FIRST ON FOX: A bipartisan group of five lawmakers are sending a letter Friday, urging the Biden administration to fully enforce laws preventing goods manufactured with forced labor from entering through American ports.

The lawmakers — led by Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., and who are all members of the House Ways and Means Committee — penned the letter to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Troy Miller. They urged Miller to ensure full enforcement of the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), especially as it pertains to the billion-dollar solar industry, citing information showing his agency may be falling short of the law’s requirements.

‘In the name of climate change, the Biden Administration is surrendering the United States to the CCP. By allowing solar panels manufactured with Chinese polysilicon to avoid detection, they are encouraging Uyghur forced labor, distorting the market, and killing American jobs,’ Miller told Fox News Digital in a statement.

‘I am calling on Customs and Border Patrol to strongly enforce the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and stop products that were made by forced labor into the United States. We have the moral obligation to have a strategic decoupling from China and their inhumane labor practices,’ she continued.

The letter Friday referenced comments from an executive at Chinese solar panel maker JA Solar which were made during a recent call with investors. The remarks were obtained by the Ways and Means Committee and shared with Fox News Digital.

The executive suggested that, since U.S. customs officials started enforcing the UFLPA last year, the solar industry has identified that there may be some American ports where products originating from China are more easily released into the U.S.

‘Any companies that continue to skirt U.S. law designed to prevent economic benefits from these crimes must be stopped and held accountable,’ the lawmakers wrote to Miller. ‘In this regard, we are concerned that statements by an executive at JA Solar, a solar company located in the PRC with supply chain ties to Xinjiang, recently stated publicly that its shipments are treated differently depending on which U.S. port the products enter.’ 

‘This is unacceptable, particularly if it suggests that some ports are not providing appropriate scrutiny to fully implement the UFLPA,’ they continued. ‘We cannot give JA Solar or any company a free pass to import goods tainted with forced labor into the U.S.’

The group — which, in addition to Miller, included Reps. Blake Moore, R-Utah, Greg Steube, R-Fla., Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio — further called on the CBP to coordinate ‘civil society, private industry and through the interagency task force to ensure all products entering the U.S. are in full compliance with the UFLPA.’

In 2021, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced the UFLPA to prohibit goods made with Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang from entering the U.S. and empower the Department of Homeland Security and CBP to maintain a list of Chinese entities linked to forced labor. President Biden signed the legislation into law months later and it went into effect in June 2022.

Federal data published by CBP, though, suggests that, while CBP is stopping solar shipments originating from China under the UFLPA, it releases the majority of those shipments into the U.S. market. 

To date, the CBP has detained a total of 2,412 shipments of electronics worth $1.5 billion, but has only denied 36% of those shipments which have an estimated worth of $391 million, according to the most recent data updated on Sept. 12. The electronics category includes solar panel supplies.

The UFLPA and broader push in the West to crack down on Chinese forced labor practices came after a series of reports and studies tying the solar panel industry, particularly the production of raw material polysilicon, and other industries like clothing manufacturing to facilities in China’s Xinjiang province. About 40% of global polysilicon manufacturing is located in Xinjiang, according to a July 2022 analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

For example, a May 2021 report published by Sheffield Hallam University’s Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice in the U.K. highlighted how the Chinese government deploys ‘labor transfer’ programs in Xinjiang which consist of forcibly placing millions of indigenous citizens and members of the Uyghur Muslim minority into jobs. 

The report determined the programs are ‘tantamount to forcible transfer of populations and enslavement’ and are utilized for polysilicon production in Xinjiang.

And late last year, the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China released its 2022 annual report which concluded that senior Chinese government officials continue to carry out mass detention and persecution of Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang. Authorities also continue to maintain a system of forced labor of former mass internment camp detainees and other Turkic and Muslim individuals.

Still, the Chinese government has repeatedly denied both that it employs any forced labor programs and that China’s solar industry uses forced labor.

‘The so-called ‘forced labor’ is flat-out lie of the century fabricated by institutions and personnel in certain Western countries such as the United States. There is no ‘forced labor’ in the production of photovoltaic products in Xinjiang, China,’ Chinese government spokesperson Liu Pengyu previously told Fox News Digital in a statement.

