After delaying its decision earlier this week, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that full access to the abortion pill mifepristone can continue as a lawsuit works its way through the lower federal courts.

Mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000, and its use has been deregulated in recent years. Under President Biden, the FDA made abortion pills more widely available at retail pharmacies, including delivery by mail. 

The ruling by the Supreme Court gives a victory to the Biden administration and supporters of abortion rights, but the Supreme Court will likely be asked to revisit the issue later this year.

The case challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, brought by pro-life doctors and medical groups, is the first abortion controversy to be heard by the Supreme Court since the Republican-appointed majority overturned Roe v. Wade 10 months ago and permitted more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

In that decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. said abortion policy should be a question for lawmakers to consider, not courts. 

‘It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,’ Alito wrote.

In this case, the issue is not abortion pills directly, but whether the FDA acted appropriately in approving the drug more than 20 years ago. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the pro-life plaintiffs, alleges the FDA ‘chose politics over science’ in approving the drug and acted unlawfully by removing safeguards around mifepristone, including permitting the pill to be delivered by mail.

The Biden administration and Danco Laboratories, the drug’s manufacturer, counter that mifepristone has been repeatedly found to be safe and effective by FDA’s expert review process. In over two decades since it was first approved, the drug has been used by more than 5 million women to terminate pregnancies.  

The case reached the Supreme Court after Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk issued a highly controversial ruling siding with the pro-life groups and halting FDA approval for mifepristone. His order was partially overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the appeals court preserved restrictions that made the drug available only to be dispensed up to seven weeks, not 10, and not by mail.

The Justice Department argued that allowing restrictions to mifepristone imposed by the lower courts to remain in place would cause chaos. Complicating the matter, a federal judge in Washington has ordered the FDA to preserve access to mifepristone under the current rules in response to a separate lawsuit brought by 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia. 

The Biden administration has said the rulings conflict and create an untenable situation for the FDA. 

In a new development, the generic abortion pill maker GenBioPro Inc. filed a lawsuit against the FDA Wednesday to keep mifepristone available on the market amid the other ongoing legal challenges. 

Mifepristone is taken with misoprostol in a two-drug regimen that first blocks hormones needed to keep an unborn baby alive and then causes cramps and contractions to expel the dead fetus from the mother’s womb. 

The drug is 97% effective in terminating early pregnancy, though approximately 3% of women who take it will ‘require surgical intervention for ongoing pregnancy, heavy bleeding, incomplete expulsion or other reasons such as patient request,’ according to the manufacturer. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday launched multiple attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential rival in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, citing multiple progressive groups and far-left MSNBC host Joy Reid’s blog in doing so.

In a press release titled, ‘The Real Ron DeSantis Playbook,’ Trump’s campaign cited data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the Florida Policy Institute to blast DeSantis for what it said was data showing the state continuing ‘to tumble into complete and total delinquency and destruction.’

Additionally, Trump later posted on Truth Social with a quote from Reid’s Wednesday blog, The ReidOut, which called DeSantis’ trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers this week a ‘charm offensive,’ and ‘a massive failure.’

According to the data Trump’s campaign cited from the NLIHC, a group ‘dedicated to achieving racially and socially equitable public policy,’ Floridians making just $10 have to work 86 hours per week in order to afford a single bedroom home.

The data cited by Trump’s campaign from the Florida Policy Institute, a non-partisan, but liberal-leaning, non-profit focused on the state’s economic policies, listed Florida as one of the least affordable states in the country to live.

Each of these points, Trump’s campaign blamed on DeSantis and his leadership as Florida’s governor.

‘The real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair. He has left a wake of destruction all across Florida and people are hurting because he has spent more time playing public relations games instead of actually doing the hard-work needed to improve the lives of the people he represents,’ Trump spokesperson Stephen Cheung said in a statement.

It isn’t clear why Trump’s campaign would cite Reid’s blog in its attacks against DeSantis, as the liberal host has regularly railed against both men on her evening program. 

DeSantis has reportedly been mulling a run for the White House, but has yet to announce whether he will ultimately toss his hat into the ring and challenge Trump’s front-runner status for the GOP nomination.

