President Biden made a bold prediction in the early 1990s that he would be ‘dead and gone’ by 2020 — the year he actually ran against then-President Donald Trump in the presidential election.

The remarks from Biden came in 1991 during a speech at the Detroit College of Law amid his tenure as a U.S. senator from Delaware — a post he held for more than 35 years.

Speaking to law students at the time about the importance of selecting Supreme Court justices, Biden, who was around 50 at the time, said, ‘The decision will affect what happens in this country long after Senator Biden is gone, long after President Bush is gone, long after President Reagan’s administrations are forgotten.’

‘If they live — if Justice [David] Souter, God willing, lives as long as the average age of the court now, he’ll be making landmark decisions in the year 2020. I’ll be dead and gone in all probability,’ added then-Sen. Biden, who will turn 81 this November.

Biden’s comments in the footage, which was resurfaced by the New York Post, revealed that he was wrong on both counts. Souter — after nearly 20 years of service to the high court — retired in 2009, and Biden is still alive today.

Should Biden win re-election next year, he will be 86 by the end of his second term in office. With his age being on the minds of Americans, Biden has faced concerns over his ability to lead the nation — some from his own party even — as he grows older.

Last year, Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, a Democrat, suggested it is time for Biden to gracefully retire.

‘I think he’s done a wonderful job of being the bridge that he promised to be,’ Phillips told the Wall Street Journal. ‘The issue is that it is just time for a new generation of leaders to participate.’

‘You can see the differences between how he used to be and how he is now,’ Liano Sharon, a Democratic National Committee delegate told the outlet, adding that Biden has ‘lost a step.’

Biden, amid numerous gaffes and mishaps, admitted last October that questions about his age are ‘totally legitimate.’

‘I think it’s a legitimate thing to be concerned about anyone’s age, including mine. That’s totally legitimate. But I think the best way to make the judgment is to, you know, watch me. Am I slowing up? Am I – don’t have the same pace?’ Biden said in an interview with MSNBC.

Earlier this month, during a trip to Lithuania to shore up support for Ukraine amid its war with Russia, Biden committed multiple speaking gaffes, including confusing the two nations and their leaders.

Biden referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as ‘Vladmir,’ seemingly confusing Zelenskyy with Russian President Vladmir Putin.

Appearing not to realize his mistake, Biden went on to say he ‘shouldn’t be so familiar,’ and referred to Zelenskyy as ‘Mr. Zelenskyy.’

At a later speaking event following the summit, Biden confused the two nations, referring to Ukraine as Russia.

‘Russia could end this war tomorrow by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and recognizing its international borders and ceasing its attacks – its inhumane attacks — on Russia — I mean by Russia on Ukraine,’ Biden said, correcting himself.

In a different interview with the outlet in May, Biden attempted to ease concerns about his age by framing his 80 years of life experience as a positive rather than a negative.

‘Because I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom,’ Biden told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle when he was asked ‘why an 82-year-old Biden’ would be the ‘right person for the most important job in the world’ in 2024.

‘I know more than the vast majority of people. I’m more experienced than anybody who has ever run for the office and I think I’ve proven myself to be honorable as well as also effective,’ he said at the time.

Biden is the oldest person ever to hold the office of president, and he will be nearly 82 on Election Day in 2024.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Andrew Mark Miller, and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

An Alabama Department of Education employee who formerly chaired a pro-life group in the state has been fired after he was arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

Marty Decole Wagner, 32, was indicted by a Montgomery grand jury on June 30 and arrested Wednesday, according to court documents and local media reports. His arrest came after he allegedly subjected a child under the age of 12 to ‘sexual contact.’

‘The allegations against Mr. Wagner are serious, tragic and shocking,’ the Alabama State Department of Education said in a statement Thursday. ‘While he was employed by our department for only a few months, Mr. Wagner has been terminated effective immediately. No further information is available at this time as the investigation is ongoing.’

Wagner, according to Alabama Political Reporter, had been employed by the state department of education in government relations up until his arrest.

In 2018, the outlet reported that Wagner had been selected to chair the anti-abortion committee Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama, working ‘with a variety of Republican lawmakers and rightwing organizations to raise money and garner sponsorship.’

