The Biden administration on Friday rolled out new guidance to provide expanded access to voter registration during naturalization ceremonies of new U.S. citizens – part of a broader push by the federal government to increase voter registration that has raised concerns from Republicans.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is updating its policy manual ‘to increase awareness and expand access to voter registration during naturalization ceremonies’ at which eligible foreign nationals become U.S. citizens and are then able to vote in elections, including federal elections. 

The new guidance ‘affirms that USCIS provides access to voter registration services at each administrative naturalization ceremony, including information regarding points-of-contact for voting and voter registration.’

It also tells officials that offices should request state or local government election offices attend ceremonies to distribute and collect registration applications. It says offices will coordinate with ‘non-partisan, non-governmental organizations’ for such services when state and local government officials are not available.

Those organizations offering the services should have ‘the opportunity to introduce themselves and address the naturalization candidates before the ceremony.’ 

‘The ability to vote in federal elections is a fundamental right that comes with U.S. citizenship,’ the agency, which primarily deals with legal immigration, said in a policy alert. ‘All individuals naturalized at an administrative naturalization ceremony are immediately eligible to register to vote.’

‘In furtherance of its long-standing goal of encouraging newly naturalized U.S. citizens to exercise their right to vote, USCIS has historically provided access to voter registration services at the conclusion of administrative ceremonies.’

The new guidance originates from President Biden’s March 2021 executive order on ‘promoting access to voting’ and orders agency heads to ‘evaluate ways in which the agency can, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, promote voter registration and voter participation.’ 

Earlier this year it announced that in line with that order, USCIS would issue guidance, ‘including providing a clear roadmap for how to successfully partner with state and local election administration officials and nonpartisan organizations to provide voter registration applications to all new Americans.’

The broader multi-agency push launched by the executive order has caused controversy with some Republicans in Congress, who have expressed concern about federal overreach and have called for more information to be released by the administration. Republicans in the House had called for the strategic plan to be made public and argued that Biden ‘has no legal basis to order all federal agencies to engage in voter registration, nor does he have the authority to order any federal agency to engage in efforts to promote voter participation.’

Former Deputy DHS Assistant Secretary Michael Bars, who served in the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital that conservative lawmakers in the House should deny funding for what he called an ‘unlawful executive order directing federal agencies to conduct registration drives for partisan voter turnout, whereby political appointees are ostensibly deputized to register and mobilize voters.’ 

‘This is a function of political parties and candidates – not state, local or federal government,’ said Bars, who now serves as executive director of the Election Transparency Initiative.  

Election reform has previously been a flashpoint between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats in 2021 attempted to pass the For the People Act, which would have overhauled the voting process, including requiring states to automatically register voters, and restored voting right to felons. 

Republicans rejected it as a ‘hostile takeover’ by Democrats to federalize state and local elections. The bill passed the then-Democrat controlled House but failed to advance in the Senate.

FIRST ON FOX: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy revealed Friday why he is running against former President Donald Trump, despite praising him as the ‘best president of the 21st century.’

Fox News asked Ramaswamy during an Iowa campaign event why he was running against Trump considering his strong feelings about the latter’s presidency, arguing the former president’s policies were something he could take ‘to the next level.’

‘I think we need to aspire for excellence. We’re Americans. We aspire constantly higher. So, yes, George Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden. I put Donald Trump by far at the top of that pack. But I want to build on the foundation that he laid to take the America First agenda to the next level,’ he said. 

‘I think it will take someone of a different generation with fresh legs and an actual positive vision for the country to get us there. I think I can deliver a landslide election in a way that nobody else in this race can. Building that multi-ethnic working class coalition that includes people both young and old to make it happen, black and white, inner city and rural. That’s my sense of responsibility that I have to deliver it. And I think that’s what we need to reunite this country,’ he added.

During the first Republican presidential primary Wednesday night’s debate hosted by Fox, Ramaswamy set himself apart from his GOP opponents who openly threw their support behind Mike Pence, the former vice president and another White House hopeful, concerning his refusal on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the 2020 Electoral College tally as requested by Trump.

