Former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was booed at a conference in Washington, D.C., after criticizing the leadership of former President Donald Trump.

‘I’m running because he’s let us down,’ Christie said to a crowd at the Faith & Freedom Coalition event on Friday, referencing Trump. ‘He has let us down because he’s unwilling to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that were made and any of the faults that he has and any of the things he’s done, and that is not leadership everybody. That is a failure of leadership.’

At that point, several people in the largely pro-Trump crowd booed the former New Jersey governor. 

‘You can boo all you want,’ the Republican presidential candidate responded. ‘But here’s the thing. Our faith teaches us that people have to take responsibility for what they do. People have to stand up and take accountability for what they do.’

Several members of the crowd applauded in response to that line.

Christie then began to name the ‘great list of Americans’ who worked in the Trump administration but have publicly soured on the president, including former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. 

‘We love Trump,’ someone in the crowd shouted as he listed the names.

‘You can love him all you want,’ Christie responded. ‘But I will tell you that doing those kinds of things makes our country smaller.’

Christie addressed the boos after the event to reporters outside and said that ‘we can’t pretend that Donald Trump is a man of character.’

Christie has vowed to be the alternative to Donald Trump on the campaign trail and told Fox News Digital in an interview in New Hampshire on Thursday that his game plan for pumping up his favorable ratings is to ‘come up here, and you campaign.’

‘Remember this,’ Christie said. ‘Eight years ago, when I came up here, my unfavorables were upside down 25 points in the first poll. And on primary night, my favorables were up plus 30, so a 55-point swing. You know, look, people get to know me, I usually do pretty well.’

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit challenging a law that makes it a crime to ‘encourage or induce’ illegal immigration — dismissing a claim that the section was overbroad and unconstitutional.

The case, U.S. v Hansen, involved California-based Helaman Hansen, who promised hundreds of noncitizens entry and a path to citizenship via ‘adult adoption.’ However, no such pathway exists in U.S. law, yet he earned nearly $2 million out of the scam from over 450 foreign nationals.

The opinion, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, noted how people used savings accumulated over decades to pay for the scheme. 

Hansen was convicted for fraud and encouraging people to come to the U.S. illegally, but challenged the conviction on the basis that the law is overly broad. A district court ruled against him, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, finding that the law on encouragement is overbroad and violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

Barrett dismissed the logic behind Hansen’s appeal, saying that a challenger must demonstrate that a statute prohibits a substantial amount of protected speech outside its legitimate coverage — and that the unconstitutional application must be disproportionate to its legitimate sweep.

Hansen did not meet these criteria, the 7-2 opinion found.

‘Hansen asks us to throw out too much of the good based on a speculative shot at the bad,’ she said.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, with Jackson pointing to supporting documents, ‘including briefs from lawyers, immigration advocacy organizations, religious and other charitable organizations, journalists, local governments, and nonprofit policy institutions from across the ideological spectrum’ who argue that the law’s breadth ‘might well prove to be a significant obstacle for those on the ground who operate daily in the shadow of the law.’

The case was the second immigration ruling handed down by the court on Friday. It also ruled 8-1 to throw out a Republican-state challenge to the Biden administration’s narrowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities. 

The states had argued that the narrowing led to fewer arrests and deportations, leading to greater costs for states who are dealing with additional illegal immigrants. But the majority found that the states did not have standing to challenge the priorities.

‘In sum, the States have brought an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit. They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests. Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this,’ the opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

IRS whistleblowers told Congress that a Justice Department official dissuaded investigators from talking to President Biden’s grandchildren as part of the federal probe into Hunter Biden to avoid getting into ‘hot water.’ 

On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee released transcripts of interviews with two IRS whistleblowers who claim decisions made during the probe by DOJ, FBI and IRS officials seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

Testimony of IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley Jr., who oversaw the investigation, and an unnamed IRS special agent who claims to have opened the initial probe alleges investigators were told not to interview President Biden’s grandchildren. 

Investigators said interviewing the grandchildren would have been customary under normal circumstances because some of the payments Hunter Biden made that they were investigating involved his children, including a $30,000 tuition payment to Columbia University. 

According to the whistleblowers, Hunter Biden was fraudulently claiming such amounts as business write-offs on his tax returns, thus they wanted to speak to the grandchildren involved as part of their probe. 