‘The Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama is tasked with educating voters about the constitutional amendment and providing them with accurate and truthful information while, at the same time, refuting falsehoods and misinformation that may be disseminated by pro-abortion forces within the state,’ Wagner said at the time, according to the outlet.

Following his arrest, Wagner was released on a $60,000 bond.

In Alabama, sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 is classified as a Class B felony and carries a potential prison sentence of two to twenty years. The charge also carries a potential fine of up to $30,000.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to pursue the death penalty for human traffickers and to revive a now-defunct immigration measure to combat child trafficking, if he’s re-elected to the White House.

‘I will use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis by returning all trafficked children to their families in their home countries, without delay,’ Trump said in a new campaign video posted on social media. ‘And I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately.’

The Title 42 public health order was implemented by the Trump administration, allowing border officials to expel migrants without granting them an asylum hearing in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. Biden rescinded the policy earlier this year.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, touted his record as president for improving the security of the southern border and lambasted the Biden administration for overseeing a surge of illegal immigration into the U.S.

‘When I’m back in the White House, I will immediately end the Biden border nightmare that traffickers are using to exploit vulnerable women and children,’ said Trump. ‘We will fully secure the border. I will wage war on the cartels just as I destroyed the ISIS caliphate, 100% gone, 100% destroyed.’

Trump’s comments came after he hosted a screening of the hit film ‘Sound of Freedom’ at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, this week. He promoted and encouraged others to see the movie, which chronicles former Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard’s efforts to rescue trafficked children. Ballard, his wife, producer Eduardo Verastegui, and lead actor Jim Caviezel all attended the screening.

While the film has enjoyed success at the box office, some liberal media outlets derided the project as associated with QAnon, a right-wing community that has been accused of buying into fringe conspiracy theories. The movie has sparked discussions about the prevalence of human trafficking in the U.S. and other countries and what can be done to combat it.

‘Under my leadership we did more than any other administration in history to combat human trafficking and to end modern-day slavery,’ said Trump, who cited relevant executive orders and legislation he signed, such as the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Re-authorization Act and the Abolish Human Trafficking Act. ‘Together we will end the scourge of human trafficking, and we will defend the dignity of human life.’

Trump’s latest campaign proposal for human traffickers came about a month after he advocated for imposing the death penalty on convicted drug dealers, during an interview with Fox News.

A previous senior adviser to former President Barack Obama is warning Democrats about a potential threat to President Biden’s re-election campaign from third-party candidates like Cornel West, a 2024 Green Party presidential candidate.

David Axelrod, who served as a top adviser to Obama for two years in the White House before becoming the senior strategist for Obama’s successful 2012 re-election campaign, is questioning ‘why alarm bells aren’t going off’ for Democrats amid mounting concern over West’s candidacy in the race.

Ever since he announced last month he would make a run for the White House as a third-party candidate, West, a progressive activist and philosopher, has largely been dismissed by Democrats as a serious candidate as they work to shore up support for Biden ahead of the 2024 election.

Axelrod, however, insists Democrats should be taking challenges like West’s to the incumbent president seriously.

‘This is going to sneak up on people,’ Axelrod, a CNN political commentator, said this week. ‘I don’t know why alarm bells aren’t going off now, and they should be at a steady drumbeat from now until the election.’

Similar to Axelrod, Pennsylvania Democratic Lt. Gov. Austin Davis said his party ‘should be concerned’ about the implications of West’s candidacy.

‘We should be concerned. I don’t think time’s necessarily on our side. The longer these things hang out there, the worse it tends to get,’ said Davis, according to CNN. ‘We should try to deal with it rather quickly if we can.’

Davis also noted that conversations about West, thus far, have been among insiders rather than voters, the outlet reported.

The mounting concerns from within the party come amid West’s targeting of Biden on numerous issues in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, West told Fox News his third-party bid is as ‘serious as a heart attack’ and doubled down on comments he made drawing into question Biden’s compassion for the Black community.