Fox News Digital reached out to DeSantis’ campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

North Dakota House lawmakers passed three bills Friday that would restrict transgender people’s access to bathrooms, remove sexually explicit materials from the children’s section of libraries, and expand child care assistance in the hopes of combating the state’s workforce shortage.

The trans bill and sexual materials bill passed the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities, so the bills could become law without Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s approval.

The child care bill passed after heated debate in the House and without a veto-proof majority. It still requires approval from the Senate and governor to become law.

Transgender Bill

The legislation would limit access to bathrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms for transgender and gender-nonconforming people in several state facilities. That includes dorms and living facilities controlled by the state board of higher education, penitentiaries and correctional facilities for youths and adults.

Restrooms and shower rooms at these facilities would be designated for use exclusively for males or exclusively for females, according to the bill. Transgender or gender-nonconforming people would need to get approval from a staff member at the facility to use the restroom or shower room of their choice.

House lawmakers did not debate the bill. It passed with a 78-14 vote.

Three Republicans — Reps. Eric James Murphy of Grand Forks, David Richter of Williston, and Cynthia Schreiber-Beck of Wahpeton — defied their party and voted against the bill. In the other direction, Democratic Rep. Corey Mock, of Grand Forks, was the only person in his party to vote in support of the bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union has said that so far this year, more than 450 bills attacking the rights of transgender people have been introduced in state legislatures.

Sexual Materials Bill

Public libraries would be prohibited from keeping sexually explicit material — which is defined as being ‘patently offensive’ and lacking ‘serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors’ — in the children’s section, under this bill.

A librarian or anyone else who knowingly violates the rule could be charged with a felony, said Republican Rep. Lawrence Klemin, of Bismarck, speaking on the House floor before voting in support of the bill. The felony comes with up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Following minimal discussion, the bill passed with a 70-22 vote. All 12 Democrats voted against it, along with 10 Republicans.

Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries have surged across the country, setting a record in 2022, according to the American Library Association last month.

Child Care Bill

Following heated debate, House lawmakers passed a bill that would expand child care assistance for parents in the state.

Supporters said the bill would help the state combat its workforce shortage, whereas opponents said it would cost too much without the guarantee of bringing in more workers.

The program would cost $65.6 million — which is ‘significantly less’ than the other child care proposals lawmakers heard — and it would help thousands of children, said Republican Rep. Emily O’Brien, of Grand Forks, while speaking in support of the bill on the House floor.

Democratic Rep. Alisa Mitskog, of Wahpeton, added that New Mexico — a competing oil-producing state — has already invested in child care assistance to attract workers.

But opponents said the program would be a waste of money from the state’s general fund. ‘It’s also a very leftist, socialist idea,’ Republican Rep. Jeff Hoverson, of Minot, said.

The bill passed with a 62-29 vote, with all 12 Democrats voting in support along with 50 Republicans.

Burgum, the second-term Republican governor and a staunch supporter of child care investments, said last year that the lack of affordable child care in North Dakota contributes to workforce shortages that have hurt the state’s economy. Adequate and affordable child care would help attract and retain companies in the state, he added.

EXCLUSIVE: Two lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle are joining forces on a bill that would ban members of Congress from trading stocks while working on the American taxpayers’ dime.

The bill, officially called the Prohibition of Financial Trading on Government Property Act, was introduced Thursday by Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Angie Craig, D-Minn., and would prevent certain federal employees, including elected officials, from engaging in financial trading activities while on federal property or using government resources.

‘Federal government employees should be working on behalf of the people, not using time at work to trade stocks. The American people expect members of Congress and our staff to get things done when we are on taxpayer time,’ Mace told Fox News Digital ahead of the bill being introduced.

‘Banning stock trading on government land and in federal office buildings, much like we’ve done with gambling and soliciting campaign donations, will make sure the government is working when we’re on your dime,’ she added.

Craig told Fox that stock trading should be treated no different from gambling or soliciting for campaign donations on federal property.

‘The American people deserve to know that their representatives and their staff are focused on their official duties, and my bipartisan legislation with Rep. Mace will help give our constituents that peace of mind,’ she said.

Gambling on federal government property is currently prohibited, including use of mobile betting apps. Anyone attempting to use those apps faces a geofence on their device and become physically unable to use them until outside the boundary.