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf told the investigators in a meeting it would ‘get us into a lot of hot water if we interview the President’s grandchildren.’ 

‘I don’t remember what ultimately happened with the grandchildren. I know I have never interviewed them, and we have not interviewed them,’ he said.

The unnamed whistleblower said that his supervisor suggested documenting meetings between IRS and officials in U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ office, who were running point on the probe.

‘My supervisor felt it necessary when some of the inappropriate comments that were being made — to start documenting them,’ the whistleblower said. 

‘There were a lot of times to where they would discuss the election or discuss politics, and I had to say, on multiple occasions, that I felt that it was inappropriate that they were saying it,’ he said. 

The whistleblower described other investigators referencing individuals surrounding the matter as to how they were related to President Biden — for example, Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden. 

‘James Biden, we would call him the uncle. So that’s how we referred to him, as the uncle,’ the whistleblower stated. 

At another point, the whistleblower said Venmo transactions were paid to ‘family and friends’ of Hunter Biden that were deducted on his returns. 

‘So I continually asked, ‘Can I go and interview them? And can we understand what these payments were for? If they made other payments?’ And those were always met with no. And I think one of them was Valerie Owens that we talked about that I wasn’t allowed to go and do that interview. I believe that Valerie is a relative of Joe Biden. It might be his sister. I don’t — all I know is she’s a relative of his,’ the whistleblower said. 

During a press conference on Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland denied the whistleblower allegations of DOJ interference into the Hunter Biden probe. 

‘As I said at the outset, Mr. Weiss, who was appointed by President Trump as the U.S. attorney in Delaware and assigned this matter during the previous administration, would be permitted to continue his investigation and to make a decision to prosecute any way in which he wanted to and in any district in which he wanted to. Mr. Weiss has since sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee confirming that he had that authority,’ Garland told reporters.

The unnamed whistleblower claimed in his testimony that ‘while the impression was that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware has essentially the powers of special counsel in this case, free rein to do as needed, as is clearly shown, this was not the case.’

‘The U.S. Attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials as well as other U.S. Attorneys. I view that a special counsel for this case would have cut through the toughest problems that continues to make problems for this case,’ he said. 

The whistleblower interview was recorded on June 1, and released publicly on Thursday. 

On Tuesday, Weiss announced that the DOJ and Hunter Biden struck a plea deal in which the president’s son will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax.

Hunter Biden also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

Weiss said the investigation remains ‘ongoing.’

Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, claimed in a statement to Fox News Digital on Friday that the whistleblower claims are misleading. 

‘Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,’ Clark said. ‘The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.’ 

Clark also said that ‘[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.’

‘An extensive, five-year long investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded this week, which resulted in my client taking responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments, as well as a firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement. As his attorney through this entire matter, I can say that any suggestion the investigation was not thorough, or cut corners, or cut my client any slack, is preposterous and deeply irresponsible,’ he added.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Adam Sabes contributed to this report

A bank account linked to President Biden’s son Hunter Biden received more than $5 million in August 2017, shortly after his threatening messages — in which he said he was ‘sitting here’ with his father — to a Chinese associate revealed this week by an IRS whistleblower, according to documents released by congressional investigators.  

On Aug. 4, 2017, Chinese firm CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s law firm Owasco, according to a 2020 report published by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Then, days later on Aug. 8, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a firm Hunter Biden opened with Chinese associates.

The two transactions totaling $5.1 million came within 10 days of messages uncovered Thursday by the House Ways and Means Committee. In the messages — shared to the panel via IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley Jr., who oversaw the agency’s probe into Hunter Biden — Hunter Biden blasted business partner Henry Zhao for not fulfilling his ‘commitment’ and said his father was with him.

‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,’ Hunter Biden wrote in a WhatsApp message to Zhao, the CEO of Beijing-based asset management firm Harvest Fund Management, on July 30, 2017, according to documents released by House Republicans.  

‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction,’ Hunter Biden added in his messages to Zhao. ‘I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.’

In addition, the 2020 Senate report revealed that, beginning on Aug. 14, 2017, Hunter Biden initiated a string of 20 wire transactions from Owasco to Lion Hall Group, a consulting firm linked to President Biden’s brother James Biden and his wife Sara. The transactions continued through Aug. 3, 2018, and totaled $1.4 million.