‘Let’s just speak the truth, OK? President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century. It’s a fact,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘I am running for President of the United States. We’re skating on thin ice. And we cannot set a precedent where the party in power uses police force to indict its political opponents. It is wrong. We have to end the weaponization of justice in this country.’ 

Prior to the debate, Ramaswamy had taken a noticeably changed tone toward Trump after claiming in May that Trump’s then-suggestion he wouldn’t attend the debate — he ultimately did not — would show he was ‘not the same Donald Trump as in 2016.’

‘He’s not somebody who’s made a habit of himself to be a coward,’ he said at the time.

Ramaswamy later said he had ‘no problem’ with the GOP front-runner skipping the first few primary debates.

Fox News’ Monica Oroz, Danielle Wallace and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.

Boston has unveiled a new plan to address a large homeless encampment at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, known locally as ‘Mass and Cass.’Under the plan, police would be able to remove tents and other makeshift shelters at the intersection, and a short-term shelter able to house up to 30 people would be established in the area.‘No one is being served living in a crowded and dangerous encampment, visited by hundreds of people engaged in drug trafficking and violence,’ Mayor Michelle Wu said Friday.

Police would be given the power to remove tents and other makeshift shelters at a Boston intersection that’s become home to a sprawling encampment for the homeless, many of whom struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse disorder, Mayor Michelle Wu and other city officials announced Friday.

The plan also calls for a new short-term shelter for up to 30 people in the area known as Mass and Cass.

The encampment at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard has become a haven for drug use and has become increasingly violent, according to law enforcement.

‘No one is being served living in a crowded and dangerous encampment, visited by hundreds of people engaged in drug trafficking and violence,’ Wu said.

The proposal allowing police to remove tents requires city council approval. Wu said she would file an ordinance with the council Monday.

No tents would be taken down before the people living in them have been offered adequate housing, the treatment services they need, transportation, and a place to store their personal belongings, city officials said.

‘Over the past few weeks, the situation on the ground at Mass and Cass has made it impossible for the (Boston Public Health Commission) and our partners to adequately provide critical services to those in need,’ said Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, the city’s commissioner of public health. ‘Things need to change, and this ordinance is a necessary step to get the situation under control.’

It would apply not just to Mass and Cass, but the entire city, so the problem does not just relocate, police Commissioner Michael Cox said. Police will deploy mobile units and will have a presence in the area at all times.

‘We are going to be in every neighborhood with these mobile teams to make sure this does not occur,’ Cox said.

In addition to the 30 temporary beds at the Boston Public Health Commission’s campus on Massachusetts Avenue, the city is also expanding low-threshold shelter space at its emergency shelters.

Homelessness has long been an issue in the neighborhood. In January 2022, after notifying people living in the area, city public works employees driving bulldozers loaded tents, tarps and other detritus, including milk crates, wooden pallets and coolers, into trash trucks to be hauled away.

Since then, more than 500 people who were living at the encampment have gone through the city’s six low-threshold housing sites, and 149 have moved into permanent housing, city officials said.

In recent years, cities across the nation, including Los Angeles, Washington and Phoenix, have been struggling with clearing tent encampments while caring for the people who live in them.

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A New York man was sentenced to three months in prison for threatening phone calls he made last year to Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Joseph Morelli, 51, of Endicott, was sentenced in federal court in Syracuse on Thursday after pleading guilty in February to making seven threatening calls to the Greene’s Washington, D.C., office March 3-4, 2022, according to The Post-Standard of Syracuse. Morelli has until Oct. 2 to turn himself in.

On March 3, 2022, Morelli left a voicemail to Greene’s office that said, ‘I’m gonna have to take your life into my own hands … I’m gonna hurt you. Physically, I’m gonna harm you,’ according to prosecutors. He left a second message that same day threatening to ‘pay someone 500 bucks to take a baseball bat and crack your skull.’

In a third message, Morelli said, ‘You’re gonna cause people to get hurt, so I’m gonna have to hurt you physically … I’m gonna make sure that, even if they lock me up, someone’s gonna get you ‘cause I’ll pay them, too.’

Morelli was indicted a month later on three counts of transmitting interstate threatening communications.

