A new ProPublica report accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business, raising espionage concerns from national security experts. 

The report cited current and former employees and government contractors who worked on a cloud computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016 that would allow the tech giant to sell its cloud services to the government, known as a ‘digital escort’ framework. 

The security measure, meant to meet federal contracting regulations, was effectively a program that included a ‘digital escort’ chaperone for global cybersecurity officials, such as those based in China, so they can work on agency computing systems. 

Defense Department guidelines require that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

According to sources who spoke to ProPublica, including some who had intimate familiarity with the hiring process for the $18-per-hour ‘digital escort’ position, the tech employees being hired to do the supervising lacked the adequate tech expertise to prevent a rogue Chinese employee from hacking the system or turning over classified information to the CCP. 

The sources elaborated that the escorts, often former military personnel, were hired for their security clearances more than their technical abilities and often lacked the skills to evaluate code being used by the engineers they were supervising.

In China, people are governed by sweeping laws compelling government cooperation with data collection efforts.  

‘If ProPublica’s report turns out to be true, Microsoft has created a national embarrassment that endangers our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Heads should roll, those responsible should go to prison and Congress should hold extensive investigations to uncover the full extent of potential compromise,’ said Michael Lucci, the CEO and founder of State Armor Action, a conservative group with a mission to develop and enact state-level solutions to global security threats. 

‘Microsoft or any vendor providing China with access to Pentagon secrets verges on treasonous behavior and should be treated as such.’

‘This is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse and arming the chickens with sticks in case the fox gets mad,’ Michael Sobolik, a Hudson Institute foreign policy senior fellow, added. ‘It beggars belief.’

Microsoft uses its escort system to handle sensitive government information that falls below ‘classified,’ which includes ‘data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin,’ ProPublica reported. At the Defense Department, the data is categorized as ‘Impact Level’ four and five, which ProPublica reported includes materials directly supporting military operations.

A Microsoft spokesperson defended the company’s ‘digital escort’ model, saying all personnel and contractors with privileged access must pass federally approved background checks. 

‘For some technical requests, Microsoft engages our team of global subject matter experts to provide support through authorized U.S. personnel, consistent with U.S. government requirements and processes,’ the spokesperson added. ‘In these instances, global support personnel have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.’

The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) public information office was initially unaware of the program when ProPublica began asking questions about it, but it eventually followed up to point out that ‘digital escorts’ are used ‘in select unclassified environments’ at the Defense Department for ‘advanced problem diagnosis and resolution from industry subject matter experts.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the DISA and DOD but did not immediately receive a response.

In 2023, Chinese hackers infiltrated Microsoft’s cloud servers and stole data belonging to senior U.S. government officials, including data and emails from the commerce secretary, the U.S. ambassador to China and others involved in national security work. Hackers were able to access tens of thousands of emails from the Defense Department. 

A postmortem from the federal Cyber Safety Review Board, which has since been disbanded, cited Microsoft security failures that allowed hackers to infiltrate the cloud. However, the after-incident report did not include any links to the ‘digital escort’ program, according to ProPublica.

Microsoft said in response to the recent ProPublica report that it considers ‘anyone’ with access to sensitive government systems, no matter their location or role, a potential risk.

‘We establish layers of mitigation at the platform level with security and monitoring controls to detect and prevent threats. This includes approval workflows for system changes and automated code reviews to quickly detect and prevent the introduction of vulnerabilities,’ a company spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

The spokesperson added that Microsoft adheres to the federal security requirements outlined by the Defense Department and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which was established in 2011 to address the risks associated with moving from entirely government-controlled servers, to cloud-based computing.  

‘This production system support model is approved and regularly audited by the U.S. government,’ the spokesperson concluded.

Still, if the ProPublica allegations are true, Lucci says the federal government should cease its work with Microsoft.

‘If these [ProPublica] allegations are credible, the federal government should never again rely on Microsoft to protect the data that keeps our men and women in uniform safe, especially given Microsoft’s extensive record of being compromised by the CCP,’ Lucci said Monday. ‘Our military cannot operate in security and secrecy if a vendor repeatedly and intentionally invites the enemy into the camp.’

Senate Republicans again coalesced behind President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar spending clawback package and propelled the legislation through its final procedural hurdle, again with the aid of Vice President JD Vance. 

