A federal judge ruled Wednesday that House Judiciary Committee Republicans can question a former Manhattan prosecutor about the criminal case against former President Trump, saying Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg does not have a legal basis to block the congressional subpoena.

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil rejected Bragg’s request for a temporary restraining order and injunction after Chairman Jim Jordan issued a subpoena to former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz last week. 

Bragg almost immediately appealed the ruling and sought a stay of the decision.

Bragg had filed a federal lawsuit against Jordan, alleging that the Republican lawmaker is trying to wage a campaign of intimidation over his prosecution of former President Donald Trump. 

But the judge on Wednesday ruled that the subpoena was issued with a valid legislative purpose.

‘In our federalist system, elected state and federal actors sometimes engage in political dogfights,’ Vyskocil’s filing states. ‘Bragg complains of political interference in the local DANY case, but Bragg does not operate outside of the political arena. Bragg is presumptively acting in good faith.’

‘That said, he is an elected prosecutor in New York County with constituents, some of whom wish to see Bragg wield the force of law against the former President and a current candidate for the Republican presidential nomination,’ the judge stated.

‘Jordan, in turn, has initiated a political response to what he and some of his constituents view as a manifest abuse of power and nakedly political prosecution, funded (in part) with federal money, that has the potential to interfere with the exercise of presidential duties and with an upcoming federal election,’ the filing states. 

‘The Court does not endorse either side’s agenda,’ the filing continues. ‘The sole question before the Court at this time is whether Bragg has a legal basis to quash a congressional subpoena that was issued with a valid legislative purpose.’

The judge added: ‘He does not.’

The judge urged the parties to ‘speak with one another to reach a mutually agreeable compromise regarding how the deposition of Mr. Pomerantz will proceed.’ 

Reacting to the ruling Wednesday evening, House Judiciary Committee spokesman Russell Dye said: 

‘Today’s decision shows that Congress has the ability to conduct oversight and issue subpoenas to people like Mark Pomeranz, and we look forward to his deposition before the Judiciary Committee.’ 

The ruling comes after Jordan subpoenaed Pomerantz after the unprecedented indictment of former President Trump. 

‘We respectfully disagree with the District Court’s decision,’ Bragg’s office said.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in criminal court in Lower Manhattan earlier this month. The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Bragg, when he took over as district attorney in January 2022, stopped pursuing charges against Trump and suspended the investigation ‘indefinitely,’ according to a letter written last year by Pomerantz.

Pomerantz and Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under Bragg’s predecessor – former Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance – submitted their resignations in February 2022 after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump.

After Pomerantz resigned, he wrote a tell-all book based on the investigation, which was still ongoing. The book seemingly made the case to charge Trump. 

Before joining the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Pomerantz was of counsel at New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s brother, Robert Schumer, is a partner at the firm. Pomerantz donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Earlier this month, Trump was charged in a New York Supreme Court indictment with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

Bragg alleged that Trump ‘repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.’

Trump has slammed the DA’s investigation and the charges as ‘Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.’

The ruling comes after Jordan held a field hearing in New York City Monday to highlight the rising crime under Bragg’s tenure. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A proposal by Republicans in Ohio’s Statehouse that would raise the vote threshold required to amend the state constitution has advanced through both House and Senate committees.The plan coincides with a proposed abortion rights amendment, likely aimed at thwarting any potential it has to pass.While Democrats accuse the Ohio GOP of ‘legislative whiplash,’ Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone noted that her party is not ‘reinventing the wheel,’ and is simply amending an existing process.

A contingent of Statehouse Republicans in Ohio pressed forward Wednesday with their plan to make it harder to amend the state’s constitution, an effort aimed most immediately at thwarting an abortion rights amendment in the works for this fall.

After months of consternation over the issue, identical resolutions cleared both Senate and House committees within hours of each other — each calling for raising the 50%-plus-one threshold in place for passing Ohio constitutional amendments since 1912 to 60%. When the committee vote was called in the House, shouts of ‘Shame!’ reverberated in the halls, where dozens of opponents still had been lined up to testify.

