A prominent civil rights attorney deleted his viral tweet that attacked a female New York City hospital worker hours after her lawyer threatened defamation lawsuits in a Fox News segment against those who defamed her.

Ben Crump, who has been a lead attorney in several police brutality cases, tweeted a viral video with more than 4 million views of a verbal altercation between a pregnant New York City physician assistant and multiple young Black men before deleting it hours later after the segment aired and went viral on Twitter.

‘This is unacceptable!’ Crump captioned the tweet with the video. ‘A white woman was caught on camera attempting to STEAL a Citi Bike from a young Black man in NYC. She grossly tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat. This is EXACTLY the type of behavior that has endangered so many Black men in the past!’

There was no follow-up tweet with a correction or an apology.

Sarah Comrie, a physician assistant at Bellevue Hospital, was put on leave after the video sparked outrage. Her attorney, Justin Marino, said Comrie is six months pregnant and had just finished a 12-hour shift prior to the viral footage.

‘She’s been called a racist,’ Marino told Fox News on Friday. ‘She’s been called a thief. There are reasons defamation laws exist, and we plan to pursue that.’

Crump deleted his tweet hours after the Fox News segment. Marino said Comrie had to go ‘in hiding’ after the video went viral.

The men in the video with Comrie said they had paid to use the bike, despite her lawyer saying that receipts show she purchased it.

‘Around that time these individuals were claiming that that was their bike,’ Marino said, ‘someone pushed the bike while she was on it, back into the docking station so it locked again.’

Marino said he was hired because Comrie feared she may lose her job.

Crump did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether he plans to apologize for his tweet.

Texas is one step closer to banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices from public colleges in the state.  

The Texas House voted 83-60 on Friday in support of Senate Bill 17, which would ban DEI offices, programs and diversity training, according to The Texas Tribune.

Democrats forcefully pushed back against the bill during an hours-long debate, arguing it could risk universities losing federal grants while potentially making some students feel less welcome at the schools, the outlet reported.

The bill’s Republican sponsor, state Rep. John Kuempel, offered an amendment to the bill that would require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to conduct a study each year examining how the elimination of such offices affected issues such as students’ grade point averages, rates of recruitment and acceptance.

The amendment, which was approved, would also allow the colleges and universities to make ‘reasonable efforts’ to reassign employees in the DEI offices to other positions with comparable pay.

The amendment was also introduced in an effort to quell concerns from Democrats that the legislation would risk schools losing federal grants, as grants often require applicants to show how they promote diversity, according to the Tribune.  

If passed, Texas would join Florida in banning such DEI initiates from public colleges. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 266 into law last week, which bans all state funding for DEI programs at public universities and colleges. 

The Texas bill will now head back to the Senate, where the body will decide to accept or deny House members’ changes. The legislation would take effect Jan. 1 if passed and signed into law. 

After the Senate passed its version of the bill last month, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick released a statement praising state lawmakers for their ‘strongest pushback on woke policies in higher education.’ 

‘The Texas Senate has now passed the strongest pushback on woke policies in higher education nationwide. For far too long, academia has been poisoned by woke policies and faculty seeking to indoctrinate our students. Professors did not believe we would push back on their advances, but they were wrong. Students should be taught how to think critically, not what to think,’ he said last month. 

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Jeffrey Epstein allegedly threatened Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with details on the tech billionaire’s alleged affair with a Russian bridge player, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

‘Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes,’ a spokeswoman for Gates told WSJ. ‘Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.’

Gates met Russian bridge player Mila Antonova in 2010, when she was in her 20s and Gates in his mid-50s, at a bridge tournament where the two played against each other, according to the Journal. Antonova is originally from Russia, but moved to the U.S. and began working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, according to her LinkedIn. 

Antonova publicly discussed meeting the tech billionaire in a 2010 video detailing that she ‘didn’t beat’ Gates, but ‘tried to kick him with my leg,’ according to WSJ. Gates is a noted lover of the game of bridge and has even competed against fellow billionaire Warren Buffett. 