Criticizing Biden’s past relationships with segregationist Democratic senators, West mentioned Biden’s praise for former Mississippi Sen. John Stennis, namesake of the NASA Space Center near Kiln, Mississippi. In 2008, Biden reportedly called his fellow Democrat ‘a hell of a guy.’

More recently, Biden regaled supporters at a 2019 fundraiser of his time working with Stennis’ fellow Mississippian James Eastland and then-Sen. Herman Talmadge, D-Ga., who supported segregation.

‘I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland. He never called me ‘boy.’ He always called me ‘son’,’ Biden quipped of the senator who once warned against ‘mongrelization.’ 

Biden was rebuked at the time by fellow Democrat Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who said in a statement obtained by the Daily Mail, ‘You don’t joke about calling Black men ‘boys.”

On ‘Hannity,’ West confirmed he is accusing Biden of ‘crimes against humanity’ against African Americans, as reported by the New York Post.

When Hannity asked West about minority voters continuing to largely support the Democratic Party, which West said is as broken as the GOP, the professor responded that both former President Donald Trump and Biden are flawed on racial issues and both parties are tied to ‘big money’ and corruption.

‘This is true for Republicans, is true for Democrats. [I’m] talking about Brother Trump himself. And Biden’s connection to Stennis. Biden’s connection to [ex-South Carolina Democrat-turned-Republican Sen.] Strom Thurmond. We know Brother Trump’s own father’s been tied to the Klan and of Trump’s language about Black people,’ said West.

During the same interview, West criticized the handling of the White House cocaine incident, which Hannity noted was closed quickly. West agreed that a West administration would not see the same purported deferential treatment in the form of such an accelerated conclusion if drugs were found there.

‘For my White House — and I’ve told my people, I’m not even going to the White House until every American citizen has a house — I want to abolish poverty, abolish homelessness. I want jobs with a living wage,’ he said at the time.

Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

Republican lawmakers in Alabama chose Friday to increase the percentage of Black voters — from 31% to 40% — in the state’s second district rather than creating a Black majority following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The court recently upheld a lower court ruling from a three-judge panel that said the state must create a second majority-Black district or ‘something quite close to it’ so that Black voters ‘have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.’

Alabama only has one majority-Black district out of seven, while Black people make up 27% of the state. 

Republicans argued that the new district map complies with the order because it increases Black influence. 

ALABAMA REPUBLICANS’ REDISTRICTING PROPOSAL IS AN INSULT XTO THE SUPREME COURT, BLACK LAWMAKERS SAY 

‘We also took into consideration not racially gerrymandering our maps,’ Republican House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle said.

But critics said it invoked the history of Jim Crow laws meant to suppress the Black vote. 

‘There’s no opportunity there for anybody other than a White Republican to win that district,’ Democratic state Sen. Rodger Smitherman, said. ‘It will never, ever elect a Democrat. They won’t elect a Black. They won’t elect a minority.’ 

Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill late Friday.

Last year, the panel ruled that the state’s legislative map likely violated the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court upheld. 

‘Let’s be clear: The Alabama Legislature believes it is above the law,’ the plaintiffs who won the Supreme Court case — and who have vowed to continue to fight if the map is passed — said. ‘What we are dealing with is a group of lawmakers who are blatantly disregarding not just the Voting Rights Act, but a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court and a court order from the three-judge district court.’

SUPREME COURT LIFTS PAUSE ON LOUISIANA REDISTRICTING CASE THAT COULD BOOST BLACK VOTING POWER 

Smitherman said he believes state Republicans are hoping the Supreme Court will vote in favor of the state in the next round. The court narrowly voted 5-4 against the state. 

‘I have people in my district saying their vote doesn’t count, and I understand why they say that,’ state Democratic Rep. Thomas Jackson said during debate Friday. ‘The person they want to elect can never get elected because they are in the minority all the time.’

A leading GOP lawmaker said the Senate proposal places heavier emphasis on a district’s shape and keeping communities together than on racial composition.

‘How do we keep those communities together, how do they wind up being recognized as communities of interest? That’s a big decision,’ Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed. 

The debate in Alabama is being closely watched across the nation, and could be mirrored in fights in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas and other states.

