Former FBI Director James Comey is expected to meet face to face with U.S. Secret Service officials in Washington, D.C. for an interview about his ’86 47′ post, two sources briefed on the meeting told Fox News.

Comey is under investigation for an Instagram post showing seashells arranged on a beach to read ’86 47.’

‘Cool shell formation on my beach walk,’ he wrote in the since-deleted post. Some have interpreted the post to mean ’86’ – get rid of –  ’47’ – Donald Trump, the 47th president.  

The U.S. Secret Service is leading the investigation at this point, but the FBI and Department of Justice could take a larger role if necessary, Fox News is told.

While the United Nations, through its UN80 Task Force, continues a public-facing attempt to slash its budget to manage a decline in external contributions and in recognition of overlapping mandates and duplicated efforts, a U.N. diplomatic source tells Fox News Digital that the effort is an attempt ‘to keep a mammoth organization untouched’ until 2026 midterm elections.

The source explained that the ‘zero-growth budget’ proposed for 2026 has already been prepared, and that ‘talk about how we’re going to get it leaner’ is only intended to ‘take [President] Trump for a sucker.’ The source said that the U.N. believes that the budget will tide the U.N. over until the House flips to Democratic control and Trump will no longer be able to ‘inflict damages to the U.N.’

The source claimed the effort is the ‘brain child’ of the U.N. Foundation, something the group refuted.

‘We have never proposed linking U.N. budgetary deliberations to the U.S. mid-term elections,’ a spokesperson from the U.N. Foundation told Fox News Digital.

‘The U.N. Foundation is an independent organization, separate from the U.N. itself. We are not involved in the U.N.’s budget process, which is decided by the U.N. General Assembly. We also share a widely held view that there is scope for efficiencies and innovations to strengthen delivery of the U.N.’s lifesaving work,’ the spokesperson added.

Fox News Digital viewed internal documents which show efforts by various U.N. entities to direct cost-cutting measures. The source says some show the disingenuous nature of the effort. 

A UN80 memo from the U.N. Resident Coordinators in Africa from April 2025 discusses how previous reforms have failed. It explains that they ‘did not fully address incentives for collaboration,’ which left U.N. entities to ‘too often prioritize their corporate obligations over system-wide coherence.’ Coordination, the memo reads, ‘is too easily viewed as additional work rather than a core responsibility,’ and ‘funding competition further compounds these issues.’

While the memo identifies two options for reorganization, it notes that ‘implementing such ambitious structural reforms, especially Option 1, will require a medium-term phased approach over a 5-10 year horizon,’ and notes that Option 2 ‘is not likely to be viable if no structural changes are made to [headquarters] level entities.’ 

The U.N. source says the memo ‘shows…the inability of the U.N. to reform itself.’ 

Another memo from the office of the Secretary-General sent on April 25 directs Secretariat entities to perform a ‘functional review for cost reductions and efficiencies.’ Among the directions provided is that personnel ‘identify which functions could be relocated,’ including ‘at a minimum the functions, organizational units, post numbers, and grade levels proposed for relocation.’ 

Numbers were to be sent to the Office of the Controller by May 16, noting that the ‘tight deadline’ is in line with the ‘very limited timeframe’ the U.N. has ‘to prepare and submit the revised estimates through [the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ)]’ so they might be considered ‘within the overall context of the proposed programme budget for 2026.’

Fox News Digital’s source called foul on the earnestness of the endeavor. ‘This Secretary-General has to deal with bodies that, even though they are called the United Nations, they do not depend on him,’ they explained. ‘The document does not represent any value legally, because none of their boards have committed nor listened or reviewed’ the order. 

Fox News Digital asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric whether Guterres could expect organizations with independent boards to enforce changes like those addressed in his memo. ‘We do not take such a pessimistic view. The Secretary-General and the heads of the U.N. Funds and Programmes will act in areas under their authority while, of course, keeping the governing bodies informed,’ Dujarric said.