Greene asked the judge to order Morelli to pay her $66,632 in restitution, because the threats required her to add more than 1,200 feet of fencing and upgrade security cameras at her home in Georgia. But Judge Brenda Sannes deferred a decision on the restitution.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick argued in court Thursday that while Morelli did not purchase a firearm or car to drive to Georgia to follow through on his threats, he could have, The Post-Standard of Syracuse reported.

Southwick said Morelli has previously threatened others, including former Judge Joseph J. Cassata, and was ‘seeking confrontation with an authority figure.’ Southwick said sentencing Morelli would deter him and others from making threats again and that Morelli should be held accountable for his crimes.

Morelli’s lawyer, Gabrielle DiBella of the federal public defender’s office, told the judge that her client has expressed remorse for his actions. DiBella, who has blamed Morelli’s threats on his bipolar disorder, said her client ‘is now doing everything in his power to work with treatment providers and minimize the struggles that he faces due to his mental health diagnosis.’

DiBella said Morelli had made the threats after coming across videos of Greene during a time when his health was deteriorating and was not in the best state of mind.

Two of the videos were of Greene confronting a Parkland shooting survivor, which DiBella said led Morelli to believe that Greene pushed hatred. 

One video was an ad Greene made for a gun giveaway and impeaching President Joe Biden.

In a 2022 video, Greene said she was going to blow away the Democrat socialist agenda before she blew up a car with the word ‘socialism’ on it. DiBella said Morelli, who lives on Social Security benefits, felt his Social Security relief was at risk after the video.

DiBella also argued that if Morelli served time in prison, he would lose his Social Security benefits and apartment and would have nowhere to go after his release.

The judge said she understood that Morelli’s threats were because of his mental health struggles, but the messages were still frightening and scared Greene’s family. Sannes said the lack of evidence showing Morelli’s intent to harm Greene or carry out the threats was taken into account.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Trevian Kutti, once the publicist for rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – was photographed smiling from ear to ear in her mugshot after she was booked into a Georgia jail.

Kutti, a Chicago-based publicist who surrendered to the Fulton County jail around 10 a.m. Friday, is one of 19 individuals who authorities say were involved in illegal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State.

Kutti – who was granted a $75,000 bond earlier this week, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution – is charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings, and influencing witnesses, Fulton County jail records show.

Released shortly after she was booked, Kutti is accused of visiting election worker Ruby Freeman in January 2021 at her Cobb County home, where she reportedly claimed to be a crisis manager and urged Freeman to confess to committing election fraud or potentially face arrest.

Freeman, reluctant to speak with Kutti, later met with the Chicago publicist at a local police station, where Kutti shared a similar message and was recorded telling Freeman, ‘I cannot say what specifically will take place.’

‘I just know that it will disrupt your freedom… and the freedom of one or more of your family members,’ Kutti continued in her message to Freeman from the station.

‘Whether you choose not to deal with us, I am not your enemy,’ Kutti added. She also described Freeman as ‘a loose end for a party that needs to tidy up,’ in the footage.

Kutti was reportedly put in touch with Freeman through Harrison Floyd, a co-defendant in the case and the executive director of Black Voices for Trump.

The booking of Kutti comes one day after former President Donald Trump turned himself in after he was charged with 13 counts stemming from the state probe into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The court had set Trump’s bail at $200,000. He was quickly processed and released.

Fox News Digital has learned his formal arraignment, where he is expected to plead not guilty, will take place sometime early next month.

Trump was required to take a mugshot. Others charged out of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe, including former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, had their photos taken during processing as well.

Kutti was the sixth defendant to turn herself in to authorities on Friday, following the surrenders of Robert Cheeley, Jeffrey Clark, Misty Hampton, Michael Roman and Shawn Still, all of whom surrendered at different points after midnight.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

The Biden administration is facing a significant legal challenge to a key border policy that allows 30,000 nationals from four countries to fly in and be paroled into the U.S. each month as part of the administration’s efforts to tackle the ongoing crisis at the southern border – with the conservative plaintiffs in the case believing a win could bring down other Biden policies in its wake.

Arguments began Thursday in a case challenging a Homeland Security policy expanded in January to allow up to 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan (CHNV) nationals into the U.S. each month. Those brought in, who are not present at the border, are flown in and paroled, and allowed to apply for work permits if they meet certain conditions such as having a sponsor and passing background checks.