–>

There are weeks on Capitol Hill where one story dominates.

Last week it was the defense bill.

But when the former President of the United States appears headed toward another indictment, you know what prevails.

IN THE SENATE, TIME IS PARAMOUNT

This is just not former President Trump duking it out with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Nor is this Mr. Trump facing prosecution over his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

This is a likely indictment connected to the riot at the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

And even though former President Trump hasn’t been in office in two-and-a-half-years, he still manages to command nearly every cubic centimeter of news oxygen and political conversations on Capitol Hill.

Word of additional legal action followed a familiar script on Capitol Hill. Many of Mr. Trump’s fiercest loyalists rushing to defend him. Then there were a few Republicans spinning or slightly distancing themselves from former President Trump. Democrats – per usual – went all in, excoriating the former President.

‘It’s absolute bull—-,’ proclaimed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies. ‘This is the only way the Democrats have to beat President Trump is to arrest him. Smear him. Charge him with ridic, useless charges. All they want is a coverup of Joe Biden’s crimes. Hunter Biden’s crimes.’

Greene said that the American justice system was ‘worse than some of the most corrupt, third world countries.’ She then proclaimed that Mr. Trump ‘is proven innocent time and time and time again and he’ll be proven innocent again.’

And now for a diametrically-opposed view from the Democrats.

‘There will be criminal accountability for everybody who committed crimes against the government,’ said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. ‘We’re talking about a violent insurrection, surrounding an insider, political coup. This is a matter of the utmost pressing urgency to the American people to make sure we never relive something like that.’

‘The President was a central figure in an effort to overturn an election. An effort to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our history,’ said Mr. Trump’s nemesis, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Schiff served on the House’s panel investigating the 2021 riot at the Capitol. However, the California Democrat wondered why it may have taken so long to target the former President.

‘They moved quickly when it came to those who broke into this building behind us and assaulted police officers. But it seemed like almost a year, if not more, before they started looking at those who did the organizing. Did the inciting. Those who conspired to defraud the American people.’

Schiff then suggested that the 1/6 committee ‘unearthed evidence that the Justice Department could not ignore.’

HOUSE REPUBLICANS NARROWLY PASS CONTROVERSIAL DEFENSE BILL

That said, there was consternation at one point by prosecutors that the 1/6 committee wasn’t helpful in providing information to the DoJ for potential criminal probes.

In fact, much of the week in Congress was about 2024 – even though it didn’t appear to be about 2024.

The House Oversight Committee heard from two senior IRS whistleblowers who claim that Hunter Biden should have faced felony charges over his tax returns rather than a misdemeanor as part of his plea deal.

‘They were recommending for approval, felony and misdemeanor charges for the 2017, ‘18 and ‘19 tax years. That did not happen here. And I am not sure why,’ testified IRS agent Joseph Ziegler.

Democrats said the IRS whistleblowers weren’t responsible for deciding who is prosecuted and what charges they may face. Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss said he had the ultimate authority to bring charges. But the whistleblowers – and many Republicans – believe pressure from above handcuffed prosecutors.

‘We’ve got the two best agents in the place on the case,’ said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. ‘And then, ‘Shazam!’ Something changes.’

At one point in the hearing, Greene warned everyone that ‘viewer discretion was advised.’ She then displayed lewd poster boards of Hunter Biden in compromising positions.

‘It’s very serious that Hunter Biden was paying this woman through his law firm and then writing it off as business tax exemptions,’ said Greene.

Republicans claim that Hunter Biden’s tax issues and overseas business dealings are connected to President Biden and demonstrate rampant corruption. But before the hearing, Raskin predicted that no matter what the GOP did, they wouldn’t demonstrate wrongdoing by the President.

This is why the hearing oozed with 2024 presidential politics. Democrats contend the GOP only held the hearing to target the President.

‘I think (House Oversight Committee) Chairman (James) Comer, R-Ky., might have to fill out a FEC form as an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign based on what’s going on in this hearing,’ proclaimed Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.

