Matt Gaetz, the former Florida representative and Trump nominee for Attorney General, announced Thursday that he is withdrawing as Trump’s pick for the top prosecutor, citing what he described as the ‘distraction’ his nomination had caused due to a swirl of allegations about paying underage women for sex. 

‘While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,’ Gaetz said.

‘There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.’

The news comes amid a swirl of allegations surrounding Gaetz, who for months had been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee until his resignation last Wednesday from the current congressional session.

The panel had subpoenaed him as recently as September for an ongoing investigation into alleged sexual misconduct with a minor. Gaetz in response told the panel he would ‘no longer voluntarily participate’ in their probe.

Gaetz’s decision to step down eight days after his nomination now leaves open the role of attorney general—a position for which Trump had been considering a wide-ranging list of candidates, including former DOJ officials, members of Congress, and outside officials.

Those on the short list included Former White House attorney Mark Paoletta, who served during Trump’s first term as counsel to then-Vice President Mike Pence and to the Office of Management and Budget; Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who was tapped in 2022 to be the state’s top prosecutor after then-state Attorney General Eric Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Since taking over the state AG’s office, Bailey has led dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration and sought to defend the state on a number of conservative issues as well. 

The one position all had in common was loyalty—for which Trump praised Gaetz for in his nomination. 

Trump confirmed the news in a post on Truth Social Thursday afternoon. ‘I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General,’ the president-elect said.’He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect,’ Trump added. ‘Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will.’

In a Truth Social post announcing Gaetz’s nomination, Trump said Gaetz ‘has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.’

Regardless of who Trump picks, ‘He’s going to want someone who he knows, likes and trusts,’ former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker told Fox News about the role earlier this month. ‘He’s going to want someone who was there from the beginning.’

The House Ethics Committee deadlocked Tuesday on whether to release their report on their investigation into the former congressman, which kicked off following a Justice Department investigation in 2021 stemming from allegations related to sex trafficking.  The DOJ did not press charges in the matter, and attorneys for Gaetz said in 2023 that the Justice Department had dropped the investigation. 

‘We have just spoken with the DOJ and have been informed that they have concluded their investigation into Congressman Gaetz and allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice, and they have determined not to bring any charges against him,’ Gaetz attorneys Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner said in a statement last February reported by multiple news outlets.

Gaetz has vehemently denied all accusations. 

Lawmakers responded to the news with a range of reactions Thursday. 

Gaetz faced an uncertain path to Senate confirmation, even in a Republican-controlled chamber— and it was unclear whether he would have secured the votes needed to serve in the key Cabinet role.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he respects the former congressman’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration, and ‘appreciate his willingness to serve at the highest level of our government.’ 

‘He is very smart and talented and will continue to contribute to our nation’s wellbeing for years to come,’ Graham said.

‘I think it’s a positive development.,’ Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told reporters of Gaetz’s decision to take himself out of the running. He declined to answer any follow-up questions as to why he thought that, but looked at reporters and smiled.

Sen. Joe Manchin, I-WV, said of the news, ‘Smart man.’ Asked to clarify, he added: ‘He did that?’ 

‘Very smart,’ he told reporters in response. ‘Very smart move.’

This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for updates. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., claims that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray skipped a public Senate hearing to avoid criticism over the verdict in the case of Laken Riley’s murder.

Mayorkas and Wray were scheduled to testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday, but the hearing was postponed after they insisted it be classified and not open to the public. Hawley told Fox News Digital in a Thursday interview that he is calling on Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., to subpoena the pair’s public testimony.

‘Let’s not forget who let him into country,’ Hawley said of Riley’s murderer, Jose Ibarra. ‘Mayorkas lied about how he got into country. He said authorities didn’t have information about his past crimes. False. Then he claimed he didn’t remember the details. False. Now he’s refusing to comment.’ Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on Hawley’s remarks, but they did not immediately respond.

Ibarra was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday.