About 59% of Ohio voters believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of over 90,000 midterm voters across the U.S. Only 7% said abortion should be illegal in all cases.

The Senate version of the 60% proposal went straight to a floor vote, where it passed 26-7 along party lines. The chamber also passed separate legislation setting an Aug. 8 special election to take up the question and allotting $20 million to pay for it.

A floor vote in the politically fractured Ohio House was not immediately scheduled on its version of the plan.

Republican Speaker Jason Stephens expressed earlier concerns about the rush, stymying backers’ efforts to get the measure on the ballot in May. He then called it bad form to resurrect August special elections only months after passing a bill to mostly eliminate them.

His critics have accused Stephens of intentionally stalling as part of a deal they say he cut with Democrats to secure the speakership; both he and Democratic Leader Allison Russo have denied that there was any deal.

The star witness on behalf of eliminating most August special elections was Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who blasted them as low-turnout drains on election board budgets that are bad for the state and for democracy. But LaRose now says he favors this particular August election, which he calls an exceptional circumstance.

Democratic state Sen. Kent Smith used LaRose’s own testimony against him during Wednesday’s floor debate, accusing him and fellow Republicans of putting Ohioans through ‘legislative whiplash’ in pursuit of their own interests.

‘This is an assault on democracy designed to harm citizens by limiting their right to self-governance,’ Smith said.

GOP state Sen. Theresa Gavarone said Republicans ‘are not reinventing the wheel,’ but simply adding one more exception to the types of items that Ohioans can vote on in August.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will have the ultimate say on whether an August election is called, if the legislation eventually clears the House. His office said Wednesday that he is still reviewing the bill and could not comment on whether he might veto it.

But the governor plays no part in placing the 60% resolution on the ballot. Legislators do that directly.

More than 250 groups are lined up to fight the measure if it materializes, including many who testified against it Wednesday. They include the League of Women Voters, the NAACP and an array of labor, faith, civil rights, good government and community organizations.

EXCLUSIVE: Two liberal organizations describing themselves as ‘radical feminist’ groups have entered a surprising partnership in their effort to protect women’s rights.

This week, Women’s Liberation Front and Women’s Declaration International USA broke with the President Biden and joined congressional Republicans in support of H.R. 734, or the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, a bill that would prevent biological males from participating in women’s sports.

Speaking with Fox News Digital on Wednesday, Kara Dansky, the President of Women’s Declaration International USA, said her nonpartisan organization was ‘devoted to advancing the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, which, according to the group, ‘reaffirms women and girls’ sex-based rights,’ and challenges the discrimination experienced ‘from the replacement of the category of sex with that of ‘gender identity.”

‘We are a radical feminist organization, and Article Seven of the Declaration on Women’s Sex based Rights, which is grounded in a radical feminist critique of gender identity, demands that sports be kept single sex. And we think that Representative Steube’s bill is in alignment with Article Seven of the Declaration,’ Dansky told Fox.

Dansky said she wasn’t surprised to hear Biden’s vow to veto the bill should it pass through Congress, and emphasized that she is a Democrat while blasting the party over its stance on the issue.

‘I am a registered Democrat and always have been, and I think it’s the height of hypocrisy for Democratic leadership, including the president, to champion the rights of women and girls to abortion, which we totally support, while simultaneously denying the rights of women and girls to single sex spaces,’ she said.

Lierre Keith, the board chair of the Women’s Liberation Front, echoed Dansky in her determination to protect single-sex sports.

‘Women and girls deserve to play in athletic competitions that are fair and safe. Single-sex sports are critical to ensuring equal opportunity, scholarships, and careers, and new ‘gender identity’ policies threaten to set women back decades in progress,’ she said in a statement. 

‘Girls who play sports demonstrate higher levels of confidence and positive body-image, achieve better grades in school, and are more likely to graduate. Additionally, even the fastest female Olympians are still out-run by high school boys, and biological differences between males & females are not even remotely changed by hormones or surgery,’ she said. 