‘Employees in Xinjiang choose occupations according to their own wishes, sign labor contracts with photovoltaic companies in accordance with the principle of equality and voluntariness and the law, and obtain corresponding remuneration,’ Pengyu said. ‘Xinjiang implements a proactive labor and employment policy, which effectively protects the basic rights of people of all ethnic groups to employment.’

Overall, China continues to dominate the global solar supply chain even as nations including the U.S. attempt to increase domestic manufacturing capabilities. According to the July 2022 IEA report, China has a greater than 80% share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels. China produces a staggering 95% of all global polysilicon, ingot and wafer supplies necessary for solar products.

The IEA concluded that Chinese government policies identifying the solar industry as a ‘strategic sector’ have helped strengthen the nation’s solar supply chain. In 2021, the nation exported $30 billion worth of solar supplies, equivalent to roughly 7% of China’s trade surplus in recent years.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, continues to aggressively push solar energy investments as part of its climate agenda. Biden announced in 2021 his goal for the U.S. to have a carbon-free power grid by 2035, a target that would require a massive solar energy expansion nationwide. About 3% of the nation’s utility-scale electricity is currently generated by solar power.

The CBP and JA Solar didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the world is on the cusp of an artificial intelligence revolution that could launch nations into prosperous times or lead to all-out destruction fueled by devastating high-tech wars. 

‘The AI revolution is progressing at lightning speed,’ Netanyahu said during his U.N. General Assembly speech last week. ‘It took centuries for humanity to adapt to the agricultural revolution. It took decades to adapt to the industrial revolution. We may have but a few years to adapt to the AI revolution.’

Talk of artificial intelligence at the U.N. was hardly common just a few years ago. But after the release of ChatGPT’s wildly popular chatbot that can mimic human conversation and other AI-powered platforms, AI has become a hot topic among world leaders. 

Netanyahu’s speech focused on building a peaceful ‘new Middle East,’ and cited relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as evidence of this intention. He devoted the latter half of his speech to the future of AI and the ‘perils’ the technology poses. 

‘The perils are great, and they are before us: The disruption of democracy, the manipulation of minds, the decimation of jobs, the proliferation of crime and the hacking of all the systems that facilitate modern life,’ he said. 

‘Yet, even more disturbing is the potential eruption of AI-driven wars that could achieve an unimaginable scale,’ Netanyahu said. ‘Behind this perhaps looms an even greater threat, once the stuff of science fiction — that self-taught machines could eventually control humans instead of the other way around.’

Netanyahu’s remarks at the U.N. echo concerns from other world leaders and experts who have warned AI could be used by bad actors or global adversaries during war, which could lead to more death. Earlier this year, Fox News Digital asked ChatGPT to provide examples of ‘scary AI,’ and even the chatbot cited AI-powered weapons used in war.

‘An example of ‘scary AI’ is an advanced autonomous weapon system that can independently identify and attack targets without human intervention,’ the chatbot responded. ‘These systems, often referred to as ‘killer robots’ or ‘lethal autonomous weapons,’ raise ethical concerns and the potential for misuse or unintended consequences.’

Researchers at the tech nonprofit Center for AI Safety published a study earlier this year detailing four ways AI could spiral into worldwide catastrophes, including an AI race between nations that could translate to ‘more destructive wars, the possibility of accidental usage or loss of control and the prospect of malicious actors co-opting these technologies for their own purpose.’ 

‘Although walking, shooting robots have yet to replace soldiers on the battlefield, technologies are converging in ways that may make this possible in the near future,’ the researchers explained.

Netanyahu called on other nations to address such concerns about a future where ‘self-taught machines could eventually control humans’ and to ensure ‘that the promise of an AI utopia does not turn into an AI dystopia.’

On the flip side, the Israeli prime minister called on people to ‘imagine’ various scenarios of a more prosperous and efficiently run world by using AI in day-to-day tasks. 

‘Imagine robots helping to care for the elderly,’ Netanyahu said, joking that his speech sounded like ‘a John Lennon song.’ ‘Imagine the end of traffic jams with self-driving vehicles on the ground, below the ground and in the air. Imagine personalized education that cultivates each person’s full potential throughout their lifetime.’

Following his visit to the U.S., where he delivered his U.N. speech and also met with tech leader Elon Musk and President Biden, Netanyahu said he plans to make Israel the ‘No. 3 country in the world’ for AI. 

