FIRST ON FOX: Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray this week regarding officers who were seen kneeling before Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters in 2020.

Several FBI officers were photographed kneeling during a June 4, 2020, demonstration in Washington, D.C. The protests during summer 2020 often turned into violent riots across the country in outrage over the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Some agents who kneeled reportedly received commendations from FBI executive management, Gaetz claimed in his letter, and the Florida congressman demanded to know whether their support for the demonstrators contributed to their career advancement.  

‘Many FBI personnel we were trusting to be on the front lines were photographed kneeling in surrender to people who at times were violent,’ Gaetz told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Gaetz says one of the kneeling agents appears to be Washington field office assistant special agent in charge Sarah Linden.

Gaetz said he heard from a whistleblower and other information that ‘people were rewarded for this at [the] FBI with plum personnel opportunities and promotions and advancements.’

‘To climb the ladder in federal employment, you shouldn’t have to shimmy up the woke totem pole,’ Gaetz added, asking Wray ‘about how various personnel engaged in these acts of supplication were then given plum professional opportunities.’

Gaetz said the ‘FBI’s behavior is demoralizing’ to law enforcement from the local to the federal levels and that ‘it showcases a real misunderstanding of the purpose of law enforcement.’

‘The purpose of law enforcement is to keep people safe, not to engage in politics,’ Gaetz said. ‘And for the last several years, we’ve seen the FBI more interested in virtue signaling and political activity than in just the nuts and bolts in evaluating the facts and the law.’

The Florida Republican named Linden in his letter to Wray, telling Fox News Digital he sent the letter to get ‘confirmation’ that the whistleblower information he received was correct.

‘And Sarah Linden, we understand, now is leading the criminal division of the Washington field office,’ Gaetz said. ‘And if that’s the case, we want to know that that was a decision based on merit, not a decision solely as a consequence of a political performance.’

When asked about his confidence level that the agent wearing sunglasses and a surgical mask in the picture was Linden, Gaetz said: ‘That’s why we’ve asked the question.’

‘We have reason to believe that’s who it is and that’s what we are seeking to confirm,’ Gaetz said.

Gaetz said he did not know the identities of the other kneeling agents, but that ‘we’ll see if their careers got an otherwise unwarranted updraft as a consequence.’

The Florida Republican added that the ‘Biden administration seeks to reward those who participate in these virtue signals rather than doing their job.’

‘Wasn’t it the Biden administration that wanted to have the intricacies of nuclear energy handled by the suitcase-stealing weirdo?’ he added, referring to embattled former senior Department of Energy official Sam Brinton.

In the letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, Gaetz noted the 2020 ‘coordinated’ summer riots that caused ‘millions of dollars in property damage’ as well as the May 29, 2020, altercation where ‘violent protestors threw rocks, urine, and alcohol at United States Secret Service Agents, injuring over 60 of them.’

‘Some protestors also scaled the barriers to the White House and Department of the Treasury complex,’ Gaetz wrote.

‘This shameful and unprecedented violence took place over several days, and included the arson attack on St. John’s Episcopal Church adjacent to the White House. During these events, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) personnel were quite literally ‘on the line’ defending our nation’s Capitol in an attack that has not been surpassed since in either its scope or violence.’

‘Perhaps in an effort to placate the mob, on June 4, 2020, at least six alleged FBI agents were filmed kneeling in supplication,’ Gaetz wrote. He claimed that Linden appeared to be ‘expressing her support for these seditious riots that caused so much destruction.’

Gaetz gave Wray a July 7 deadline to respond to his questions.

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

Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced online that another of his interviews has been removed from social media giant YouTube.

Kennedy announced that his interview with former New York Post reporter Al Guart had been taken off the prominent video-sharing platform.

The Democrat challenger to President Biden in the 2024 primaries has already seen one of his interviews removed from YouTube due to an apparent violation of the website’s vaccine misinformation policy.

‘[YouTube] just pulled another of my videos, with former NY Post political reporter [Guart],’ Kennedy wrote in a Tuesday Twitter thread. ‘People made a big deal about Russia supposedly manipulating internet information to influence a Presidential election. Shouldn’t we be worried when giant tech corporations do the same?’

‘When industry and government are so closely linked, there is little difference between ‘private’ and ‘government’ censorship,’ he continued. ‘Suppression of free speech is not suddenly OK when it is contracted out to the private corporations that control the public square.’

Kennedy wrote that the ‘Twitter Files proved that numerous government agencies, acting through the FBI, told Twitter whom to censor’ and that ‘Twitter complied.’