Lawmakers will now go back and forth through 10 hours of debate on the bill, where Senate Democrats are expected to bleed time and slam the legislation for its cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting funding.

Trump’s smaller, $9 billion package passed with nearly all Senate Republicans, while all Senate Democrats voted against it. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were the only Republicans to vote against the bill. 

Once debate has wrapped up on the bill, lawmakers will go through another vote-a-rama, where an unlimited number of amendments can be offered for the bill by either side of the aisle. Democrats will likely try to sideline or derail the package, while the GOP is expected to offer an amendment that would spare about $400 million in international HIV and AIDS funding from the chopping block.

The carveout for the Bush-era President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was agreed to ahead of the vote and is backed by the White House. Trimming funding from the program rattled some Senate Republicans, who publicly and privately warned they may not support the bill unless a fix was found.

However, slashing the funding cut from the package could prove a tricky sell to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called on Senate Republicans to not change the bill.

He’s been joined by fiscal hawks in the House Freedom Caucus, too, who have demanded that the Senate GOP stay the course on the rescissions package and warned that they would have serious issues if changes were made, stopping short of declaring a full-on rebellion against the bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., hoped that his colleagues in the lower chamber would play ball and pass the bill ahead of a looming Friday deadline.

‘There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue,’ he said ahead of the vote. ‘So, that’s reflected in the substitute, and we hope that if we can get this across the finish line in the Senate that the House will accept that one small modification.’

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on Tuesday called on Israeli authorities to ‘aggressively investigate’ the killing of Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American who was reportedly beaten to death by a gang of extremist settlers in the West Bank village of Sinjil on Friday.

‘We have asked Israel to aggressively investigate the murder of Saif Mussallet, an American citizen who was visiting family in Sinjil when he was beaten to death in the West Bank,’ Huckabee wrote on X. ‘There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was only 20 years old.’

According to the family, Musallet was visiting the West Bank from Tampa, Florida, to reconnect with relatives and visit family-owned farmland. 

‘This is an unimaginable nightmare and injustice that no family should ever have to face,’ the family said in a statement. ‘We demand the U.S. State Department lead an immediate investigation and hold the Israeli settlers who killed Saif accountable for their crimes.’

Israeli military officials said the confrontation began when Palestinians threw rocks at settlers, lightly injuring two. IDF forces were deployed to the area and used non-lethal crowd control methods, the army said.

So far, no Israeli suspects have been arrested in connection with the killings. Two Israeli minors detained on Friday night for suspected involvement in public disturbances were later released to house arrest. A reserve soldier questioned by the military police over the shooting during the incident was also released.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Musallet was fatally beaten during an attack by settlers in the area. Another man, 23-year-old Mohammed al-Shalabi, was shot in the chest and also killed during the same incident. 

Sources in the Israeli police told Haaretz newspaper that the lack of an autopsy and the fact that the bodies were not transferred to Israeli authorities may complicate the investigation.

A military court also released Abdullah Hamida, a Palestinian resident arrested during the settler raid, criticizing police conduct. During the hearing, the police representative admitted he was unaware that any Palestinians had been killed, and incorrectly claimed the only wounded were settlers.

The State Department acknowledged awareness of the incident but declined further comment, Reuters reports, citing ‘respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones.’

President Donald Trump’s clawback of billions in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting narrowly passed through its first hurdle in the Senate, but it still faces a rocky road ahead with dissent among the Senate GOP ranks.

Senate GOP leaders hoped that an agreement to carve out $400 million in global HIV and AIDS prevention funding will get some of the holdouts on board. However, doing so shrank the expected cuts from $9.4 billion to $9 billion.

But a trio of Senate Republicans joined with all Senate Democrats to vote against advancing the bill from the Senate Appropriations Committee, which required Vice President JD Vance to cast the deciding vote. 

Trump’s rescissions package would yank bank congressionally approved funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting. But some Senate Republicans have sounded the alarm and want changes made to the bill before it reaches the finish line.

The bill that advanced out of committee Tuesday includes just shy of $8 billion in cuts from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS.

Republicans’ successful test vote comes after huddling with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who worked to shore up support and apply pressure from the White House to get the ball rolling on the bill.