‘For several months now, I have been formulating a national plan,’ Netanyahu said Wednesday, according to The Jerusalem Post. .’Soon I will appoint a project manager on the subject, and I will also submit the national plan to the government and the public.

‘Artificial intelligence is an area that is much stronger than cyber, immeasurably stronger than cyber, and we have set the goal of turning the State of Israel into the No. 3 country in the world in this field, a very ambitious goal,’ he added. 

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Likely Republican voters think Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had the best performance in the second Republican debate, according to a new poll.

The poll was conducted by 538/Washington Post/Ispos and asked 2,262 likely voters in the Republican primary to grade each candidate’s performance during the debate, which was hosted on Wednesday night by FOX Business in Simi Valley, California.

Prior to the debate, pollsters asked likely GOP primary voters how they thought each candidate would perform. Overall, voters thought Vivek Ramaswamy would finish ahead of the rest, closely followed by DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.

When polled following the debate, 33% of respondents thought DeSantis performed the best during the debate, followed by Haley at 18% and Ramaswamy at 15%.

24% of people polled thought former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie performed the worst and 20% thought the same of former Vice President Mike Pence. 11% of voters thought North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum performed the worst, and 10% thought the same of Ramaswamy.

However, support among the field was largely unchanged after the debate.

Support for DeSantis increased from 51.0% to 51.9%, Haley’s went from 34.0% to 36.4%, and Scott’s went from 24.7% to 26.5%. In the poll, support for candidates is based on the percentage of polled voters considering voting for each individual.

Ramaswamy slightly lost support, going from 27.2% to 28.1% as well as Pence, going from 23.4% to 24.2%.

Support for Former President Donald Trump went from 63.8% to 63.9%.

The poll also asked likely Republican primary voters what issues are most important in determining their primary vote, given the option to select up to 20 issues.

‘Getting inflation or increased costs under control’ was considered the most important issue to 55% of voters, ‘Controlling immigration’ was considered a priority for 40% of voters, and ‘Ability to beat Joe Biden’ was a priority for 24% of voters.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer issued three subpoenas Thursday night for the personal and business bank records belonging to President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and brother, James Biden, as part of the House impeachment inquiry.

Comer, R-Ky., who signaled earlier this month his intention to subpoena those records, did so just hours after the first hearing as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden.

Fox News Digital reviewed the subpoenas. The subpoenas have redactions over the names of the banks. It is unclear which financial institutions were subpoenaed for these records.

The subpoenas compel records, including account statements, direct deposits, deposits, cashier checks, wire transfers, electronic transfer payments, credit and debit card records, loan documents and other records related to Hunter Biden; his shell companies Owasco, P.C. and Owasco, LLC; Skaneateles; business associate Eric Schwerin; James Biden; Lion Hall Group, LLC: and JBBSR, Inc.

‘From day one of our investigation of Joe Biden’s abuse of public office, we’ve followed the money and that continues with today’s subpoenas for Hunter and James Biden’s bank records,’ Comer said Thursday night. ‘Bank records don’t lie, and coupled with witness testimony, they reveal that Joe Biden abused his public office for his family’s financial gain.’

Comer said the financial records that his committee has obtained to date ‘reveal a pattern where the Bidens sold access to Joe Biden around the world to enrich the Biden family.’

‘As the Bidens were sealing deals around the world, Joe Biden showed up, met with, talked with, shook hands with, and had meetings with the foreign nationals sending money to his family. This culture of corruption demands further investigation,’ Comer said.  ‘The Oversight Committee, as well as the Committees on the Judiciary and Ways and Means, will continue to follow the money to determine whether President Biden’s involvement in his family’s corrupt business schemes makes him compromised and threatens our national security.’

Comer vowed to provide ‘the answers, transparency, and accountability that the American people demand and deserve.’

The subpoenas also come after Fox News Digital first reported that the House Oversight Committee has learned that the Biden family and their business associates brought in more than $24 million between 2014 and 2019 by ‘selling Joe Biden as ‘the brand’ around the world.’

House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., added that President Biden ‘was not just aware of his son’s business dealings, but in fact he was connected to them, it has become clear that whether it was lunches, phone calls, White House meetings, or official foreign trips, Hunter Biden cashed in by arranging access to his father.’