Thursday’s hearing is the second time in as many days that Mayorkas and Wray have forced the postponement of their testimony before Congress by insisting on a classified setting.

The House Homeland Security Committee punted its hearing, originally scheduled for Wednesday, to December. A source with the committee told Fox News Digital that the hearing will be classified.

Hawley indicated that the Senate would not comply so easily, however. He said he is formally calling on Peters to issue subpoenas to force both Mayorkas and Wray to testify publicly.

Representatives for the FBI and DHS told Fox News Digital earlier on Thursday that they believe Mayorkas and Wray have already provided ‘extensive testimony’ to the House, Senate and the American people.

Peters’ office did not immediately respond when asked about potential subpoenas. The senator was heavily critical of Mayorkas and Wray in a statement on X, however, saying that their refusal to testify publicly ‘robs Americans of critical information.’

Hawley went on to call for Wray to resign ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, citing his record on illegal immigration and his alleged hostility toward Catholic Americans.

‘If he doesn’t resign, Trump should fire him,’ Hawley said of Wray.

Five more of President Biden’s judicial nominees advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and will proceed to the Senate floor in the coming days.

Senate Democrats confirmed Biden’s 220th federal court appointment on Wednesday and are hoping to add to that number before the Thanksgiving holiday. Republicans have fought several of these nominees on grounds that they are too left wing, but a number of Biden’s appointments were confirmed after GOP senators missed votes.

President-elect Trump accused Democrats of attempting to ‘stack the Courts’ with radical appointees and urged Republicans to ‘Show Up and Hold the Line.’ 

‘No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!’ Trump posted on Truth Social.

Democrats are in a mad rush to confirm as many of Biden’s nominees as possible before Trump returns to the White House and Republicans install their incoming Senate majority. 

The nominees advanced Thursday include Anthony Brindisi, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York; Elizabeth Coombe, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York; Sarah Davenport, nominated to the District Court for the District of New Mexico; Tiffany Johnson, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia; and Keli Neary, nominated to the U.S. District court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The committee also advanced Miranda Holloway-Baggett, a nominee to be United States Marshal for the Southern District of Alabama. 

Senators reached a bipartisan agreement on judicial nominations late Wednesday that secured Trump’s ability to appoint four crucial appellate court judges after he assumes office in January.

Republicans agreed to halt procedural delay tactics and permit Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to hold votes on four district court judges in exchange for pulling four higher tier circuit court judicial nominees, a Senate GOP source told Fox News Digital.

Trump will be able to fill those higher court vacancies while Democrats confirm judges to the lower courts.

However, a Senate Democrat leadership aide familiar with the agreement said the deal that was reached allowed for the Senate to vote on cloture on nine district court judges this week, and vote to confirm them when they return after Thanksgiving. The aide rejected the GOP source’s framing of the agreement that the trade was four district judges for four circuit court judges.

‘The trade was four circuit nominees — all lacking the votes to get confirmed — for more than triple the number of additional judges moving forward,’ a spokesperson for Schumer said in a statement.

A Democrat source familiar also made the point to Fox News Digital that only two of the circuit court vacancies are certain, and the other two may ultimately decide against taking senior judge status.

The nomination of Amir Ali to the District of Columbia was confirmed Wednesday night. The Senate voted on cloture on four other nominations as well. The Senate will vote Thursday on cloture on two further nominations, Noel Wise of California to be District Judge for the Northern District of California and Gail A. Weilheimer to be District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and vote on confirmation of one District Court Judge, Sharad Desai to be District Judge for Arizona. 

The deal was primarily motivated by a Senate slowdown initiated by Republicans through procedural maneuvers on Monday night, which was spearheaded by Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., who was recently elected as the next Republican Senate leader. The delay tactic plan came in response to Schumer’s efforts to stack additional judicial confirmation votes on the calendar ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. 

‘If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would just roll over and allow him to quickly confirm multiple Biden-appointed judges to lifetime jobs in the final weeks of the Democrat majority, he thought wrong,’ Thune told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement at the time. 