The federal probe into Hunter Biden’s ‘tax affairs’ began in 2018, amid the discovery of suspicious activity reports regarding funds from ‘China and other foreign nations.’

The investigation — codenamed ‘Sportsman’ — was opened as an ‘offshoot’ of an IRS investigation into a ‘foreign-based amateur online pornography platform,’ Shapley testified to the House committee.

Shapley claimed in his testimony that decisions in the case seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

‘Whatever the motivations, at every stage decisions were made that had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation,’ Shapley said.

‘These decisions included slow-walking investigative steps, not allowing enforcement actions to be executed, limiting investigators’ line of questioning for witnesses, misleading investigators on charging authority, delaying any and all actions months before elections to ensure the investigation did not go overt well before policy memorandum mandated the pause. These are just only a few examples,’ he added.

On Friday, the White House refused to answer reporters’ questions about Shapley’s allegations and repeatedly directed further concerns to the White House Counsel’s Office.

‘As it relates to anything related to Hunter Biden, I am just not going to respond to it from here,’ White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, attacked the whistleblower allegations in a statement released Friday evening. 

‘Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,’ Clark said. ‘The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.’ 

Clark also said that ‘[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.’

‘An extensive, five-year long investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded this week, which resulted in my client taking responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments, as well as a firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement. As his attorney through this entire matter, I can say that any suggestion the investigation was not thorough, or cut corners, or cut my client any slack, is preposterous and deeply irresponsible,’ he added.

Clark didn’t immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the millions of dollars Hunter Biden received in August 2017. 

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

There is ‘no way of knowing’ if evidence of ‘other criminal activity’ existed concerning President Joe Biden or Hunter Biden due to prosecutorial guidance to ‘limit’ or block questioning related to the president, an IRS whistleblower alleged. 

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers said decisions in the case seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

One whistleblower, Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that ‘at every stage’ of the Hunter Biden probe, decisions were made that ‘had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.’

Shapley testified that the investigation, which had the codename of ‘Sportsman,’ was opened in November 2018 as an ‘offshoot’ of an IRS investigation into a ‘foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.’ Testimony released by the committee didn’t include any further explanation of how the pornography outlet and Hunter Biden were linked.

Nearly a year later, in October 2019, Shapley said the FBI became aware of the laptop, and by December 2019, the FBI took possession of it and ‘notified the IRS that it likely contained evidence of tax crimes.’

Shapley testified that he, in October 2020, complained that he still had ‘not been given access to the laptop.’

Shapley noted that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf admitted that she did not see the laptop because ‘prosecutors decided to keep it from the investigators.’

‘This decision is unprecedented in my experience,’ Shapley said. ‘Investigators assigned to this investigation were obstructed from seeing all the available evidence.’

Shapley further testified that it is ‘unknown if all the evidence in the laptop was reviewed by agents or by prosecutors.’

Shapley also testified that Wolf had worked to ‘limit’ questioning related to Joe Biden — referring to him as ‘dad’ or ‘the big guy.’

With regard to the laptop, Shapley said that ‘based on guidance provided by the prosecutors on a recurring basis to not look into anything related to President Biden, there is no way of knowing if evidence of other criminal activity existed concerning Hunter Biden or President Biden.’

With regard to limiting questioning related to Joe Biden, Shapley pointed to text messages and emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, which Fox News Digital first reported before the 2020 presidential election and before it was known that Hunter Biden was under federal investigation.

Ahead of an interview with Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker in December 2020, Shapley said investigators ‘wanted to question Walker about an email that said: ‘Ten held by H for the big guy.’’

The ‘Ten held by H for the big guy’ message is an email from May 13, 2017, which included a discussion of ‘remuneration packages’ for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Biden as ‘Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC,’ in an apparent reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.

The email includes a note that ‘Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.’ A proposed equity split references ’20’ for ‘H’ and ’10 held by H for the big guy?’ with no further details.

‘We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden,’ Shapley testified.

But Shapley said Wolf ‘interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad.’’

It has been reported that Joe Biden is referred to as ‘the big guy.’

‘When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning,’ Shapley said. ‘This upset the FBI, too.’

Shapley said that ‘basically everyone in the room except for the prosecutors had a big problem with’ not asking questions about President Biden.