Keith added that ‘most ‘gender identity’ policies’ don’t require physical or hormonal changes for men to identify as women and compete in the same sport, and cited polling showing Americans largely disagree with allowing ‘trans-identified boys and men’ to compete against girls and women.

‘For all these reasons, we strongly support the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,’ she said.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who introduced H.R. 734 earlier this year, celebrated his partnership with both groups while speaking with Fox on Wednesday, describing it as an ‘interesting bipartisan conglomerate’ coming together to protect women’s sports.

He predicted the bill would pass the House of Representatives on Thursday when it comes to the floor for a vote, and that a number of Democrats would also support it. He was unsure, however, of the outcome in the Senate.

‘I would imagine, depending on how many Democrats end up voting, that will probably give it a lot of support. But I think the other piece that’s really important here is after three or four years of working on this, we’re finally going to have the opportunity to know where every single member of Congress is on this very important issue,’ he said.

On Biden’s vow to veto the bill, and the possibility there wouldn’t be enough votes to override the veto, Steube expressed hope there would be lawsuits because the administration’s changes to Title IX didn’t pass through Congress and were implemented by executive order. He also tied in the implications for those seeking the White House in 2024.

‘I’m sure any Republican who’s going to be the nominee is going to support this bill coming through. So that’s going to be an issue that parents are going to vote for coming to the midterm or to the presidential election, and that 73% of Americans that support protecting women’s sports are going to know that this administration is not in touch with America on this,’ he said.

Kansas’ governor vetoed legislation Wednesday that would require clinics to tell patients that a medication abortion can be stopped using an unproven drug regimen.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s action pushed back state GOP efforts to restrict abortion despite a decisive statewide vote affirming abortion rights in August 2022. It was the second time within a week that she vetoed an anti-abortion bill approved by the Legislature, which has Republican supermajorities and conservative leaders.

‘Kansans made clear that they believe personal healthcare decisions should be made between a woman and her doctor, not politicians in Topeka,’ Kelly said in a short statement announcing Wednesday’s action.

Last week, she rejected a measure that could subject doctors to criminal charges and lawsuits if they are accused of not providing enough care for infants delivered alive during certain abortion procedures, even if they are expected to die within seconds outside the womb because of a severe medical issue.

Kelly also vetoed an abortion medication ‘reversal’ measure in 2019. The governor said Wednesday that this year’s bill would interfere in decisions made by women and their doctors and could harm people’s health, ‘given the uncertain science behind it.’

Kansans for Life, the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, called last week’s veto of the bill dealing with medical care for infants born during abortion procedures ‘heartless.’ After Kelly’s veto of the abortion medication measure, spokesperson Danielle Underwood said the governor sided with the ‘extremist abortion industry.’

Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said: ‘With this veto, Governor Kelly has shown that she does not believe vulnerable women have the right to know all of their options.’

The vetoes mean that abortion access and providers in Kansas remain for now far less restricted compared to other states with GOP-controlled legislatures that have banned or severely restricted abortion procedures over the past year.

GOP lawmakers are expected to try to override both vetoes after they reconvene next week to finish their business for the year.

Abortion opponents had the two-thirds majorities that will be necessary to override the veto of the bill on medical treatment for infants delivered alive during abortion procedures.

Republican lawmakers also may be able to override the bill vetoed Wednesday, though the vote is likely to be close in the House.

If they do, patients asking for a medical abortion would get a state-mandated, written notice that they can interrupt their abortion, even though the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says there is no scientific evidence that the ‘reversal’ approach promoted by abortion opponents is safe or effective.

Abortion rights supporters contend both measures break faith with voters. Kansas Senate Democratic Leader Dinah Sykes said Wednesday that those voters had ‘rejected giving politicians power over their personal, private decisions.’