After meeting Gates, Antonova sought to start an online venture that would teach people how to play bridge. She began reaching out to potential donors, with Gates confidant Boris Nikolic connecting her with Epstein, according to documents reviewed by the outlet. 

In November 2013, Antonova and Nikolic reportedly met Epstein at his townhome in New York City to pitch the proposal and try to raise $500,000. Epstein ultimately did not donate to the proposal, dubbed ‘BridgePlanet,’ WSJ reported, citing Antonova. 

‘I deeply regret that I ever met Epstein,’ Nikolic highlighted to the outlet. ‘His crimes were despicable. I never saw anything like his illegal behavior. My heart goes out to his victims and their families.’

The following November, Antonova stayed at an apartment provided by Epstein, but ‘didn’t interact with him or with anyone else while there,’ she said. By that year, she had decided to become a software engineer and was looking for donors to help pay for programing classes.

‘Epstein agreed to pay and he paid directly to the school. Nothing was exchanged. I don’t know why he did that,’ she said, the outlet reported. ‘When I asked, he said something like, he was wealthy and wanted to help people when he could.’

Meanwhile, Epstein was trying to set up a multibillion-dollar charitable fund with JPMorgan, in part to reportedly help repair his public image following his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitutes, including an underage girl. The plan hinged on him getting wealthy donors, including Gates, to pool their money for the fund, according to the report.

Gates and Epstein had met a handful of times before Epstein’s death in 2019, which Gates later said he regrets. In emails reviewed by WSJ, Epstein sent emails to JPMorgan trying to give the impression he was an adviser to Gates. The tech billionaire’s spokeswoman told the outlet that Epstein never worked for Gates and misrepresented their relationship to JPMorgan.

The fund stalled and ultimately went nowhere. 

‘The firm didn’t need him as a client,’ a JPMorgan spokesman told WSJ of Epstein. ‘The firm didn’t need him for introductions. Knowing what we know today, we wish we had never done business with him.’

In 2017, years after Gates’ alleged relationship with Antonova, Epstein emailed Gates about the bridge player, sources with knowledge of the incident told WSJ. Antonova denied providing comment to WSJ about Gates specifically, the outlet noted. 

Epstein reportedly asked Gates to reimburse him for the funds used to cover Antonova’s software programming classes. Gates did not send a payment, according to Gates’ spokeswoman.

‘Mr. Gates had no financial dealings with Epstein,’ the spokeswoman said. 

Sources said the cost of the classes were irrelevant to both men, but that the tone of the email showed Epstein was aware of the alleged affair and could expose Gates. 

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A Georgia state representative posted a scathing rebuke of her own party on Twitter Saturday, accusing fellow Democrats of prioritizing migrants over inner city children.

Mesha Mainor has served in the Georgia House of Representatives since January 2021, representing District 56. In a Twitter video, she accused Democrats of turning against her for being a staunch school choice advocate. 

‘I support school choice, parent rights and opportunities for children to thrive, especially those that are marginalized and tend to fail in school,’ Mainor began.

‘The Democrats at the [Georgia State] Capitol took a hard position and demanded every Democrat vote against children and for the teachers union,’ she explained. ‘I voted yes for parents and yes for children not failing schools.’

Mainor justified her position by noting that some schools in her district have 3% reading proficiency rates and that many kids cannot do simple math.

‘I have a few colleagues upset with me to the point where they are giving away $1,000 checks to anyone that will run against me,’ Mainor continued. ‘I’m not apologizing because my colleagues don’t like how I vote.’

Mainor then explained that parents are upset that some politicians ‘put the teachers union and donors ahead of their constituents.’

Mainor’s speech took a personal turn when she accused her colleagues of being upset that she stood up for her principles.

‘It’s ironic. I’ll say every election year, I hear ‘Black Lives Matter.’ But do they? I see every other minority being prioritized except Black children living in poverty that can’t read,’ Mainor argued.

