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.

Iran on Monday warned that it would retaliate if the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) took steps to impose ‘snapback’ sanctions as nations mull further action to halt Tehran’s nuclear development. 

‘The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from the Islamic Republic of Iran,’ Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei claimed during a press conference, according to a Reuters report.

Baghaei did not expand on how Iran would retaliate, but his threats come amid repeated warnings from security experts that time is running out to enforce the sanction mechanism by Oct. 18 under terms dictated by the 2015 nuclear deal. 

The comments coincided with the 10-year anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was originally intended to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but which some have argued was insufficient to adequately deter Tehran. 

Under the terms of the JCPOA, any signatory can unilaterally call up snapback sanctions if Iran is found to have violated the terms of the agreement. 

Though the U.S., which, alongside the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia, signed the 2015 deal, was deemed by the U.N. and other JCPOA members unable to utilize the mechanism after Washington withdrew from the agreement in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Despite repeated calls by the U.S. to enforce snapback – which would legally enforce all 15 U.N. members on the council, including Russia, to reimpose sanctions on Iran – no one on the UNSC or JCPOA has yet taken steps to enforce the sanctions. 

‘I would say one of the few good things about the JCPOA is that it reverse engineers the veto in the sense that you really only need one of the permanent members to be able to do this,’ Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran orogram told Fox News Digital. ‘But why is no one doing it? It’s because it’s a risky move. 

‘I think it’s a worthwhile move, but we have to be honest – it’s a risky move,’ he added. 

Ben Taleblu explained that Iran’s most likely response to the severe sanctions under the snapback mechanism would be its abandonment of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) – an international agreement that over 190 nations have signed, pledging either not to transfer weapons to another recipient by nuclear-capable nations, or not to develop atomic arms by non-nuclear nations, among other commitments. 

The terms of the agreement are monitored by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency – which Iran has already suspended cooperation with following U.S. and Israeli strikes against its nuclear program last month. 

‘In a world in which Iran’s most likely response is to leave the NPT, one has to be confident in at least the ability of military threats to deter Iran further, or at least the credibility of America’s and Israel’s, or the international community’s, military options against Iran moving forward,’ Ben Taleblu said. 

‘The problem is the lack of a game plan. Has America provided Europe with a game plan, a road map for post-snapback?’ he added, noting there needs to be a much larger strategy for next steps should sanctions be reinforced.

Though the U.S. assesses that Iran’s nuclear program has been stunted by up to two years, experts remain convinced that Tehran’s atomic ambitions have not been deterred, and its ties to terrorist networks and adversarial nations mean it remains a top security concern.

Trump has said he is still committed to negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program, though questions remain over how long he will continue to allow negotiations to drag out before a European nation like the U.K., France or Germany must step in to enact snapback sanctions not only before the October deadline, but before Russia takes over control of the UNSC presidency that month.

Pushing through the snapback mechanism is expected to be a roughly six-week process. 

Reports on Sunday suggested that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz could call up the snapback measures as soon as Tuesday, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee championed the move in a post on X. 

But Fox News Digital could not independently verify these claims and the German Foreign Ministry told Israeli news outlet JNS that the claims were incorrect. 

The chancellor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday announced that he would revive his criminal referral against Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding yet another wrinkle to the ongoing Biden White House autopen saga.

‘Today I will reissue my criminal referral of Anthony Fauci to Trump DOJ,’ Paul said on X.

It’s not the first time that Paul has issued a criminal referral against Fauci, who is the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and medical adviser to former President Joe Biden.

The first came in 2021, when Paul accused Fauci of lying to Congress about funding gain-of-function research for the COVID-19 virus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The next came in 2023, again as part of Paul’s efforts to investigate the origins of the virus.

‘Perjury is a crime,’ Paul said. ‘And Fauci must be held accountable.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Paul’s office for comment.

This time, Paul’s reupping of his criminal referral comes after a new report added another chapter to the ongoing autopen saga, in which President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have accused Biden of shrugging off his authority to aides and top officials in the White House to authorize his signature on a slew of pardons and documents.