Twenty GOP-led states are suing to block the policy, claiming that it represents an abuse of parole – which is set out by Congress to be used on a ‘case-by case’ basis for ‘urgent humanitarian need or significant public benefit.’ 

The administration says it is confident that its use of parole is legal, and has pointed to past uses of parole for Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s, and more recently Ukrainian nationals last year. It also says the processes are necessary as nationals from those countries are ‘difficult for DHS to remove to their home countries.’

The expanded parole pathways have been part of the administration’s strategy to tackle the ongoing crisis that has hammered the border since 2021. That strategy has seen a number of legal pathways opened up while the administration says it has increased consequences for illegal entry since the end of Title 42 on May 11 and introduced an asylum restriction for some illegal immigrants that is also facing legal challenges. It says the expanded pathways encourage people to use them as an alternative to entering illegally. In July it said the program had yielded ‘positive results’ and pointed to a drop in illegal encounters at the border from those nationalities.

In its filing, the administration warned that without the CHNV process and others in place to encourage migrants to use lawful routes ‘there will be a significant surge in migration at the southwest border – the precise outcome that Plaintiffs allegedly seek to avoid.’

The 20 GOP-led states are partnering with America First Legal, former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller’s group, which has already won a number of victories in court challenging Biden initiatives. Miller, in an interview with Fox News Digital, said the administration is abusing the parole authority to create what he described as a form of amnesty for would-be illegal immigrants.

‘America First Legal is partnering with Texas and 19 other states in what we regard as one of the most important, not just immigration cases, but one of the most important lawsuits in American history. Because if Biden prevails then, in effect, the border is gone forever,’ he said.

Miller said the administration has ‘gone past just catch-and-release to actively importing would-be illegal immigrants with the goal of making them into future citizens.’ 

‘And so I would say it’s as if the Biden administration created a brand-new visa program for illegals that was never authorized, funded or in any way established by Congress,’ he said.

The case lands in favorable courtroom territory for the plaintiffs. Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump nominee who in 2021 shut down the administration’s reduced interior enforcement priorities. CBS News reported this week that the administration is bracing for the program to be blocked.

But should the CHNV program be shut down, it could have a knock-on effect on other related policies. Specifically, the administration has also used parole to bring in up to 1,450 migrants a day at the border itself if they have made an appointment by the CBP One app. 

While this case does not target those paroles specifically, Miller believes it could lead to that program being declared unlawful as well.

‘If we prevail on the merits, as we are confident that we must, it creates the possibility that the whole entire artifice of Biden’s parole scheme could come tumbling down,’ he said.

He warns, however, that if it remains in place, there is no upward limit to the number of people it could be expanded to.

‘If you accept the preposterous notion that Biden has the authority to do this, which he clearly does not, then there’s no limit on the number of illegal immigrants that he can mint into legal immigrants through parole,’ he said.

The case comes as the border has seen an increase in numbers in July, with over 180,000 encounters. Republicans have blamed the ongoing crisis on the Biden administration’s policies, while the administration has called for Congress to approve more funding and pass an immigration reform bill – legislation that Republicans have rejected due to its inclusion of a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

President Biden on Friday quipped that former President Donald Trump was a ‘handsome guy’ after his former 2020 rival and potential 2024 foe had his mugshot taken a day after turning himself in to an Atlanta jail.

Biden, who is at Lake Tahoe on his second vacation in a month, took boos from people around his motorcade while reporters asked him if he had seen Trump’s mugshot yet. Biden said he saw it on television, and was asked what he thought.

‘Handsome guy, wonderful guy,’ he said.

Trump, who is the current Republican 2024 frontrunner, turned himself in Thursday night at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta after being charged out of District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Trump told Fox News Digital that officials insisted on the picture, which assumed iconic status almost immediately both among his detractors and supporters.

He added: ‘It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.’

Trump was charged with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act, three counts of criminal solicitation, six counts of criminal conspiracy, one count of filing false documents and two counts of making false statements.

Trump and more than a dozen others were charged out of the probe, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, his former attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeff Clark and John Eastman, among others.