By objecting to Democrats’ unanimous consent requests in order to file cloture on the Biden nominees, Republicans were adding additional votes to the schedule, taking up a substantial amount of time and forcing senators to spend all night at the Capitol.

The source noted to Fox News Digital that the new deal did not mean Republicans were going to allow the Biden district judges to sail through without opposition. GOP senators are still expected to fight and vote against the Democrat-nominated judges as they have done throughout Biden’s term. 

Fox News Digital’s Haley Chi-Sing and Julia Johnson contributed to this report. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday said that President Biden still believes that President-elect Trump is an ‘existential threat’ to democracy.

But when confronted by a reporter about Biden’s relative silence on the ‘threat’ he thinks Trump poses since the election, Jean-Pierre replied, ‘We are now in a different place.’ 

‘There was an election and the American people spoke. The will of the American people were very clear,’ she told reporters at the daily White House press briefing.

Biden met with Trump at the White House last week and committed to a ‘smooth transition’ as the 45th and soon to be 47th president prepares to return to office in January.

Their cordial meeting stood in stark contrast to the heated rhetoric used before Election Day, when Biden and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris each called Trump a ‘fascist’ and repeatedly warned that American democracy would be in danger if he prevailed.

‘Politics is tough and in many cases it’s not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today,’ a smiling Trump said after Biden shook his hand and welcomed him back to the White House.

Jean-Pierre said Thursday that Biden’s shift in tone reflects an effort to ‘lead by example’ to make sure the peaceful transfer of power takes place.

‘He feels like he is obligated. What he said still stands, but we are now in a different place. We are— the American people spoke. They deserve a peaceful transfer of power,’ she said. 

She reiterated that Biden’s beliefs about Trump have ‘not changed.’ 

Biden’s offer to Trump to visit the White House was an invitation he himself was never accorded.

Four years ago, in the wake of his election defeat at the hands of Biden, Trump refused to concede and tried unsuccessfully to overturn the results.

Breaking with long-standing tradition, Trump didn’t invite Biden to the White House. And two weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory, Trump left Washington ahead of the presidential inauguration of his successor, becoming the first sitting president in a century and a half to skip out on a successor’s inauguration.

The meeting was the first between Biden and Trump since they faced off in Atlanta on June 27 in their one and only debate, a contest most viewers determined Biden decidedly lost. He withdrew from the 2024 election and endorsed Harris a month later. 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob Casey on Thursday announced he has conceded the race to Republican candidate Dave McCormick, putting an end to a lengthy automatic recount in the Keystone State more than two weeks after Election Day. 

Casey said in a statement that he called McCormick to congratulate him. McCormick’s campaign also independently confirmed the news to Fox News Digital. 

‘I just called Dave McCormick to congratulate him on his election to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate,’ Casey said in the statement. ‘As the first count of ballots is completed, Pennsylvanians can move forward with the knowledge that their voices were heard, whether their vote was the first to be counted or the last.’

‘This race was one of the closest in our Commonwealth’s history, decided by less than a quarter of a point. I am grateful to the thousands of people who worked to make sure every eligible vote cast could be counted, including election officials in all 67 counties.’

The news comes after McCormick edged out Casey by just 17,000 votes to win the Senate seat, according to the most recent unofficial data from the Department of State – putting Casey well within the 0.5% margin of error required under Pennsylvania law to trigger an automatic recount. 

That recount began Monday and was slated to end Nov. 26.

The Republican Party blasted Democrats this week for Casey’s refusal to concede the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, taking aim at the three-term incumbent for moving ahead with a costly recount effort, despite their assessment that Casey lacked any achievable path to victory.

They have also criticized the cost, noting that the recount will cost taxpayers an estimated $1 million. 

In his statement Thursday, Casey praised the democratic process and voters who turned out in the Keystone State.

