And their technology appears to be particularly sophisticated. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy explained that every time officials begin trying to track them, the drones “go dark.”

Officials say the drones are about six feet in diameter, stay in the air for up to seven hours at a time, and can cover at least 15 miles.

“To state that there is no known or credible threat is incredibly misleading, and I informed all officials of that sentiment,” Fantasia wrote in a post on X.

Addressing them has also become a bureaucratic snafu, Fantasia noted, explaining that the State Police doesn’t have the jurisdiction to intercept them in the skies, that the FBI is leading the investigation with the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, and that the US Coast Guard seems to have the most authority to intervene.

Rep. Van Drew said intelligence indicates Iran recently made a deal with China “to purchase drones, motherships, and technology,” and that the mothership containing them arrived off the east coast “about a month ago.”

“We’ve got to get them down,” Van Drew said. “Right now, they’re probably extracting information. This is a clear and present danger to the United States and our president elect, and this is a serious business.”

One high ranking Jersey State Police source said everybody is “befuddled” – and that nobody knows “what the f–k is going on.”

“The lack of a coordinated response is troubling,” the source told The Post. “I have never had anything in my time where no one knows what’s going on. But no one seems that concerned but the people who do national intelligence, the FAA, FBI.”

Speculation about the objects’ origins has ranged from Chinese spy operations — to visitors from other planets — to top-secret experimental military tech operated by the US government itself.

US military officials have reportedly insisted the drones do not belong to them or any secret operations, which Gov. Murphy said “I want to believe, but…” during a briefing with state lawmakers Wednesday.

“If anyone really knows they are not telling us,” Murphy said, “They keep doubling down on ‘There’s no threat,’ but they can’t find them and track them.”

“But when people are saying that there is no credible threat, I believe they are saying they don’t know if there is one. That’s concerning.”

President Joe Biden is reportedly looking to remove one of the Islamic terrorist groups that overthrew the Syrian government last week from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

Biden is looking at removing Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which came from Al-Qaeda and is still close to the terror group, from the list after they overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Multiple current and former Biden administration officials told NBC News that Biden was looking to help the terrorist group “soon” by removing the designation, which would allow the group a way to get help from foreign governments.

Biden would also remove the $10 million bounty off the head of the terrorist group’s leader, Abu Muhammad Jawlani.

Former CENTCOM commander retired General Frank McKenzie said during an interview over the weekend that Jawlani “has a significant track record” of terrorism, and the notion that terrorists can change was ridiculous.

“Certainly he could advance new ideas coming in,” he said. “It’s been my experience, though, that typically they don’t.”

McKenzie warned that the collapse of the Syrian government — while bad news for Assad, Russia, Iran, and Lebanese Hezbollah — did not signal good news for the Syrian people.

“I’m not sure it’s ultimately going to be good news for the people of Syria,” he said. “You know, we could have an Islamic State arise there, which will have profound negative implications across the region. That is possible. There are other possibilities as well, and I think in the next 48, 72, 96 hours, this will begin to become clearer to us.”

The last time that the Biden administration removed an Islamic terrorist group from the terrorist list was during the initial days of his now-failed presidency when he removed the Houthis in Yemen from the list.

Just a couple of years later, the Houthis have engaged in widespread terrorism in the waters around the Arabian Peninsula, attacking merchant and naval vessels with missiles and drones.

Donald Trump is expected to be named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” — and to celebrate the unveiling of the cover, the president-elect will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning, according to three people familiar with the plans granted anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the plans.

Last year, pop superstar Taylor Swift was recognized. To mark the magazine cover reveal, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the opening bell.

Trump was also named Time Person of the Year in 2016 after he won the presidential election. He joins 13 other U.S. presidents who have received the recognition, including President Joe Biden.

A short list for Time Person of the Year was announced Monday on NBC’s “The Today Show” and included Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, Kate Middleton, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Time already announced NBA star Caitlin Clark as Athlete of the Year, Elton John as Icon of the Year and Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices as CEO of the Year.

