Former special counsel Jack Smith’s hearing on Capitol Hill kicked off with a reminder from Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, of the controversial 2022 raid of then-former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. 

Jordan revealed that Barron Trump’s room was among the areas searched.

Smith appeared in a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday in which he was questioned about his prosecutions of Trump. He previously testified about the investigations in a closed-door deposition.

‘And then there was the raid on President Trump’s home. You know, where they searched Barron’s room and the first lady’s closet? In our deposition with Steven D’Antuono, head of the FBI Washington field office, he told us none of the normal process, none of the normal protocol was followed in the investigation,’ Jordan said.

The chairman said that D’Antuono had relayed that the first issue with the raid was that it was run out of the FBI D.C. field office rather than the one in Miami. 

Additionally, Jordan said that D’Antuono claimed he and others in the FBI Washington field office recommended that Trump be notified before they carried out the search, ‘or at least when they got there, before they start the search, call the president’s lawyers, ask them to come there and meet them.’ According to Jordan, the Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected the recommendations.

‘On November 18th, 2022, three days after President Trump announces he’s running for president, Attorney General Garland names Jack Smith special counsel. One of the first things Mr. Smith does is put on his team the very people responsible for the raid on President Trump’s home,’ Jordan said.

The raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence sparked controversy about the handling of the search and what was found during it. At the time, Trump accused the Biden administration of using ‘Third World’ tactics.

‘The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everybody else in the polls,’ Trump said in 2022 during a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Trump continued, ‘On a phony pretext from a highly political magistrate who they hand-picked late in the evening, just days before the break-in, and trampled upon my rights and civil liberties as if our country that we love so much were a third world nation, we’re like a third world nation.’

Trump told the crowd at the rally that the FBI had gone through then-former first lady Melania Trump’s closet drawers and ‘even did a deep and ugly search of the room of my sixteen-year-old son.’

Former special counsel Jack Smith spent hours publicly defending the parameters of his investigation into President Donald Trump on Thursday in the face of sharp questions from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee — including one lawmaker in particular who repeatedly accused Smith of ‘spying’ on certain lawmakers. 

During one of the most contentious portions of the hearing, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., pressed Smith over the so-called ‘tolling records’ Smith sought as part of the special counsel investigation, which included investigating Trump’s alleged attempts to subvert the results of the 2020 election. 

Unlike wiretaps, tolling records are phone logs that reveal the phone numbers of incoming and outgoing callers, as well as the time and duration of calls. Republicans have zeroed in on the tolling records in recent months, blasting them as an aggressive tactic by Smith and an act of ‘political weaponization,’ which Smith vehemently denied.

Issa, in particular, excoriated Smith for the decision to seek the tolling records of Republicans in the House and Senate — which he said Thursday was tantamount to spying on his political ‘enemies.’

Smith, for his part, defended the tolling records as ‘common practice’ in such investigations.

‘Maybe they’re not your political enemies, but they sure as [heck] were Joe Biden’s poltiical enemies, weren’t they?’ Issa asked Smith. ‘They were Harris’s political enemies,’ he said, referring to the former vice president. ‘They were the enemies of the president — and you were their arm, weren’t you?’ 

‘No,’ Smith said. 

‘So, you spied on the speaker of the House and these other senators and so on, and informed no one — and in fact, put a gag order in — so they couldn’t discover it,’ Issa said.

Smith attempted to respond before Issa continued. 

‘Why did Congress, a separate branch that you, under the Constitution, have to respect — why is it that no one should be informed — including the judges?’ Issa pressed. ‘As you went in to spy on these people, did you mention that you were spying on, [that you were] seeking records to you could find out about when conversations occurred between the U.S. Speaker of the House and the president?’

‘Did you inform the judge?’ Issa continued. ‘Or did you hold that back?’

‘My office didn’t spy on anyone,’ Smith said, before Issa cut back in. 

‘Wait a second,’ he interjected sharply. ‘The question I asked you, Mr. Smith, was pretty straightforward.’

Before Smith could respond again, the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, interjected to address House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan. 

‘Mr. Chairman, would you please instruct the gentleman to allow the witness to answer the question?’ he said. ‘The witness has the right to answer the question.’

Smith previously said that the Public Integrity Section had signed off on the subpoenas, a point corroborated by previously released public records. Those records also showed that the Public Integrity Section told prosecutors to be wary of concerns lawmakers could raise about the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which gives Congress members added protections.

The subpoenas to the phone companies were accompanied by gag orders blocking the lawmakers from learning about the existence of the subpoenas for at least one year.

Smith previously told the House lawmakers in a closed-door hearing that the D.C. federal court, which authorized the gag orders, would not have been aware that they applied to Congress members. 