‘We’re fine with adjustments,’ Vought said. ‘This is still a great package, $9 billion, [it’s] substantially the same package, and the Senate has to work its will.’

While concerns were still raised about other aspects of the spending cuts package during the closed-door meeting, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., believed that carving out the cuts to Bush-era President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) helped ease concerns among lawmakers.

But the changes didn’t sway all Senate Republicans. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, bluntly said ‘no’ when asked if the PEPFAR carveout helped gain her support and argued, ‘I’d like to do some legislating.’ 

‘What a crazy thing, what a crazy thing,’ she said. ‘What have we been doing around here? We did a reconciliation bill. We’re doing a rescissions bill. We’re doing nominations. Nominations are important, but let’s, like, legislate.’

And Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she liked the changes but ultimately decided to vote against advancing the bill through its first hurdle.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also joined in to vote against the bill. Fox News Digital reached out to his office for a statement on his decision to vote against the package. 

It now moves to yet another procedural vote, which, if successful, will open up 10 hours of total debate time on the bill and eventually set the stage for a vote-a-rama, where lawmakers on either side of the aisle can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the package.

But, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made clear that he would prefer the Senate not make any changes to the bill.

However, that request already fell on deaf ears — as it did during the budget reconciliation process that unfolded in the upper chamber last month.

Those demands already have fiscal hawks in the House grumbling, but like the budget reconciliation process before it, an amended rescissions package will likely glide through the House GOP and onto Trump’s desk. 

When senior State Department officials set out to trim the agency in the ‘biggest reorganization since the Cold War,’ they couldn’t get a total headcount on employees — for months, they say.

‘It took us three months to get a list of the people that actually work in the building,’ one senior State Department official told reporters during a briefing at Foggy Bottom on Monday, defending the job cuts that detractors have claimed will damage U.S. diplomacy. 

‘They couldn’t tell you how many people worked here,’ the official said. ‘It’s sort of scary as a taxpayer and as a public servant to think that we don’t even know how many employees we have. This is a national security agency, you know. Who are these people?’

The reorganization will result in a department with about 3,000 fewer employees. Around half of those took a voluntary buyout, and the other half were given reduction in force (RIF) notices.

A handful of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s closest advisors evaluated over 700 domestic offices within the State Department, submitting RIF (reduction in force) notices to employees in those they found to be ‘duplicative’ or ‘inefficient.’ 

The idea, officials said, was to put a ‘maximum of 12 clearances on any piece of paper,’ meaning documents would go through 12 layers of approval instead ’40, 50 clearances.’

The department had dozens of different offices handling human resources, and when a new employee was hired, they were accepting faxed records on their past work with other agencies. 

‘It’s crazy that a department that’s tasked with so many critical diplomatic, national security functions, with a $50 billion plus budget is running its affairs that way,’ an official said. 

The investigation found three separate offices dealing with sanctions, two handling arms control issues. 

‘Some of these regional offices within this sort of functional civil liberties, civil society, bureaus of democracy, human rights and labor, population, refugees and migration each had their own regional offices in addition to the country desk, regional bureau, construct,’ the official said. ‘Every independent bureau and office had its own executive director, its own HR department, its own payments.We were making payments out of like 60 plus different offices.’

Rubio’s team maintains the reductions focus on nonessential bureaucratic layers while preserving frontline diplomacy. A Supreme Court decision in late June reopened the door for mass federal layoffs after a lower court had blocked the cuts. Legal challenges from unions remain pending, though the reorganization is moving forward. 

The officials shuttered a ‘diplomats in residence’ program, which they determined to be a ‘cushy job.’ 

‘State Department employees are getting paid to go hang out at Georgetown, and sort of recruit for the Foreign Service,’ one official said, ‘without any sort of metrics or accountability.’

They didn’t touch the country desks, those specifically focused on nations like Iran or China, and didn’t fire anyone from passport services or diplomatic security. They did not make cuts at embassies or foreign posts. 

‘We touched the people that are doing these sort of like wasteful, sort of mindboggling functions or places where we found natural efficiencies in combining two offices.’

Critics have warned that cuts to the diplomatic corps could damage U.S. presence globally and cede soft power to China. 

‘A climate change office is not countering China,’ an official shot back. 