But amid the looming indictment for former President Trump, Republicans said the hearing only underscored two standards of justice in the U.S. One for the Bidens. Another for Mr. Trump.

‘The DoJ, the FBI and the IRS have worked to not only protect the criminal actions of the Biden family, but to continue persecuting President Trump,’ said Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C.

The intensity of that rhetoric will only grow once the feds formally indict the President. The extent of the indicment and what it alleges about Mr. Trump’s actions related to the election and the riot will amplify the invective the GOP hurls at prosecutors and the Biden Administration. And what Democrats say about the former President and Republicans.

This is why some Republicans now want to expunge the two impeachments of former President Trump. However, it’s far from clear that the House would ever consider such a resolution – let alone have the votes to approve such an expungement.

That said, Republicans presented a big platform this week to Mr. Biden’s top 2024 challenger, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy testified at a hearing about censorship and the weaponization of government.

‘This committee has come to embody weaponization itself,’ said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., characterized RFK Jr. as ‘a living, breathing, false flag operation’ for his views on the pandemic.

Kennedy drew criticism for declaring that COVID-19 was ‘engineered’ in a way to grant immunity to persons of Chinese and European Jewish descent.

However, there’s a House Oversight Committee hearing scheduled next Wednesday on UFO’s. Perhaps that’s the only subject which could upstage the prospective indictment of the former President.

The grandson of former President John F. Kennedy denounced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 White House bid, calling his candidacy an ’embarrassment’ and a ‘vanity project,’ while endorsing President Joe Biden’s 2024 run.

‘President John F. Kennedy is my grandfather. And his legacy is important,’ Jack Schlossberg, the son of U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, said in a video posted Friday on Instagram. ‘It’s about a lot more than Camelot and conspiracy theories. It’s about public service and courage.’

The 30-year-old said that President Biden ‘shares his grandfather’s vision for America’ and is the ‘greatest progressive president we’ve ever had.’

‘It’s about civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis and landing a man on the moon. Joe Biden shares my grandfather’s vision for America, that we do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. And he is in the middle of becoming the greatest progressive president we’ve ever had,’ he continued.

Schlossberg touted President Biden’s track record, claiming that Biden ended the COVID-19 pandemic and ended former President Donald Trump. 

‘Under Biden, we’ve added 13 million jobs. Unemployment is at its lowest in 60 years. Biden passed the largest investment in infrastructure since the New Deal, and the largest investment in green energy ever,’ Schlossberg said. ‘He’s appointed more federal judges than any president since my grandfather. He ended our longest war. He ended the COVID pandemic, and he ended Donald Trump.’

The Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School graduate said that the Biden agenda are the ‘issues that matter.’

‘And if my cousin Bobby Kennedy Jr. Cared about any of them, he would support Joe Biden too,’ Schlossberg said. ‘Instead, he’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame.’

RFK jr.’s cousin continued to condemn his family member, saying that he has ‘no idea’ why anyone thinks he should be president.

‘I’ve listened to him. I know him,’ Schlossberg said. ‘I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president.’

RFK’s cousin said his candidacy is an ’embarrassment’ and a ‘vanity project.’

‘What I do know is his candidacy is an embarrassment. Let’s not be distracted again, by somebody’s vanity project. I am excited to vote for Joe Biden in my state’s primary and again in the general election, and I hope you will too.’

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) released an opinion Friday that said a U.S. senator and a state senator were queried under FISA Section 702 in June 2022, and a state judge was queried in October 2022 — and said these examples demonstrate a ‘failure’ to follow FBI policy.

The violation was revealed in the FISC’s 2023 opinion released by the Director of National Intelligence on Friday.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the government to conduct targeted surveillance of non-U.S. citizens located abroad to acquire foreign intelligence information. When U.S. citizens are flagged as part of these investigations, the FBI takes over the process of querying them for possible security reasons.

But the court said the three queries it identified didn’t meet the standard set out under the law.

‘Some violations of the querying standard coincided with failure to follow an FBI policy that requires prior Deputy Director approval to use ‘sensitive query terms’ — e.g. identifiers of domestic public officials, domestic political candidates, members of the news media, academics, and religious organizations or persons prominent within them,’ the opinion said.