‘This bill attempts to undermine Kansans’ right to bodily autonomy by willfully forcing blatant misinformation into a healthcare environment,’ said Sykes, who is from the Kansas City area, where the abortion-rights vote was especially strong. ‘This is an attempt to sway a woman away from making the decision that the people of Kansas resoundingly said she has a right to make on her own.’

Even if Kansas lawmakers override Kelly’s vetoes, providers could ask state courts to block the new laws. Lawsuits have prevented Kansas from enforcing a 2015 ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure and a 2011 law from imposing extra health and safety rules on abortion providers.

At least a dozen states enacted abortion ‘reversal’ bans before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 allowing states to prohibit abortion, though legal challenges put four states’ laws on hold.

But in Kansas, the state Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that access to abortion is a matter of bodily autonomy and a ‘fundamental’ right under the state constitution. The vote last year rejected stripping out that protection.

Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion groups contend the vote last year doesn’t preclude ‘reasonable’ abortion restrictions or rules for providers like the ‘reversal’ bill.

A majority of U.S. patients terminating their pregnancies do so with abortion medications. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year, abortion opponents have sought to undercut access to the pills. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the legal status of mifepristone, the first of two medications in the most common and most effective method.

The abortion ‘reversal’ approach promoted by Kansas lawmakers involves giving women doses of the hormone progesterone after mifepristone is taken but before the second medication, misoprostol, is taken. Doctors use progesterone to try to prevent miscarriages.

Experts question the findings of the two anti-abortion doctors who began using the off-label ‘reversal’ approach more than 15 years ago and see a 2018 study vouching for its effectiveness as seriously flawed. Republican lawmakers in Kansas have brushed aside the criticism.

‘Medical knowledge is passed within our profession very much like political knowledge is passed here, peer to peer,’ Republican state Rep. Bill Clifford, a southwestern Kansas eye doctor, told his colleagues during one recent debate. ‘It isn’t always about studies, and you have to trust your colleagues.’

Former U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster, an influential Republican lawmaker who strongly backed transportation projects but ran afoul of ethics guidelines, has died. He was 91.

Shuster died peacefully at his farm Wednesday in Everett, Pennsylvania, surrounded by his family, including his son, Bill Shuster, who succeeded his father in the southern Pennsylvania congressional seat, Rebekah Sungala, a close family friend said.

Shuster died two weeks after fracturing his hip, which led to complications, she said.

Republican U.S. Rep. John Joyce, who now represents the area, called Shuster a ‘true legend in the halls of Congress.’

Shuster surprised his colleagues by announcing his resignation in 2001, a day after he was sworn in for his 15th term. He said it was due to losing his committee chairmanship.

Three months earlier, the House ethics committee had cited him for ‘serious official misconduct’ for accepting improper gifts, favoring a lobbyist and misusing congressional staff for political work.

But Shuster’s biggest legacy was in the ribbons of highway and the smooth runways he backed in his three terms as chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and his 28 years in Congress.

He was dubbed the ‘king of asphalt,’ in part for bringing his constituents the Bud Shuster Highway, which connected State College, Altoona and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Shuster once said he wanted to be remembered for helping average citizens.

‘Other people have told me I’ll be remembered for building America,’ he once told The Associated Press. ‘But the real psychic income comes when an elderly constituent said that, because of my rural development efforts, she can turn on a spigot for the first time ever and not get brown water.’

Early in his congressional career, Shuster got a seat on the committee, then known as Public Works, and pledged to help his district’s ailing fortunes by improving its roads.

Shuster used earmarks — a tactic that was rare in the 1970s, but became common while he was in office — to bring money to his district, which covered a large, rural and hilly section of southern Pennsylvania around the city of Altoona.

The first significant one, technically a demonstration project, was worth $25 million and paid for the construction of a 4.6-mile bypass around Everett.

In 1982, he got an earmark that was the down payment on what would become Interstate 99 — known as the Bud Shuster Highway.

His ability to deliver money to the district annoyed some fellow lawmakers. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., complained in 1991 that ‘the state of Altoona’ had received the most funds in a highway bill.

