Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, warned that Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., could lose his gavel if he does not take demands from the right-wing flank of his House majority seriously as Congress faces a showdown over next year’s government spending priorities.

‘McCarthy’s going to have to listen to the people on the right, or else he’s going to have to rely on the Democrats to pass this. And you know, they could do that, they did that… with the debt ceiling — more Democrats voted for the debt ceiling than Republicans — they could go down that path again,’ Jackson told Steve Bannon on his ‘War Room’ podcast this week.

‘But I’m telling you, if that happens… it’s going to be detrimental to leadership in the House, if they blow off the concerns of people like myself and the Freedom Caucus, and some of the other people on the right that are making reasonable demands in this process, it’s going to be a problem.’

If the situation plays out like Jackson described, he said it would be ‘inevitable’ for someone to call for McCarthy’s removal via a process called a motion to vacate the chair. It would trigger a House-wide vote for a new speaker.

A spokesperson for McCarthy said the speaker would not allow a ‘play’ for Senate Democrats to ‘gain leverage,’ but maintained a short-term continuing resolution is necessary to buy more time for House Republicans to achieve their goals.

‘As the Speaker told the Conference last week, we don’t support any kind of play to jam against the holidays that would allow Senate Democrats to gain leverage, an omnibus, or a long-term continuing resolution that would lock in Democrat priorities,’ the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

‘Any short-term CR would only be necessary as a way to continue working through regular order on bills that include Republican priorities to lower spending in the bureaucracy and bring necessary changes to federal policy, and refocus our military to war-fighting capabilities and defense of our nation.’

Under terms McCarthy agreed to when he won the speaker’s gavel earlier this year, it just takes one member to call for a motion to vacate.

Jackson was one of several conservatives who expressed opposition to a stopgap spending patch, known as a continuing resolution, to extend the last year’s priorities for several weeks while lawmakers cobbled together a deal for fiscal year 2024. 

Most argued that it would be an endorsement of the omnibus bill passed under the previous Democrat-controlled Congress, which nearly all Republicans were against. 

The Freedom Caucus recently came out against a ‘clean’ continuing resolution. They insisted several conservative riders be added to any deal struck, including measures to stop ‘weaponization’ of the Justice Department and FBI, rolling back ‘woke’ military policies and passing the House GOP’s border security bill. 

They’re also opposed to any further aid to Ukraine in a supplemental funding bill. President Biden recently requested $13 billion in emergency defense funding and $8 billion in humanitarian aid for Ukraine as it continues to fight Russia’s invasion. 

It was part of a $40 billion supplemental funding request that also included money aimed at replenishing U.S. disaster relief funds and beefing up enforcement at the southern border.

FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans, led by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., are calling for the chamber to include a measure in the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would provide additional overtime pay for Border Patrol agents as they continue to tackle an ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border.

In a letter to Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers, the seven lawmakers call for the House version to include language in the Senate version of the FY 2024 NDAA which would grant special overtime payments to Border Patrol agents to the tune of an extra 50% of the hourly rate of their basic pay.

They argue that such an inclusion is justified due to the ongoing crisis at the southern border, which Republicans have blamed on the policies of the Biden administration.

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‘Because of the historic crisis fueled by this administration’s directives to welcome migrants and maximize ‘lawful’ pathways, Border Patrol agents are working long hours beyond the call of duty. Section 11133 is essential to ensure that our brave Border Patrol agents will be fairly compensated for every hour worked, including overtime. Furthermore, this language brings Border Patrol overtime levels into alignment with similar agencies, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),’ they wrote.

Lawmakers on the letter alongside Biggs include Reps. W. Gregory Steube, R-Fla.; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore.; Eli Crane, R-Ariz.; Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y.; Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J.; and Andy Ogles, R-Tenn.

The Biden administration has called for more money primarily for processing migrants from Congress, including a $4 billion supplemental budget request announced this month. This week it announced an extra $77 million for NGOs and communities dealing with the migrant surge. It has also urged Congress to pass immigration reform legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

Republicans in the House have introduced and passed their own legislation that would enshrine the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), change laws related to unaccompanied children and restrict the use of parole.