‘When a Pennsylvanian takes the time to cast a legal vote, often waiting in long lines and taking time away from their work and family, they deserve to know that their vote will count,’ Casey said. ‘That’s democracy.’

Some House Republicans are embracing the idea of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., leading a new congressional subcommittee dedicated to cutting down on government waste.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is planning to commission a new panel under his purview called the Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee, Fox News Digital first learned on Thursday.

And multiple Republican lawmakers have already told Fox News Digital they hope to join the panel.

‘Marjorie would take no prisoners,’ said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who said he’s already texted Greene about the subcommittee. ‘I would love to be on it.’

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who is also aiming for a spot on the committee, said, ‘good for her’ when asked about Greene leading the panel.

‘I think she’ll be a basically an immovable object on some of the spending cuts that we need,’ Luna said.

As to her own bid for a spot, she said, ‘We’re going to make a push right now.’

It comes after Trump announced the creation of an advisory panel called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he tapped Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead.

Trump said the panel would help his administration ‘slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies.’

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., a member of the newly created DOGE Caucus, said that whoever were to lead the subcommittee should be ‘hawkish’ on fiscal matters.

‘I’d definitely be interested in it,’ Mills said. ‘ I always talk about three things, which is repealing programs and departments that no longer serve the intended purposes; reforming certain areas where we understand that, just the way times change, the requirements and needs change as well; and then also re-energize in certain areas to make sure that Americans know what’s accessible to them as far as assets or resources.’

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who serves on Comer’s Oversight Committee, did not feel strongly one way or another about joining the DOGE subcommittee but praised Greene’s ascension to the chair.

‘One thing about Marjorie is that she’s, you know, she’s locked in on details, and so she’s going to want to be very helpful to Elon and Vivek,’ Donalds said. ‘And obviously, we’re breaking new ground here.’

He also suggested that Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, would be ‘very good’ on the subcommittee.

Cloud did show interest when asked by Fox News Digital, and he similarly praised Greene.

‘Reining in the federal government and restoring accountability is one of the most important tasks we face in this next Congress. These efforts are essential if we are to support the mandate President Trump has been given by the American people, and I am eager to contribute to this effort in any capacity,’ Cloud said in a statement. 

‘Congresswoman Greene has shown she’s the right person to challenge the norms and drive the kind of change Washington desperately needs.’

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., did not weigh in directly on Greene but said he ‘would hope’ some fiscal hawks in his conservative group would be considered for positions.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

The Pentagon said it rejects the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday.

Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a press briefing on Thursday that the U.S. ‘fundamentally rejects’ the ICC’s decision to issue the arrest warrants.

‘We remain concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants, and, you know, some of the processes that have played out,’ Singh said. ‘And again, we’ve been very clear that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over this matter.’

The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with ‘crimes against humanity and war crimes,’ including the use of starvation as a method of warfare and targeting civilians.

President Biden blasted the court’s decision to issue arrest warrants against the two senior Israeli officials.

‘The ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,’ Biden said. ‘Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the court’s actions in a statement on Thursday.

‘Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughingstock,’ Herzog wrote. ‘It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice – from the Allied victory over the Nazis till today.’

Herzog argued that the ICC’s decision ignores Hamas’ use of human shields and its Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks that started the war, as well as the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza.

Israel made several efforts to block the ICC from approving the arrest warrants. They first argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel, but the court said it could issue the arrest warrants as part of the ‘territorial jurisdiction of Palestine.’

Israel also made other procedural challenges, but they were rejected.

The ICC’s move comes just days after Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune threatened to hit the court with sanctions if it moved forward with the arrest warrants.

The U.S. does not officially recognize the ICC’s authority, but it is not the first time Washington has looked to halt the court’s actions.

In 2020, the Trump administration opposed attempts by the ICC to investigate U.S. soldiers and the CIA involved in alleged war crimes between 2003-2004 ‘in secret detention facilities in Afghanistan,’ and issued sanctions against ICC prosecutors.

Biden’s administration undid those sanctions shortly after entering office.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.