Before the deadline for responses came due, Guterres delivered a May 12 briefing admitting that the proposal for the 2026 budget ‘was already given to ACABQ some time ago and it will be impossible to change it at the present moment.’ While Guterres said he would present revised proposals in September in time for budget approvals, he explained that ‘changes that require more detailed analysis will be presented in the proposal’ for the 2027 budget.

Fox News Digital’s source says the admission is proof that ‘this whole attempt is a lie to appease the Americans so they don’t go harsh enough and cut anything right now.’ 

On May 13, Guterres addressed a letter to all U.N. staff about the need for ‘bold, transformative thinking’ and extensive reforms to bring the U.N. out of its liquidity crisis. While expressing gratitude for employees’ ‘extraordinary dedication, expertise and creativity’ he warned ‘that ‘leaks’ and rumours may create unnecessary anxiety,’ Guterres said that ‘it will be inevitable that we cannot leave all posts untouched.’

After over three decades of working for the U.N., the source says they have ‘seen the U.N. attempt to change itself at least five times.’ Instead, they said that the U.N. only got ‘a larger footprint.’ They explained that other insiders ‘are fed up that the organization is not changing.’

‘You have…a super state that basically controls itself,’ the source explained. ‘And you should also trust them to reorganize themselves?’ they asked.

Whether the U.N. could hold out for promised change is unknown. The Economist reported in May that due to nonpayment of fees, the U.N. may run out of funds to pay its suppliers and employees by the General Assembly in September.

Former President Joe Biden, in newly leaked audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur, admitted he likely kept a classified document related to Afghanistan after he left the vice presidency for ‘posterity’s sake.’ 

Biden first said he didn’t recall why he had the document when asked about it by Hur, who told him it was found in the library of his lake house. 

‘I don’t know that I knew,’ that he had the document, Biden answered, ‘but it wasn’t something I would have stopped to think about.’ 

Hur noted that Bob Woodward and Jules Witcover both wrote about the document in their books about him, asking if he wanted to hang onto it because it might be the subject of reporting or ‘history.’

‘I guess I wanted to hang on to it for posterity’s sake. I mean, this was my position on Afghanistan. I’ve been of the view from a historical standpoint that there are certain points in history, world history, where fundamental things change using technology,’ he said. 

‘So, there are a lot of things that I think are fundamentally changing how international societies function, and they relate a lot to technology.’ 

After the 80-year-old continued on that subject for a while, Hur interrupted him to get back to the topic of the document. 

‘No, I’m sorry, that’s why I wanted it,’ Biden answered. ‘It had nothing to with Afghanistan.’ 

One of the former president’s lawyers then interrupted Hur to say, ‘For the purposes of a clean record,’ he wanted to avoid ‘getting into speculative areas,’ mentioning that Biden at first answered the question about the document by saying he didn’t recall why he had it. 

At that point, Hur answered, ‘I think we should take a break.’ 

In other sections of the audio, Biden seems confused, asking what year his son, Beau Biden, died, and what year he left the vice presidency.

The audio, related to an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents while vice president, came out after more than a year of congressional lawmakers demanding its release amid questions about the former president’s memory lapses and mental acuity. 

The House Judiciary Committee sued Attorney General Merrick Garland in July for the audio recordings, stressing the importance of the ‘verbal and nonverbal context’ of Biden’s answers that could be provided by the audio recordings, especially considering Hur opted against charging Biden after the interview, partly because Biden was viewed as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

The committee argued at the time that the audio recordings, not merely the transcripts of them, are ‘the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview.’ 

That lawsuit was filed before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in July after he struggled in a June debate with Trump. 

Biden had exerted executive privilege over the audio recordings while president. 

Hur, who released his report to the public in February 2024 after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents, and he said he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy that Hur said implicated ‘sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to Biden for comment. 

Leaked audio from former President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur showed the president struggling with key memories, including when his son Beau died and when he left the vice presidency. 