‘We’ll send $1,000,000 to the border for immigrant services. But Black communities, not even a shout-out. I’m sorry, I don’t agree with this,’ she added. ‘I’m not backing down and I’m actually just getting started.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Mainor for a statement, but has not heard back.

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Republican Miami Mayor Francis Suarez on Sunday offered praise of a prominent Democrat mayor, saying he was happy that the Democrat was ‘standing up and talking about’ how the migrant crisis was impacting his city.

‘I’m actually quite proud of Mayor [Eric] Adams from New York for standing up and talking about how this is impacting the city of New York,’ Suarez said during an interview on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’

‘He has to focus on crime reduction, and instead you see images of police officers helping people in the classic Roosevelt Hotel find housing,’ he continued. ‘These officers should be, and you want them to be, focused on reducing crime, and instead, have to deal with this migrant crisis that as you’ve said should be a federal issue.’

Adams appeared on the same Sunday morning show and said that migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border should be sent to every city ‘throughout the entire country.’

‘We have 108,000 cities, villages, towns. If everyone takes a small portion of that, and if it’s coordinated at the border, to ensure that those who are coming here to this country in a lawful manner is actually moved throughout the entire country, it is not a burden on one city,’ Adams said. ‘And the numbers need to be clear. We received over 70,000 migrant asylum seekers in our city, 42,000 are still in our care. If this is properly handled at the border level, this issue can be resolved while we finally get Congress, particularly the Republican Party, to deal with a comprehensive immigration policy.’

Suarez also weighed in on the migrant crisis by expressing frustration about the federal government not helping Miami.

‘We haven’t received any support as of yet from the federal government that we are aware of,’ Suarez said. ‘We checked to see if we have gotten any help from FEMA – it turns out we have not.’

Suarez said his city has struggled to manage the flux of immigrants over the past year, especially from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, which the Biden administration created a program for to ease the asylum process in January.

‘It is a migrant crisis in our city as well,’ Suarez said. ‘Just in the last two months, the Coast Guard has processed 408 migrants on our coast. Just last year in our public school system, we had over 14,000 new children – 10,000 of which came from four countries: Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti. And that’s the equivalent of five new 2,000-student school. It’s a tremendous burden on our system.’

Illegal crossings at the border spiked this month amid the expiration of Title 42, a COVID-19 emergency policy that allowed border agents to turn away migrants.

Suarez said this migrant crisis puts a burden primarily on large cities, many of which have received little to no federal aid.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., took action in May to help counter mass migration in his state when he signed a bill that requires businesses with more than 25 employees to check the immigration status of those whom they hire. A failure to comply leads to a $1,000 fine. The law has prompted immigration groups to discourage migrants from traveling to Florida.

FEMA and New York City Mayor Adams did not respond to a request for comment.

More than a dozen House and Senate Republicans have penned a letter to the director of the National Institutes of Health demanding answers over a study it funded titled ‘Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones,’ during which ‘two young people tragically died by suicide.’ 

The message to Dr. Lawrence Tabak, co-signed by Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul and Reps. Josh Breechen, Lauren Boebert and Andy Biggs, among others, highlights ‘grave concerns’ from the lawmakers over the study in which researchers examined 315 subjects  ‘between the ages of 12 and 20 who identify as transgender and were given cross-sex hormones,’ 240 of whom were minors. 

‘During this study, two young people died by suicide and eleven reported suicidal ideation,’ the letter read. ‘Rather than shutting the study down after such serious adverse events, the researchers published their paper, concluding that the study was a success because cross-sex hormones had altered subjects’ physical appearance and improved psychosocial functioning.’ 

The researchers have been ‘in search of an agenda and justifying an agenda, they’re not really about children’s safety as we’ve seen from the suicides,’ North Carolina Republican Sen. Ted Budd, who co-led the GOP letter, told Fox News. He described the study as ‘absolutely tragic.’