A spokesperson for Time said the magazine “does not comment on its annual choice for Person of the Year prior to publication.

This year’s choice will be announced tomorrow morning, Dec. 12, on Time.com.”

The incoming president has long been fixated with being on the covers of magazines, especially Time.

The “Person of the Year” goes to a newsmaker who has had a significant impact on the year’s events, and in the past has included people ranging from Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II to Vladimir Putin and Joseph Stalin.

Trump in 2013 called the magazine’s annual list of influential people “a joke and stunt of a magazine that will, like Newsweek, soon be dead. Bad list!”

And in 2015, Trump complained that he was not chosen for the magazine cover that instead went to then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But he went on to call being named “Person of the Year” a “great honor.”

“It means a lot, especially me growing up reading Time magazine. And, you know, it’s a very important magazine,” Trump said.

Trump has been featured on the magazine cover three times this year.

Update:

Two law enforcement officials told CNN that fingerprints found at the scene of the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO outside a Midtown Manhattan Hilton hotel last week match those of 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione.

CNN reports:

“This marks the first positive forensic match tying Mangione directly to the scene where Brian Thompson was gunned down just over a week ago outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.”

This new development comes as suspected killer Mangione fights extradition to New York City.

He is currently held at the State Correctional Institution—Huntingdon, Pennsylvania—until proper paperwork by NY is filed.

Mangione’s extradition challenge has kicked off the process requiring a warrant issued by the New York governor’s office to allow him to be transported to the state, where he would then be arraigned at the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan.

Mangione’s lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told CNN earlier: “I haven’t seen any evidence that they have the right guy.”

Ahead of the extradition proceeding at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Mangione yelled to reporters: “It is completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”

Watch;

#LuigiMangione on his way to his extradition hearing shouts:
“This is completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people” pic.twitter.com/HXW7G9j1tG

— Blades&Bars (@BladesNBars) December 10, 2024

NYC prosecutors charged Mangione with murder late Monday night. NY’s criminal complaint against Mangione has yet to be made public.

Original:

The attorney hired to represent the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO said that he’s seen no evidence showing his client is guilty.

“I haven’t seen any evidence that says that he’s the shooter,” Thomas Dickey told reporters in Pennsylvania on Dec. 10, after a hearing in which his client Luigi Mangione was denied bail.

Law enforcement officials say Mangione is the individual who approached UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk earlier this month and fatally shot him in the back.

Dickey said Mangione plans to plead not guilty and urged people to remember that in the American justice system, defendants are innocent until proven guilty.

“The burden is always on the government, thank God, and that’s their burden, and they’re going to have to produce some evidence, and we’re anxious to see it,” said the lawyer, who announced during the hearing that he was fighting government attempts to extradite Mangione to face charges.

The challenge prolongs what can be a relatively quick process when defendants waive their right to fight extradition. The U.S. Constitution’s Extradition Clause provides that, upon the demand of the governor of the state from which a fugitive fled, the fugitive be delivered to that state.

Luigi Mangione’s lawyer denies his involvement in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson https://t.co/xaiJqPfgTw pic.twitter.com/7KPlqbQrsi

— New York Post (@nypost) December 11, 2024

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she was grateful for law enforcement arresting Mangione. She said that she would be signing a governor’s warrant “to ensure this individual is tried and held accountable.”

The judge in the hearing gave Mangione 14 days to file a petition formally challenging the extradition. The judge gave prosecutors 30 days to obtain the New York governor’s warrant.

“We’re going to do what’s necessary to get the governor’s warrant and we’re working with the New York City Police Department and the Manhattan DA’s office and we’re going to get the defendant out there so they can prosecute him on their charges,” Blair County District Attorney Pete Weeks told reporters in a briefing after the hearing.