The audio, obtained by Axios, was a clip from several interviews between the former president and Hur related to an investigation into his handling of classified documents. 

GOP House Oversight Committee Chairman and other Republicans are raising concerns about former President Joe Biden’s cognitive functions were well enough to authorize aides to use an autopen tool to sign important documents on his behalf.

On Friday evening, Axios released exclusive audio footage of Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, which reveals clues about Biden’s cognitive functioning while president that the interview’s transcript did not elucidate. Biden can be heard slurring his words, muttering and taking long pauses. Meanwhile, Biden also failed to recall the date of his son Beau’s death or the year Trump was first elected.  

‘It questions who was actually making the decisions,’ Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said Friday night on Fox News Channel’s ‘Hannity.’

 ‘Clearly, from that interview, which was many, many months prior to the heavy use of the autopen, Joe Biden wasn’t capable of making decisions. He wasn’t coherent.’

Earlier Friday, Comer announced a new investigation trying to uncover who gave the orders to use the autopen. According to Comer, among other important things, the autopen tool was used to grant presidential pardons to Biden’s family members.  

‘It does call into question these pardons – the use of autopen, and I think it may actually open the door – I’m not a lawyer – but I’d imagine Trump or his administration may try to make some arguments to federal courts about actions Joe Biden took because now we’ve got more information coming out, and they’re reasonably going to determine, ‘Yeah Joe Biden couldn’t remember anything. He didn’t even know when his son died, or when Trump got elected or when he left office,’ political commentator Tim Pool added.

‘Who was controlling the autopen? Who was pulling the strings? Who were the unelected bureaucrats making decisions that negatively impacted our country?’ asked former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advisor Link Lauren. ‘I want names.’

Donald Trump has said he does not use autopen to sign legally binding documents like pardons. In March, a White House official confirmed it was the administration’s policy to use Trump’s hand signature on any legally binding documents.

When asked by special counsel Robert Hur’s co-counsel, Marc Krickbaum, in 2023 about a handwritten memo on Afghanistan during the Obama administration, President Joe Biden said he didn’t ‘remember’ telling Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter of his book, ‘Promise Me, Dad,’ he ‘just found all the classified stuff downstairs.’

In a new audio file released by Axios Friday, Biden said ‘I don’t remember’ numerous times as Krickbaum questioned him on the second day of interviews in October 2023 about having classified documents he should not have had after leaving office.

‘You said to Mark, ‘I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,’ and, so, you can imagine we are curious what you meant when you said, ‘I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,’’ Krickbaum said.

‘I don’t remember,’ Biden replied. ‘And I’m not supposed to speculate, right?’

‘Correct,’ Biden’s attorney, Bob Bauer, chimed in.

‘So, OK, well, I don’t remember, and it may have been — I just don’t remember,’ the former president mumbled.

After explaining that he was referring to a conversation with Zwonitzer about a handwritten memo he wrote for former President Barack Obama, Biden replied, ‘I probably did. I don’t remember specifically, but my guess is I may have done that.’

Then, leading to the ‘classified stuff downstairs’ comment, Zwonitzer asked Biden if he had found any documents in his home or if he told Zwonitzer about finding any while they worked together on the book in 2017.

Stumbling over his words, Biden replied, ‘No, the only thing I can remember is I wanted to be clear to him that I didn’t want what he just heard me say about the memo to Barack, even though it wasn’t a top secret thing (indiscernible), I didn’t, I didn’t want any of that mentioned. It was confidential.’

He clarified he didn’t mean confidential in the classification sense, but that he did not want it included in the book about his son, Beau.

They discussed boxes in the library, hallway and the ‘back of the garage,’ with Biden noting he did not know ‘where in the hell’ all of it was going, but that was the extent of his knowledge of what they contained.

‘Not like I’m looking for something, like I’m trying to compile things. But just what’d they pack up, what’s here,’ Biden said.