Shuster was unapologetic, saying the improvements made his Appalachian district more competitive, spurred the building of industrial parks and led to more jobs.

Once his position was solidified, Shuster was rarely opposed in elections. His last notable challenge came in 1984, the year he soundly beat Democrat Nancy Kulp, the actress who played Jane Hathaway on ‘The Beverly Hillbillies.’

In October 2000, the House ethics committee rebuked Shuster for accepting improper gifts and favoring a lobbyist, Ann M. Eppard, who was also his former chief of staff.

The committee found Shuster improperly allowed Eppard to appear before him in his official capacity in the year after her resignation from his staff. This ‘created the appearance that his official decisions might have been improperly affected,’ the committee found.

Shuster said he ‘complied with the law and with his understanding of what was right.’

He ran unopposed in the following month’s election. But House Republican rules limited committee chairs to three, two-year terms and Shuster didn’t want to accept a diminished role.

‘After being the quarterback of a Super Bowl championship team, I have no desire to play backup,’ Shuster told the AP the day he resigned. He also cited his and his wife’s health.

With Shuster’s backing, his son Bill Shuster replaced him in Congress.

E.G. ‘Bud’ Shuster was born in January 1932 in Glassport, an industrial town just south of Pittsburgh. His father was a railroad engineer.

He later recalled an encounter he had as an 11-year-old, when he saw people surround his congressman in search of help. He decided it was something he wanted to be some day.

Shuster put himself through school, earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1954. He spent two years in the Army and went back to school, earning an MBA from Duquesne University in 1960 and, eventually, a Ph.D. in business and economics from American University.

He started a career in the computer business in the mid-1960s, rising to become a vice president with RCA in Washington. In the late 1960s, he engineered a turnaround at Datel, a computer terminal company.

When he decided to run for Congress in 1972, opponents and critics labeled him an outsider, even though he and his wife had bought a farm in Everett eight years earlier.

Shuster narrowly beat a state representative in the GOP primary and rode President Richard Nixon’s landslide re-election into the Capitol.

Three Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion votes after participating in protests over last month’s school shooting in Nashville will visit the White House to meet with President Joe Biden on Monday.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced the visit on Wednesday. She said Biden was ‘proud’ and ‘appreciative’ to see the three state representatives calling for stronger gun restrictions, particularly a ban on so-called assault weapons.

The president spoke with the lawmakers to thank them ‘for speaking out and for standing their ground, and being very clear about what’s needed to protect their communities,’ Jean-Pierre said.

The expulsion votes added a level of political drama and controversy to the violence at The Covenant School, where three children and three adults were killed.

Two of the lawmakers — Rep. Justin Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones, both Black — were expelled by the Republican-controlled legislature. The third, Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white, was not.

Pearson and Jones have since been reinstated by local officials, returning them to their positions on an interim basis.

The state has set Aug. 3 as the special election date for the seats filled by Jones and Pearson, preceded by a June 15 primary election. Both lawmakers have said they intend to run.

Julia Bruck, the Tennessee secretary of state office’s spokesperson, said local officials believe the Nashville special election will cost about $120,000 to administer, while the Memphis one will cost between $375,000 and $500,000.

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Nashville earlier this month to support the ‘Tennessee Three’ and their calls for greater gun control.

‘Let’s not fall for the false choice — either you’re in favor of the Second Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws,’ Harris said. ‘We can and should do both.’

Mississippi must join most other states in allowing religious exemptions from vaccinations that children are required to receive so they can attend school, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden handed down the decision Monday in a lawsuit filed last year by several parents who say their religious beliefs have led them to keep their children unvaccinated and out of Mississippi schools. According to the lawsuit, some of the plaintiffs are homeschooling their children, while others have family or work connections in Mississippi but live in other states that allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations.

Ozerden set a July 15 deadline for the Mississippi State Department of Health to allow religious exemptions. The state already allows people to apply for medical exemptions for a series of five vaccinations that are required for children to enroll in public or private school. The immunizations are against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; polio; hepatitis; measles, mumps and rubella; and chickenpox.