The department also shuttered an office that had been tasked with resettling Afghan refugees seeking to flee Talliban rule and culled the Bureau of Population, Refugees & Migration.

‘That office was not doing work that was countering China or serving the national interest,’ the official said. ‘China has overtaken the United States in a number of those countries. So I would argue growth at the State Department has not coincided with a growth of outcomes for the American taxpayer.’ 

In another example, an official told of a Gulf state foreign minister who complained that the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under the Biden administration kept pushing them to unionize foreign workers. 

‘This created huge diplomatic tension with them,’ the official said. ‘That foreign minister was delighted and wants to work with us on shared prosperity and trade agreements that aren’t trying to to be patronizing to other countries about their domestic affairs.’

Still, the process has sparked palpable tension within the department. Employees gathered tearfully in the Foggy Bottom lobby to say goodbye, some displaying signs reading, ‘Diplomacy matters.’ 

Signs with messages like ‘resist fascism’ and ‘you made an impact’ were taped up throughout the department. 

A group of more than 130 former senior officials, including former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, signed an open letter expressing concern that deep staff reductions could endanger U.S. foreign policy effectiveness.

Some have seized on the results of a whittled-down State Department and foreign aid apparatus: A report by The Atlantic found the Trump administration had given an order to incinerate 500 tons of emergency food that had been purchased during the Biden administration as aid to be distributed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

‘It’s a little bit of a shame to see people behaving that way. You sort of wonder whether they had any interest in following the president and sort of, upholding their oath to listen to the commands of the people,’ one official said.

A former top White House advisor to ex-first lady Jill Biden was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

Anthony Bernal, former assistant to the president and senior advisor to the first lady, was compelled for a July 16 closed-door deposition after missing a previously agreed-upon interview date late last month.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s subpoena letter to Bernal read: ‘The Committee seeks information about your assessment of and relationship with former President Biden to explore whether the time has come for Congress to revisit potential legislation to address the oversight of presidents’ fitness to serve pursuant to its authority under Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment or to propose changes to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment itself.’

While the deposition is moving forward Wednesday morning, it’s not guaranteed Bernal will show up until he’s seen in the corridors of the House office building where the meeting is taking place.

Comer, R-Ky., is investigating allegations that Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back against those claims.

‘Original Sin,’ a book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson, positions Bernal as a fiercely protective aide who was dubbed the leader of the ‘loyalty police’ by other former Biden staffers.

His LinkedIn page lists him as currently working as Jill Biden’s chief of staff in the Transition Office of Former President Joe Biden.

Bernal was originally slated to appear last month for a voluntary transcribed interview, but he and his lawyers backtracked after the Trump administration announced it was waiving executive privilege rights for him and several other former White House staffers.

If he appears, he will be the fourth ex-Biden aide to sit down with House GOP investigators.

Longtime Biden advisor Ashley Williams appeared for a nearly six-hour transcribed interview on Friday, following a brief sit-down by former Biden physician Kevin O’Connor.

O’Connor, like Bernal, appeared under subpoena. His closed-door deposition lasted less than 30 minutes, with the doctor invoking the Fifth Amendment on all questions outside his name.

O’Connor’s lawyers said he did so out of concern for doctor-patient confidentiality. Comer, however, accused him of covering for the octogenarian former president. 

Former President Joe Biden’s chief of staff issued final approval for multiple high-profile preemptive pardons during Biden’s final days in office, according to a new report. 

Biden’s alleged use of the autopen has become a sticking point for months, as President Donald Trump has said thousands of pardons Biden signed were void and claimed that the former president did not know what documents he was signing through the automated device. 

Biden issued a series of preemptive pardons on his final day to officials, including former chief medical advisor to the president Anthony Fauci and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, in an attempt to safeguard them from retribution from Trump. 

In an article intended to be his defense for the autopen issue, it emerged that, although Biden reportedly made the decision in a meeting, Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients is the one who gave final approval for the use of the autopen, at least in the case of Fauci and Milley, the New York Times reported. 

On Biden’s final day as president, Jan. 19, Biden had a meeting with his aides until nearly 10 p.m. to talk about various preemptive pardons, the Times reports. Emails obtained by the Times show that an aide sent a summary draft of the decisions formalized during that meeting to Zient’s assistant at 10:03 p.m. 