Shapley said IRS and FBI agents conducting the Walker interview ‘tried to skirt AUSA Wolf’s direction’ to avoid questions on ‘dad’ and ‘the big guy.’

‘And they were like, ‘How can we not ask?’ Like, that was wrong. We got to ask. We got to ask,’ Shapley said. ‘And so they basically decided that they would ask the question without saying the words ‘big guy,’ and that then they would somehow be doing what they were asked to do.’

Meanwhile, Shapley also pointed to a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Chinese energy company CEFC executive Henry Zhao, where he wrote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.’ 

The text further stated: ‘I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.’ 

‘Communications like these made it clear we needed to search the guest house at the Bidens’ Delaware residence where Hunter Biden stayed for a time,’ Shapley said. 

Shapley said that on Oct. 22, 2020, the team and Wolf stated that U.S. Attorney David Weiss had ‘reviewed the affidavit for search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and agreed that probable cause had been achieved.’

‘Even though the legal requirements were met, and the investigative team knew evidence would be in these locations, AUSA Wolf stated that they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden,’ Shapley said.

Shapley said Wolf determined there was ‘enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.’ 

‘She continued that optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant,’ Shapley said. ‘She said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved.’

Meanwhile, Shapley repeatedly testified that there were ‘multiple times where Lesley Wolf said that she didn’t want to ask questions about ‘dad.’’

‘And ‘dad’ was kind of how we referred to him,’ Shapley said. ‘We referred to Hunter Biden’s father, you know, as dad.’

Shapley said Joe Biden was referred to in that way ‘so that we could speak more openly without yelling, ‘President Biden.’’

The White House has repeatedly said President Biden has never been involved in his son’s business dealings. They also maintain the president never discussed them with him.

In response to the whistleblower allegations, the Justice Department said in a statement: ‘As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so. Questions about his investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware.’

Federal investigators knew in December 2019 that Hunter Biden’s laptop was ‘not manipulated in any way’ and contained ‘reliable evidence,’ but were ‘obstructed’ from seeing all available information, according to an IRS whistleblower involved in the probe—nearly a year before former intelligence officials and Joe Biden himself, declared it was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of the tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers said decisions in the case seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

One whistleblower, Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the investigation at the IRS, said that ‘at every stage’ of the Hunter Biden probe, decisions were made that ‘had the effect of benefiting the subject of the investigation.’

Shapley testified that the investigation, codenamed ‘Sportsman,’ was opened in November 2018 as an ‘offshoot’ of an IRS investigation into a ‘foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.’ Testimony released by the committee didn’t include any further explanation of how the pornography outlet and Biden were linked.

The investigation had previously been believed to have been predicated, in part, by suspicious foreign transactions.

Nearly a year later, in October 2019, Shapely said the ‘FBI became aware that a repair shop had a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden and that the laptop might contain evidence of a crime.’

‘The FBI verified its authenticity in November of 2019 by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID,’ Shapely said. ‘When the FBI took possession of the device in December 2019, they notified the IRS that it likely contained evidence of tax crimes.’

The laptop repair shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, was subpoenaed to testify before the U.S. District Court in Delaware in December 2019.

The FBI’s property receipt for the laptop, first obtained by Fox News Digital in 2020, had a ‘Case ID’ section, which was filled in with a handwritten number: 272D-BA-3065729.

The number ‘272’ is the FBI’s classification for money laundering, while ‘272D’ refers to ‘Money Laundering, Unknown SUA [Specified Unlawful Activity]—White Collar Crime Program,’ according to FBI documents. One government official described ‘272D’ as ‘transnational or blanket.’

Shapely said the FBI verified the authenticity of the laptop, even though many Biden allies said it was Russian disinformation.

It was in October 2020 that Shapley said he emailed Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, saying: ‘We need to talk about the computer.’ 

Shapley said the FBI appeared to have been making ‘certain representations about the device, and the only reason we know what is on the device is because of the IRS CI affiant search warrant that allowed access to the documents.’

‘My management has to be looped into whatever the FBI is doing with the laptop,’ Shapley said he wrote in an Oct. 19, 2020 email to Wolf. ‘It is IRS CI’s responsibility to know what is happening. Let me know when I can be briefed on this issue.’

Shapley said his email led to ‘a special meeting’ on Oct. 22, 2020 with the prosecution team and the FBI’s computer analysis team to discuss Hunter Biden’s laptop.

