The United States and China plan to establish military-to-military communications channels ‘to deconflict and deescalate’ potential problems, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Saturday after talking with his Chinese counterpart.

In a post on X, Hegseth said he had a ‘positive meeting’ with Admiral Dong Jun, China’s Minister of National Defense, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During their talk, the two defense leaders agreed that the best path forward for the U.S. and China involves ‘peace, stability, and good relations.’

‘Admiral Dong and I also agreed that we should set up military-to-military channels to deconflict and deescalate any problems that arise. We have more meetings on that coming soon. God bless both China and the USA!’ Hegseth wrote, in part.

Earlier Saturday, Hegseth attended a separate meeting in Malaysia with defense leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where he urged them to push back against Beijing’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea.

‘China’s sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea fly in the face of their commitments to resolve disputes peacefully,’ Hegseth said at the meeting, according to The Associated Press. 

‘We seek peace. We do not seek conflict. But we must ensure that China is not seeking to dominate you or anybody else,’ he added.

The South China Sea remains volatile with Beijing, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all claiming overlapping territories. 

China’s maritime fleet has frequently clashed with the Philippines in the disputed waters, with Chinese officials recently describing the country as a ‘troublemaker’ for staging naval and air drills with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

Hegseth defended the U.S. ally during the Saturday meeting by saying Beijing’s designation of the Scarborough Shoal – a territory seized from the Philippines in 2012 – as a ‘nature reserve’ ‘yet another attempt to coerce new and expanded territorial and maritime claims at your expense.’

The War Secretary then urged ASEAN to finalize the Code of Conduct with China and proposed creating a ‘shared maritime domain awareness’ network and rapid-response systems to deter provocations – measures he said would ensure that any member facing ‘aggression and provocation is not alone.’

Hegseth also welcomed plans for an ASEAN-U.S. maritime exercise in December aimed at strengthening coordination and safeguarding freedom of navigation.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa is expected to visit Washington, D.C., and meet with President Donald Trump next week, the first-ever official visit by a Syrian president to the U.S. capital.

A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital that the meeting was planned for Nov. 10. News of the meeting was first reported by Axios.

Trump and al-Sharaa met for the first time in May on the sidelines of the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia.

‘Young, attractive guy, tough guy,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after meeting al-Sharaa, who is a former Al-Qaeda leader. ‘Strong past, very strong past — fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together.’

Al-Sharaa, formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, led the rebel offensive in December that toppled former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

His group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, was designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in June that the Trump administration would remove the label amid the president’s efforts to reset U.S.-Syria ties.

‘This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria,’ Rubio said in a statement.

Trump received a standing ovation in Riyadh after announcing his administration would order the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to ‘give them a chance at greatness.’

‘Oh, what I do for the crown prince,’ he joked, referring to Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin-Salman, who pushed Trump to meet with Syria’s new leader.

Efforts to lift the Caesar sanctions, the strongest sanctions on Syria, have faced procedural delays in Congress.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters on Friday that the Trump administration supports repealing the Caesar sanctions through the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is under discussion by U.S. lawmakers.

The bill, which was named after a Syrian Army defector who smuggled thousands of images documenting torture and executions in Bashar al-Assad’s prisons, targeted entities and individuals who provided support to Assad’s regime.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A new report revealed that five foreign charities have donated just shy of $2 billion into various American nonprofits and policy advocacy groups focused on climate change and political activism.

Americans for Public Trust released a detailed, 31-page report with receipts tracking money from foreign charities to U.S. groups. It notes that while contributing directly to political candidates is not permitted under federal law, election-related activities like ‘get-out-and-vote’ campaigns, some lobbying efforts, issue advertising and other politically-charged activities, are in play for foreign dollars.

‘There’s not a question about where it’s going and where it is coming from,’ Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News Digital. ‘We know that it’s foreign money coming into our U.S. policy fights, climate litigation, research, protests, lobbying, you name it.’

‘Foreign money is coming in, and it’s trying to erode our democracy,’ Sutherland added.

The groups that contributed to the near $2 billion in foreign money include the Quadrature Climate Foundation (U.K.), the KR Foundation (Denmark), the Oak Foundation (Switzerland), the Laudes Foundation (Switzerland/Netherlands), and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (U.K.).