He doubled down on his claims that the four prosecutions he is facing — related to his actions around the 2020 election, his alleged holding of classified documents and alleged hush-money payments — are politically motivated.

‘This is all about election interference,’ Trump said. ‘It all comes through Washington and the DOJ and Crooked Joe Biden — nothing like this has ever happened in our country before.’

Biden’s re-election campaign had caused controversy on Thursday evening when, as Trump was being booked, it posted a call for donations.

‘Apropos of nothing, I think today’s a great day to give to my campaign,’ the post on X said.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville refuses to release his hold on military nominations due to his opposition to the Pentagon’s abortion policy — which covers some expenses for Department of Defense (DoD) personnel — leaving hundreds of key leadership positions unfilled.

‘I warned the Pentagon that I would hold their most senior nominees if they broke the law,’ Tuberville said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. 

‘They did it anyway, and forced my hand. Since then, Chuck Schumer and the Biden administration have refused any serious negotiations, and so this situation has dragged on,’ the statement continued. 

Tuberville — a retired college football coach — said the hold, which began in February, has given him ‘more time to look more closely into the background of some these nominees,’ which has prompted ‘deep concerns.’ 

‘I will continue this process of oversight and I will announce my opposition to specific nominees in the weeks ahead,’ he said.

The statement was first obtained by Breitbart.

On Wednesday, Tuberville’s office said in a statement regarding some of the nominees: ‘What we’re finding isn’t always pretty.’

Tuberville’s office pointed to an op-ed by Col. Ben Jonsson — one of President Biden’s nominees — published in the Air Force Times in July 2020 in which Jonsson lists examples of what he terms ‘white defensiveness’ in the wake of George Floyd’s death. 

‘Defensiveness is a predictable response by white people to any discussion of racial injustice. White colonels are no exception,’ Jonsson wrote.

His article concludes by urging readers to get the controversial book ‘White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,’ authored by critical race theory advocate Robin DiAngelo.

As of Aug. 12, 301 leadership positions in the DoD were vacant, and the number could double by the end of the year if the hold continues, according to data obtained by The Washington Post. 

Each of the DoD’s five military branches is affected by the hold, including President Biden’s nominee to be Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.

Tuberville argues the Pentagon’s abortion policy violates the Hyde Amendment from the 1970s, which restricts the use of federal funds to cover the cost of abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.

In the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, the Pentagon’s existing policy provides reimbursement for travel costs and grants leave for abortion procedures to military personnel.

‘Coach’s position has not changed,’ Tuberville’s office told Fox News Digital on Friday. ‘The hold will stay on as long as it takes.’

‘It ends when the Biden administration stops their illegal use of taxpayer dollars to facilitate abortion. Coach would lift the hold immediately in such a scenario,’ it added.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin told Fox News in an exclusive sit-down interview that he was fired during the Obama administration for investigating Burisma, the energy firm whose board Hunter Biden served on.

During the interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade – set to air Saturday at 8 p.m. – Shokin said it is his ‘firm personal conviction’ that he was fired because then-Vice President Biden and Hunter were bribed. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ousted Shokin in 2016 – he was hired a year prior – due to Shokin’s alleged corruption and pressure from the U.S. government led by Biden.

‘I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma,’ Shokin said in the interview.

‘[Poroshenko] understood and so did Vice President Biden, that had I continued to oversee the Burisma investigation, we would have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in. That included both Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and others.’

Shokin added that he believed both Joe and Hunter Biden received bribes in connection to the case, though he didn’t provide proof of that accusation. 

‘I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case,’ he added. ‘They were being bribed. And the fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing – isn’t that alone a case of corruption?’

‘For years, these false claims have been debunked, and no matter how much air time Fox gives them, they will remain false,’ White House spokesperson Ian Sams responded to Fox News. ‘Fox is giving a platform for these lies to a former Ukrainian prosecutor general whose office his own deputy called ‘a hotbed of corruption,’ drawing demands for reform not only from then-Vice President Biden but also from U.S. diplomats, international partners, and Republican senators like Ron Johnson.’

One year after leaving the White House, Biden boasted about how he personally put pressure on Poroshenko to fire Shokin. He explained that he told Ukrainian officials the U.S. would withhold up to $1 billion in aid money earmarked for their country if Shokin remained in his position.