‘We once again objected that we still had not been given access to the laptop,’ Shapley said, noting that Wolf admitted that she did not see the laptop because ‘prosecutors decided to keep it from the investigators.’

‘This decision is unprecedented in my experience,’ Shapley said. ‘Investigators assigned to this investigation were obstructed from seeing all the available evidence.’

Shapley further testified that it is ‘unknown if all the evidence in the laptop was reviewed by agents or by prosecutors.’

Shapley had testified that Wolf had worked to ‘limit’ questioning related to Joe Biden—referring to him as ‘dad’ or ‘the big guy.’

With regard to the laptop, Shapley said that ‘based on guidance provided by the prosecutors on a recurring basis to not look into anything related to President Biden, there is no way of knowing if evidence of other criminal activity existed concerning Hunter Biden or President Biden.’

As for the contents of the laptop, Shapley said Wolf ‘acknowledged that there was no reason to believe that any data was manipulated on devices by any third party.’

‘She further supported this belief by mentioning that they corroborated the data with other sources of information received,’ Shapley testified.

But despite corroboration, just weeks before the 2020 election, 51 former national security officials wrote a public letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop had ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’ It was signed by former President Obama CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, among others.

Fox News Digital reported last month that former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell worked to write the letter and to get support from ex-intelligence officials. Morell sent a draft of the statement to the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) before making it public.

Morell sent the draft in an email to the PCRB, and  wrote on Oct. 19, 2020, ‘This is a rush job as it needs to get out as soon as possible.’

Morell told the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees that the PCRB ‘approved’ the letter ‘as written’ the same day.

Morell also said it was the Biden campaign that orchestrated the letter to discredit stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop–specifically, now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

Three days after the letter was made public, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden used it as a talking point in the final 2020 presidential debate to rebut criticisms made by then-President Donald Trump.

‘There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, he’s accusing me of, is a Russian plan,’ Biden said during the debate.

At the time, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Hunter Biden’s laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The FBI concurred.

These revelations come just days after the Justice Department announced that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of a deal that is expected to keep him out of prison. The president’s son also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement with regard to a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

In response to the whistleblower allegations, the Justice Department said in a statement: ‘As both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate. He needs no further approval to do so. Questions about his investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware.’

When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced a ‘major effort’ in April to put the Senate’s imprint on artificial intelligence policy, he talked about having an ‘urgency to act’ and said a legislative plan would start taking shape in a matter of weeks.

‘In the coming weeks, Leader Schumer plans to refine the proposal in conjunction with stakeholders from academia, advocacy organizations, industry, and the government,’ he said in an April 13 statement.

But on Thursday, more than two months later, Schumer indicated that legislation may not be ready until 2024. In Wednesday remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Schumer said the process of getting input for the plan is still months away.

‘Later this fall, I will convene the top minds in artificial intelligence here in Congress for a series of AI Insight Forums to lay down a new foundation for AI policy,’ he said. Schumer said developers, scientists, CEOs, national security experts and others must do ‘years of work in a matter of months,’ a sign the effort could go well into next year.

He said once this input is collected, it will be up to legislators to listen and translate their ideas into legislation. He outlined a broad range of issues to cover, including how to protect innovation, intellectual property rights, risk management, national security, guarding against ‘doomsday scenarios,’ transparency, ‘explainability’ and privacy.

Making the job even more difficult, Schumer said bipartisan support is critical to the effort and said several committees will be expected to chip in.

Schumer this week announced what he called the SAFE Innovation Framework for AI, which is aimed at protecting U.S. innovation in this emerging field but ensuring there are guardrails to ensure security, promote accountability, support human liberty, civil rights and justice, and guarantee that AI outputs can be explained to users.

But Schumer laid out similar goals in April when he talked about the need to inform users, reduce the potential harm caused by AI outputs and make sure AI systems line up with ‘American values.’

Jake Denton, a technology policy research associate at the Heritage Foundation, said he sees Schumer’s recent announcement mostly as a sign that the process hasn’t gotten very far yet.

‘The goalpost seems to keep moving,’ Denton told Fox News Digital. ‘We never really get the bill text. We never get the details.’

Schumer’s office declined to comment for this story.