The most sizable, the Quadrature Climate Foundation, has awarded roughly $520 million to 41 U.S. groups since 2020, according to the report.

‘The most surprising place that the foreign money has ended up is into a group called the Environmental Law Institute [ELI],’ Sutherland explained to Fox News Digital. ‘They are well known for running a group called the Climate Judiciary Project. They work to educate judges on climate litigation.’

‘So the fact that a group that is so-called educating judges on climate is the beneficiary of foreign money is a huge problem,’ Sutherland added.

ELI received a grant of $650,000 from the Oak Foundation, based out of Switzerland, in separate grants since 2018.

‘The Environmental Law Institute received a $300,000 grant from the Oak Foundation in 2018 to support the drafting of a toolkit for sustainable small-scale fisheries,’ ELI spokesperson Nick Collins told Fox News Digital. ‘Building on successful examples from around the world, the toolkit offers guidance on how to strengthen small scale fisheries through law.’

‘ELI is an independent, nonpartisan organization, and any grant funding we receive is contingent on protecting this independence,’ Collins continued. ‘No funder dictates our work, and our grants are administered in compliance with IRS rules and regulations.’

The Environmental Law Institute has also received federal grants from the U.S. government in the past, most recently under the Biden administration’s EPA and State Department in 2022.

In August of this year, 23 state attorneys general sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin that called for the halting of federal funding.

Zeldin and President Donald Trump’s EPA subsequently axed funding to ELI.

‘We were also able to trace that $1.6 million in foreign money has come from the Oak Foundation into a group called Community Change,’ Sutherland continued. ‘They are the front group that has led the charge against Trump’s crackdown on crime. So again, we’re seeing where foreign money coming in to protest, litigation, training is ending up.’

According to the report, $1.6 million from the Oak Foundation has been funneled into Community Change, the organization recognized as the ‘fiscal sponsor’ behind Free DC, which was responsible for the anti-Trump protests in Washington D.C.

Fox News Digital sent inquiries to the various foreign charities about the potential reasoning behind funneling money into American organizations that lobby and campaign for specific policy issues, but did not receive responses.

Sutherland surmised that, based on the report, implementing an extreme European agenda into the U.S. is the most likely driving factor for the multi-billion dollar grants and donations.

‘It seems clear to me that this foreign money is coming into the United States because they want to implement their extremist European vision for America,’ Sutherland concluded. ‘A lot of these groups want to ban gas stoves, very, very extremist positions. And it seems to me that when you take a look at the money, they just want to have a more extreme United States that is radicalized and further left than what we want.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Quadrature Climate Foundation, the KR Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Laudes Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and Community Change, but did not receive responses by the time of publication.

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston

President Trump announced Friday that he is designating Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern,’ citing the widespread killings of Christians in the West African country.

‘Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,’ Trump posted to Truth Social. ‘Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ — But that is the least of it.’

The President emphasized that action must be taken when people are persecuted for their faith.

Trump said he has directed Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and members of the House Appropriations Committee to investigate the situation and report their findings to him.

‘The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries,’ Trump said. ‘We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!’

The situation for Christians in Nigeria has reached an alarming level. Entire villages have been burned to the ground, worshipers killed during Sunday services, and thousands displaced by Islamist groups sweeping through the country’s northern and central regions.

In June, militants attacked the village of a bishop, just days after he testified before Congress about Christian persecution, leaving more than twenty people dead. Similar assaults in Plateau and Benue states have killed hundreds this year alone, with survivors describing how gunmen shouted, ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they torched churches and homes.

According to the international watchdog group Open Doors, nearly 70% of all Christians killed for their faith worldwide last year were in Nigeria. The group warns that Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Fulani militant herders are responsible for most of the bloodshed, often targeting Christian farmers in the country’s Middle Belt. Rights organizations estimate that thousands of believers are murdered every year, while countless others are forced to flee.

Mark Walker, President Trump’s ambassador-designate for International Religious Freedom, told Fox News Digital that the United States must do what it can to pressure Nigeria’s government to act.

‘Even being conservative, it’s probably 4,000 to 8,000 Christians killed annually,’ Walker said. ‘This has been going on for years — from ISWAP to Islamist Fulani ethnic militias — and the Nigerian government has to be much more proactive.’