“So, waiving accelerates that process. Contesting it just provides more hoops for law enforcement and prosecutors to jump through but we’re happy to do that.”

Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona after a customer alerted police. Officers found Mangione with multiple fake IDs, a firearm, and a silencer, according to police.

Mangione suffered a back injury, according to friends and others, and underwent back surgery. Joseph Kenney, an NYPD official, said on Fox News that some of the writings that police allegedly found on the defendant were “discussing the difficulty of sustaining that injury.” Police were still looking into a possible nexus with insurance.

Dickey, Mangione’s lawyer, declined to talk about his client’s injury.

Mangione on his way into the hearing shouted, “It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the American people and their lived experience.”

“He seems outspoken,” Dickey said. As a defendant, it’s natural to experience a range of emotions, the lawyer said. Dickey said he wants to do all of the talking moving forward. “Hopefully there won’t be any more of that,” he said, regarding the shouting.

Dickey has met with his client. When asked by reporters about his first impressions of his client, Dickey said, “I wasn’t looking for impressions. What I was trying to do was form a bond with my client, I want him to trust me, and I want him to be confident that I’m here for him, and I feel that I’m very pleased with how that went.”

The lawyer said he was hired. He would not say who hired him.

Mangione grew up in Maryland, and his family owns a country club there. A cousin, Nino Mangione, is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Relatives declined requests for interviews.

“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione. We only know what we have read in the media,“ the family said in a previous statement. ”Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson, and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news.”

New York City Marine veteran Daniel Penny sat down with Judge Jeanine Pirro for a powerful first interview since jurors found him not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely.

“He was just threatening to kill people,” Penny said in a preview clip that aired on “The Five” Tuesday. “He was threatening to go to jail forever, go to jail for the rest of his life, and now I’m on the ground with him. I’m on my back in a very vulnerable position…If I’d just let him go, now I’m on my back and he can just turn around and start doing what he said – to me…killing, hurting.”

Penny was arrested in May 2023 nearly two weeks after he was questioned and released following a deadly encounter with Neely, who was high on drugs and threatening to kill people on a Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student grabbed him in a headlock from behind.

Penny described himself as a non-confrontational person. He said all the attention he’s received since the incident – strong praise from some, demonization from others – makes him uncomfortable.

“I didn’t want any attention or praise, and I still don’t,” he said. “The guilt I would’ve felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself. And I’ll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt, or killed.”

But when Neely started threatening to kill people, Penny said, he believed the madman could do it.

“There’s outbursts on the train all the time, unfortunately in New York City there’s always people coming on and saying, talking crazy, and this was unlike anything that I’ve ever experienced, and it was very serious,” he said. “I completely believed what he was saying.”

Penny also took issue with the policies of officials like Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who spearheaded the failed case against him, as politically motivated and beholden to policies that “have clearly not worked.”

“[Policies] that the people, the general population, are not in support of, yet their egos are too big just to admit that they’re wrong,” he said.

Neely had an active arrest warrant and lengthy criminal history at the time of his death. He had schizophrenia and a drug abuse problem. Three days before his encounter with Penny, a subway rider had been stabbed on another train with an ice pick, according to prior reporting. A PBS reporter had been sucker punched on another train, and more than 20 people had been shoved off of subway platforms in the year leading up to Penny’s arrest.

It was a climate of fear that put straphangers on high alert. Penny even referenced those other cases in a voluntary interview he gave to police after remaining on scene.

“He was talking gibberish…but these guys are pushing people in front of trains and stuff,” he told detectives. They released him without charges, but Bragg’s office secured an indictment 11 days later.

Witness Ivette Rosario, a 19-year-old student, testified that Neely shouted someone would “die that day.”

“I got scared by the tone that he was saying it,” she said. “I have seen situations, but not like that.”

Neely was free to threaten subway riders on the day of his death, and it was Penny that Bragg tried to send to prison.

Witnesses testified that Neely’s threats scared them more than a typical subway outburst would. They were thankful for Penny’s intervention.