It would also restart border wall construction, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and offer retention bonuses for agents to tackle low morale among overwhelmed staff.

‘Too many brave Border Patrol agents are placed in dangerous situations due to this administration’s border crisis,’ the lawmakers said Wednesday in their letter. ‘Congress has the opportunity to demonstrate to these brave agents and to the American people our commitment to a secure border and to our law enforcement agents answering the call of duty.’

‘Open border policies have consequences, and the bravest among us should be rewarded for their diligence and dedication. Other agencies have this overtime benefit, and it is well past due to restore full overtime pay to Border Patrol agents,’ they said.

A mugshot of Rudy Giuliani was released Wednesday after the former New York City mayor turned himself in at an Atlanta jail on charges connected to alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. 

Giuliani, 79, was indicted last week along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said they participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to subvert the will of the voters after the Republican president lost to Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020.

Giuliani is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia and other closely contested states to illegally appoint electoral college electors favorable to Trump.

Bond for Giuliani, who was released after booking like the other defendants, was set at $150,000, second only to Trump’s $200,000.

Other high-profile defendants also surrendered Wednesday, including Jenna Ellis, an attorney who prosecutors say was involved in efforts to convince state lawmakers to unlawfully appoint presidential electors, and lawyer Sidney Powell, who is accused of making false statements about the election in Georgia and helping to organize a breach of voting equipment in rural Coffee County.

Georgia was one of several key states Trump lost by slim margins. He and his allies claimed the election was rigged in favor of his Democratic rival Biden.

Giuliani is charged with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state lawmakers to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternate slate of pro-Trump electors.

Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has said he plans to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday. He and his allies have characterized the investigation as politically motivated and have heavily criticized District Attorney Willis, a Democrat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: Hunter Biden traveled to at least 13 countries with his then-vice president father when he was leading his now-defunct firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, a Fox News Digital review found. 

Video footage, which first aired on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime,’ along with Secret Service records and messages previously reported from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, show that Hunter, who co-founded Rosemont Seneca in 2009 with Devon Archer and Christopher Heinz, accompanied then-Vice President Joe Biden during official trips to Europe, Central America, Africa and Asia.

In April 2010, Hunter proposed meeting state officials in Serbia with his business associate Mark Doyle, who was a registered foreign agent for Serbia at the time, saying he could ‘catch a ride’ with his father — ‘JRB’ — during an official trip to Belgium and Spain.

‘How about we go over around May 10th,’ Hunter wrote in an email to Doyle. ‘JRB will be in Madrid and I can catch a ride with him and fly over to Serbia and back with you.’

Doyle, who formerly served as a senior adviser to then-Sen. Joe Biden and the national finance director of Biden’s unsuccessful presidential run in 2008, later responded that ‘the Ambassador,’ referring to Serbian Ambassador to the United States Vladimir Petrovic, wanted to ‘start putting together a full day for you with Tadic and potential investors,’ referring to Serbian President Boris Tadic.

Eric Schwerin, then-president of Rosemont Seneca, replied to Hunter and Doyle explaining that ‘Hunter would like to try and get to Serbia right after going to Madrid with his Dad,’ and that while he didn’t have a ‘specific investment opportunity to pitch,’ he was hoping to talk ‘in general about Rosemont Seneca and the investment opportunities,’ according to a previous Fox News Digital report.

The meeting apparently fell through, however, after Hunter told Petrovic in an email on April 29, 2010, that there had been a ‘change in the schedule of my other travel in Europe.’ 

A few days later, Schwerin suggested in an email to Hunter that he speak with a potential client in Spain during his time there with his father, though it’s not clear if that discussion ended up taking place.

Hunter requested Secret Service protection in Belgium during the time Biden was visiting from May 5 to May 7, 2010, according to records first published in a September 2020 report from Senate Republicans.

Years later, Biden ended up traveling to Serbia, and Hunter was scheduled to ride in the vice president’s limo upon their arrival in the Serbian capital of Belgrade on Aug. 16, 2016, according to emails.