A summary published by the New England Journal of Medicine read, ‘Participants were enrolled in a four-site prospective, observational study of physical and psychosocial outcomes. ‘

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED FACES BACKLASH FOR NAMING TRANSGENDER FEMALE POP STAR KIM PETRAS AS SWIMSUIT COVER MODEL 

‘Participants completed the Transgender Congruence Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory–II, the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (Second Edition), and the Positive Affect and Life Satisfaction measures from the NIH (National Institutes of Health) Toolbox Emotion Battery at baseline and at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after gender-affirming hormones initiation,’ it said. 

‘During the study period, appearance congruence, positive affect, and life satisfaction increased, and depression and anxiety symptoms decreased,’ the summary concluded. ‘Increases in appearance congruence were associated with concurrent increases in positive affect and life satisfaction and decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms. The most common adverse event was suicidal ideation (in 11 participants [3.5%]); death by suicide occurred in 2 participants.’ 

WYOMING SORORITY SISTERS SPEAK OUT AFTER LAWSUIT LAUNCHED OVER TRANSGENDER MEMBER 

But, the Republicans argued that ‘the four clinics and some of the researchers who conducted this experiment are outspoken advocates for conducting gender transition interventions on children.’ 

‘In a video it later removed from its YouTube channel, Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the clinics involved, went as far as to claim that children can know their gender identity ‘from the womb,’’ the letter read. 

‘Despite glaring shortfalls, this government-funded research is already being used to further the fallacy that chemically transitioning children is safe and effective,’ the Republicans also argued, adding, ‘It is alarming that vulnerable young people died by suicide while participating in a taxpayer-funded study that will almost certainly inflict devastating physical harm on those who participated.’ 

The letter asked Tabak, by June 9, to provide responses to questions such as, ‘Were the individuals who tragically died by suicide while participating in this study minors?’ and ‘Were participants and their parents given the opportunity to reconsider their consent and withdraw from this research in light of the suicides?’

The Food and Drug Administration told Fox News, when asked if the agency is seeking to expand clinical trials involving children: ‘Increasing the availability of safe and effective medicines for children is a key priority for the FDA. The best way to provide children with safe and effective treatment options is by including them in clinical research and providing additional safeguards to protect them during clinical trials.’

EXCLUSIVE: One Republican lawmaker is officially calling for the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the 2018 award given to The New York Times and Washington Post for their reporting on the now-debunked Russia collusion hoax.

In a Wednesday letter to the board, Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, called for the prize to be stripped from the two liberal outlets, citing the findings of Special Counsel John Durham’s final report on the FBI’s probe that found the agency, as well as the Department of Justice, ‘failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law’ when it launched the Trump-Russia investigation. 

‘If Pulitzer still believes in maintaining the integrity of its establishment and high standards for its prizes and award recipients, it should promptly undo this mistake by stripping the New York Times and the Washington Post of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize,’ Gooden wrote. 

‘To restore faith in the authenticity of the prize and to clarify the Board’s strong belief in accountability and impartiality, I request the Board ban the Washington Post and the New York Times from any nominations for a minimum of five years. I trust you will do the right thing,’ he added.

READ THE LETTER BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

In his letter, Gooden noted there was precedent for rescinding an award, specifically mentioning its decision to strip a Washington Post reporter of the 1981 award ‘for inaccuracies in a feature and autobiographical report.’

‘Even if this award was bestowed in good faith, the Board is bound by its duty and ‘mission’ to support accurate and responsible journalism. Now that the truth has been revealed, it is imperative that the Board correct this oversight,’ he wrote.

Gooden’s calls for the award to be rescinded have been echoed by others, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during a recent appearance on Fox News.

‘I think the Pulitzer Prize given to The Washington Post and New York Times should be taken back because the entire episode was politically motivated crap. That’s not something you should get a Pulitzer Prize for,’ Graham told ‘America’s Newsroom.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Pulitzer Prize Board for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.