Financial trading apps, such as Robinhood, E-Trade and Coinbase, do not have the same restrictions and can be used at will. 

Mace’s office pointed out that there are also currently no restrictions preventing government employees or elected officials from communicating with someone who engages in financial markets on their behalf while on government property.

The bill would, however, provide exceptions for those authorized to engage in financial trading activities as part of their official duties, or who have been given prior written approval from their agency head. Other exceptions would be trading on postal service facilities and in national parks.

Other lawmakers have called for stricter rules on financial trading, including the banning of members of Congress from being able to trade stocks all together.

Half of likely Democratic primary voters in a crucial early voting state in the party’s nominating calendar don’t want President Biden to seek re-election next year, according to a new survey.

And Biden only grabs the support of a quarter of Democratic voters in a hypothetical primary field, according to a poll released Thursday from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Biden, whose approval ratings among all Americans remain in negative territory, has repeatedly said that he intends to seek a second term in the White House, but he has yet to make any formal announcements. Biden told reporters this past weekend that an announcement would come ‘relatively soon.

He’s facing long-shot bids from two primary challengers – Marianne Williamson, the best-selling author and spiritual adviser who launched her campaign in early March – and environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who declared his candidacy on Wednesday.

According to the new poll, Biden grabs only 25% support among likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire when respondents were offered a list of possible 2024 contenders. While nothing to brag about, Biden’s support is up from 18% in the University of New Hampshire’s previous survey, which was conducted in January.

Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of neighboring Vermont, the progressive champion who was the runner-up in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nomination races, stands at 17%. Sanders has said he wouldn’t challenge Biden in 2024 if the president seeks re-election, but hasn’t ruled out another campaign if Biden doesn’t run. Former first lady Michelle Obama stands at 10% support. While many Democrats opine for another Obama as the party’s standard-bearer, the former first lady has never indulged in the speculation.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who each unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, stood at 9% and 8% in the poll, with everyone else in the lower single digits. 

‘Support for Biden is at its highest level for the 2024 cycle but has never come close to 50% support in New Hampshire,’ the poll release highlighted.

According to the poll, 50% of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire said they don’t want Biden to seek a second term, with 43% saying he should run again. But while he’s still underwater, Biden’s numbers are an improvement from the January survey, when by a 67%-27% margin, respondents didn’t want the president to run for re-election.

Biden’s taken plenty of heat in recent months in New Hampshire for his move – which was approved by Democratic National Committee (DNC) – to move the Granite State’s presidential primary out of its position as the first in the nation primary. New Hampshire will now vote second in the DNC’s calendar, along with Nevada, three days after South Carolina, under the DNC’s new schedule. The DNC changed the nominating calendar in an effort to reflect more diversity in the Democratic Party. Both Iowa, which was booted from the lead off position, and New Hampshire, are overwhelmingly Caucasian.

With New Hampshire law mandating that the state hold the first primary in the White House race, it’s all nearly certain that the state will move up the date of their contest and hold a primary that will not be sanctioned by the DNC. And with the president likely to stay off the ballot in New Hampshire to avoid an unsanctioned primary, Kennedy and Williamson could grab plenty of national media attention and potentially create a bit of mischief in the Democratic nomination race.

The president came in a distant fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary in 2020, before rebounding to a second-place finish in Nevada. Biden then won South Carolina — where Black voters play an outsized role in Democratic Party primaries — in a landslide, boosting him towards his party’s nomination and eventually the White House. 

Biden’s push to move South Carolina to the top of the 2024 calendar – which would give him a friendly nomination pathway – was taken as another signal he would run for re-election next year. 

New Jersey announced eight new lawsuits and other action against what it says are companies and individuals who’ve failed to clean up pollutants at sites across the state, the attorney general and top environmental official said Thursday.

The suits are aimed at forcing the remediation of pollutants such as gasoline and other chemicals that seeped into the ground, Attorney General Matthew Platkin and Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette said in a statement.

The sites include former gas stations, chemical manufacturers and automotive mechanics across the state, from Camden and Washington Township in southern New Jersey to Newark and West Milford in the north.