Two days earlier, on Aug. 14, Hunter informed his associate, Serbian diplomat Vuk Jeremic, in an email that he would be in Belgrade and even invited him in the vice president’s motorcade.

‘I will be there and expect if you are able that we can spend time together while I am at the Hyatt,’ Hunter wrote. ‘Please call or email if you have an issue entering the hotel- I’ll make sure we can spend time together and maybe you could come with me in motorcade to airport if you have time.’

Jeremic, who served as the president of the United Nations General Assembly from 2012 to 2013, was unsuccessfully running for U.N. Secretary General at the time of the emails and had apparently used his connections as president of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, a Belgrade-based think tank, to introduce Rosemont Seneca to potential partners in Mexico and China, according to multiple emails from 2014 and 2015.

For instance, Archer informed Hunter in a September 2014 email that Jeremic could connect them with the Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex and ‘will be helpful in securing exploration allocation in the privatization. He is up for Secretary General in 2016.’

And in December 2015, Jeremic offered to connect Hunter and Schwerin with Ye Jianming, the then-chairman of the now-defunct China-backed company CEFC China Energy, during a private dinner in D.C., although Rosemont Seneca was already exploring going into business with CEFC by then.

In early June 2010, Hunter accompanied his father to Egypt, Kenya and South Africa at the World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa, according to an itinerary of the trip. During a June 8, 2010, email exchange between Hunter and Chris Buccini, a longtime Biden friend and business associate, Hunter said, ‘We head to Africa on the 5th. Arrive Egypt the 6th depart the 8th for Kenya and arrive Rustenberg SA on the 10th I believe’ and asked whether their schedule will ‘overlap’ during trip.

Due to logistics of the trip, Hunter was not able to take up Buccini on his invite to meet up at his friend’s place, saying, ‘I would love to buddy, but I think it will be impossible for us to travel outside of Dads package/ delegation.’

‘We arrive Jo’burg go directly to opening ceremony and JRB has bi-lats with govt officials and then next day we go to US- UK game and depart for home right after,’ Hunter said. ‘Please let your friends know how much we appreciate the offer and that we (the Hunter Biden family) would love to stop by and say hello when we return in August.’

In February 2013, Hunter traveled with his dad to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, video shows. Biden mentioned his son during his speech at the conference, saying he and his family supported ‘healthy competition’ with China.

‘My son, who is with me today, a 40-year-old man, will not, when he is my age, be looking at China as a sworn enemy,’ the vice president said. ‘I believe there is healthy competition from a growing, emerging China, which I would argue is in the interest of all of us.’

Later that year, Hunter introduced his dad to his Chinese business partner, Jonathan Li, after he and his father flew to Beijing on Air Force Two, Hunter first admitted to The New Yorker in 2019.

Biden traveled to Beijing on Dec. 3, 2013, due to a scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the trip, Hunter arranged for a brief handshake between Li and his father in the lobby of the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying, and then Hunter met up with Li privately, The New Yorker reported at the time.

A transcribed interview with longtime Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer was released earlier this month, revealing that Biden did more than a handshake with Li. According to Archer, they also had coffee together.

At the time, Hunter’s Rosemont Seneca firm and James Bulger’s firm Thornton Group LLC were securing their partnership with Li’s firm Bohai Capital in order to later launch Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), which is controlled by Bank of China Limited.

BHR was registered less than two weeks after Biden and Hunter’s trip to China.

Hunter also traveled with Biden to Japan on Dec. 2 and South Korea on Dec. 5 during the same Asia trip, although he didn’t travel back home with his father. Instead, he went to the Philippines with the World Food Program, where he served as chairman.

‘And as I speak, my son has just boarded — my grown son has just boarded a plane, an aircraft — he’s heading to the Philippines,’ Biden said during a speech in Seoul on Dec. 6, 2013. ‘His name is Hunter Biden. He’s chairman of the World Food Program U.S.A, and he’s going there out in the field, like so many of you did.’

Secret Service records show that Hunter requested protection during the Asia trip, including in the Philippines, from Dec. 6 to Dec. 9, 2013.