‘While top Biden officials, Hunter’s lawyers, and congressional Democrats have offered little more than disinformation and lies, these bank records will bring us closer to the truth,’ Smith said. ‘Issuing these subpoenas is an appropriate – and necessary – step to following the facts wherever they lead, and may shed light on the $24 million the Biden family has received in exchange for selling their family ‘brand’ as part of a global influence peddling scheme.’

The White House maintains that President Biden was never in business with his son and never discussed business with his son or his family. White House officials have blasted the impeachment inquiry against the president as an ‘evidence-free’ political stunt. 

President Biden, his 2020 campaign staff and top White House aides have claimed at least 20 times that Biden ‘never discussed’ his son Hunter’s business dealings with him, sparking backlash from a top House Republican who says there ‘can no longer be any dispute’ that ‘Biden and his staff have repeatedly lied to the American people.’

Between 2019 and 2023, not only has there been mounting evidence that this talking point was false, but the narrative has also shifted multiple times, raising questions from GOP lawmakers.

On August 28, 2019, Biden said as a presidential candidate on the campaign trail that he’s ‘never discussed’ with his son about his business dealings ‘period.’

A month later, while campaigning in Iowa, Biden again said to Fox News reporter Peter Doocy that he has ‘never’ spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings.

‘I don’t discuss business with my son,’ Biden said again in October.

Biden made the same claim three more times in October while campaigning for president including a comment at a Democratic presidential debate where he said, ‘I never discussed a single thing with my son about anything having do with Ukraine.’

Once elected president, the same narrative emanated from Biden and his White House staff including in April of 2022 when White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked if it was ‘still the case’ that Biden had never spoken to his son about his ‘overseas business dealings.’

‘Yes,’ Psaki said. 

Several weeks later, Psaki said that Biden ‘maintains his same statements that he’s made in the past’ regarding talking business with his son. 

‘Nothing has changed,’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in June 2023 when asked again if the father and son spoke about overseas business dealings.

Also in June 2023, Biden said ‘no’ when asked if he had lied in the past about never speaking to Hunter about his business dealings.

After those repeated statements, the White House was accused of ‘moving the goalposts’ in July when White House spokesperson from the White House Counsel’s Office Ian Sams said, ‘As we have said many times before, the president was not in business with his son.’

‘The answer remains the same,’ Jean-Pierre said during a July 24 briefing. ‘The president was never in business with his son. I just don’t have anything else to add.

It was in late July when testimony from former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer showed that, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, Biden ‘lied’ about never talking business with his son when Archer revealed that Hunter put his father on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand.’

Vice President Biden also met with more than a dozen of Hunter’s foreign business partners, Fox News Digital previously reported.

‘There can no longer be any dispute that Joe Biden and his staff have repeatedly lied to the American people about his knowledge of and involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings,’ GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik told Fox News Digital. 

‘House Republicans’ rigorous investigations have uncovered mounting evidence that Biden not only knew about Hunter’s business dealings from phone calls to meetings, but was a willing participant.’

Stefanik continued, ‘This week, House Oversight Chairman James Comes released evidence that Hunter Biden listed Joe Biden’s house as the beneficiary address for two bank wires from Communist China in 2019 – while Joe Biden was actively campaigning to be President of the United States. It is clear the American people that Joe Biden is compromised, and House Republicans will leave no stone unturned as we deliver transparency and accountability on behalf of the American people.’

Additionally, Hunter’s lawyer’s claims earlier this month about Hunter not sharing profits with his father do not appear to hold up when looking at Hunter’s text messages and emails from his abandoned laptop, according to previous Fox News Digital reports.

In a January 2019 text message, Hunter expressed frustration with his daughter, Naomi, and revealed that his father forced him to fork over half his salary.

‘I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro (sic) 30 years. It’s really hard. But don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary,’ Hunter wrote.

In a 2018 WhatsApp message with his uncle, Hunter fumed about now-first lady Jill Biden and called her a ‘f—ing moron’ after she shot down a proposal about him teaching and said he needed to get sober first or that he would not be able to support his family.

‘I suooorted (sic) my GM (sic) family including some of the costs you should have used your salary to lay (sic) for- for the last 24 years,’ Hunter said.

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

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Cameron Cawthorne and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.