Mississippi does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.

The only states without religious or personal belief exemptions for school immunization requirements are California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In response to questions from The Associated Press on Tuesday, health department spokesperson Liz Sharlot declined to say whether the department will appeal the judge’s ruling. She did not say whether the department has an estimate of how many people might seek religious exemptions from vaccinations.

‘The Mississippi State Department of Health continues to support strong immunization laws that protect our children,’ Sharlot said. ‘Beyond that, it is our long-standing policy that the Agency does not comment on pending litigation.’

The lawsuit, funded by the Texas-based Informed Consent Action Network, argued that Mississippi’s lack of a religious exemption for childhood vaccinations violates the U.S. Constitution.

‘The State of Mississippi affords a secular exemption to those with medical reasons that prohibit vaccination, reflecting that it can accommodate students that are unvaccinated,’ the network said in a statement. ‘It has simply chosen to not accord an exemption when it is someone’s immortal soul that a parent believes would be at risk.’

One of the families who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit believe ‘God has created humans with functioning immune systems that were well designed to counteract threats,’ the lawsuit said, adding that they only seek out medication ‘when an intervention is clearly necessary.’

Mississippi once had a religious exemption for childhood vaccinations, but it was overturned in 1979 by a state court judge who ruled that vaccinated children have a constitutional right to be free from associating with their unvaccinated peers, the lawsuit said.

Over the last several years, Mississippi legislators have rejected proposals to allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations. Health officials have argued that allowing more exemptions could lead to the spread of preventable diseases.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden reported a federal adjusted gross income of $579,514, according to their 2022 federal income tax returns, which were released by the White House on Tuesday.

The president and first lady filed their income tax return jointly and paid $169,820 in combined federal, Delaware and Virginia income taxes, according to the records reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The president and first lady paid $137,658 in federal income tax and $29,023 in Delaware income tax. The first lady also reported paying $3,139 in Virginia income tax – from her teaching at Northern Virginia Community College.

An annual presidential salary is $400,000.

In 2021, the president and first lady reported a federal adjusted gross income of $610,702. In 2020, the first couple earned $607,336, which was down from the $985,223 they reported in 2019.

The Bidens’ 2022 effective federal income tax rate was 23.8 percent.

The first couple also reported contributions of $20,180 to 20 different charities, with the largest gift being $5,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation.

The first couple also donated to the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation, St. Joseph on the Brandywine Church, which is the Bidens’ home parish, and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, among other charities.

The White House said Biden has released 25 years of tax returns to the American public, which it says demonstrates his ‘commitment to being transparent with the American people about the finances of the Commander-in-Chief.’

Meanwhile, the White House also shared the tax returns of Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff.

The second couple reported a federal adjusted gross income of $456,918. They paid $93,570 in federal income tax, with a 2022 effective federal income tax rate of 20.5 percent.

Harris and Emhoff also paid $17,612 in California income tax. Emhoff paid $9,697 in District of Columbia income tax. 

The second couple contributed $23,000 to charity in 2022.

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday announced charges against a diamond and art dealer who had allegedly funded Lebanon’s terrorist wing Hezbollah. It also sanctioned what it believes is a vast money laundering network connected to him.

Nazem Ahmad, who had already been sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. under global terrorism sanctions regulations for acting as a financier with the Iranian-backed group, is accused of being part of a group that used a complex web of businesses to obtain artwork from U.S. art galleries and diamond-grading services while hiding his involvement. 

The U.S. government says that approximately $160 million of artwork and diamond services were transacted through the U.S. system. 

One of the defendants was arrested in the United Kingdom and eight others, including Ahmad, are not believed to live in the U.S. Ahmad and eight co-defendants are charged with conspiring to defraud the U.S. and other governments, evading sanctions and making money laundering transactions by securing goods for Ahmad’s benefit.

The Treasury also announced additional sanctions against a network of 52 individuals and entities across the globe it says were involved in funneling money to Hezbollah.