Hunter also requested Secret Service protection during his April 3, 2014, trip to Lake Como, Italy, when he met with Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, shortly before his appointment to Burisma’s board, according to findings by the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Two years later, Hunter and his family accompanied Biden on his Thanksgiving trip to Croatia and Italy. Hunter appeared in several family photos with his father in Rome during the vice president’s official trip in late November 2015, according to Marco Polo. The Washington Free Beacon reported at the time that the trip abroad cost taxpayers over $300,000, not including the Air Force Two flights.

Three months after the Italy trip, on Feb. 24, 2016, Hunter emailed his Mexican business partner while apparently en route to Mexico aboard Air Force Two.

‘We are arriving late tonight on Air Force 2 to MX City. We will be there for Thursday – I’m attending meeting w/ President N w/ Dad,’ Hunter wrote to Miguel Magnani, Fox News Digital reported last year.

Hunter invited Magnani to greet the vice president upon landing, but in the same email, Hunter expressed indignation with Magnani, accusing him of going silent on their business partnership despite Hunter giving him access to his father, according to emails Fox News Digital previously reported on.

‘I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration and then you go completely silent,’ Hunter wrote in the email.

‘I don’t know what it is that I did but I’d like to know why I’ve delivered on every single thing you’ve ever asked – and you make me feel like I’ve done something to offend you.’ he continued.

Hunter had previously introduced Magnani to his father during a White House tour on Feb. 26, 2014. White House visitor logs show that Magnani and Magnani’s father, Miguel Aleman Velasco, visited the West Wing on Feb. 26, 2014, and Biden was later photographed with Hunter giving Velasco and Magnani a tour of the White House Brady Press Briefing room.

Two months after Hunter’s Mexico trip, on April 29, 2016, he was recorded meeting with Italy’s then-prime minister, Matteo Renzi, during another trip to the country with his father.

In addition to flights during the Obama administration, Hunter received scrutiny earlier this year for accompanying his dad and aunt, Valerie Biden Owens, to Ireland due to the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and dual investigations.

Hunter has also attended several White House state dinners recognizing foreign leaders in Washington, D.C. In June, Hunter attended a dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and in December 2022 he was at the dinner welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte.

During the Obama administration, Hunter also attended several state dinners. According to an archived version of the Obama website and emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, he attended dinners for state leaders from the U.K., India, France, Italy, Africa, Mexico, Germany and China, among others.

Fox News host Jesse Watters aired footage Monday of Hunter in Germany, Japan, China, South Korea and Italy during his father’s visits abroad.

Watters reported that Hunter wouldn’t use the same Air Force Two staircase as his father and was often recorded already sitting in his dad’s motorcade by the time the vice president got off the plane.

‘Taxpayers funded Hunter’s business travel so the Biden family could sneak around the world and get rich,’ Watters said. 

The Fox News host said the Biden White House has refused to hand over the flight manifests from his vice presidency.

The 2020 report by Senate Republicans revealed that Hunter dropped his Secret Service protection soon after joining the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, despite his father still having years left in his term as vice president.

‘The Committees found that Hunter Biden scheduled travel as a protectee after joining Burisma’s board in May 2014,’ the report said. ‘The Committees also determined that Hunter Biden declined USSS protection after a scheduled July 8, 2014, trip to Michigan City, Ind. At this time, the Committees have not determined why Hunter Biden declined USSS protection after July 8, 2014.’

Watters suggested that Hunter dropped the protection because ‘the Bidens knew what they were doing was wrong.’

The White House and Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R.-Tx., is the latest politician to praise Virginia farmer and musician Oliver Anthony’s newest song, ‘I Want To Go Home’ which premiered on the viral singer’s YouTube channel Tuesday. 

Anthony’s music video, which shows him singing in the wilderness, already has over a million views and claimed the number one spot for trending songs on YouTube. The song, which was originally uploaded to Spotify in April, also has over a million streams.

‘Singing the truth is powerful,’ Cruz posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday. ‘Congrats to @AintGottaDollar for coming out with another song for our time.’ 