‘I don’t think we identified that, because I don’t think that was Department policy at the time,’ Smith said.

Asked during the earlier deposition about who should be held accountable for lawmakers who felt that the seizure of a narrow set of their phone data was a constitutional violation, Smith said Trump should be held accountable.

‘These records are people, in the case of the Senators, Donald Trump directed his co-conspirators to call these people to further delay the proceedings,’ Smith said.

‘He chose to do that. If Donald Trump had chosen to call a number of Democratic senators, we would have gotten toll records for Democratic Senators. So responsibility for why these records, why we collected them, that’s — that lies with Donald Trump,’ he said at the time.

The White House is experiencing a baby boom. 

At least three women with close ties to the White House are pregnant, including second lady Usha Vance, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Katie Miller, who is married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. 

The Vances announced Tuesday that they are expecting their fourth child in July. The couple share three children together: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel. 

‘Usha and the baby are doing well, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him in late July,’ the Vances wrote in a statement shared on social media.

‘During this exciting and hectic time, we are particularly grateful for the military doctors who take excellent care of our family and for the staff members who do so much to ensure that we can serve the country while enjoying a wonderful life with our children,’ they said. 

The Vances have been married since 2014, and met while they were students at Yale Law School. 

Leavitt announced Dec. 26, 2025, that she and her husband Nick were expecting their second child, who is due in May. Leavitt and her husband welcomed their first child, Niko, in July 2024.

‘My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother,’ Leavitt told Fox News Digital. ‘My heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for the blessing of motherhood, which I truly believe is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth.’

Leavitt told Fox News Digital in December 2025 that she is ‘extremely grateful to President Trump and our amazing Chief of Staff Susie Wiles for their support, and for fostering a pro-family environment in the White House.’

‘Nearly all of my West Wing colleagues have babies and young children, so we all really support one another as we tackle raising our families while working for the greatest president ever,’ Leavitt said.

Leavitt is the first press secretary to be pregnant, and is remaining press secretary, according to a senior White House official. 

Likewise, Katie Miller, a conservative podcast host, and Stephen Miller shared a joint Instagram post Dec. 31, 2025, celebrating the new year and depicting Katie Miller holding her baby bump. The couple shares three children: Mackenzie, Jackson and Hudson.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report. 

FBI Director Kash Patel shared a picture of what he said was a ‘self-awarded’ trophy made by former FBI officials to celebrate Operation Arctic Frost, an investigation launched after the 2020 election targeting President Donald Trump and his allies.

The bizarre metallic-colored, 3D-printed award featured ‘AF’ with a lightening bolt and dollar sign printed along its body and a raised map of the U.S. on its base, which also included miniature buildings and infrastructure. ‘CR-15’ was printed along the base. CR-15 is a now-disbanded FBI unit that served as a public corruption squad. 

‘People ask why I said the old FBI was a diseased temple,’ Patel wrote on X. ‘This is what corruption looks like when it thinks no one is watching.

‘I disbanded CR-15 and removed the corrupt actors involved,’ he continued. ‘So when legacy media cries that President Trump’s FBI fired people and made sweeping changes, I have one response: You’re damn right we did.’

Patel made his comments as Republican lawmakers continue to raise alarms about the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe, which later fed into former special counsel Jack Smith’s work.

In October, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., unveiled 197 subpoenas they said the Biden-era FBI used to seek testimony and documents from hundreds of Republicans and GOP entities.

Johnson called the subpoena list ‘nothing short of a Biden administration enemies list,’ arguing Arctic Frost was used to improperly investigate the Republican political apparatus.

Smith, whose team used Arctic Frost in mounting charges tied to the 2020 election that were later dismissed after Trump’s victory in 2024, has defended his work and appeared on Capitol Hill to face questions from the House Judiciary Committee.

Republicans have criticized Smith for seeking gag orders against Trump during his presidential campaign; fast-tracking court proceedings; subpoenaing records and phone data of Trump-aligned individuals and entities, including members of Congress; and approving $20,000 in payments to an FBI confidential human source to gather intelligence on Trump, a source told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.

— The Republican National Committee (RNC) is taking a big step toward holding its first-ever midterm convention.

The RNC on Thursday advanced a change to the party’s rules that would allow Chairman Joe Gruters ‘to convene a special ceremonial convention outside a presidential election cycle,’ according to a memo shared first with Fox News Digital.

National political conventions, where party delegates from around the country formally nominate their party’s presidential candidates, normally take place during presidential election years.

But with Republicans aiming to protect their narrow control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in this year’s elections, President Donald Trump announced in September that the GOP would hold a convention ahead of the midterms ‘in order to show the great things we have done’ since recapturing the White House.

The new memo highlights ‘the possibility of an America First midterm convention-style gathering aligned with President Trump’s vision for energizing the party this fall.’