Disagreements over Ukraine aid are threatening to be a major factor in a looming government shutdown if lawmakers can’t agree on how to fund the government by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Sending U.S. dollars to Kyiv for its fight against a Russian invasion has been a point of contention for a significant number of GOP lawmakers in the House, and even several in the Senate. 

The House Rules Committee staged an emergency meeting on Wednesday night to strip $300 million in Ukraine aid from the defense spending bill, one of 12 that lawmakers are passing to fund the government after Sept. 30. It came hours after Fox News Digital first reported that objections to those provided funds were threatening to tank the bill.

The $300 million funding got a separate vote late on Thursday night after the Rules Committee separated it – more than half of the Republican conference voted against it. The bill passed with the support of all 210 present Democrats and 101 of 218 voting Republicans. 

Meanwhile, in the Senate, the inclusion of $6 billion for Ukraine in a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), has made the bill a nonstarter in the House, according to Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has also pledged to force the chamber to slow-walk any CR that includes additional aid toward Kyiv’s effort.

House and Senate lawmakers must come together on some funding agreement before midnight on Sunday to avert a partial government shutdown. 

A majority of Republicans in both chambers do support aid for Ukraine – amendments to stop or limit those funds offered with the defense spending bill were defeated by Democrats and more than half of the GOP conference. 

But in the House specifically, the GOP’s razor-thin majority has given a smaller faction of hardliners outsized influence over the rest of the conference. 

‘I’ve been clear from day one, that no money should be going to Ukraine, that our position should be bringing peace to that country. We’re currently right now funding the destruction of Ukraine,’ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who voted to block a procedural measure over her opposition, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to Capitol Hill earlier this month and, in a sign of the tensions over the subject, he was not given the opportunity to address a joint session of Congress as he did previously. 

Instead, he met with leaders and some lawmakers in the House and delivered a separate address to the Senate. 

EXCLUSIVE: The $250,000 wire Hunter Biden received from his Chinese business partners was labeled as a ‘personal investment,’ despite his legal team claiming the funds were part of a loan and previously saying he never ‘received any return on his investment,’ Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital first reported Tuesday that Hunter Biden received wires that originated in Beijing totaling $260,000 from Chinese business partners during the summer of 2019 — wires that listed the Delaware home of Joe Biden as the beneficiary address for the funds.

The revelations come after Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell told CNN that the wires were ‘a documented loan (not a distribution or pay-out) that was wired from a private individual to his new bank account which listed the address on his driver’s license, his parents’ address, because it was his only permanent address at the time.’

The wires for the funds originated from Beijing and were linked to BHR Partners.

BHR Partners is a joint-venture between Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited. Hunter Biden reportedly sat on the board of directors of BHR Partners.

The first wire transfer sent to Hunter Biden, dated July 26, 2019, was for $10,000 from an individual named Ms. Wang Xin. 

Ms. Wang Xin is listed on the website for BHR Partners. It is unclear if the wire came from that Wang Xin.

Fox News Digital has learned that the $10,000 wire was labeled as ‘ACC/LOAN TO BENEFICIARY.’

The second wire transfer sent to Hunter Biden, dated Aug. 2, 2019, was for $250,000 from Li Xiang Sheng — also known as Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR Partners — and Ms. Tan Ling. The committee is trying to identify Ling’s role.

Fox News Digital has learned that $250,000 wire was labeled as ‘ACC/PERSONAL INVESTMENT.’

The beneficiary for the wires is listed as Robert Hunter Biden with the address ‘1209 Barley Mill Rd.’ in Wilmington, Delaware. That address is the main residence for President Biden.

Back in October 2019, despite Hunter having received more than a quarter of a million dollars from BHR-linked associates, then-attorney for Hunter Biden, George Mesires, explained Hunter’s role at BHR Partners by saying he ‘served only as a member of the board of directors, which he joined based on his interest in seeking ways to bring Chinese capital to international markets.’

‘It was an unpaid position,’ Mesires said on Oct. 13, 2019. ‘In October 2017, Hunter committed to invest approximately $420,000 USD (as of 10/12/2019) to acquire a 10% equity position in BHR, which he still holds.’

Mesires, at the time, added: ‘To date, Hunter has not received any compensation for being on BHR’s board of directors. He has not received any return on his investment; there have been no distributions to BHR shareholders since Hunter obtained his equity interest.’