‘Doubtless, Facebook, YouTube, and the rest received similar requests,’ Kennedy wrote.

‘In the case of my interview with [Guart], [YouTube] probably acted on its own initiative,’ he continued. ‘It has internalized the political wishes of the establishment to the point where it knows what to censor without being told.’

Google, YouTube’s parent company, did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Kennedy’s comments came after YouTube took down a different interview between the Democrat presidential candidate and podcast host Jordan Peterson, citing the website’s vaccine misinformation policy.

This month, both Kennedy and Peterson tweeted that the video-sharing website had taken down their interview from an episode of Peterson’s show and accused the social media platform of censorship and interfering with a presidential campaign.

A Google spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital that YouTube ‘removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel for violating YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities.’

The spokesperson also said the company ‘removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel featuring a conversation with Robert F Kennedy Jr.’ and that Google’s ‘Community Guidelines apply equally to all creators on our platform, regardless of political viewpoint.’

‘Under our general vaccine misinformation policies, we remove false claims about currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO. This includes content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines will be removed. This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them.’

‘Our policies not only cover specific routine immunizations like for measles or Hepatitis B, but also apply to general statements about vaccines,’ the spokesperson said. ‘Content that would otherwise violate our Community Guidelines may stay on YouTube when it has Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) context, such as providing countervailing views to the remarks that violate our policies.’

In the interview, Kennedy said that ‘a lot of the sexual dysphoria’ America is seeing comes from exposure to chemicals in the water.

The U.S. Attorney who led the federal investigation into Hunter Biden was ‘briefed’ on the key FBI form that contained allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national were engaged in a criminal bribery scheme that involved influence over U.S. policy decisions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed Wednesday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who led the federal investigation into Hunter Biden demanding answers amid allegations from whistleblowers suggesting the probe was slow-walked and influenced by politics.

Graham wrote to Garland and Weiss separately, seeking information on the alleged politicization that influenced decisions throughout the Hunter Biden probe.

The document in question is an FBI-generated FD-1023 form. The form, dated June 30, 2020, reflects the FBI’s interview with a ‘highly credible’ confidential source who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top executive of Burisma Holdings over the course of several years, starting in 2015. Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma.

In the letter to Weiss, Graham said that he has ‘been informed that you and your office were briefed on allegations in an FD-1023 form suggesting there may have been phone calls recorded between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden with a senior official at Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.’

‘The FD-1023 in question alleges that the confidential informant told the Department of Justice and FBI that such tapes may exist,’ Graham wrote.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr earlier this month said the FD-1023 form had been routed to Weiss. Sources told Fox News Digital that Weiss’ team was briefed on the FD-1023 form in September 2020. 

Fox News Digital was briefed on the heavily-redacted form, in which the Burisma executive explained to the confidential source that Burisma had to ‘pay the Bidens’ because Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma, and explained how difficult it would be to enter the U.S. market in the midst of that investigation.

According to a source familiar with the document, the Burisma executive told the confidential human source, ‘$5 million for one Biden, $5 million for the other Biden.’

Sources familiar told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source believes that the $5 million payment to Joe Biden and the $5 million payment to Hunter Biden occurred, based on his or her conversations with the Burisma executive.

The confidential source said the Burisma executive told him he ‘paid’ the Bidens in such a manner ‘through so many different bank accounts’ that investigators would not be able to ‘unravel this for at least 10 years.’

The document then makes reference to ‘the Big Guy,’ which many believe is a reference to Joe Biden.

A whistleblower first alerted Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to the existence of the document. Grassley has seen the unredacted form, and claims that under the redactions is a reference to the Burisma executive saying he kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them as an ‘insurance policy.’

Grassley, earlier this month, said the FD-1023 has a redacted reference that the Burisma executive possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between himself and Hunter Biden.

According to Grassley, the FD-1023 also states that the executive possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between himself and then-Vice President Biden.

Graham, in the letter, is asking Weiss to clarify whether he was ‘in fact briefed on these allegations,’ which President Biden has dismissed as ‘a bunch of malarkey.’ 

‘If yes, what actions were taken to investigate this matter and what was the final disposition?’ Graham wrote.

‘As I write, I do not know if the allegations are credible, but I know they are serious, and I believe it is incumbent on you to clarify and inform the public,’ Graham continued. ‘I am confident this can be achieved without compromising confidential sources.’