Denton said the basic principles that Schumer has outlined twice now are broadly accepted ideas, but he said the trick will be turning them into legislation. Several ideas have bounced around Capitol Hill – including a commission to guide AI policy or even a new agency that could license AI technology and ensure it produces outputs that are free of bias or discrimination.

Denton said it’s possible that Congress is still months or even years away from passing significant legislation to regulate AI based on its current pace. He said the precedent is there, as Congress has allowed other technology to flourish before stepping in.

‘Our lawmakers are still in the process of trying to figure out how to handle social media,’ he noted.

While the effort could easily drift into next year, Schumer said this proposal is the most efficient path forward to get a congressional regulatory plan in place.

‘If we take the typical path – holding congressional hearings with opening statements and each member asking questions five minutes at a time on different issues – we simply won’t be able to come up with the right policies,’ he said.

‘By the time we act, AI will have evolved into something new,’ he added. ‘This will not do. A new approach is required.’

President Biden picked up endorsements from three major abortion rights groups Friday, a day before the anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY’S List will join Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally with the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., on Friday to announce their joint endorsement. The groups are throwing their support behind Biden as Democrats nationally have claimed several victories for abortion rights on ballot referendums or in courts and will press forward on the issue into the 2024 election. 

‘There is so much at stake,’ Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement to media outlets. ‘We know, clear as day, that if anti-abortion politicians gain control of the White House, they will exploit their power toward their ultimate goal: a national abortion ban.’

Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, told the Associated Press the president and vice president were proud to have earned the support of the groups. Since the decision last year by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, ‘we have seen the horrifying impact that the extreme MAGA agenda has on women’s health,’ she said, referring to former President Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan.

Since the Supreme Court ended federal protections for abortion rights, 22 Republican-controlled state legislatures have advanced laws restricting abortion, such as Florida’s ban on most elective abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That law — and similar legislation in other states — faces legal challenges from abortion rights groups and providers. Republicans campaigning for president including Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis supported the Supreme Court’s decision and have opposed actions by Democratic-controlled legislatures to expand abortion access. 

In contrast, Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation that would codify federal protections for abortion rights. The president also signed executive orders intended to safeguard access to abortion and make abortion pills more available. And the Biden administration has brought together leaders from all 50 states to talk strategy on how to expand access and work together to help people in more restrictive states.

‘President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are the strongest advocates for reproductive freedom ever to occupy the White House, and NARAL Pro-Choice America proudly endorses their reelection,’ said NARAL Pro-Choice America president Mini Timmaraju. ‘It’s as simple as this: Abortion matters to Americans. In elections since the Supreme Court took away our right to abortion, voters have mobilized in massive numbers to elect Democrats who will fight to restore it. Americans know the extremist GOP stacked the courts to take away our freedoms, and they won’t forget it.’ 

EMILY’s List, a group that backs female candidates who support abortion rights, praised Vice President Kamala Harris as a powerful symbol for women. 

‘She is the highest serving woman who has broken the hard glass ceiling of representing women in the White House,’ EMILY’S List president Laphonza Butler said. ‘This is the administration using every bully pulpit it can to advance reproductive health and freedom across the country.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: Eric Schmidt, the billionaire former Google CEO and longtime Democratic donor, flew President Biden’s former top science adviser Eric Lander to a ritzy retreat in Montana during his tenure at the White House, emails reviewed by Fox News Digital reveal.

The internal White House emails — obtained by government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) and shared exclusively with Fox News Digital — show that, in July 2021, Lander, his wife Lori and his daughter Jessica flew on a private jet managed by Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic venture Schmidt founded in 2017, to the private Yellowstone Weekend summit hosted every year by Schmidt in Montana.

A spokesperson for Lander told Fox News Digital that the former official reimbursed Schmidt Futures for his travel expenses and that the White House counsel’s office approved the trip. However, PPT Director Michael Chamberlain expressed concern about Lander’s decision to go on the trip.

‘Inappropriately taking private or charter flights for travel has been the undoing of more than one high-ranking official in the Executive Branch,’ Chamberlain told Fox News Digital. ‘The personnel and resources that have flowed into OSTP from a handful of wealthy, powerful individuals and organizations should give the American public pause to consider whether the factors driving that generosity may not be altogether altruistic.’ 

‘The Biden administration has made a very public commitment to putting science above politics and has talked a lot about adherence to its scientific integrity policies,’ Chamberlain continued. ‘The public remains skeptical, and this incident does nothing to quell that skepticism.’