Hunter resigned from the board of BHR at the end of October 2019.

Meanwhile, as the White House declines to comment on the beneficiary address and wire payments, President Biden has had several interactions with BHR Partners CEO Jonathan Li.

The wires were sent just several months after then-Vice President Joe Biden announced his 2020 presidential campaign. Joe Biden, in August 2019, said he ‘never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period.’

As for Jonathan Li, according to testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer, as part of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation, Joe Biden sat down for coffee in Beijing with the CEO of BHR. Archer also testified that Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s daughter to Georgetown. Archer said Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone for at least one call with Li in addition to meeting for coffee.

Separately, Fox News Digital first reported in 2022 that Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s son to Brown University.

‘Bank records don’t lie, but President Joe Biden does,’ Comer told Fox News Digital.

‘In 2020, Joe Biden told Americans that his family never received money from China. We’ve already proved that to be a lie earlier this year, and now we know that two wires originating from Beijing listed Joe Biden’s Wilmington home as the beneficiary address when he was running for president of the United States. When Joe Biden was vice president, he spoke on the phone and had coffee with Jonathan Li in Beijing and later wrote a college letter of recommendation for his children,’ Comer said.

‘Joe Biden’s abuse of public office for his family’s financial gain threatens our national security. What did the Bidens do with this money from Beijing? Americans demand and deserve accountability for President Biden and the first family’s corruption. The Oversight Committee, along with the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, will continue to follow the evidence and money to provide transparency and accountability.’

The discovery of the records comes ahead of the first hearing, to be held by Oversight, as part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry against President Biden. 

The White House declined to comment on the wires. 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner on Thursday brought President Joe Biden’s alleged improper retention and mishandling of classified records from his time as vice president and in the U.S. Senate into the House impeachment inquiry against him. 

Turner, R-Ohio, during the first hearing as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden, raised that the president is currently under federal criminal investigation for his alleged mishandling of classified records, blasting him as a ‘classified document hoarder.’

Beyond Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s business dealings, Turner said ‘there’s also another concerning aspect of President Joe Biden’s actions as vice president, for which there is currently a criminal investigation, and that is his misuse of classified documents.’

‘There has been appointed by the Department of Justice, by the attorney general, a special prosecutor for the purposes of investigating the federal crimes that could arisen as a result from this president’s misuse of classified documents,’ Turner said.

Special Counsel Robert Hur was appointed in January to investigate the president’s alleged improper retention of the records. The status of that investigation, at this point, is unclear. 

‘This committee, in its scope of this investigation, indicates that these classified materials are also relevant because, example, the Oversight committee has requested information regarding the classified materials discovered in the president’s home, where his son has resided during the time period relevant to the investigation and personal office,’ Turner said. 

Turner said that the White House ‘has not provided this information.’ 

‘Obviously, his son was receiving payments from Romania, Russia, Ukraine, China,’ Turner said, referring to financial records uncovered by the House Oversight Committee. ‘If there are in those documents that relate to, for example, the prosecutor in Ukraine or Burisma itself or other aspects of Ukraine or any of the parties or individuals obviously, that were making payments to Hunter Biden, that would be relevant, wouldn’t it?’

Law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley, a witness at the hearing, agreed, saying ‘pre-office conduct’ should be considered.

Turley, though, said it is ‘not clear to me’ whether Biden’s retention of the records ‘would amount to an impeachable offense or not.’

‘Right,’ Turner said. ‘You have to make that nexus.’

Turner said that, in his role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he has seen several of the documents Biden had been holding.

‘I can tell you they are of the highest level of concern and threat to national security,’ Turner said. ‘I think we do have to get to the bottom of why was he taking them and what was he doing with them.’

Former President Trump was also under separate special counsel investigation for his alleged improper retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago. Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with 37 federal charges, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., signaled he would be open to working with the Democrat-held Senate on a stopgap funding compromise to avert a government shutdown — but only if the deal included elements to strengthen border security, sources told Fox News Digital.

McCarthy spoke to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door conference meeting Thursday in order to ‘rally the troops’ for an agreement on how to fund the government in the next fiscal year, one GOP aide said. 

Congressional leaders on both sides have acknowledged that a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is likely needed to give lawmakers more time to cobble together 12 individual appropriations bills to fund the government in the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Two sources familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital that McCarthy suggested he was willing to sit down with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., but only after House Republicans passed their own CR.