‘I said, ‘Nah, I’m not going to – we’re not going to give you the billion dollars.’ They said, ‘You have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said –.’ I said, ‘Call him.’’ Biden remarked during a January 2018 event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘I said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re not getting the $1 billion.’’

‘I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here,” Biden continued. ‘I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.’

Shokin, though, said he was probing Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky at the time of his ouster. In February 2016, one month before Shokin was fired, his office filed a legal petition to seize Zlochevsky’s property, including four homes, two pieces of property and a Rolls-Royce sports car, the Kyiv Post reported at the time.

The former prosecutor general told Fox News that Burisma illegally produced, sold and utilized natural gas supplies.

His investigation took place while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board of directors. Hunter joined the firm in 2014 and departed in 2019 after his term on its board expired. 

Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer, who also served on Burisma’s board, testified in a closed-door House Oversight Committee hearing in July that, amid pressure from Shokin’s office and other entities investigating Burisma, company leaders turned to Hunter for help. Archer said Hunter ‘called D.C.’ to help get Shokin fired.

‘Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved,’ Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said after Archer’s testimony. ‘Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family.’

‘When Burisma’s owner was facing pressure from the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company for corruption, Archer testified that Burisma executives asked Hunter to ‘call D.C.’ after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai,’ he added. ‘Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family’s business dealings and his involvement? It begs the question, what else he is hiding from the American people?’

Fox News Digital recently reported that, on Nov. 2, 2015, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharski emailed Hunter Biden, Archer and fellow Hunter associate Eric Schwerin about a ‘revised proposal, contract and initial invoice for Burisma Holdings,’ from lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies. Hunter reportedly connected Burisma with Blue Star Strategies to help the energy firm fight corruption charges levied against Zlochevsky, the company’s owner.

Pozharski emphasized in his email that the ‘ultimate purpose’ of the agreement with Blue Star Strategies was to shut down ‘any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine,’ referring to Zlochevsky, who also went by Nikolay. 

‘Evidence makes it clear that Hunter Biden was only appointed to Burisma’s board of directors because of his last name and family’s network,’ Comer told Fox News Digital after the report.

However, in a statement to Fox News, the White House pointed to indications that Shokin was fired because he had been too soft on corruption. 

The White House also stated Shokin’s office had not been investigating Burisma or Hunter at the time of his ouster in March 2016, and it pointed to three reports published within weeks of each other in 2019 by The Washington Post, Associated Press and New York Times stating Shokin’s office wasn’t investigating Burisma.

After Shokin’s ouster, The New York Times reported that Shokin had been criticized in Ukraine for not prosecuting officials, businessmen and lawmakers for corruption while Viktor Yanukovych was president. The U.S. government and International Monetary Fund had believed in 2016 that Shokin wasn’t doing enough to fight corruption, which ran rampant throughout Ukraine.

Both former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Bridget Brink testified during a Senate hearing in 2020 that Shokin’s decision not to pursue a Burisma investigation or root out corruption elsewhere were reasons for his firing.

‘It was our conclusion by then that, in fact, the dismissal of Prosecutor Shokin would be counter to Burisma’s interests, because not only was he not pursuing the Burisma case, he was responsible for protecting those who had helped get the case dismissed,’ Nuland said.

She also said, though, that the U.S. government was ‘dissatisfied that past investigations of Burisma had not been brought to conclusion.’

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.

Former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer learned a lesson about his car keys after his vehicle was stolen as he hosted a Fargo radio show.

Schafer was guest hosting KFGO’s ‘News and Views’ program Friday morning when police called the station to ask if he owned a 2020 GMC Yukon, the station reported.

It turns out that the SUV had been stolen out of the station’s parking lot. The thief apparently drove it to a probation office and surrendered to authorities, Schafer said.

The vehicle has a push-button start feature and requires a key fob to be in the vehicle before it can be operated. But Schafer had left a spare fob inside, enabling the thief to start it up and drive off.

The former governor and U.S. agriculture secretary says he’s been warned about being more careful.

‘My wife for 31 years has said, ‘Why don’t you lock your car?’’ Schafer said.

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