Walker, a former pastor and Republican congressman from North Carolina, said that although he has not yet been confirmed, he already works with church networks across Africa to help keep missionaries and local believers safe.

‘This isn’t about appropriations or politics — this is about human life. We’re talking about boys and girls, about women being kidnapped and horrific things happening. All of us should raise our voices.’

He added that he plans to work closely with Marco Rubio to strengthen U.S. advocacy once confirmed. ‘Fortunately, we have a Secretary of State who has been one of the stronger voices,’ Walker said. ‘He’s already put out statements and is very in tune with what’s going on. I look forward to advising him when it comes to countries of particular concern.’

The White House has also acknowledged a surge in anti-Christian violence across sub-Saharan Africa, where jihadist movements are exploiting political instability and porous borders. Both Pope Leo and the U.S. State Department have condemned recent massacres in Nigeria, warning that the crisis risks spreading beyond the country’s borders.

Walker added ‘The United States should always stand up for freedom of religion, and that starts with speaking the truth about what’s happening.’

While humanitarian groups continue to raise alarms, Nigerian officials deny that Christians are being systematically targeted. Information Minister Mohammed Idris recently told Fox News Digital that claims of mass persecution are ‘very misleading,’ rejecting U.S. reports that tens of thousands have been killed.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently told Fox News Digital that ‘since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred,’ and ‘over 20,000 churches and Christian schools have been destroyed.’ He called the violence ‘a crisis of religious genocide’ and urged tougher U.S. action.

Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga dismissed the criticism, telling Nigeria’s Daily Post, ‘Christians are not targeted. We have religious harmony in our country.’

Despite the political debate, the facts on the ground remain grim. Christian villages are still under attack, churches continue to burn, and millions live in fear. Western governments have issued statements but taken little tangible action to halt the killings or support survivors, said a priest from Plateau State and added, ‘When the world stays silent, the killers return.’

Fox News’ Paul Tilsley contributed to this report.

A handful of judges, some of whom are Supreme Court contenders, will tackle antisemitism at an annual convention this week, joining a rare multi-judge panel in a forum typically reserved for one-person lectures, Fox News Digital has learned. 

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, who will moderate the discussion among the judicial heavyweights, said the panel is ‘unprecedented’ and a needed change to address what he said was a rise in antisemitism in the aftermath of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel in 2023. The panel is part of the Federalist Society’s annual National Lawyers Convention.

‘This conversation on faith, understanding, and moral responsibility could not be more timely,’ Altman said. ‘It reflects the importance of the moment, the endurance of Western values, and Judge [Robert] Bork’s abiding belief in moral clarity and in the strength that comes from open dialogue.’

The judges who will participate in the discussion include seven Trump appointees, including Altman, one appointee of former President George Bush, and a justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

They include Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, who was floated in Bloomberg Law as a good successor to Justice Clarence Thomas, in part because he would be the first Asian American justice, a ‘positive’ when weighing replacing the second-ever Black justice.

Two others, Judge David Stras and Raymond Gruender, both of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, were on Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist during the president’s first term. Judge Martha Pacold of the Northern District of Illinois appeared on another one of Trump’s shortlists in 2020.

The Federalist Society event has for years been named after the late Bork, who, incidentally, once helped break a law firm’s avoidance of hiring Jewish lawyers, according to Senate testimony by his peers in 1987. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Altman, a vocal Jewish judge who is based in the Southern District of Florida, said he has also arranged numerous trips for federal judges of varying faiths to visit Israel after the Oct. 7 attack.

He said that although his personal conversations about Israel had largely been centered on campuses, ‘it became clear’ to him that the judiciary needed to chime in because heated discourse surrounding the topic involved legal questions.

The deadly attack in Israel reignited conflict in Gaza and led to nationwide anti-Israel protests, especially on U.S. college campuses. Protesters claimed Israel was killing thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza indiscriminately, while the Israeli government said it gave fair warning about its offensive and that its targets were Hamas terrorists.

‘Those claims, is Israel violating the laws of war? Is it an apartheid state? Does it occupy land that doesn’t belong to it?’ Altman said. ‘Those are just legal questions with legal answers, and I thought, who better than federal judges to understand what the applicable legal rule is, to adduce and find out what the relevant facts are, and then to apply the facts to the law and issue a judgment, than a federal judge.’