Cruz joins a wave of conservative voices who praised Anthony—who first went viral after his song ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ earlier this month—including Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R.-GA. 

‘This is the anthem of the forgotten Americans who truly support this nation and unfortunately the world with their hard earned tax dollars and incredibly hard work,’ Greene said on X of Anthony’s ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ hit. ‘This song represents my district and the people of America I know and love.’

Oliver begins his latest country tune with: ‘If it won’t for my old dogs and the good Lord/ They’d have me strung up in the psych ward/ ‘Cause every day livin’ in this new world/ Is one too many days to me.’

‘Son, we’re on the brink of the next world war/ And I don’t think nobody’s prayin’ no more/ And I ain’t sayin I know it for sure/ I’m just down on my knees,’ he sings in the second verse.

The singer sprung to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart making him the first artist with no previous chart history to do so. 

‘People deal with depression and anxiety and misery and hopelessness no matter where they are at,’ Anthony told Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins.

‘They don’t have to be blue-collar Americans. I mean I’ve gotten messages from people in countries that I don’t know how to pronounce. This is something that has touched people globally and there’s a reason for that,’ he said.

The emerging singer-songwriter took the stage in front of around 4,000 attendees who gathered at Moyock, North Carolina’s Eagle Creek Golf Club & Grill on Aug. 19, treating them to a free performance.

Anthony is reportedly raking in $40,000 a day from streams and sales of his music, according to the trade journal Hits. 

Anthony has not confirmed that claim, but according to a Facebook post on Aug. 17, he’s turning down million-dollar deals. 

‘People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off $8 million dollar offers,’ Anthony stated. ‘I don’t want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression.’

Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report. 

The Biden-Harris campaign co-chair declared President Biden the ‘Democratic nominee’ for president before a single vote has been cast.

Former Biden aide Cedric Richmond on Wednesday said that Biden is not debating for his spot on top of the blue presidential ticket and is already the ‘Democratic nominee.’

‘President Biden is the Democratic nominee, along with Vice President Harris,’ Richmond said. ‘And if you look at both parties, when they have an incumbent president, that incoming president participates in no debates and there’s no primary on our side when there’s a primary.’

‘But the key to it is the fact that we’ve already endorsed President Biden,’ the Democratic National Committee (DNC) senior adviser said.

Richmond said that no ‘party has done it’ going ‘back to [Presidents] Reagan and Ford,’ adding, ‘It’s just something that has been well settled.’

‘And it’s just another issue that people want to use as a distraction from us focusing on still delivering for the American people and making sure that we address the issues and the challenges they face,’ Richmond said.

Typically, the party in control of the White House will not hold presidential debates and will throw their hat behind the current president.

It is not unheard of for incumbent presidents to see challenges from their own party — Biden is currently seeing two in the forms of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Marianne Williamson — but parties will typically try to avoid an intra-party fight.

Still, many in both parties have called for primary elections against sitting presidents, noting the exchange of ideas when a president is up for re-election.

Richmond’s announcement comes on the day of the first Republican presidential debate.

Eight candidates are set to take the stage and duke it out for the GOP presidential nomination to battle Biden for the West Wing.

Wednesday almost saw only seven GOP candidates in Milwaukee after North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum tore his ACL playing basketball on Tuesday.

Burgum plans to take the stage amid the injury and will be competing against leading candidates including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

The debate will be televised live on Fox News and FoxNews.com starting at 9 p.m. ET.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday called for an investigation into the Biden administration’s handling of the devastating fires in Maui. 

‘We saw the devastation that happened in Maui…I’m very concerned about the response,’ McCarthy said at a press conference in the district of Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y.

‘We still have hundreds of individuals that are missing. I think there’s going to have to be a congressional investigation into the response on Maui. How could you lose that many Americans?’

He also criticized President Biden for refusing to comment on the wildfires earlier this month while leaving a Delaware beach. 

‘The president’s response — had no comment. That’s unacceptable,’ McCarthy said. ‘So I am going to work with committees to look at investigating what went on so that never happens again.’