‘Through these actions, we are sending a clear message: whether you pollute our air, our soil, or our water, we will hold you accountable. Our communities deserve no less,’ Platkin said in a statement.

Alongside the lawsuits, brought in state Superior Court, the officials said they issued a directive to a former industrial manufacturer located in Newark requiring it clean up volatile chemicals that seeped into the ground.

The lawsuits come as part of the state’s efforts under Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy to rein in pollution in communities that have historically borne the brunt of contamination.

Since the governor took office in 2018, the attorney general’s office has filed some 56 so-called environmental justice suits, yielding $19 million in judgments, according to Platkin.

Sen. Josh Hawley said the current Republican Party is not ready for what he described as ‘the great awokening’ by the left, which he said is trying to ‘purge Christianity’ from modern culture.

‘Marriage, the family, the very idea of gender. They want to purge Christian and any kind of Bible influence from our culture. This is the great awokening that the left has gone through,’ said Hawley, R-Mo., in a Thursday speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

‘The great awokening that they want to force on this nation and my contention to you today is that the Republican Party as we have known it for the last 30 years is not prepared to face it,’ Hawley said.

‘The Republican Party as we know it must be reformed,’ Hawley continued. ‘The question is, can we as conservatives do what we must to see the party perform, to see it stand up to meet the challenges of this hour?’

Hawley invoked former President Ronald Reagan, whom he said also had to ‘transform’ his party in his day, and implied that the ‘new world order’ politics left over from President George H.W. Bush must be changed.

‘The politics of ‘new world order’ have failed. They have failed our people, they have failed our party,’ Hawley said. ‘The pursuit of economic globalism has failed. The pursuit of liberal empire has failed. It has cost us shocking sums of money.’

‘It has fueled the rise of our most serious adversary, China,’ Hawley continued, who also leveled criticism of the creation of the World Trade Organization.

‘We will [surely] look back at the decision to create the World Trade Organization in its current structure – and to admit China to the WTO and to give China permanent, most-favored nation status – is one of the most colossal errors any global power has made in its history. And certainly it’s one of the biggest the United States has ever made,’ Hawley said.

Hawley went on to suggest that ‘new world order’ politics has harmed middle-class Americans while promoting foreign enemies.

‘China has built its military on the backs of our middle class,’ he said.

Hawley also added that Marxist influence in the United States is eroding the middle class.

Hawley said that those who care about the future of the Republican Party ‘must move it immediately to higher ground.’

‘Let’s restore the economic and cultural power of the working people in the nation. That’s how we’re going to save our culture,’ Hawley said.

Kansas’ Democratic governor on Thursday vetoed Republican legislation aimed at ending gender-affirming care for children and teens, and another, sweeping GOP proposal for preventing transgender people from using bathrooms and other public facilities associated with their gender identities.

Gov. Laura Kelly also vetoed a third GOP bill that specifically would have prevented jails from housing transgender prisoners in units consistent with their gender identities and a fourth measure that would have barred schools from allowing transgender girls from rooming with cisgendered girls, and transgender boys with cisgender boys, on overnight trips.

Her actions highlighted how her Republican-leaning state has become a fiercely contested battleground as GOP lawmakers across the U.S. target LGBTQ+ rights through several hundred proposals. Kelly narrowly won reelection in November, but the Legislature has GOP supermajorities and conservative leaders who’ve made rolling back transgender rights a priority.

The bills on bathrooms, jails and overnight school trips passed earlier this month with the two-thirds majorities needed to override a veto, but the measure on gender-affirming care did not, falling 12 House votes short of a supermajority.

Kelly said in statement on the four vetoes that measures ‘stripping away rights’ would hurt the state’s ability to attract businesses. The vetoes also were in keeping with her promises to block any measure she views as discriminating against LGBTQ+ people.

‘Companies have made it clear that they are not interested in doing business with states that discriminate against workers and their families,’ Kelly said in her statement. ‘I’m focused on the economy. Anyone care to join me?’

At least 14 states with GOP-led legislatures have enacted laws against gender-affirming care for minors, including North Dakota as of Wednesday. At least seven have bathroom laws, mostly focusing on schools. Earlier this month, Kansas lawmakers overrode Kelly’s veto of a ban on female transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports, making Kansas among at least 21 states with such a law.