While the White House released the transcripts during his presidency, the audio of the interviews remained under wraps, with some speculating about his mental state as the reason.

Hur’s investigation, which concluded in 2024, found Biden should not be criminally charged for mishandling and retaining classified documents that detailed military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other national security topics.

After Hur described the former president as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,’ Biden fired back, saying, ‘I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.’

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson contributed to this report.

Former President Joe Biden early last year dismissed Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report that sparked additional concern about his mental acuity, just months after he was interviewed about his mishandling of classified documents.

Axios on Friday released audio from Biden’s October 2023 interviews with Hur. In the recordings, Biden seemed to struggle to remember when his son Beau died, when he left office as vice president, what year President Donald Trump was elected to his first term, or why he had classified documents that should not have been in his possession.

The recordings not only showed Biden’s memory lapses, but also slurring his words and muttering when speaking to Hur. Transcripts of the interviews — conducted on Oct. 8 and 9 of 2023 — were released on March 12, 2024.

In February 2024, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy was the first to question Biden about Hur’s report on his mental fitness.

‘Something the special counsel said in his report is that one of the reasons you were not charged is because, in his description, you are a ‘well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Doocy said to Biden at a press conference on Feb. 8, 2024.

Biden responded: ‘I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation—’

Doocy then asked Biden how bad his memory was and if he could continue as president.

‘My memory is so bad I let you speak,’ Biden told him.

Hur, who was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents, said he declined to bring charges against him, in part, because a jury would find him to be a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,’ despite the acknowledgment that the documents were ‘willfully’ obtained by Biden during his time as vice president and as a senator.

The special counsel’s report, in addition to gaffes seen during Biden’s public appearances, amplified pressure from Republicans who said he lacked the mental fitness needed to serve as president.

Democrats and Biden’s White House initially criticized Hur for his report, repeatedly insisting he was ‘sharp’ and that the special counsel was politically motivated.

Later in 2024, amid Biden’s re-election campaign, Democrats called on him to drop his candidacy over his performance in the June presidential debate against Trump, citing his age and mental acuity. Biden, now 82, ended his presidential campaign in July but finished his term, and his vice president, Kamala Harris, was defeated by Trump in November’s general election.

Though new audio recordings released by Axios paint a picture of an elderly man suffering memory loss, rare exchanges showed glimpses into former President Joe Biden’s earlier days, and shed light on what could have led to Hur’s ‘sympathetic’ characterization and findings related to the investigation.

Biden reminisced during his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur about a 2011 visit to Mangolia where he claimed to have ’embarrassed the hell out of the leader of Mongolia.’

‘I went to Mongolia and, and great pictures,’ Biden said. ‘They were showing — they were doing a what they would do at the time of the invasion of the Mongols into Europe in the 14 — in the 800s. And they — and then show what a normal day was, or how they, how they bivouac.’

He described being ‘out in the middle of nowhere’ and looking up on a hill, seeing a tiny line of a 20-mile horse race between kids under the age of 16 on bareback.

‘And you know, there are sumo wrestlers doin’ everything they do,’ Biden said lightheartedly.

He said the leaders walked over to a target with bales of hay a hundred yards away, where locals were practicing their aim.

‘I think — I don’t know if it was to embarrass me or to make a point, but I get handed the bow and arrow,’ Biden said. ‘I’m not a bad archer. But (indiscernible) where I can pull it back, so I — and pure luck, I hit the goddamn target.’

The people in the interview room burst into laughter, to which Biden assured them, ‘No, I really did.’

He went on to describe the scene — ’20 bales of hay with a big target in the middle of the bale of hay.’

‘And so I didn’t mean anything by it, I turned to the prime minister and handed it to him and the poor son-of-a-bitch couldn’t pull it back,’ Biden said.

The room roared with laughter once again.

‘I was like, ‘oh, God,’’ Biden said through the cackling.

Hur ultimately decided the former president should not be charged criminally for having classified Obama-era documents after leaving office, describing him as a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’