The assistant sent the email to Zients and others present in the meeting, requesting approval from Zients and White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed at 10:28 p.m., the Times reported. Zients replied all to the email three minutes later, the outlet said. 

‘I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,’ Zients said in the email, according to the Times. 

Zients could not be immediately reached for comment by Fox News Digital. 

Additionally, the Times report said Biden did not personally approve each name included in the broad, categorical pardons. 

‘Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,’ the Times reported. 

When asked about the Times’ report, Trump told reporters at the White House Monday that Biden’s alleged use of the autopen amounted to possibly ‘one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50 to 100 years.’ 

‘I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing, I guarantee you,’ Trump said. 

Additionally, the White House said the report shed light on Biden’s trustworthiness, and accused the Biden administration of engaging in a cover-up. 

‘The same president who lied through his teeth to the American people for four years about everything from his health to the state of the economy should not be trusted again,’ White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in an email to Fox News. ‘The Biden administration conducted the most egregious cover-up scheme in American politics… The truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country sooner or later, just as the truth is emerging about the state of Joe Biden’s cognitive and physical health.’ 

Biden granted a total of 4,245 acts of clemency during his administration, 96% of which were granted during his final months in office between October 2024 and January, according to the Pew Research Center.

Trump first accused Biden of using an autopen to sign important clemency documents in March. He has continued to bring up the issue, and sent a memo ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch an investigation into Biden’s autopen use in June, and to probe if the usage stemmed from a decline in Biden’s mental acuity. 

‘In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that Biden’s aides abused the power of presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,’ Trump wrote in the memo. 

‘This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.’

A White House official previously told Fox News Digital that Trump uses his hand signature for every legally operational or binding document. Even so, Trump has admitted that he uses an autopen for letters. 

An autopen is a machine that physically holds a pen and features programming to imitate a person’s signature. Unlike a stamp or a digitized print of a signature, the autopen has the capability to hold various types of pens like a ballpoint to a permanent marker, according to descriptions of autopen machines available for purchase. 

Fox News’ Andrea Margolis and Pat Ward contributed to this report. 

Senate Republicans are planning to take another crack at the budget reconciliation process after narrowly passing President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ earlier this month.

The $3.3 trillion legislative behemoth, which permanently extended many of the provisions of the president’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and included reforms and work requirements for Medicaid and food assistance programs, and billions in spending for defense and border security, only passed the Senate with the aid of Vice President JD Vance.

Now, lawmakers are eying another shot at the grueling process.

Sen. Ron Johnson, one of the key holdouts that eventually backed the bill, said he gained a fair amount of confidence from the White House, Trump and Senate GOP leadership that Republicans would ‘have a second bite of the apple.’

‘I think I pretty well have a commitment,’ the Wisconsin Republican said. ‘They’re going to do that, and we’re going to set a process, line by line, program by program.’

‘Another reason why I definitely had to vote ‘yes’ is I would have just dealt myself out of being involved in that process, and I want to be highly involved in that for the next process,’ he continued.

And Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., another fiscal hawk that was wary of supporting the bill but ultimately voted for it, told Fox News Digital, ‘I think we still have to definitely do one more this year, so we’ll see if that’s what happens.’

Johnson speculated that lawmakers could tackle the process, which allows Republicans to skirt the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate but must comply with stringent Senate rules, in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in October.  

The senator has an ally in House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who shortly after the ‘big, beautiful bill’ passed out of the House and onto Trump’s desk said, ‘We’re going to do this again.’  

‘We’re gonna have a second reconciliation package in the fall and a third in the spring of next year,’ Johnson said on Fox News’ ‘The Ingraham Angle.’

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., another fiscal hawk who criticized the Senate’s changes to the initial reconciliation bill but voted for it in the end, said another reconciliation bill was ‘absolutely’ feasible.

He’s gunning for more spending cuts and more ends to ‘government giveaways,’ but noted the looming 2026 election season put them on a short timeline, however.

‘[Trump will] have a better chance now, because you don’t have to deal with the filibuster, where you can get 50% plus one. If there’s ever a chance to do it, we need to do it now, because the midterms are coming up in the middle of next year. So really we need to push for the next eight months,’ Norman said.