Some of the judges who will participate on the panel have been on Altman’s Israel trips.

The Federalist Society indicated that the judges plan to speak about their personal experiences talking with people of other faiths about anti-Jewish sentiments. They also plan to address First Amendment concerns surrounding antisemitism.

The discussion comes as the Trump administration has aggressively targeted noncitizens for speech that it has claimed in court is at odds with its national security posture because it is too critical of Israel and potentially supportive of Hamas.

Free speech proponents have warned that offensive and politically charged speech is protected under the Constitution. In the case of Mahmoud Khalil, which has become a flashpoint in these discussions, the courts have been examining the extent to which noncitizens enjoy First Amendment protections.

Altman said he has observed a one-sidedness in the opposite direction on campuses and that pro-Israel expression has been suppressed. Just this year, New York University canceled Jewish legal scholar Ilya Shaprio’s talk there because of what it said were security risks from protesters.

‘I was shocked, honestly, to discover that so many young people in our country, especially on our college campuses, had a totally incorrect view about the one Jewish state in the world and its role in the Middle East and its history and how it came to be, and it also became clear that the sort of debate that was taking place on campus wasn’t really a debate, because only one side of the story was being told,’ Altman said.

Israel said the remains of three people returned by Hamas on Friday did not match any of the deceased hostages. 

Following forensic testing, Israeli officials said it was concluded that the remains do not belong to the 11 deceased hostages still being held in Gaza, Fox News has learned.

‘The remains we received are not our hostages,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told The Associated Press following the examination of the remains. However, neither Netanyahu’s office nor any other Israeli authorities confirmed the identities of the remains to the AP. It is still unclear who these people were and why they were given to Israel.

Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which began earlier this month, Hamas has returned the remains of 17 hostages. With those already handed over, there have been instances in which Israel has claimed that Hamas returned remains that did not match the remaining deceased hostages. Hamas previously returned additional remains belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was first recovered in 2023.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) made clear its role in the transfer of hostages’ remains. In a statement, the ICRC said that it ‘does not take part in locating the remains.’

‘In accordance with international humanitarian law, it is the responsibility of the parties to search for, collect, and return the dead,’ the ICRC said.

On Thursday, Israel received the remains of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, leaving 11 deceased hostages in the Gaza Strip, including U.S. citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra.

Israeli intelligence suggests Cooper was alive when he was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it estimates Cooper was killed in February 2024. He was 84 years old. Cooper leaves behind a wife, four children and 11 grandchildren.

Baruch was taken from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri during the massacre. The IDF said that it estimates he was murdered on Dec. 8, 2023, at the age of 25. Baruch leaves behind his parents and two siblings.

In addition to Neutra and Chen, the remaining deceased hostages include Meny Godard, Hadar Goldin, Ran Gvili, Asaf Hamami, Joshua Loitu Mollel, Dror Or, Oz Daniel, Lior Rudaeff and Sudthisak Rinthalak.

Fox News’ Yonat Friling and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The First Amendment won out this week in a court case over a man who repeatedly called for President Donald Trump’s assassination and openly fantasized about his violent demise. 

A jury acquitted the man, Peter Stinson, of one charge of soliciting a crime of violence, raising questions about when speech is protected by the Constitution and when it becomes incriminating.

A former longtime Coast Guard officer, Stinson called for someone to ‘take the shot’ in reference to Trump, according to court papers. ‘Realistically the only solution is violence,’ Stinson wrote.

Stinson said he ‘would twist the knife after sliding it into [Trump’s] fatty flesh’ and that he ‘would be willing to pitch in’ for a hitman contract.

‘He wants us dead. I can say the same thing about him,’ Stinson wrote in another post during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A witness for the defense, Professor Jen Golbeck of the University of Maryland, said people ‘rooting for Trump to die online’ is common.

‘On one hand, I would not encourage anyone to post those thoughts on social media,’ Golbeck said, according to the Washington Post. ‘On the other hand, I can’t count the number of people who I saw post similar things. … It’s a very common sentiment. There’s social media accounts dedicated to tracking whether Trump has died.’