Lawmakers in Louisiana received a revised better-than-expected revenue forecast saying there will be hundreds of millions of dollars in additional surplus funds available to spend in this year’s budget.Gov. John Bel Edward’s administration is seeking to restore his previous proposal for teacher pay raises and additional early childhood education funds.Thursday’s Revenue Estimating Conference recognized an additional $323 million for the current budget and a more than $400 million bump for next year’s.

Louisiana lawmakers received a revised sunny revenue forecast Thursday, with economists saying hundreds of millions of dollars in additional surplus funds are available to spend for this year’s budget.

Despite the better-than-expected revised forecast, how lawmakers spend the extra funds remain up for debate. The House is taking the more conservative approach of wanting to pay down debt, while legislators in the Senate are hoping to breach the state’s expenditure cap to spend money in a multitude of areas, including infrastructure.

On top of the hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus that lawmakers were already working with, Thursday’s Revenue Estimating Conference recognized an additional $323 million for the current budget and a more than $400 million bump that lawmakers can spend on next year’s. With the extra money, Gov. John Bel Edward’s administration is making the plea that his previous proposal for teacher pay raises and additional early childhood education funds, which were cut from the House’s budget plan, should be restored.

With just three weeks left in Louisiana’s 2023 legislative session, which focuses on fiscal matters, lawmakers must draft and pass a budget before they adjourn on June 8.

Earlier this month, Louisiana’s Republican-dominated House advanced a budget plan that stripped dollars sought by Edwards to fund $2,000 teacher pay raises, early childhood education and public colleges. Instead, lawmakers steered a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars in extra state revenue toward paying down retirement debt.

Republicans called the plan financially responsible and said it would save school districts money in the long run by letting them spend funds as they best see fit, which could include wage increases for educators. Additionally, proponents argue that it will prepare the state for a potential fiscal cliff in 2025 when a temporary 0.45% state sales tax expires.

Edwards’ administration argues to use the surplus funds elsewhere, especially following news of the revised revenue forecast.

‘Makes perfect sense to prepay some of your mortgage debt,’ Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, Edwards’ chief budget architect, said Thursday. ‘But if you have a leaky roof, if you have something that needs to be fixed and you have one-time money that would address a critical need that’s important to you as a family, you ought to use the money for that purpose instead of prepaying a debt that has already been scheduled to be paid.’

Across the statehouse rotunda, the GOP-controlled Senate is debating busting Louisiana’s expenditure limit. Senate President Page Cortez argues that failing to breach the cap could cause the state to miss out on hundreds of millions of federal grant dollars and that Edwards could possible call them back to the Capitol for a special session, The Advocate reported.

The expenditure restraints were inserted to the state constitution decades ago. Cortez proposes increasing the limit by nearly 5% this year and nearly 5% next year, giving lawmakers more room for spending. However, in order to do so it requires a two-thirds approval from both chambers. Negotiations over breaching the limit continue. Additionally, the Senate Finance Committee continues to draft its budget proposal in which there will be two versions — one that breaches the expenditure cap and one that does not.

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Alaska lawmakers have passed a state spending package, which includes a dividend of about $1,300 each to residents this year, and ended their special session after one day.

The special session began and ended Thursday, one day after the 121-day regular session ended without a budget deal.

The Senate, controlled by a bipartisan coalition, on Wednesday passed a budget for government operations and infrastructure projects and sent it to the House as a take-or-leave proposition. The House adjourned without voting on it.

On Thursday, the measure was returned to the Senate, where $34 million in infrastructure projects was added before it was again passed in that chamber. Ten members of the Republican-led House majority then joined the 16-member House minority to approve the budget. The minority is largely composed of Democrats.

The budget allows for an additional check to residents of up to $500 next year if revenues exceed the current forecast. It also includes $175 million in one-time funds intended as a boost for schools. School leaders and advocates had urged a permanent increase in funding, citing inflation and other cost concerns.

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