The Kansas bathroom bill would have applied to bathrooms and locker rooms outside schools, as well as to prisons, jails, rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters. Because it also sought to define ‘sex’ as ‘either male or female, at birth,’ transgender people wouldn’t have been able to change the gender marker on their driver’s license, though a 2019 federal court decree still would have allowed them to change their birth certificates.

Advocates of LGBTQ+ rights see the measure as legally erasing transgender people and denying recognition to non-binary, gender fluid or gender non-conforming people.

‘I am not going to go back to those days of hiding in the closet,’ Justin Brace, executive director of Transgender Kansas, said during a recent transgender rights rally outside the Statehouse. ‘We are in a fight for our lives, literally.’

GOP conservatives argue that many of their constituents reject the cultural shift toward accepting that people’s gender identities can differ from the sex assigned them a birth; don’t want cisgendered women sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with transgender women; and question gender-affirming care such as puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapies and surgeries.

‘They’re parents who are saying, ‘My child showed no signs of gender dysphoria until they got to be in middle school, and then they started using social media,’’ Republican state Rep. Susan Humphreys, of Wichita, said during a debate on the gender-affirming care bill, promoting a ‘social contagion’ narrative debunked by multiple studies.

The Kansas measure would have required the state’s medical board to revoke the license of any doctor discovered to have provided such care, and allowed people who received such care as children to sue health care providers later.

Supporters said the bill would not keep transgender youth from receiving counseling or psychiatric therapy. But the measure also applies to ‘causing’ acts that ‘affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex’ if it differs from their gender assigned at birth.

Treatments for children and teens have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.

‘It’s one thing to have a family member that’s unaffirming of who you are as a person,’ said Derrick Jordan, a licensed therapist who works with trans youth and directs the Gender and Family Project at New York’s Ackerman Institute for training child and family therapists. ‘It’s a whole other thing to have a system tell you you’re not fully human or you don’t have the same rights as other folks.’

The Kansas bathroom bill borrows language from a proposal from several anti-trans groups. It says ‘important governmental objectives’ of protecting health safety and privacy justify separate public facilities for men and women and applies ‘where biology, safety or privacy’ prompt sex-separation. It defines male and female based on a person’s reproductive anatomy at birth.

Kansas House health committee Chair Brenda Landwehr told colleagues who opposed the bill during a debate that they were telling her that she couldn’t walk into a bathroom and know that only cisgendered women would be there.

‘What about my rights? What about my comfort zone?’ said Landwehr, a Wichita Republican. ‘What about my granddaughters?’

President Biden is expected to make his bid for a second term as president official next week, according to reports.

Biden, 80, and his team are hoping to make the announcement via campaign video on April 25, which will be the four-year anniversary of his 2020 campaign launch, multiple reports said.

Speculation swirled for months over whether Biden would run for re-election, with his team only saying he ‘intendeds to run,’ but not making any other statements in the affirmative. He said last week, however, that an announcement about his potential candidacy would come ‘relatively soon.’

Biden sent out exclusive invitations to some of his top donors from the 2020 campaign this week, asking them to attend a hastily-planned event at the White House, according to The New York Times.

If he wins re-election, Biden, who is currently the oldest president in U.S. history, would be 86 at the end of his second term in 2029.

The reports come as Biden is struggling in the polls among Democratic voters, nearly half of those in the early primary state of New Hampshire don’t want him to run for re-election.

Biden is currently facing Democratic primary challenges from spiritual guru Marianne Williamson and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

He is facing an even more crowded field from the other side of the aisle as Republican candidates continue to line up to challenge former President Donald Trump’s front-runner status for the GOP nomination.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

The lawyer for the IRS whistleblower alleging the Biden administration is mishandling the federal investigation into Hunter Biden told Fox News on Thursday that his client is ‘not a political person’ and does not have a ‘political agenda,’ but does have documents to support his allegations that he hopes to bring to both congressional Democrats and Republicans.

Mark Lytle, the whistleblower’s attorney, sat down for an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on ‘Special Report’ on Thursday evening, explaining his client’s allegations.