Graham and Grassley last week asked the FBI to turn over an unredacted version of the FD-1023 form. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., had subpoenaed the document, but the FBI did not comply, and instead, brought a redacted version to a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) on Capitol Hill for committee members to review.

Meanwhile, in his letter to Garland, Graham refers to allegations brought to the House Ways and Means Committee by two IRS whistleblowers, claiming the entire federal investigation into Hunter Biden was influenced by politics.

‘To the American people, it appears DOJ had its thumb on the scale of justice,’ Graham wrote to the attorney general.

Graham’s letter comes after two IRS whistleblowers said officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the federal investigation into Hunter Biden. Those whistleblowers said the decisions in the case seemed to be ‘influenced by politics.’

The whistleblowers testified before the House Ways and Means Committee and alleged that Weiss was ‘constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials as well as other U.S. Attorneys.’ They testified that Weiss had requested to have special counsel authority, but was denied.

‘It is imperative these allegations are addressed head-on,’ Graham wrote to Garland, questioning whether he was ‘aware of any request’ by Weiss to be designated special counsel.

‘And likewise, were you aware of any effort to seek support to bring felony charges in Washington, D.C. or California?’ Graham asked, referring to allegations that Weiss sought to bring charges against Hunter Biden in two separate venues. ‘If such requests were made by U.S. Attorney Weiss and you were not aware, who would be the decision-making authority in such a case?’

The Justice Department has denied the whistleblowers’ claims, with Attorney General Merrick Garland saying Weiss was ‘given complete authority to make all decisions on his own behalf.’ 

Graham, in his letter to Weiss, also pressed for clarification on whether he did seek special counsel authority from the Justice Department and whether he was denied.

‘Whistleblower allegations indicate that while you were investigating Hunter Biden you requested Special Counsel designation and were denied, and that you sought more serious charges and that attempt was rejected,’ Graham wrote to Weiss. ‘Whistleblowers also indicated that you made efforts to bring charges in Washington, D.C., and California, and were also rejected.’

Graham demanded Weiss provide information regarding the allegations, including the corroborating ‘contemporaneous e-mail’ referring to those sought after charges.

‘Please provide information regarding these allegations, as a prompt response is necessary to reassure the public that there is equal justice under the law,’ Graham wrote.

The Justice Department said it has received Graham’s letter, but did not comment further.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has consistently struggled through public events due to the aftermath of a stroke he suffered more than a year ago, is falling to President Biden’s unpopularity level in their home state of Pennsylvania. 

According to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday, half of Keystone State voters disapprove of Fetterman’s job handling, while only 39% approve. President Biden, a Scranton native, has a worse approval rating in the state, with 57% of Pennsylvanians disapproving of his job handling as president, while 39% approve.

Voters view Fetterman much worse than his fellow statewide Democrats, the poll shows. Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro garners a 57% job approval rating, while 23% disapprove. Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, meanwhile, also earns good marks from voters, with 44% approval and 32% who disapprove of the job he’s doing in office. The remaining percentages for each politician reflect individuals who did not offer an opinion. 

Fetterman has floundered through Senate hearings and other public events since taking office, often coming across incoherent due to his injuries from the stroke. His office has repeatedly slammed critics for drawing attention to the issue and maintains he is fine outside of auditory processing problems. 

The issue exploded when Jeff Stein, a Washington Post economics reporter, admitted in May to amplifying a misquote Fetterman’s office provided to him. Meanwhile, Fetterman’s office has quietly and significantly altered the senator’s transcribed comments on several occasions to make him sound more coherent, Fox News Digital previously reported.

After spending over a month in a hospital for clinical depression treatment, Fetterman revealed his depression was ‘in full force’ during his first few weeks in the Senate.

He initially suffered the stroke in May 2022 while campaigning in the Pennsylvania Senate race, resulting in auditory processing issues. 

Fetterman described his only midterm debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz as similar to ‘trying to run a marathon with a broken ankle.’ During the debate, Fetterman was granted the use of a closed captioning system so that he would be able to read the questions.

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump is extending his lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in New Hampshire, with newcomers in the 2024 Republican primary for president also earning support from voters in the state, according to a new poll.

The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll, released Tuesday, gathered responses from 1,065 registered Granite State voters from June 21 – 23 and found that Trump sits at 47% support from voters in the state.

Following Trump, DeSantis received 19% support, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie received six percent support, former United Nations Ambassador Gov. Nikki Haley garnered five percent support, and South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott received four percent support.