At the time of the trip, Lander served as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), giving him a lead role crafting policy in the Biden administration. He eventually resigned from the position last year after allegations of treating staff in a ‘disrespectful and demeaning way.’

In an email dated July 11, 2021, Schmidt Futures office assistant Adam Topper emailed Lander, his wife Lori and OSTP Deputy Chief of Staff Kevin Lo, on behalf of Schmidt and Jared Cohen, an associate of Schmidt and the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, with the Yellowstone Weekend itinerary and travel arrangements. 

According to the email, Lander, his wife and his daughter traveled on a ‘Schmidt Futures Charter’ from Washington, D.C., to Montana on July 15, 2021, and back days later. Schmidt and Cohen also provided accommodations for Lander and his family near the exclusive Yellowstone Club, the sprawling members-only ski and golf resort in Big Sky, Montana, where Yellowstone Weekend is held every summer.

‘On behalf of your hosts, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen, we are so looking forward to welcoming you next week to the 10th Annual Yellowstone Weekend!’ Topper wrote to Lander in the July 2021 email days before the trip.

In addition to listing his flight and accomodation details, the email noted the Landers would be housed with fellow Yellowstone Weekend attendees Matteo Renzi, the former prime minister of Italy, and Mathias Cormann, the secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And an attached schedule of events showed the summit included various ‘sessions,’ receptions and activities. 

‘Dr. Lander received approval from the White House counsel’s office for this travel and reimbursed all applicable expenses,’ the spokesperson for Lander told Fox News Digital in a statement.

A source close to the conference confirmed Lander requested an invoice for the trip in August 2021 and that his payment has since been received.

According to a 2020 report from the non-profit Tech Transparency Project, little is known about Schmidt’s secretive retreat except that it routinely attracts high-profile politicians, policy analysts, celebrities and executives. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., musicians Lady Gaga and Leon Bridges, actors Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, journalist Ronan Farrow, and various D.C. insiders are all counted among the known past attendees.

The White House emails reviewed by Fox News Digital additionally showed that, one month prior to the retreat, Lander exchanged multiple emails with Cohen and Topper about the ethics implications of attending the event. The communications, though, didn’t address the potential implications of the private jet travel and accommodations provided to Lander.

In an email to Cohen on June 19, 2021, Lander said he talked to White House legal advisers who informed him of a series of conditions for the trip which he listed.

For example, Lander said he was advised he couldn’t speak in an official capacity on behalf of the federal government at the retreat and that he would have to take vacation time to attend the retreat. 

Lander was also advised that he wasn’t authorized to share non-public information and that any remarks he delivered should have a disclaimer that the views shared didn’t represent those of the Biden administration.

‘Please ensure that the organizer of this event is aware that you are participating solely in your personal capacity and does not advertise the event in a way that suggests otherwise,’ one of the conditions Lander included in his email to Cohen stated. 

‘Importantly, please inform the organizer not to identify you by your official title or position in any promotional materials, or on any website or invitation, except that your official title or position can be used as part of a bio, which also contains at least three additional biographical details about yourself, and which does not give any greater prominence to your official title/position over your other biographical details.’

Over the next days, Lander and event organizers discussed in multiple emails how he would be referred to in their retreat packet. At one point, Topper, Schmidt’s assistant, informed Lander the packets were not promotional and ‘exclusively for attendees to use while they are at the Yellowstone Weekend.’ Topper has since joined the White House to work for Vice President Kamala Harris.

‘He was not approved to attend this event in his official capacity,’ a White House OSTP spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘He attended this event in his personal capacity, was not there on behalf of the federal government, and was advised about his ethics obligations.’

Meanwhile, Schmidt is a prolific contributor to Democratic Party political campaigns and spearheaded an effort to boost Democratic candidates’ technological capabilities. Schmidt — who has an estimated net worth north of $24 billion, according to Bloomberg — has sent more than $12 million to Democrats in recent years, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Schmidt also wired $227,000 in in-kind contributions to STAC Labs, a tech start-up launched in 2019, which he has bankrolled through Schmidt Futures, for its work boosting tech and voter data analysis services on behalf of 18 state Democratic parties, additional election data showed.

And Schmidt has quietly developed an intricate network enabling him to have significant influence over White House artificial intelligence and public policy, Fox News Digital reported last week.