Brennen VanderVeen, program counsel with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said that one issue with the charges in Stinson’s case was that it was not clear whom Stinson was soliciting to carry out the crime.

‘Solicitation is when it’s directly tied to the crime. So, if he contacts an actual hit man and tries to arrange some sort of hit contract, that’s solicitation,’ VanderVeen told Fox News Digital. ‘Without more … that probably does not meet the elements of actual solicitation.’

Stinson’s attorneys argued in court documents that their client’s posts were not threats but rather ‘political advocacy that the First Amendment was squarely designed to protect.’

‘They lack the ‘specificity, imminence, and likelihood of producing lawless action’ required to fall outside constitutional protection,’ the attorneys said.

Threats to conservative SCOTUS justices and Obama

The jury acquittal, which was handed down quickly after a two-day trial, came at a time when political violence has taken the spotlight, particularly in the aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a string of recent violence toward immigration enforcement officers and Republican and Democratic political figures continuously facing threats.

A person convicted of attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh had taken concrete steps by searching the internet for mass shootings, discussing killing a Supreme Court justice in internet chats and showing up armed at Kavanaugh’s house in 2022.

A man who participated in the Jan. 6 riot was convicted by a judge in a separate case of firearms charges and making a hoax threat aimed at former President Barack Obama. He was sentenced this week to time served after he livestreamed himself driving around the former president’s neighborhood and saying he was ‘working on a detonator.’ He was found with a machete and illegal weapons.

In a looming constitutional test, another man is facing charges of threatening federal judges by sending hundreds of ominous messages through the Supreme Court website referencing several justices’ graphic murders. He tried to have his case tossed out over First Amendment concerns, but a judge denied the request, saying a jury would need to weigh that argument.

Presidents, senators, House members and other political figures routinely speak about facing a range of threats, whether in public forums or through direct messages.

High court greenlights ‘vituperative’ language

One legal test in these cases came in 1969, when the Supreme Court decided in favor of a protester who allegedly told a group of people while discussing getting drafted for the Vietnam War that if he is given a rifle, the first man he wants to kill is President Lyndon Johnson. His remark was political hyperbole rather than a ‘true threat,’ the high court found.

‘What is a threat must be distinguished from what is constitutionally protected speech,’ the majority wrote. ‘The language of the political arena … is often vituperative, abusive, and inexact.’

Stinson was initially charged with two counts of a threat against the president, but the DOJ shifted course and brought the one solicitation charge against him.

Department of Justice lawyers argued that Stinson’s incessant violent comments on X and Bluesky, coupled with self-identifying as an Antifa member, met the charging criteria, but prosecutors failed to convince a jury that the speech was more than bluster.

Kirk spurs examination of ‘hate speech’

In the case of Kirk’s murder, finger-pointing ensued. Republicans blamed inflammatory rhetoric from Kirk’s political opponents for inciting his death.

Attorney General Pam Bondi stirred the conversation by saying in an interview after Kirk’s death that the DOJ would ‘absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.’ Bondi later walked back her comment, saying speech that ‘crosses the line into threats of violence’ is punishable by law.

In cases of inciting violence, according to VanderVeen, speech remains protected because of a lacking nexus between the words and the attack.

‘Incitement is more about the imminence. … How much time would have to pass between that person’s speech and the actual unlawful act of the violence?’ VanderVeen said, noting that inciting violence typically involves addressing a mob.

‘If someone’s saying, ‘Violence is good,’ but there’s no imminent lawless action there, someone else has to say, ‘That guy’s right, that violence is good. I’m going to start doing violence,” VanderVeen said. ‘At that point, that’s on the person doing the violence.’

Republican senators issued a torrent of criticism against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg this week after it was revealed that he had signed off on subpoenas and gag orders issued as part of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation — though a cursory review of court rules suggests it is far less provocative than lawmakers have claimed.

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., were among the Republicans who blasted Boasberg as an ‘activist’ judge, and Cruz, for his part, suggested Boasberg should be impeached. 

‘My assumption,’ Cruz fumed, is ‘that Judge Boasberg printed these things out like the placemats at Denny’s — one after the other.’

At issue were subpoenas and gag orders issued by former special counsel Jack Smith’s team as part of its probe into President Donald Trump’s actions in the wake of the 2020 election. 