Penny, a Marine veteran who received a humanitarian award for helping hurricane victims, is a Long Island native who friends described as calm and empathetic during trial testimony. He played lacrosse and was in his school’s orchestra as a teen and worked two jobs while studying architecture at the New York City College of Technology following his honorable discharge.

The full interview will stream Wednesday on FOX Nation.

The lights on Caitlin Clark have always shined bright, and the woman with the wide world of women’s basketball on her shoulders has never shied away. Not from the attention, not from the scrutiny, not from her deep-seated belief that she, too, walks on the shoulders of giants.

And, for this, she’s always drawn ire.

In interviews for her Time Magazine Athlete of the Year cover story, Clark spoke at length about the racial underpinnings behind her explosion to fame in a sport and league that, historically, has been dominated by Black women.

And Megyn Kelly was disgusted.

“Look at this,” the media personality wrote in a post to X Tuesday. “[Clark]’s on the knee all but apologizing for being white and getting attention. The self-flagellation. The ‘oh [please] pay attention to the black players who are REALY (sic) the ones you want to celebrate.’ Condescending. Fake. Transparent. Sad.”

Clark, in her interview, told Time, “I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been Black players. This league has kind of been built on them.

“The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that.

“The more we can elevate Black women,” Clark concluded, “that’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

In numerous media appearances, Clark has cited the Black players who built the game: Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Dawn Staley and Maya Moore.

Their legacies can’t be disputed, but their influences pale in comparison to Clark’s.

The narrative that women’s basketball is “having a moment” has become as ubiquitous as the record-setting. Record-setting on the court. In television ratings. At the box office. In sponsorship revenue. In merchandising sales. The list goes on.

And as that narrative has grown, so too has the racial one. The theme has — and always will — loom large over Clark’s story.

The moment when that narrative bloomed into the cultural consciousness came as the clock ticked down on the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball title game.

Angel Reese of the soon-to-be national champion LSU Tigers pointed to the joint of her finger, showcasing for Clark the spot where her championship ring would sit, and also doing a “you can’t see me” gesture.

The taunt changed Reese’s life. Clark’s, too.

The presumed rivalry between Reese and Clark has been a constant theme throughout the sport’s booming growth since.

“I don’t get that [perception] at all,” Clark said. “We’re not best friends, by any means, but we’re very respectful of one another. Yes, we have had tremendous battles. But when have I ever guarded her? And when has she guarded me?”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) says she was assaulted by a “pro-trans man” at the Capitol on Tuesday night.

She said she is wearing a new wrist brace and has iced her arm after the attack.

A statement from the Capitol Police said the incident was reported by Mace’s office just before 6 p.m. Eastern time and took place in the Rayburn House Office Building. Police arrested a 33-year-old from Illinois, Jamie McIntyre, on a charge of assaulting a government official.

“I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man,” Mace said in a post on X. “One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine. The Capitol police arrested the guy. Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down. FAFO.”

In another post, she added, “All the violence and threats keep proving our point. Women deserve to be safe. Your threats will not stop my fight for women.”

Mace has faced serious backlash for a bill she introduced in November that bans transgender women from using facilities on federal property that don’t correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.

She said that she’s also received death threats. Opponents of the bill say she’s unfairly targeting Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE), who is a transgender woman. “What Nancy Mace and what Speaker Johnson are doing are endangering all women and girls,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said last month.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) previously announced a ban within the House on any person not using the bathroom assigned to their sex at birth.

Mace has vowed not to back down from her bill. “Trying to destroy my career and threatening to kill me because I don’t want to be forced to undress in front of men,” she said before the assault. “Good effing luck! I will not back down nutjobs.”

The Justice Department spied on two House members and several congressional staffers in a leak investigation without telling the courts, the agency’s inspector general found in a sweeping investigation released Tuesday.