Schmidt worked as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011 and then as the tech giant’s chairman until 2015. He subsequently worked as the executive chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, until 2018, and as its technical adviser until 2020.

Fox News Digital reporter Aaron Kliegman contributed to this report.

Legal and ethics ‘experts’ quoted in recent articles targeting conservative justices on the Supreme Court for alleged ethics violations have strong connections to prominent Democrats like President Biden and former President Bill Clinton, but those details were not made apparent in the recent stories.

In a Tuesday story titled ‘Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court,’ which was published by ProPublica, an individual named Kathleen Clark was quoted in a portion of the piece pertaining to disclosure matters and cited as an ‘ethics law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.’

But the publication failed to disclose that Clark – who has lent quotes to other ProPublica articles in the past – formerly worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee as a counsel while then-Senator Biden was chairman, according to Clark’s resume, which was obtained from the Washington University in St. Louis’ School of Law website.

Additionally, Clark worked under now-President Biden the same year he led what several Republicans consider to be a smear campaign against Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation process in 1991. That information was not disclosed by Clark or ProPublica.

Mike Davis of the Article III Project, a former high-level counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital that Clark should come clean about her past and insisted that she should not be cited as an objective ethics expert before disclosing her ties to prominent Democrats in the past.

‘Kathleen Clark was a partisan Democrat lawyer for then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Joe Biden when they viciously smeared Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearing,’ Davis said. ‘To consider Kathleen Clark any sort of objective ethics expert is like calling the head of ISIS an ‘austere religious scholar.”

Other legal minds quoted in the Tuesday story about disclosure matters, including Virginia Canter and Amanda Frost, also have ties to Democrats. Those details were not included in the story.

Canter, cited by ProPublica as ‘a former government ethics lawyer now at the watchdog group CREW,’ formerly served as a counsel in the Clinton White House, according to records from the State Department.

‘Ms. Canter served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton at the White House where she provided advice to Presidential and political appointees on ethics compliance and financial conflicts of interest,’ the biographical record noted.

Canter’s LinkedIn profile also notes that she served as associate counsel to former President Obama from January 2009 to February 2010. She also donated hundreds of dollars to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Democratic National Committee.

Cited by the publication as a ‘judicial ethics expert at the University of Virginia School of Law,’ Frost also boasts strong connections to Democrats. She formerly served as a legislative fellow to former U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy in the summer of 2006, according to her resume, which was obtained from the University of Virginia’s School of Law website.

Frost noted in her resume that she advised the late senator ‘on legal and policy issues concerning immigration, voting rights, courts and judicial nominations.’

Described earlier this year by Davis as a ‘far-left immigration professor’ and a ‘longtime leftwing activist and litigator at Public Citizen,’ Frost has given at least $10,000 to Democratic candidates or Democratic causes since 2008, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Asked by Fox News Digital whether she believes lending her comments on the issue were appropriate, given her donations to Democrats and former work for Kennedy, frost said, ‘Yes, my comments to the press are appropriate, as is my testimony and scholarship on this issue.’

Stressing that she had worked on both sides of the aisle in the past, Frost said that she ‘clerked for a Republican-appointed judge and that I have criticized the ethical conduct of justices appointed by Democrats in my public testimony before Congress and in my published academic scholarship.’

Further defending her point, Frost said she ‘spent the last twenty years promoting the enactment of ethics legislation that would (of course) apply to all the Justices, whoever appointed them.’

Earlier this year, Frost took part in a Senate Judiciary Hearing titled ‘Supreme Court Ethics Reform,’ where she used prior reports from ProPublica to strengthen her claim that certain justices, like Thomas, have ‘repeatedly violated laws regulating judicial ethics.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, ProPublica said: ‘These are professionals with deep expertise and reputations for independence, who regularly criticize Democrats and Republicans alike. Several have served in Republican administrations.’

‘To our knowledge, no one with government ethics expertise has disputed the premise of the stories: When justices accept gifts from people with ideological or business interests before the court and do not disclose them, they are departing from the norms of behavior followed by the vast majority of federal judges,’ the outlet added.

Following the Tuesday story from ProPublica, Alito took a preemptive strike against the left-wing nonprofit over what he asserts is ‘misleading’ reporting.

Clark and Canter did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.