Initially, Senate Republicans had pushed for a two-bill track, something that the speaker said would not be feasible in the House because of the varying factions, and red lines, throughout the conference.

But now Senate leadership may be more cautious given the series of hurdles facing the upper chamber in the coming months, including advancing a $9.4 billion clawback package this week which is already facing headwinds among pockets of Senate Republicans.  

A senior GOP aide told Fox News Digital that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was open to another reconciliation package, but ‘is heavily focused on selling the last bill and highlighting all it does.’

‘At this point it’s premature to even think of what could be in a second one,’ the aide said.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital that ‘we want to do one more reconciliation package,’ and echoed the speaker’s sentiment that more could be done.

First, however, lawmakers have to get through the looming government funding fight with Senate Democrats.

Currently, Senate spending panels are going through mark-ups on the dozen funding bills needed to keep the government’s lights on, but Mullin, who chairs the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, believed that another government funding extension was on the horizon.

‘It looks like we’re screaming straight toward a [continuing resolution], and we have to have, we’re going to have to figure out how to avoid a Schumer shutdown, because they’re not going to be helpful in passing it,’ he said.

Getting every Senate Republican, or even a majority, to go forward with reconciliation once more may be a challenge.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was the key vote that advanced the Senate’s first crack at reconciliation back to the House, after hours of floor negotiations and rewritten provisions that would give a boost to Alaska were added to the package.

But she seemed disinterested in taking another crack at the intensive process.

‘No, no,’ Murkowski told Fox News Digital. ‘I want to legislate.’ 

Democratic lawmakers are lining up with new vigor to demand the release of all files on Jeffrey Epstein as the topic continues to fracture the right.

Some prominent figures within the GOP’s rightmost flank are up in arms after a leaked Department of Justice (DOJ) memo reportedly showed there was little more to Epstein’s case than already known.

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, announced he would be filing a resolution on Monday to demand the Trump administration release all files related to the late pedophile’s case.

‘Either [President Donald Trump] and his acolytes fueled the rumors of the significance of these Epstein files to help his campaign, or something is there!’ Veasey wrote on X. ‘Put up or Shut up!’

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., similarly posted on Saturday, ‘Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich & powerful being protected? On Tuesday, I’m introducing an amendment to force a vote demanding the FULL Epstein files be released to the public. The Speaker must call a vote & put every Congress member on record.’

Meanwhile, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., caused a firestorm of controversy online when she referenced past allegations of sexual assault against the president, all of which Trump previously denied.

‘Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?’ she wrote.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who is running for re-election in a swing state that voted for Trump in 2024, took a similar swing during a recent campaign stop.

‘He promised to release the Epstein files. Did anyone really think the sexual predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was going to release the Epstein files?’ Ossoff said. 

A civil war has broken out within the GOP over the Trump administration’s handling of Epstein’s case, with figures like Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of mishandling something that’s long been seen as a priority for Trump’s base.

Others, however, like attorney Mike Davis and even Trump himself, are defending the attorney general and calling for an end to the Republican infighting.

‘If predators or victims won’t talk, then what? The Trump Justice Department has to deal with evidence that exists. Not evidence they wish they had. Nor conspiracy theories. Do you think Pam, Kash, and Bongino are covering for… Bill Clinton?’ Davis wrote on X.

Trump released a statement on Truth Social over the weekend, ‘LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB – SHE’S GREAT! The 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and they tried to do the same thing in 2024 – That’s what she is looking into as AG, and much more.’

And Democrats appear to have seized on the public back-and-forth as a political cudgel.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., shared a heated exchange with the White House on X over the weekend over an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on what authorities say was a marijuana farm – but Gomez contended the migrants there were picking strawberries.

‘If you’re now concerned about child exploitation, release the Epstein Files. Your base wants to know,’ Gomez replied at one point.

It was reported Friday that Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino was considering resigning amid the fallout.

Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, however, have signaled they are confident in their work and will remain in place.

‘The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been. It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States [Donald Trump] – and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me,’ Patel wrote on X.

When reached for comment on Democrats’ latest push, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump has assembled an incredible team of Law and Order patriots who are committed to Making America Safe Again and restoring the integrity of our criminal justice system.’