As a result, the department obtained phone records from the two members of Congress and 43 staff members including President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, who worked as a staffer on the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee at the time.

The department initiated the probe to investigate leaks to the media of FBI classified information as part of the now-discredited Trump-Russia probe which had recently been shared with Congress.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the Justice Department, in filings with the court, did not reference “the fact that they related to requests for records of Members of Congress or congressional staffers,” despite implicating constitutional separation of powers between two government branches.

You can read the report here.

Patel, who is poised to become the new director of the FBI if confirmed, previously sued former Trump Justice Department officials and FBI Director Christopher Wray, accusing them of violating his Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures when they tried to obtain Patel’s personal records, Just the News previously reported.

Patel said he was completely unaware of the subpoena until December 2022, when Google notified him about it.

Another former staffer, Jason Foster, previously told Just the News that he confirmed that the government successfully asked a federal court to hide its spying on Congress for five consecutive years.

Foster is now the head of the Empower Oversight whistleblower center. In 2017 at the time of the secret surveillance, he was the chief investigative counsel for Sen. Chuck Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The seizure of his personal data occurred in 2017 while he worked for the Senate, and ordinarily under the original court order, Foster would have been notified a year later. But because the DOJ sought court approval ex parte to keep its surveillance secret, he wasn’t alerted until earlier this fall, six years after the initial subpoena.

Grassley on Tuesday claimed that the investigation was an example of the Justice Department acting in “bad faith,” and urged the incoming Trump administration to fix the ongoing problem.

“It’s plain to see DOJ overstepped its authority here,” Grassley said in a statement.

“The Justice Department ought to learn from its mistakes and accept accountability, because Congress won’t accept any less. The incoming Trump administration must take steps to ensure these problems … are fixed.”

Donald Trump announced Tuesday he was appointing ex-Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle as his ambassador to Greece.

Guilfoyle, 55, studied international law and entered public life as a prosecutor in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but made her way into the Trump orbit as fiancee to the president-elect’s son Don Jr, 46.

‘Her extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified to represent the United States, and safeguard its interests abroad,’ Trump said in a Truth Social post.

‘Kimberly is perfectly suited to foster strong bilateral relations with Greece, advancing our interests on issues ranging from defense cooperation to trade and economic innovation.’

The announcement comes just hours after Daily Mail published photographs of Don Jr. hand-in-hand with the Palm Beach socialite, Bettina Anderson, showing the six-year relationship with Guilfoyle is clearly over.

While Don Jnr and Guilfoyle began dating in 2018, the Daily Mail first revealed their relationship was all but over in September after the 46-year-old was spotted kissing the socialite.

While Guilfoyle felt ‘blindsided’ by the revelation, she continued to be photographed with Don Jnr. during Trump’s election campaign. They have not been seen together since November 12, and Guilfoyle didn’t attend the Trump family’s Thanksgiving.

‘There were a ton of people vying for this. It is one of the hottest posts in the world,’ said a source familiar with the president-elect’s thinking.

‘Not just because it’s an amazing place place to live, but because it’s a hotbed of activity with everything that is happening in Syria, throughout the middle east, and the migrant crisis.’

The source added that Guilfoyle, aside from her relationship with Don Jr. had known Trump for 20 years, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaigns.

‘He wants her to represent him on the world stage,’ the source added.

‘She studied international law and will be amazing spokeswoman for Donald Trump.

‘She’ll be the Jackie O of the MAGA movement.’

Guilfoyle was assistant district attorney in San Francisco from 2000 to 2004.

But it was her marriage to Democratic politician Gavin Newsom that brought into the public eye, when she was first lady of San Francisco during his first two years as mayor of that city.

Insiders said that experience would help her cope with the demands of being Trump’s representative overseas.

Guilfoyle was an energetic campaigner for Trump and appeared on stage with the family at the election night party in West Palm Beach.

She addressed foreign policy during her convention speech in Milwaukee.