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Biden visited Maui on Monday along with first lady Jill Biden, where he toured the devastation that’s seen more than 110 people dead and hundreds still missing. It is the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.

Biden’s visit came after his administration was initially criticized for a lagging response to the disaster. There are now more than 1,000 federal personnel on the ground in Maui, FEMA said Monday, after the fires first burned on Aug. 8.

During his trip, however, the president was also chided by critics for appearing to compare the wildfires to what a 2004 Associated Press report called a ‘small fire that was contained to the kitchen’ at his home in Delaware. 

‘I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it was like to lose a home,’ Biden said in Maui. ‘Years ago now, 15 years, I was in Washington doing ‘Meet the Press’…lightning struck at home on a little lake outside the home, not a lake, a big pond. It hit the wire and came up underneath our home.’

He added, ‘To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette and my cat.’

Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

Two of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia 2020 election meddling case turned themselves in to authorities Tuesday morning. 

Scott Hall, an Atlanta-based bail bondsman, and John Eastman, a former Trump attorney, were each booked at the Fulton County Jail, records show. Hall has been assigned a $10,000 bond for seven charges. Eastman accepted a $100,000 bond. 

The two men were indicted last week alongside Trump and 16 others, who are accused by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of scheming to subvert the will of Georgia voters in a desperate bid to keep Joe Biden out of the White House. It was the fourth criminal case brought against the Republican former president.

Eastman, a former dean of Chapman University law school in Southern California, faces charges related to his advice to Trump on how the former president could overturn the 2020 election. 

Hall is accused of conspiring to unlawfully access voter data and ballot counting machines at the Coffee County Election office on Jan. 7, 2021. His seven charges include one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud Georgia, and three felony counts related to his alleged actions in Coffee County. 

He was the author of a memo that argued Trump could stay in power if then-Vice President Mike Pence refused to certify the 2020 Electoral College results during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. Eastman proposed that several contested states, including Georgia, put in place a slate of ‘alternate’ electors who would claim that Trump had won their states based on unproven allegations of fraud. 

Eastman said in a statement provided by his lawyers that he was surrendering Tuesday ‘to an indictment that should never have been brought.’ He lambasted the indictment for targeting ‘attorneys for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients’ and said each of the 19 defendants was entitled to rely on the advice of lawyers and past legal precedent to challenge the election results. 

Two other defendants, former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark and former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer, have filed paperwork to transfer the case to federal court. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows also did so last week, saying his actions were taken in service to his White House role.

TRUMP SAYS GEORGIA INDICTMENT COMES DURING ‘DARK PERIOD’ FOR US, VOWS TO FIX IT BY WINNING 

Judge Scott McAfee of the Fulton County Superior Court set bond for Trump at $200,000 after he was indicted on 13 counts last week as a result of Willis’ investigation. 

Trump will be processed Thursday in Fulton County, a source familiar told Fox News Digital. The source said this will take place Thursday afternoon, but the exact timing is unclear at this point.

The source said Trump will have his arraignment and first court appearance in September.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Brandon Gillespie and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: Democratic lawmakers in Georgia are coming to the defense of Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is facing an investigation into his role in the alleged attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state by former President Donald Trump and his allies.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, three Democratic state senators attested to Jones’ character and willingness to work across the aisle for Georgians as lieutenant governor and as a state senator prior to his election, but would not take sides specifically on the expected special prosecutor that will be looking into his involvement in the Trump case.

‘I can’t speak to any investigation because it’s not my judgment to make, and I don’t know the details,’ state Sen. Josh McLaurin told Fox. ‘My experience with Lieutenant Governor Jones has just been serving in the Senate, where he has been straightforward in his communication and willingness to work with members of the minority party.’

State Den. Derek Mallow echoed McLaurin, telling Fox he ‘wholeheartedly’ believed in the separation of powers between the judiciary and legislative branches of the state government and wouldn’t comment on any pending legal matters, but stressed Jones’ willingness to work with Democratic members of the legislature.