Separately, the U.K. said it had frozen Ahmad’s assets in the U.K. because he financed Hezbollah, which is designated as an international terror group. Consequently, no one in the U.K. or U.S. is allowed to do business with Ahmad or his businesses.

‘The international actions we are announcing today against Nazem Ahmad for his involvement with the terrorist organization Hezbollah should serve as a reminder that the U.S. government and our allies will tirelessly prosecute those who are sanctioned for illicitly financing terrorist activities,’ said Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security John K. Tien. 

‘I am very proud to not only share the results of this investigation into the Ahmad criminal organization but also recognize the outstanding international and interagency collaboration that led to this moment.’

The actions are part of a years-long investigation into the group led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

‘This HSI investigation speaks to the unwavering commitment of the U.S. and U.K. governments to prevent art and diamond markets from becoming a haven of illicit financial activity,’ acting ICE Director Tae Johnson said in a statement. ‘I commend HSI and our investigative partners for their dedication in seeing this investigation through — over many years — to substantial actions. We will utilize every tool at our disposal to dismantle these illicit networks.’

Rewards for Justice, the U.S. State Department’s national security rewards program, is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information related to Ahmad.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 

A source in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political orbit tells Fox News he wouldn’t be surprised if up to 30-40 Republican members of Congress stop by a reception being headlined by the conservative two-term Florida governor late Tuesday afternoon and evening in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington D.C.

The ‘meet-and-greet policy discussion’ gathering is being hosted by And to the Republic, a recently formed nonprofit group that organized the Florida governor’s February events in New York City and suburban Philadelphia and Chicago that supported law enforcement. And the DC mixer is taking place at a Heritage Foundation townhouse on Capitol Hill. Heritage is one of the oldest and most influential think tanks in the conservative movement.

The source told Fox News that DeSantis, who has rarely returned to the nation’s capital since he left Congress in 2018 amid his successful gubernatorial campaign, came back this week to say hello to old colleagues and friends, and because of the interest among congressional Republicans in the conservative legislative victories by DeSantis and GOP state lawmakers. The source added that the governor wanted ‘to thank these guys for holding the line against [President] Biden and encouraging them to keep doing it.’

Among the small group of Republican House members and senators who were co-hosting the event or expected to attend were Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas), the only two members of Congress who have endorsed the Florida governor’s anticipated presidential run.

While he currently remains on the 2024 sidelines, DeSantis is expected to launch a presidential campaign after next month’s conclusion of the Florida legislative session.

Sources in DeSantis political orbit for months have told Fox News that a declaration of candidacy by the governor in the White House race – should it happen – would occur likely in late May or June, after state government legislative business in Tallahassee quiets down. 

Meanwhile, in the past couple of months, DeSantis has slowly started to build up his political operation. And a pro-DeSantis super PAC named Never Back Down – which sources say will be the main outside vehicle helping an expected DeSantis 2024 campaign – was formed in March and over the past month has dramatically beefed up its staff with top Republican operatives and communications. Never Back Down is now trading fire with MAGA Inc., the top super PAC supporter former President Donald Trump’s third White House bid.

The former president and his allies – who view DeSantis as Trump’s top threat to capturing the GOP presidential nomination – have been targeting DeSantis since last autumn, but have picked up the pace of attacks the past couple of months.

The DeSantis trip to DC – he’ll return to the DC area to headline the Friday morning session of Heritage’s leadership summit, which is being held at National Harbor – comes after Reps. Greg Steube, John Rutherford, and Brian Mast this week brought to seven the number of GOP House members to endorse Trump, who’s also a Sunshine State resident.

Trump’s presidential campaign in November was followed by only a trickle of endorsements from Republican members of Congress. 

But as Trump’s position as the clear front-runner in the burgeoning Republican presidential nomination race has become more pronounced this spring, the pace of congressional endorsements has accelerated.

Trump – as of Tuesday evening – could boast the backing of nine senators and 46 House members.