‘The following queries did not meet the ‘reasonably likely to retrieve’ standard and also contravened this FBI policy,’ it said.

The opinion said that in June 2022, ‘an analyst conducted four queries of Section 702 information using the last names of a U.S. Senator and a state senator, without further limitation.’

‘The analyst had information that a specific foreign intelligence service was targeting those legislators, but NSD determined that the querying standard was not satisfied,’ it said.

The opinion also said that on Oct. 25, 2022, ‘a staff operations specialist ran a query using the social security number of a state judge who had complained to FBI about alleged civil rights violations perpetrated by a municipal chief of police.’’

The identities of the U.S. senator, state senator and state judge are unknown.

The FBI told Fox News, however, that these queries were run for a foreign threat concern, and said both the U.S. senator and state judge queries met the ‘authorized purpose’ requirement. The FBI said the senator query, however, was ‘not reasonably tailored to the query standard and did not receive pre-approval per our policy for sensitive queries.’

‘The state judge was not justified and did not obtain pre-approval,’ the FBI said.

The opinion said that despite the ‘reported errors,’ there ‘is reason to believe that the FBI has been doing a better job in applying the querying standard.’

‘Large-scale, suspicionless queries of Section 702 information contributed in 2018 to a finding of deficiency in the FBI’s querying and minimization procedures and remained a concern at the time of the last renewal in April 2022,’ the opinion said. ‘Since then, the government has not reported violations of comparable magnitude.’

The opinion also highlights how FBI reforms have contributed to improvements, saying there were ’further indications that the measures are having the desired effect.’ 

The FISC said FBI’s compliance rate with the querying standard is over 98%, after the implementation of reforms. 
 
The FISC said it ‘anticipated that the new default settings ‘should eliminate non-compliance stemming from inadvertent querying’ of such information.’ 

The Court also ‘noted ‘preliminary indications’ that such changes were ‘resulting in substantial reductions in the number of U.S.-person queries.”

In a statement responding to the FISC’s opinion, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the findings confirm ‘the significant improvement in the FBI’s Section 702 querying compliance since the implementation of our substantial reforms.’

‘Section 702 is critical in our fight against foreign adversaries. We take seriously our role in protecting national security and we take just as seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of our Section 702 authorities,’ Wray said. ‘Compliance is an ongoing endeavor, and we recently announced new additional accountability measures.’

Wray added: ‘We will continue to focus on using our Section 702 authorities to protect American lives and keeping our Homeland safe, while safeguarding civil rights and liberties.’

The FBI has faced scrutiny for the misuse of Section 702, and Wray has said the bureau has taken steps to reform the system.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said there was a ‘significant decline’ in the total number of queries the FBI made into U.S. citizens between 2021 and 2022 under Section 702, due to the changes the bureau made to its ‘systems, processes, and training relating to U.S. persons queries.’

In the year ending November 2022, the FBI conducted a total of about 204,000 queries, a 94% drop from the previous year’s reporting period when it conducted nearly 3.4 million.

But according to the FISC’s 2022 opinion, the FBI improperly used warrantless search powers against U.S. citizens more than 278,000 times in the year ending November 2021.  U.S. citizens covered in that improper effort included people involved in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021; George Floyd protesters during the summer of 2020; and donors to a failed congressional candidate, the filing said.

FISA Section 702 is set to sunset on Dec. 31, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are proposing reforms in order to reauthorize the section, with more congressional oversight.

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday announced that his administration has filed a lawsuit against the federal government over its approval of a New York plan to reduce traffic congestion.

Murphy said New Jersey filed the lawsuit against the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and accused the federal agencies of violating environmental laws. In May, the FHWA authorized a plan from New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to charge commuters an increased fee to enter Manhattan in an effort to reduce congestion and improve the city’s air quality.

‘After refusing to conduct a full environmental review of the MTA’s poorly designed tolling program, the FHWA has unlawfully fast-tracked the agency’s attempt to line its own coffers at the expense of New Jersey families,’ Murphy said Friday in a statement. ‘The costs of standing idly by while the MTA uses New Jersey residents to help balance its budget sheets are more than economic.’