Other contenders for the Republican presidential nomination — including entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson — received two percent support from survey respondents.

Compared to a similar poll from Saint Anselm College earlier this year, support for DeSantis in New Hampshire has dropped 10 points and support for Trump has increased seven points. The poll from March found Trump to have 42% support, followed by DeSantis at 29%, Haley at 4%, and Ramaswamy at 3%.

If an election rematch between Trump and President Biden was held today, New Hampshire voters who took part in the poll said they would vote for Biden over Trump 49% to 40%. DeSantis is in the same boat, with voters in the state still saying they would support Biden over the Florida governor 49% to 40% among general election voters.

But Granite State voters said they believe a Biden-Trump matchup in 2024 signals that the system is broken. Fourteen percent of Republicans surveyed said they are somewhat more inclined than Democrats (6%) to believe such a match-up represents the best that each political party has to offer, but 83% disagreed overall.

As for age, 70% of respondents to the survey — including 50% of Democrats — expressed concern about the 80-year-old incumbent, while only 34% said they are concerned about the age of the 77-year-old former president.

Despite his polling numbers against Republicans, Biden remains in the clear among Democrats despite his primary challengers. Robert Kennedy Jr. received 9% support in the latest survey, while Marianne Williamson, who sought the party’s nomination for president in 2020, picked up 8% support.

The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll — conducted via online surveys — has a margin of error of +/- 3.0% with a confidence interval of 95%.

China is fully embracing the potential transformative power of artificial intelligence and determined to emerge as the world’s leading AI power, according to experts and Chinese state media.

The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on Monday published its second commentary in two weeks vowing to intensify efforts to unleash the potential of AI.

‘[AI] will become an important driving force in the new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, with a major impact on people’s production and life,’ the commentary says.

The article, first flagged by the South China Morning Post, lists several areas where China could benefit from AI, such as daily office work, pharmaceuticals, and meteorology.

The People’s Daily’s focus on AI comes as experts in the U.S. are warning of China’s tech ambitions.

In a new report, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments concludes that, while the U.S. currently leads China in industrial might and national security technology, Beijing is on the offensive in areas like AI and believes it can be a global leader in the next decade.

‘The United States has a powerful advantage because it played a central role in establishing the existing global techno-security order,’ the report states. ‘But the current revolution in global technology affairs offers a window of opportunity for China to stake a leadership claim on emerging domains such as 5G, AI, quantum technology, cybersecurity, clean energy, and biotechnology.’

The term ‘techno-security’ describes various innovations that can be applied to national security requirements.

According to the report, the U.S. needs to take action now to secure its stronger position or risk China catching up in the near future as it continues to close the technological gap between the two.

‘The U.S. techno-security system remains better organized and structured for the long-term techno-security competition than China, but it cannot be complacent and needs to urgently address a raft of structural flaws in its system,’ the authors conclude. ‘As China ramps up its efforts to transform its techno-security capabilities and sets deadlines to achieve its goals over the next 5–10 years, the U.S. has only a limited window of opportunity to act.’

Tai Ming Cheung, a co-author of the report and a professor at the University of California, San Diego, noted that China ‘is now doubling down’ on AI, telling the U.S. Naval Institute’s news website that the Chinese ‘think they have a real chance to lead’ in this sector.

Since the AI tool ChatGPT was releasee in November, many observers both in and out of government have highlighted the strategic importance of tracking China’s focus on developing AI to boost industrial productivity and its economy — the world’s second largest.

In April, the Politburo, the CCP’s decision-making body, said China should prioritize the ‘development of artificial general intelligence’ and ‘create an ecosystem for innovation’ while simultaneously trying to mitigate the risks of AI, according to a statement issued by state media outlet Xinhua summarizing the Politburo’s quarterly meeting on the country’s social and economic development.

According to the accounting and consulting firm PwC, China will benefit significantly from AI, which is set to contribute to a 26% increase in China’s gross domestic product by 2030.

However, the People’s Daily noted that China still faces challenges, such as a lack of compute-in-memory chips, tough ethical questions, intellectual property rights, and potential issues for personal privacy and online fraud.

‘The evolving nature of AI also poses certain risks,’ the commentary read. 

The Chinese government mouthpiece also called on governments and industry leaders to address the risks associated with AI.

Chinese leaders are deliberating over a new law to target telecoms and online fraud using AI face swapping technology.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has reportedly reached out to China about working together on international norms for AI in weapons systems — a potential new area of both cooperation and competition amid tensions between the two countries.