‘Attorney General Bondi, Director Patel, Deputy Director Bongino, and the countless other heroes of our law enforcement community are dedicated to executing President Trump’s agenda of protecting civil rights, safeguarding communities, holding criminals accountable, and defending victims. This work will continue in lockstep and with unprecedented success,’ Fields said.

The Pentagon is reportedly pressuring Indo-Pacific allies Japan and Australia to clarify what roles they would play in the event of a war with China over Taiwan.

Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, raised the question during recent meetings with Japanese and Australian defense officials, the Financial Times first reported.

While the United States has long urged Indo-Pacific allies to increase defense spending as China escalates its military activity around Taiwan, this push for specific wartime commitments is a new development — and reportedly caught foreign officials off guard.

Australia responded by stressing it would not commit troops in advance of any conflict.

‘The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance,’ Defense Minister Pat Conroy told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ‘We won’t discuss hypotheticals.’

Australia and the U.S. are currently leading a major joint exercise in Sydney involving 30,000 troops from 19 countries.

Pentagon officials have cited NATO’s efforts to boost European defense spending as a model for what Asian allies should consider. At the same time, Colby has advised European allies to prioritize threats closer to home rather than focus on the Indo-Pacific, sources told Fox News Digital.

‘Some among our allies might not welcome frank conversations,’ Colby posted on X in response to the report.

‘But as the department has made abundantly and consistently clear, we at DOD are focused on implementing the president’s America First, common-sense agenda of restoring deterrence and achieving peace through strength. That includes urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense.’

The question of allied commitments is further complicated by the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity, under which Washington does not explicitly state whether it would defend Taiwan if China invades.

‘As Secretary Hegseth said, the Department of Defense is focused on preventing war, with a strong shield of deterrence,’ Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X in defense of Colby’s approach. ‘That requires strength — but it is a simple fact that our allies must also do their part. We do not seek war. What we are doing is ensuring the United States and its allies have the military strength to underwrite diplomacy and guarantee peace.’

Former President Joe Biden had repeatedly said the U.S. would defend Taiwan, only for White House staff to later walk back those comments and insist that U.S. policy has not changed.

President Donald Trump has maintained the tradition of ambiguity, refusing to publicly declare how he would respond. However, new audio obtained by CNN revealed that Trump told donors last year he threatened both Russia and China with military force.

‘With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the [expletive] out of Moscow,’’ Trump said. ‘‘I’m telling you. I have no choice.’ And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But he believed me 10%.’

‘I said the same thing to [Xi],’ Trump added. ‘I said, ‘If you go into Taiwan, I’m going to bomb the [expletive] out of Beijing.’ I said, ‘I have no choice. I’ve got to bomb you.’’

At other times, Trump has criticized the cost of defending Taiwan and argued the island should dedicate 10% of its budget to defense.

Wargaming simulations suggest Japan would be the most crucial ally to the U.S. and Taiwan, as South Korea has not authorized American forces to launch combat operations from its territory. Australia does not permit permanent foreign military bases, but the U.S. is expanding its rotational presence at Australian facilities.

‘Japan is always critical, and when I say critical, like we can’t win the war without them,’ Mark Cancian, defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who regularly briefs lawmakers on China wargames, told Fox News Digital. 

‘Their forces are important, but our ability to use our bases in Japan is critical,’ he said, adding that other U.S. bases in the Indo-Pacific like Guam were too far away to serve as a hub. 

Whether Japan allows the U.S. to center its wartime operations on its territory would be a critical question certain to come up in preparations for a wartime contingency. 

The U.S. and Japan have practiced moving forces down the Japanese Ryukyu island chain, the closest of which is only 80 miles off the coast of Taiwan. 

Colby’s push for defined allied roles comes on the heels of his initiation of a review of the AUKUS security pact, which aims to supply Australia with U.S.-built nuclear-powered submarines.

The Pentagon recently defended Colby after reports emerged that he had temporarily halted military aid to Ukraine — an order quickly reversed by Trump.

Under the AUKUS agreement, Australia would purchase several Virginia-class submarines in the early 2030s, while a new class of submarines would be jointly developed by the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Production in Australia is expected to begin in the 2040s. However, the U.S. is already struggling to produce enough submarines for its own Navy.