McCarthy ‘laid out the same strategy as debt ceiling,’ one source said, in that he ‘wants us to pass something before they pass something.’

The source added, ‘He said it would be easier to get Schumer to agree to an immigration change than [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.].’

‘Basically [McCarthy] said we are going to look bad without our own plan and the Senate having passed something,’ the source said.

A second source, who also requested anonymity to discuss the matter freely, confirmed that House Republicans’ goal was to pass their own bill and then negotiate against the Senate.

The second source said McCarthy warned that failure to pass a House GOP CR would diminish their leverage in discussions. 

A GOP lawmaker who was at the meeting told Fox News Digital that McCarthy said he told Schumer that border security elements were a must-have in any CR.

‘I’ve had conversation with Democrat senators even as early as today who want to do something on the border,’ McCarthy told reporters on Thursday morning. ‘I think this is a place where we can get a short term stopgap if we get something on the border.’

However, it is not clear that House Republicans have the votes to pass their CR deal. Proposals floated among the House GOP include cutting spending back to 2022 levels, about $130 billion less than fiscal year 2023, for the stopgap bill’s duration. They have also included Republicans’ border security bill, H.R.2.

There are still a handful of House Republicans who are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing that it still extends the previous Democrat-held Congress’ priorities.

The Senate, by contrast, is moving forward with its own CR that would simply extend this year’s funding priorities. It also includes funding for Ukraine and for U.S. disaster relief. 

However, despite uncertainty in the House, McCarthy is still forging ahead with the CR vote on Friday or Saturday, a GOP lawmaker said while also signaling frustration at the Republican holdouts.

‘I think it’ll happen. Now whether it passes is a different story,’ the lawmaker said. ‘But at least let people be on record on whether they support a shutdown and keeping the border open.’

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent a letter Thursday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding the termination of the newly-established ‘Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” because at least three members helped suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story preceding the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

‘As you know, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Paul Kolbe all signed onto the infamous October 2020 letter, which falsely declared the Hunter Biden laptop story to be ‘Russian misinformation,’ Hawley wrote in the letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘This was a clear attempt to aid then-candidate Joe Biden. Recent investigations have revealed text messages and emails that corroborate the corrupt intent behind the letter’s publication.’

He added, ‘It is therefore baffling that your Department would regard these individuals as having any remaining credibility with respect to intelligence matters.’

Last week, the DHS unveiled the intel experts group in a statement claiming its membership includes ‘a wide range of views and perspectives, with a membership that includes former senior intelligence officials, journalists, and prominent human rights and civil liberties advocates’ to meet four times a year providing input on ‘terrorism, fentanyl, transborder issues, and emerging technology.’

Former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA senior operations officer Paul Kolbe — all part of the 17-member group — signed an open letter in October 2020 claiming the now-infamous Hunter Biden laptop story, first reported by the New York Post, ‘has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’ The letter was signed by 51 former intelligence officials.

The CIA also approved the publication of the Hunter Biden laptop letter, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital in May. 

‘Enlisting the support of these discredited officials as the nation prepares for the 2024 presidential election appears to signal that DHS will continue its attempts to censor speech that is inconvenient to the current Administration,’ Hawley wrote. 

HAWLEY PROBES MISSOURI TRANSGENDER CENTER OVER ALLEGED ‘EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENTS’ ON MINORS

Hawley joins a choir of GOP lawmakers in the House who also sent a letter to Mayorkas last week. Members on the Committee on Homeland Security wrote, ‘Your decision to appoint members to this group who have demonstrated political bias suggests misplaced priorities.’

By Oct. 15, Hawley — who sits on the upper chamber’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs — wants the DHS to hand over all records related to the intel group’s establishment, such as communications on its formation, meeting minutes, legal reviews of its activities’ constitutionality, records of recruited individuals and any communications with the White House regarding its formation or appointment of members.

‘The security of the American people depends on our capacity to collect, generate, and disseminate actionable intelligence to our federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, campus, and private sector partners,’ Mayorkas said in a news release after the group was announced. ‘I express my deep gratitude to these distinguished individuals for dedicating their exceptional expertise, experience, and vision to our critical mission.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary.