Special Counsel Jack Smith proposed to begin former President Donald Trump’s trial in January 2024 for the charges he’s facing in relation to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

‘The Government proposes that trial begin on January 2, 2024, and estimates that its case in chief will take no longer than four to six weeks,’ the filing on Thursday states.

Trump faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

President Biden bragged Thursday that all of his grandchildren enjoy Secret Service protection, but the White House has yet to clarify whether that includes his estranged grandchild via Hunter Biden.

Biden only recently acknowledged 4-year-old Navy Joan Roberts, whose mother is engaged in a child support case against Hunter. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from Fox News Digital.

‘Years ago, when John Kerry was the nominee for president for the Democratic Party, he talked with me about the possibility of being vice president,’ Biden said. ‘I said no. I didn’t want to be vice president.

‘But had I known that, as vice president, I get Secret Service, and had I known that meant my daughters get Secret Service and my granddaughters, I would’ve fought even harder for him at the time.

‘Now, I have a bunch of grandchildren, and they all have Secret Service. My daughter has Secret Service, and It’s just wonderful. I’m not sure what they think about it, but it’s just wonderful.’

Biden made the statement during a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the passage of the PACT Act, which relates to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Conservative legal group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in late July seeking records relating to any Secret Service protection for Roberts. The lawsuit comes after the Secret Service responded to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act request in May by stating that no responsive records had been located.

‘For security reasons we do not comment specifically on who may receive Secret Service protection,’ Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday.

Biden only recently acknowledged his estranged granddaughter, having previously referred only to his ‘six’ grandchildren that he has through his children’s marriages. Roberts was born through Hunter’s extramarital relationship with Lunden Alexis Roberts.

‘Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,’ Biden said July 28 in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,’ he added. ‘Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.’

In June, Hunter settled his Arkansas child support case with Roberts’ mother, ending a yearslong paternity dispute. 

A court filing showed Hunter agreed to give his daughter some of his paintings, and the mother of the child agreed to withdraw her counterclaim to change their child’s last name to ‘Biden.’

Lawyers for Pentagon leak suspect Jack Teixeira on Thursday filed a motion pushing for their client’s release from jail while he awaits trial. 

The memorandum comes in response to a 20-page court filing from the government last week which argued that Teixeira is a risk to national security, poses a physical danger to the community and should not be released from custody. 

Thursday’s 14-page reply from Teixeira’s defense attorney was filed in support of appealing the magistrate judge’s ruling in May that Teixeira must remain behind bars while the case plays out. The judge found that releasing Teixeira would pose a risk that he would attempt to flee the country or obstruct justice. 

Teixeira challenged the judge’s decision last month, pointing to the pretrial release of former President Donald Trump and others charged in high-profile classified documents cases. 

In Thursday’s court filing, Teixeira’s defense team argued the government is ‘attempting to justify pretrial detention on dangerous grounds’ and that ‘The Court should reject the government’s thin attempt to trojan horse an argument.’ 

The defense argued that the government ‘should vacate the Magistrate’s Order on Detention and order that Mr. Teixeira be released subject to the least restrictive conditions it finds appropriate.’  

Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member, has been behind bars since April on charges that he shared classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games.

Authorities say Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, began around January sharing military secrets with other Discord users — first by typing out classified documents and then sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Teixeira worked as a ‘cyber transport systems specialist,’ essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks.

Authorities have provided few details about an alleged possible motive, but accounts of those in the online private chat group where the documents were disclosed have depicted Teixeira as motivated more by bravado than ideology.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is renewing its demand for him to receive Secret Service protection following the FBI’s killing of a Utah man who allegedly threatened President Biden, as well as the Wednesday assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador.

‘The killing of Mr. [Fernando] Villavicencio proves how volatile the political climate has become,’ campaign manager Dennis Kucinich said in a statement. ‘Yesterday the FBI confronted a man who had threatened President Biden, an incident that led to the man being shot dead by government agents.’

‘Mr. Kennedy has met all criteria for protection. The only conceivable reason he is being denied is because of a conscious decision by the White House to deny him security and damn the consequences,’ he added.

Craig Deleeuw Robertson, a 74-year-old woodworker, was shot and killed during an FBI raid in Provo, Utah, on Wednesday after allegedly making death threats against Biden and other high-profile Democrats.

‘I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghille suit and cleaning the dust off the m24 sniper rifle. welcom, buffoon-in-chief!’ Robertson wrote in a Facebook post just days before Biden visited the state.

A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital that Robertson was holding a weapon. After a standoff, agents opened fire, killing him around 6:14 a.m., Fox News reported Wednesday.

On the same day, Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed in an armed attack at a campaign rally in the capital, Quito, according to the country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, and local media reports.

According to the local reports, Villavicencio, a former lawmaker who had been polling at 7.5%, was shot while leaving the event. Ecuador’s attorney general’s office later reported that one suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight after the assassination, and police detained six other people.

According to Kennedy’s campaign, the candidate first filed for Secret Service protection ‘months ago,’ but was denied by the Biden administration last month. 

Kennedy noted the denial on social media, claiming it went against the norms of providing candidates Secret Service protection and citing a 67-page report from ‘the world’s leading protection firm’ that he said detailed ‘unique and well established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats’ and justified his need for protection.

Kennedy’s father, the late former Democratic New York senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, the late former President John F. Kennedy, were both assassinated in the 1960s.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, Adam Sabes and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.

Republicans online torched President Biden’s $6 billion deal to free American hostages from the Iranian regime.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Biden had negotiated the release of five American hostages from Iran in exchange for a handful of Iranian nationals serving prison sentences for violating sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Sources told the paper that the U.S. also agreed to unfreeze nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, transferring the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar.

Republicans blasted the deal online, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying Iran ‘shouldn’t profit from holding Americans hostage.’

‘Releasing $6 billion to the butchers in Tehran just so American hostages can go to a different type of prison is a terrible deal,’ Pompeo wrote. ‘Iran shouldn’t profit from holding Americans hostage.’

‘While I welcome home wrongfully detained Americans, unfreezing $6B in [Iranian] assets dangerously further incentivizes hostage taking [and] provides a windfall for regime aggression,’ Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, tweeted.

‘The Biden Admin must punish those who use Americans as political pawns and work to end this practice,’ he added.

‘The U.S. government should NEVER negotiate with terrorists, let alone fund them,’ New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney tweeted.

‘Now, the Biden administration is giving the Iranian mullahs $6 billion to finance terrorism and oppression of the Iranian people,’ she added.

‘Just when the American people thought Biden’s foreign policy couldn’t get any more disastrous, after his failed Afghanistan withdrawal, he kowtows to Iran,’ Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Republican, wrote. ‘The American people deserve better.’

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the criticism.

The American prisoners include Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz, who the U.S. government says had all beenwrongfully detained on bogus spying charges. The names of the other two were being withheld by their families, but one is said to be a scientist, the other a businessman.

‘We have received confirmation that Iran has released from prison five Americans who were unjustly detained and has placed them on house arrest,’ National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. ‘While this is an encouraging step, these U.S. citizens – Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Shargi, and two Americans who at this time wish to remain private – should have never been detained in the first place.’

‘We will continue to monitor their condition as closely as possible. Of course, we will not rest until they are all back home in the United States,’ the statement added. ‘Until that time, negotiations for their eventual release remain ongoing and are delicate. We will, therefore, have little in the way of details to provide about the state of their house arrest or about our efforts to secure their freedom.’ 

‘We are relieved to learn that Iranian authorities have released five U.S. citizens — Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two individuals who at this time wish to remain private — from prison to house arrest,’ State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller also said in a statement. ‘We are in touch with the families of U.S. citizens involved, and we continue to monitor these individuals’ health and welfare closely. While we welcome the news of these individuals’ release from prison to house arrest, they should never have been imprisoned in the first place. We continue to work diligently to bring these individuals home to their loved ones. They must be allowed to depart Iran and reunite with their loved ones as soon as possible.’

When asked when the American hostages might be released, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News, ‘We expect this process to take weeks before they return home to U.S.’

According to the Times, Namazi, Sharghi, Tahbaz and a fourth American were transferred from the notorious Evin Prison to a hotel in the Iranian capital of Tehran, where they will be detained for another few weeks before being allowed to board a plane. 

The fifth person, an American woman with dual Iranian citizenship, is said to already have been released on house arrest earlier this year, the Times reported.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed reporting.

Five Democratic state lawmakers have defected to the Republican Party so far in 2023, part of a growing trend experts say is caused by red states becoming redder and blue states becoming bluer.

Ten state lawmakers switched parties in 2023, and six of them switched between major parties, Politico reported. Out of those six defectors from major parties, five switched from Democrat to Republican.

Just two state lawmakers changed political affiliation in all of 2022.

‘In recent decades, the red states have become redder, the blue states bluer and the number of swing states has fallen dramatically,’ William Galston, senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institute, told Politico. ‘When this happens, the minority parties lose power in the legislature and the advantages of being in the majority increase.’

Overall, 173 state lawmakers have switched parties since 1994, and 83 of them were Democrats who switched to the GOP. Just 23 switched to the Democratic Party from the Republican Party.

One of the Democrats who became a Republican this year, West Virginia lawmaker Elliott Pritt, said being a Democrat in a deep red state prevented him from getting anything done.

‘Even if I were to run again and win, I would look at another term of never getting another bill passed, never getting anything done,’ Pritt told Politico. ‘For the time I’m going to be there, I’m not going to sit there and be a lame duck and not get anything.’

West Virginia’s governor, Jim Justice, switched from Democrat to Republican in 2017, and many believe more lawmakers in the state are going to continue defecting to the GOP.

‘In states like ours it’s becoming harder and harder to be a conservative Democrat,’ West Virginia Democratic lawmaker Doug Skaff told Politico. ‘It’s really frustrating. You work really hard to do what’s right and, at the end of the day, you’re in the superminority.’

In North Carolina, party switching had significant consequences after Rep. Tricia Cotham left the Democratic Party in April, giving Republicans the two-thirds majority they needed to overpower a veto from the state’s Democratic governor.

‘The modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me and to so many others throughout this state and this country,’ Cotham said at a press conference.

A similar situation occurred in Louisiana this year when state Rep. Francis Thompson switched from Democrat to Republican and gave the GOP the power to override a veto from the state’s Democratic governor.

In July, Democrat Mesha Mainor sparked an uproar within her party after announcing that she would be switching to the GOP.

‘When I decided to stand up on behalf of disadvantaged children in support of school choice, my Democrat colleagues didn’t stand by me,’ Mainor told Fox News Digital. ‘They crucified me. When I decided to stand up in support of safe communities and refused to support efforts to defund the police, they didn’t back me. They abandoned me.’

FIRST ON FOX: Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he didn’t think it was ‘necessary’ to appear at a hearing Thursday regarding new charges related to classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. 

Asked during a round of golf at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club why he chose to waive the court appearance, Trump responded, ‘I didn’t feel it was necessary.’

The comments from Trump came as he entered a not guilty plea to the new charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard formally accepted the plea from Trump, who told the judge in court papers last week he is not guilty and waived his right to appear at Thursday’s hearing. Trump’s aide Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Mar-a-Lago, were both present for the hearing.

Nauta also pleaded not guilty to the superseding indictment. De Oliveira was unable to enter a plea in the case because he still has not secured a Florida-based attorney, which is required under local court rules. His arraignment was pushed back a second time and is now scheduled for Tuesday.

De Oliveira and Nauta appeared in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, on an updated indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, alleging they schemed with the Republican former president and current 2024 GOP front-runner to try to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance video sought by investigators.

Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira face charges that include conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case stemming from secret government documents found at Trump’s Palm Beach club after he left the White House in 2021. 

De Oliveira made his first court appearance in the case last week when he was released on $100,000 bond but could not be arraigned without retaining a Florida lawyer. Nauta’s arraignment had also been delayed several times due to similar circumstances.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in three different cases this year as he tries to reclaim the White House in 2024. The Republican has denied any wrongdoing and has characterized all the cases against him as politically motivated.

Trump pleaded not guilty in Washington, D.C., federal court last week in a second case brought by Smith that accuses Trump of conspiring with allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

The updated indictment in the documents case raises allegations about surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Trump is alleged to have asked for the footage to be deleted after FBI and Justice Department investigators visited in June 2022 to collect classified documents he took with him after leaving the White House.

The former president and his team deny the new allegations and have publicly stated that the footage was turned over to authorities.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.