‘For me personally I watched my city and county go to blows over lost negotiations and I met with the lieutenant governor after I introduced my study committee to ask him to allow the senate to study the issue,’ he said, referencing a specific piece of legislation. 

‘He not only agreed but allowed me to chair the committee. Even on issues we may disagree on I have never been silenced at the well or ignored for the opportunity to speak, and he has been straightforward on that and many other issues to me,’ he added.

State Sen. Freddie Powell Sims agreed, touting her ability to work with Jones to get things accomplished for the good of all Georgians, especially the citizens of her largely rural southwest district, but also wanted to avoid commenting on any ongoing legal processes.

‘Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones was a colleague, as well as a friend, prior to his election as lieutenant governor. We were always able to work together — in spite of political differences — for the good of all Georgians, especially matters that directly impacted District 12. As lieutenant governor, Burt Jones has continued to work with me based on the challenges and needs of District 12 constituents,’ she said.

‘He has always been a gentleman and committed family man. My conversations with the lieutenant governor have seldom involved political context or strategies, probably due to the vast differences that we exude. But those political differences never intervened when making certain that Georgians were cared for,’ she added.

Jones, seen as a likely front-runner in the race to replace current Gov. Brian Kemp in the 2026 election, was one of the 16 so-called ‘fake’ electors who claimed Trump won Georgia and attempted to conduct a secret meeting at the State Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, in an alleged effort to overturn President Biden’s victory in the state. Three of the 16 were indicted alongside Trump last week on allegations of forgery, false statements and impersonating a public officer, among other crimes.

Jones was excluded from the investigation that led to the indictments after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered District Attorney Fani Willis to drop him in July 2022 because she hosted a fundraiser for Democrat Charlie Bailey, who was running against Jones for lieutenant governor in the general election that November.

As a result of that order, Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council Executive Director Pete Skandalakis decided to wait until an indictment was handed down before choosing to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Jones. 

In an exclusive interview with Fox last week, Jones hit back at the targeting of him and his role in connection with Trump’s alleged effort to overturn the state’s election results, as well as the indictments brought against the former president and others.

‘I haven’t done anything wrong, and the people who are being indicted in Fulton County, I don’t think they’ve done anything wrong, either,’ Jones said. ‘They were expressing their opinions in a lot of cases, and for them to be charged and booked and fingerprinted, as if they’re common criminals is something that I just — it’s a little disturbing, to be honest with you.’

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.

President Biden and his family are huddling in secrecy this week at an exclusive home on the shores of Lake Tahoe in Nevada amid the special counsel investigation into his son Hunter.

According to the White House, the Bidens are renting the $18 million home of environmental activist, businessman and former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer at fair market value for a nine-day vacation following the president’s trip to Hawaii to survey damage from the recent devastating wildfires.

Biden is being joined on the vacation, which began Tuesday, by first lady Jill Biden, their daughter Ashley, son Hunter, his wife Melissa Cohen, their son Beau, and a number of grandchildren.

Its unclear whether the Bidens will be receiving any visitors during their stay as the future of Hunter’s legal troubles remains in limbo as special counsel Andrew Weiss’ investigation into the president’s son continues.

When asked if anyone was expected to pay any visits to the president or his family, a White House spokesperson told Fox New Digital that there had never been any visitor logs kept at the first family residences or lodgings during travel, and that they intended to continue following that precedent. 

The official also noted that the same policy was kept during former President Obama’s administration as well.

The misdemeanor tax charges against Hunter were dismissed by a federal judge in Delaware last week, an expected move after his ‘sweetheart’ plea deal fell through in July during his first court appearance in the case.

After the plea deal fell apart, Biden pleaded ‘not guilty’ as federal prosecutors confirmed he is still under federal investigation. He was expected to plead guilty to the two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of the plea deal to avoid jail time on the felony gun charge.

Attorney General Merrick Garland named Weiss special counsel in Hunter’s case earlier this month.

Weiss and Biden’s attorneys are still fighting over a diversion agreement concerning the felony charge that would allow him to avoid any jail time. Weiss has indicated he plans to potentially take Biden to trial in the future in either Washington, D.C., or California.