The redacted documents were made public this week by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

They included subpoenas of phone records for 10 senators and one House lawmaker, and gag orders sent to Verizon and AT&T instructing them not to notify lawmakers of the subpoena. (Verizon complied, AT&T did not.) 

Both the subpoenas and gag orders were signed by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, according to the newly released documents — a detail that prompted fresh criticism and indignation from some of the Republicans in question, including Cruz, who blasted the investigation in question as ‘worse than Watergate’ and a gross violation of prosecutorial powers.

Blackburn blasted Boasberg as an ‘activist’ judge. Some lawmakers further argued for his impeachment as a result of his involvement. 

In fact, his role in the process is far from surprising. 

Local rules for the federal court system in D.C. explicitly state the chief judge ‘must hear and determine all proceedings before the grand jury.’ The subpoenas and gag orders signed by Boasberg were signed in May 2023 — roughly two months into his tenure as the chief judge for the federal court.

It’s unclear whether Sens. Cruz or Blackburn were aware of this rule, and they did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

But it’s also not the first time Judge Boasberg previously noted his oversight of these matters as the chief judge for D.C. — including in the special counsel probe in question. 

Boasberg explained the rule in question in June 2023, when he granted, in part, a request from media outlets to unseal a tranche of redacted documents related to the subpoena and testimony of former Vice President Mike Pence in the same probe. (He explained in a lengthy public memo that he did so because the press movant were seeking record that Pence himself had discussed publicly.) 

Still, the controversy comes as Boasberg has found himself squarely in Trump’s crosshairs, after he issued a temporary restraining order in March blocking Trump’s use of a 1798 wartime law to deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

Until that point, however, Boasberg had largely avoided making headlines. 

A graduate of Yale, Oxford University and Yale Law School, Boasberg clerked for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before joining the Justice Department as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C.

He was tapped in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush to serve on the D.C. Superior Court, where he served until 2011, when he was nominated by President Barack Obama to the federal bench in D.C. in 2011. 

His confirmation vote soared through the Senate with a 96-0 vote of approval, including with the support of Sen. Grassley and other Republicans named in the subpoena. 

Boasberg in 2014 was appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to a seven-year term on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA Court, comprised of 11 federal judges hand-selected by the chief justice. 

Former special counsel Jack Smith, for his part, has since defended his decision to subpoena the Republican lawmakers’ phone records, which Fox News Digital reported includes phone records for a four-day period surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

They did not include the contents of phone calls or messages, which would require a warrant, but they did include ‘[call] detail records for inbound and outbound calls, text messages, direct connect, and voicemail messages’ and phone number, subscriber, and payment information.

 His lawyers told Senate lawmakers in a letter earlier this month that the decision to do so was ‘entirely proper’ and is consistent with Justice Department policy.

Fox News’s Ashley Oliver contributed to this report. 

A bipartisan pair of senators are calling on Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to hand over copies of the orders issued to strike boats in the Caribbean allegedly carrying narco-terrorists.

Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., released two letters they sent to Hegseth in recent weeks in response to the repeated strikes on suspected drug boats.

The first letter, which was issued on Sept. 23, explained the legal requirements for congressional oversight over the military’s executed orders, including that congressional defense committees must be provided copies of the orders within 15 days of being issued.

‘Unfortunately, the Department has not complied with this requirement,’ the letter reads.

The second letter, issued on Oct. 6, seeks a written opinion from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on the domestic or international legal basis for conducting the strikes and related operations.

Reports indicate that the OLC produced a legal opinion justifying the strikes, which numerous lawmakers have been demanding in recent weeks.

The senators’ letter also asked for a complete list ‘of all designated terrorist organizations and drug trafficking organizations with whom the President has determined the United States is in a non-international armed conflict and against whom lethal military force may be used.’

‘To date, these documents have not been submitted,’ Reed’s office said in a news release on Friday.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have urged the Trump administration to release information related to the strikes.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the administration on Thursday after it excluded Democrats from briefings on the strikes, a move he called ‘indefensible and dangerous.’

On Wednesday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also penned a letter demanding to review the legal justification behind the series of boat strikes they say appear to violate several laws.