The party in power, in this case the Republicans, normally faces stiff political headwinds in the midterms. And the hope among Trump and top Republicans is that a midterm convention would give the GOP a high-profile platform to showcase the president’s record and their congressional candidates running in the midterms.

The RNC’s rules are based on holding a convention every four years. The proposed rule change will allow the RNC to hold a midterm convention. If adopted, the rule states that the convention must be called at least 60 days in advance, and no business would be conducted during the gathering.

The proposed change was adopted Thursday evening by the RNC’s Rules Committee during the party’s winter meeting in Santa Barbara, California.

It’s unclear if the full RNC membership will vote on the rule change when it gathers Friday at the confab’s general session. If the rule isn’t adopted by the full RNC, it’s expected to be approved at the party’s spring meeting.

Gruters, in a statement to Fox News Digital, highlighted that the RNC’s winter meeting ‘shows how completely united Republicans are behind President Trump and our efforts to win the midterms. The RNC has been aggressively focused on expanding our war chest, turning out voters and protecting the ballot in this fall’s elections. We’re building the operation needed to protect our majorities and give President Trump a full four-year term with a Republican Congress.’

Details on the date and location of the midterm convention will come at a later date and will likely be announced by the president.

But a Republican source told Fox News Digital it’s probable the convention would be held at the same time as the RNC’s summer meeting, which typically occurs in August.

The rival Democratic National Committee (DNC) may also hold a midterm convention. Sources confirmed to Fox News Digital last summer that DNC chair Ken Martin and other party leaders were quietly pushing the idea of a convention ahead of the midterms.

Democrats held a handful of midterm conventions in the 1970s and 1980s.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said the United States should have considered testing NATO by forcing member countries to respond to America’s southern border crisis.

Trump speculated in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. could have invoked Article 5 — the alliance’s collective defense clause that deems an attack on one member as an attack on all — thereby putting NATO ‘to the test.’

‘Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks,’ he wrote.

The president’s comments came after he has recently questioned NATO’s commitment to aiding the U.S.

‘We will always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us,’ the president wrote on social media earlier this month.

After meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Trump announced that he had the ‘framework of a future deal regarding Greenland.’

Trump wrote on Truth Social that if finalized, the deal ‘will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations.’

Following the meeting, Trump said he would scrap a plan to impose tariffs on a group of NATO members who sent troops to Greenland amid the president’s efforts to acquire the island. Trump had asserted that those countries would be subjected to a 10% tariff on all goods beginning Feb. 1.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News this week, Rutte said Trump was ‘totally right’ about needing to shore up security in the Arctic region, noting that the chance of Russia or China becoming a threat in that region was increasing.

Rutte applauded Trump’s leadership in getting NATO countries to pay more money for the alliance’s defenses.

‘I would argue tonight with you on this program he was the one who brought a whole of Europe and Canada up to this famous 5%,’ Rutte said, ‘which is crucial for us to equalize our spending, but also protect ourselves. And this is the framework which you see in his post that we will work on.’

NATO members were previously spending 2% of GDP on defense, but have now agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defense and national security infrastructure.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

Louisiana state Rep. Julie Emerson announced on Thursday that she was nixing her U.S. Senate bid in light of President Donald Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow entering the GOP primary.

‘With Congresswoman Letlow’s entrance into the race, the path to victory that was visible a couple of months ago has diminished. I support President Trump and respect his decision to endorse Julia Letlow to defeat Bill Cassidy. Because of this, I’m choosing to end my campaign now,’ Emerson said in a statement.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015, is running for re-election.

After the House impeached Trump in 2021, Cassidy was one of the Senate Republicans who voted to convict during a vote that occurred after Trump had already departed from office — the Senate vote ultimately fell short of the threshold required to convict Trump.

The president pledged his endorsement to Letlow in a Truth Social post on Saturday.

‘Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!’ the president exclaimed in the post.

Letlow launched a Senate bid days later.

‘Today, I am announcing my candidacy for the United States Senate to ensure the nation we leave our children is safer and stronger. Louisiana deserves a conservative Senator who will not waver. I am honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust. Let’s Geaux!’ she declared in a Tuesday post on X.

Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming and state Sen. Blake Miguez are also running in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in the state.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will not impose tariffs that were set to take effect Feb. 1, citing a ‘framework of a future deal’ with NATO involving Greenland and the Arctic region.

‘Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said the deal, if finalized, ‘will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,’ adding that the agreement led him to halt the planned tariffs.

Trump added that talks are continuing, saying, ‘Additional discussions are being held concerning The Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland,’ and said Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will lead negotiations and ‘report directly to me.’

‘As President Trump said, the details of the framework will continue to be unveiled as discussions continue,’ White House Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said to Fox News Digital. ‘The White House has nothing more to add at this time.’