The New York Times reported that emails showed that Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients gave final approval for the use of the autopen for preemptive pardons for Fauci and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, two of Trump’s top critics.  

Biden signed the bulk of his over 4,000 clemency documents in the waning months of his presidency, a point that Trump and congressional Republicans have pounced to hammer in the claims that the former president’s cognitive ability was declining and his staff were running the White House.

Trump has gone so far as to request Attorney General Pam Bondi open an investigation into Biden’s usage of the autopen, while Republicans in the Senate and House have all held their own committee hearings on the matter.

And earlier Monday, Trump told reporters 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. 

Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is urging Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to declassify all documents related to the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

Hawley’s request comes a year after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired off several shots at Trump from a rooftop near the presidential rally grounds. The gunman had a clear shot and grazed the president’s ear.

Even after a year, though, questions still remain about how Crooks was able to get a clear shot.

In his letter to Noem, Hawley mentions the one-year anniversary of the first assassination attempt on Trump.

‘This occasion marks a deeply troubling chapter in our nation’s history and serves as a reminder of the importance of transparency in preserving public trust during moments of national crisis,’ he wrote. ‘To that end, I urge you to take the necessary steps to declassify all documents within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) related to the events of July 13, 2024.

‘As you know, assassination attempts against current and former presidents are rare but profoundly consequential events in American life,’ Hawley continued. ‘And the American people rightly expect full transparency from their government.’

The senator pointed to investigation stonewalling tactics from the Biden administration’s Secret Service and DHS, which he said ultimately denied basic facts to the American people.

‘The public learned far more from whistleblowers than they did from public officials, and I released a report documenting these disclosures, many of which have been corroborated to date,’ Hawley wrote. ‘In October of last year, in a unanimous vote, the Homeland Security Committee passed my legislation requiring the Secret Service release to the public all pertinent documents.

‘Now, I am requesting that you immediately declassify and release all documents relating to the first assassination attempt on President Trump within the full extent of your authority, subject only to the narrowest possible redactions necessary to protect ongoing operations or individual safety,’ he said. ‘The public deserves a full and accurate account of this event, the circumstances that allowed it to happen, and the steps the government has taken since to strengthen protective measures.’

Hawley requested a complete inventory of all classified or non-public materials related to the first assassination attempt on Trump, including reports, internal communications, threat assessments, after-action reviews and coordinated records with other agencies.

He also requested a formal explanation for the continued classification of materials Noem believes must remain restricted, as well as a proposed plan and timeline for the immediate declassification and public release of all remaining documents, all by July 30, 2025.

Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS for comment on the matter.

Hawley released a report in September, detailing the failures of the Secret Service in connection with the attempted assassination of Trump in July, which included whistleblower allegations that are ‘highly damaging to the credibility’ of the agency.

The report uncovered a ‘compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding.’

Hawley accused the Secret Service, FBI and DHS of all trying ‘to evade real accountability.’

‘These agencies and their leaders have slow-walked congressional investigations, misled the American people, and shirked responsibility,’ the report states. 

After the first of two assassination attempts against Trump in just over two months, Hawley visited the Butler rally site to interview whistleblowers and opened up a whistleblower tip line, encouraging those with relevant information to share with officials. 

Documents subpoenaed by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs also show major failures among the six U.S. Secret Service (USSS) agents who were suspended without pay in response to the assassination attempt.

The documents were based on interviews with the agents and their colleagues and revealed that several agents admitted the existence of major security concerns at the Butler rally, but none of them elevated the concerns or helped produce a plan to properly cover the roof that provided Crooks a clear shot of Trump.

The documents show that some agents in charge never even conducted walk-throughs of the site. For example, the lead advance agent, documents show, never did a final security walk-through of the rally site because she was in the hospital for heat exhaustion, the special agent in charge said when questioned.

Some of the agents were suspended without pay for various terms, though none of the agents were fired.