‘At the MTA’s own admission, its tolling program would divert traffic and shift pollution to many vulnerable New Jersey communities, impacting air quality while offering nothing to mitigate such considerable harm,’ he added. ‘Today we stand as a unified front against this reckless scheme and reaffirm our commitment to combat the unjust taxation of our hardworking residents by other states.’

After the plan received federal approval in May, Murphy said it also violated President Biden’s own environmental justice agenda and Justice40 initiative, which requires 40% of certain federal investments to flow to disadvantaged communities that are ‘marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.’

In a letter to New York officials dated May 5, the FHWA approved the release of the proposal’s final environmental assessment, one of the final hurdles the project faced. The agency said it determined the assessment met the statutory threshold to move forward.

Under the plan, which the state is planning to begin implementing in 2024, commuters entering midtown or downtown Manhattan could be hit with a fee of up to $23 during peak hours and up to $12 during nighttime hours. The program is projected to boost state revenue by about $1 billion.

While the proposal was heralded as a major climate win by top New York officials — New York City Mayor Eric Adams said it would clean up the air in the most polluted communities — New Jersey lawmakers blasted it, saying it would force traffic through and increase emissions in New Jersey.

‘As the senior senator of New Jersey, I have made it abundantly clear that it’s unacceptable for New York to try balancing its budget on the backs of New Jersey commuters. Their proposed congestion tax scheme is nothing more than a shakedown and must be defeated,’ Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said Friday.

‘If the MTA gets its way, trucks will be backed up here in North Jersey, billowing cancer-causing pollution into the lungs of our children. I want to thank our Governor for punching back at a state that decided to use Jersey as their piggy bank to solve their years of criminal mismanagement at the MTA,’ Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., added. ‘I don’t know how the MTA Chairman looks at himself in the mirror.’

Gottheimer and Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., introduced legislation earlier this year that would strip federal funding from infrastructure projects in New York unless the state exempted commuters from all congestion pricing fees.

Local lawmakers and business groups like the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce and New Jersey Business and Industry Association also opposed the plan.

In addition, Murphy signed legislation Friday that would enable New Jersey to tax remote employees who live out of state but work for companies based in New Jersey. 

The FHWA declined to comment, saying it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

A bloody machete fight in a Boston suburb led to the arrest of three illegal immigrants, who are now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, the agency said this week.

Officers from the Waltham Police Dept. responded on July 14 to a report of a fight involving a machete. The Department said officers discovered a victim with a deep head laceration from the weapon, who was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

It said one person was hit with the weapon and two others were assaulted trying to stop the attack. Two men were arrested that evening and another was arrested two days later.

Police said the assault was a result of a neighbor dispute over a ‘motor vehicle incident.’ The incident was first reported by the Boston Herald.

Police arrested Osman Aguilar-Borrayo for armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery on a pregnant woman, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and mayhem.

ICE told Fox News Digital that he had initially entered the U.S. in 2014, but was removed under expedited removal that year. He re-entered illegally in July 2021 and was released into the U.S. under prosecutorial discretion by Border Patrol.

Police also arrested Bryan Aguilar-Borrayo for mayhem. He entered illegally in Texas in 2019, was arrested by Border Patrol, and was released into the U.S. with a Notice to Appear in court.

Kevin Aguilar-Borrayo was also arrested for Mayhem on July 16. He also entered the U.S. in July 2019, and was processed with a Notice to Appear and released on an order of recognizance, ICE said.

The agency said that all three men, from Guatemala, are now in ICE custody awaiting immigration hearings.

‘U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the greatest threats to the homeland,’ a spokesperson said.

The arrests come as the U.S. remains in a border crisis now in its third year. Republicans have criticized the administration for reducing ICE enforcement priorities while expanding ‘catch-and-release.’ The administration won a major case challenging the ICE priorities before the Supreme Court last month.

The administration has pointed to recent border numbers, which showed a sharp drop in June in numbers to a level not seen since February 2021. However, those numbers, 144,000 migrant encounters, remain high compared to pre-2021 numbers.