This is a developing story, check back later for updates.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said a personal experience with Big Tech has led him to change his thinking, and he now believes companies should be liable for the content posted on their platforms.

Paul asserted that YouTube and its parent Google had refused to remove a video that falsely claimed that he had taken money from Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

‘I’ve formally notified Google that this video is unsupported by facts, defames me, harasses me and now endangers my life. Google responded that they don’t investigate the truth of accusations… and refused to take down the video,’ the senator asserted in the opinion piece published by the New York Post on Monday.

Paul also noted that the person who posted the offending video removed it ‘under threat of legal penalty.’

‘My default position as a libertarian/conservative has been to defend the internet liability protections known in law as Section 230 of the Communications Act. The courts have largely ruled that Section 230 shields social-media companies from being sued for content created by third parties,’ he wrote. ‘Until now, I had not sufficiently considered the effects of internet providers hosting content accusing people of committing crimes.’

The experience was a turning point in his thinking.

‘The arrogance of Google to continue hosting this defamatory video and the resultant threats on my life have caused me to rethink Congress’ blind allegiance to liability shields,’ he asserted.

Paul accused the company of being inconsistent.

‘So Google does not have a blanket policy of refraining to evaluate truth. Google chooses to evaluate what it believes to be true when it is convenient and consistent with its own particular biases,’ he wrote.

‘This complete lack of decency, this inconsistent moderation of truthfulness, this conscious refusal to remove illegal and defamatory content has led me to conclude that the internet exemption from liability, a governmentally granted privilege and a special exemption from our common law traditions, should not be encouraged by liability shields and I will pursue legislation toward that goal,’ the senator explained.

‘I think Google is, or should be, liable for hosting this defamatory video that accuses me of treason, at least from the point in time when Google was made aware of the defamation and danger,’ he asserted.

Fox News Digital reached out to Google for comment on Wednesday — YouTube noted that the video had been pulled down by the user and is no longer on the platform. YouTube added that it relies on its openly available community guidelines to decide what material it will yank, and only takes down material ‘that poses a serious risk of egregious harm such as terrorist content.’ 

The video platform also claimed that it has always advocated for anyone to be able to share their view, asserting that it does not check the accuracy of individual videos ‘and the vast majority of content stays up.’

After President Donald Trump announced a new Greenland ‘framework’ had been agreed upon with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rhutte, the NATO chief told Fox News’ ‘Special Report with Bret Baier’ that U.S. forcibly taking control of Greenland, away from Denmark, was not discussed during meetings between him and President Donald Trump in Switzerland during the World Economic Forum.

‘That issue did not come up anymore in my conversations with Mr. President. He’s very much focused on what we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region, where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and Russians are more and more active, how we can protect that’ Rhutte said when pressed on the details of the reported ‘framework’ that has been agreed upon, and that Trump said has resulted in his decision not to impose certain tariffs scheduled to go into effect Feb. 1. 

‘That was really the focus of our discussions,’ Rhutte insisted.

Trump announced the new ‘framework’ pertaining to Greenland in a post on his social media site Truth Social Wednesday afternoon while at the World Economic Forum this week. 

‘Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,’ the president wrote. ‘Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st. Additional discussions are being held concerning The Golden Dome as it pertains to Greenland. Further information will be made available as discussions progress.’

Trump noted that Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will lead ‘the negotiations’ and report directly back to him.

‘We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,’ Trump said earlier in the morning at the World Economic Forum. ‘Now everyone’s saying, ‘Oh, good.’ That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.’

During the exclusive interview with Fox News, Rhutte called Trump ‘totally right’ about needing to shore up security in the Arctic region, noting that the chance of Russia or China becoming a threat in that region is increasing every day. The NATO Secretary General also praised Trump’s leadership in getting other NATO countries to pay more money to the alliance’s defenses.

‘I would argue tonight with you on this program, he was the one who brought a whole of Europe and Canada up to this famous 5%,’ Rhutte insisted. ‘Which is crucial for us to equalize our spending, but also protect ourselves. And this is the framework which you see in his post that we will work on.’

Rhutte also noted that increased volatility between NATO-aligned countries, Russia and China underscored the need to shore up security in the Arctic region, during his interview with Fox News Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, the NATO chief was asked whether he thought other countries were dealing with the Russians and the Chinese differently than they have in the past.

‘It’s not up to me to comment on what individual allies are doing in terms of their relationship with China,’ Rhutte responded. ‘I think collectively, as NATO, we have a position. The position is that we should not be naive. I can tell you’ll regret these huge investments the Chinese are making in the military. They are not there to organize parades in Beijing, and the military in Russia are not there to organize parades in Moscow. They are there to be used.’