‘In our vision, America will combat foreign aggressors and ensure our service members are protected, not abandoned, as they carry out their dangerous missions abroad, because we know we can only have peace through strength,’ she said in July.

But the appointment comes as her fiancee Don Jr. has been repeatedly pictured with Bettina Anderson, 38, around Palm Beach, suggesting his six-year engagement in well an truly over.

The new couple’s latest date saw them attend exclusive hotspot Buccan for two hours to celebrate Anderson’s birthday.

The restaurant is just three miles from Bettina’s townhouse, where Don often stays.

They looked every bit a new couple, with Don Jr holding her Bettina’s hand as they left the venue just before 10pm.

Guilfoyle’s new role means she will likely be swapping life in Florida for Jefferson House, the American ambassador’s residence in the Greek capital Athens.

It comes with a swimming pool in the backyard and enough reception space to entertain hundreds of dignitaries.

It was named for Thomas Jefferson who held up Greek democracy as the most important influence on the founding of the American republic.

Rupert Murdoch has been defeated in a Succession-style legal battle against three of his own children, as he failed to cement a Right-wing slant across his media empire.

In a fresh legal ruling, a US court rejected the 93-year-old media mogul’s attempt to change the terms of the Murdoch family trust, which would have handed control of his newspaper and TV businesses to his eldest son, Lachlan, after his death.

In court papers seen by The New York Times, Nevada commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr ruled resoundingly against the Fox News owner, accusing him of acting in “bad faith” and manufacturing a “carefully crafted charade”.

The legal row stems from Mr Murdoch’s attempts to leave control of his media empire, including Fox News and The Times and Sunday Times, to his eldest son Lachlan, as he sought to lock in a Right-wing editorial slant on issues such as climate change.

However, to do this, he had to change the terms of his family trust, which splits control equally amongst his four eldest children, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence.

Lachlan, James and Elisabeth were at one point all considered as potential successors to Mr Murdoch, although the tycoon had in recent years settled on the former, who last year was appointed chairman of News Corp.

He is viewed as the most conservative of Mr Murdoch’s children, unlike Elisabeth and James who both have more liberal politics than their father.

News Corp controls newspapers in the US, UK and Australia, including The Times, The Sun and The Wall Street Journal.

In a 96-page judgment, Mr Gorman wrote that Mr Murdoch’s aim was to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles … regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust.

Mr Gorman said that Mr Murdoch and Lachlan’s representatives had “demonstrated a dishonesty of purpose and motive”.

He also singled out one recently appointed representative of the trust who he said had little knowledge of the family and had researched them primarily through watching “Succession”, a fictionalised TV show inspired by the Murdoch family.

Mr Gorman said the representative’s research consisted of “Google searches and watching YouTube videos about the Murdochs (or the fictional family in the show ‘Succession’).”

Mr Gorman said Mr Murdoch’s attempt to change the trust was “an attempt to stack the deck in Lachlan Murdoch’s favour after Rupert Murdoch’s passing so that his succession would be immutable”.

He added: “The play might have worked; but an evidentiary hearing, like a showdown in a game of poker, is where gamesmanship collides with the facts and at its conclusion, all the bluffs are called and the cards lie face up.”

The ruling comes after days of in-person testimony in the US in September, during which Mr Murdoch and his four eldest children were all present at the hearing.

The commissioner’s ruling will not be the final decision on the case, which will fall to a district judge. They will then decide whether to ratify or reject his recommendation.

If the district judge agrees with the commissioner, Mr Murdoch and Lachlan will still have an opportunity to challenge the decision.

It is also possible that they could turn to other avenues, such as Lachlan attempting to buy out his siblings’ stakes in the News Corp business.

Mr Murdoch’s attempt to change the trust would not reduce his children’s financial interests, but would instead determine who has control over one of the most powerful media organisations in the world.

Adam Streisand, a lawyer for Mr Murdoch, said that they intended to appeal the ruling.