‘My client wants to come forward. He is not a political person, he is not a social media person, he is not coming here with a political agenda,’ Lytle said, adding that he has ‘been at the IRS for more than 10 years’ as a special agent, who is ‘trusted with international investigations.’ 

‘My client is a career law enforcement officer who is respected within the IRS and he teaches other agents how to properly do investigations,’ Lytle continued. ‘He knows when to spot when investigative steps aren’t done in a traditional way to get to the truth.’

Lytle added: ‘He has spotted and observed things that are done differently in this particular matter…and he wants to talk about them and he believes that they were influenced by politics.’

Hunter Biden’s attorney, Chris Clark, earlier Thursday said it appears Lytle’s client ‘has committed a crime.’

‘It is a felony for an IRS agent to improperly disclose information about an ongoing tax investigation,’ Clark said in a statement. ‘The IRS has incredible power, and abusing that power by targeting, embarrassing, or disclosing information about a private citizen’s tax matters undermines Americans’ faith in the federal government.’

Clark added: ‘Unfortunately, that is what has happened and is happening here in an attempt to harm my client.’

When asked for reaction, Lyle said it was ‘unfortunate that that statement was made.’

‘My client wrestled with whether or not to come forward,’ Lytle said, adding he had ‘sleepless nights. He decided he could not live with himself if he stayed quiet and said nothing.’ 

Lytle said his client ‘knows he is going to be attacked,’ but still ‘wants to come forward and tell the truth,’ and instructed his legal team to ‘reach out to both Republicans and Democrats on the Hill.’ 

Further, Lytle said Clark’s statement doesn’t ‘help whistleblowers as a whole,’ even as Congress has whistleblower programs in place to ‘shine a light’ on misconduct.

Lytle said he viewed Clark’s statement as threatening, and stressed it is ‘unfortunate that that statement was made.’ 

Meanwhile, Lytle said he and his client have received outreach from congressional committees, and that they are in a ‘positive’ dialogue regarding ‘what next steps to take.’ 

Lytle stressed, though, that his client made clear that he wanted to deliver the information to Congress in front of a bipartisan panel.

‘One of the things my client insists on is that he only come in to talk to both Democrats and Republicans,’ Lytle said. ‘And they can all ask him questions and cross-examine him and he has documents that will support what he has to say.’ 

Lytle explained that due to tax secrecy and tax privacy laws, his client cannot even share the information with his legal team.

‘Congress can enable him to do that,’ Lytle said.

Lytle sent a letter Wednesday to top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the Senate Finance Committee, and the House Ways and Means Committee, saying that his client has ‘already made protected disclosures internally at the IRS, through counsel to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and to the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General.’

Lytle said the protected disclosures ‘contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee’ and involve ‘failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case.’

Lytle said his client has also detailed examples of ‘preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.’

Reports have suggested the senior political appointee could be in reference to Attorney General Merrick Garland, and his testimony on Capitol Hill in March — and last year — that stressed that U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss can conduct the Hunter Biden investigation independently.

When pressed by Baier on whether he is referring to Garland, Lytle said he ‘can’t talk specifics about who it was my client is talking about.’

‘But what I can say is a career law enforcement officer, who knows the right way to do an investigation, when he hears a senior politically appointed official at the Department of Justice under sworn testimony say something, and in his mind it is directly contradictory to what he knows is going on with the investigation — what he can prove with documents, he wants to come forward,’ Lytle said.

Lytle’s comments come after the White House on Thursday insisted there is no ‘political interference’ in the Hunter Biden investigation.

‘Since he took office and consistent with his campaign promise that he would restore the independence of the Justice Department when it comes to decision-making in criminal investigations, President Biden has made clear that this matter would be handled independently by the Justice Department, under the leadership of a U.S. Attorney appointed by former President Trump, free from any political interference by the White House,’ White House spokesman Ian Sams told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

‘He has upheld that commitment,’ Sams added.

Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation since 2018. The federal investigation into his ‘tax affairs’ began amid the discovery of suspicious activity reports (SARs) regarding funds from ‘China and other foreign nations.’

In 2020, it became known that the FBI had subpoenaed the laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden in the course of an existing money laundering investigation.

Hunter Biden confirmed the investigation into his ‘tax affairs’ in December 2020, after his father was elected president. The investigation is being led by Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.