‘Drug trafficking is a terrible crime that has had devastating impacts on American families and communities and should be prosecuted. Nonetheless, the President’s actions to hold alleged drug traffickers accountable must still conform with the law,’ the letter states.

The strikes have also garnered scrutiny from Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who raised concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people.

Paul has cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded for suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.

The senator has also argued that if the administration plans to engage in a war with Venezuela after it has targeted boats it claims are transporting drugs for the Venezuela-linked Tren de Aragua gang, it must seek a declaration of war from Congress.

In the House, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has made similar statements.

A report published on Friday suggested the U.S. military was planning to strike military installations in Venezuela, but President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the report was inaccurate.

This comes as Hegseth announced the U.S. military on Wednesday struck another boat carrying alleged narco-terrorists. The strikes were carried out in the Eastern Pacific region at the direction of Trump, killing four men on board.

That was the 14th strike on suspected drug boats since September. A total of 61 people have reportedly been killed while three survived, including at least two who were later repatriated to their home countries.

The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed or evidence that drugs were on board.

President Donald Trump spent the week in Asia meeting with other global leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, while his administration ramped up its attacks against alleged drug boats in Latin America.

Trump met with Xi Thursday in South Korea, where the two hashed out a series of agreements concerning trade. Specifically, Trump said he agreed to cut tariffs on Chinese imports by 10% — reducing the rate to from 57% to 47% — because China said it would cooperate with the U.S. on addressing the fentanyl crisis.

Additionally, Trump said that he would not move forward with imposing an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods that were expected to kick in Saturday. Trump threatened the steep hike after China announced in October it would impose export controls on rare earth magnets, which he said China had agreed to postpone by a year.

Afterward, Trump described the meeting as a massive success, and signaled that a broader trade deal between the two countries would be signed shortly.

‘Zero, to 10, with 10 being the best, I’d say the meeting was a 12,’ Trump told reporters after meeting with Xi. ‘A lot of decisions were made … and we’ve come to a conclusion on very many important points.’

From China’s point of view, Xi said afterward the two countries should work together and complete outstanding tasks from the summit for the ‘peace of mind’ of China, the U.S., and the rest of the world.

‘Both sides should take the long-term perspective into account, focusing on the benefits of cooperation rather than falling into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation,’ Xi said, according to a state media report on the meeting.

Additionally, Trump announced on the Asia trip, which also included stops in Malaysia and Japan, that he would instruct the U.S. to revive nuclear weapons testing —upending decades of precedent on nuclear policy, as the U.S. has not conducted nuclear weapons testing since 1992. The announcement also left lawmakers, experts and military personnel wondering what he meant since no other country has conducted a known nuclear test since North Korea in 2017.

China’s and Russia’s last known tests go back to the 1990s, when Russia was still the Soviet Union.

The White House did not provide comment to Fox News Digital. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

However, experts are aligned that Trump likely meant he would instruct the U.S. to either increase its testing of nuclear-powered weapons systems or conduct tests of low-yield nuclear weapons.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Thursday that Trump would continue to work on nuclear proliferation, but said testing would be done to guarantee weapons are working at optimal capability.

‘It’s an important part of American national security to make sure that this nuclear arsenal we have actually functions properly,’ Vance said. ‘And that’s part of a testing regime. To be clear, we know that it does work properly, but you got to keep on top of it over time. And the president just wants to make sure that we do that with his nation.’

The Trump administration also stepped up its campaign against drug cartels in Latin America, totaling at least 14 strikes against alleged drug boats in the region.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that the U.S. had conducted three strikes against four vessels in the Eastern Pacific, and Hegseth announced Wednesday another strike had also been conducted in those waters.

But the White House dismissed reports Friday that the Trump administration had identified and was poised to strike military targets within Venezuela imminently. Trump later told reporters that he hadn’t determined whether he would conduct strikes within Venezuela.

Lawmakers — including some Republicans — have pressed for more answers on the strikes, and have questioned if they are even legal. For example, Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., spearheaded a war powers resolution that would prohibit U.S. armed forces from engaging in ‘hostilities’ against Venezuela.

‘The Trump administration has made it clear they may launch military action inside Venezuela’s borders and won’t stop at boat strikes in the Caribbean,’ Schiff said in an Oct. 17 statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.