EXCLUSIVE: A former business associate of Hunter Biden is pushing back against President Biden after he angrily claimed it was a ‘bunch of lies’ that he interacted with his son’s foreign business associates.

Biden was pressed during a press conference on Wednesday about why he interacted with ‘so many’ of his son and brother’s foreign business associates, but he denied having any such interactions, despite evidence to the contrary. 

‘I’m not going to comment. I did not, and it’s just a bunch of lies,’ Biden responded. ‘They’re lies. I did not. They’re lies.’ 

One of Hunter’s former business associates reacted to Biden’s comments by telling Fox News Digital that his claim was ‘complete malarkey’ and said there is ‘plenty of evidence’ to refute his denial. 

Fox News Digital has reported extensively on the mounting evidence contrasting Biden’s claim, including that Hunter’s former friend and longtime business partner Eric Schwerin visited the Obama White House and then-Vice President Biden’s residence dozens of times between 2009 and 2016.

Schwerin was the founding partner and managing director of Hunter’s now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca Partners when he was appointed by then-President Obama to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, an independent U.S. government agency, in early 2015. Obama reappointed him to the commission in January 2017.

In addition to being a key player in facilitating Hunter’s Chinese business deals, Schwerin was also intimately involved with handling the elder Biden’s finances. A person familiar with Schwerin’s role in handling the finances previously told Fox News Digital that Schwerin worked on Biden’s personal budget and helped coordinate with his tax preparers.

The individual also pointed to the frequency of Schwerin’s communications with Biden and his top aides and said it was ‘inevitable’ Rosemont Seneca business came up in conversations.

Biden also met with at least 14 of Hunter’s business associates from the U.S., Mexico, Ukraine, China and Kazakhstan over the course of his vice presidency, and was even photographed alongside Hunter giving some of them a tour of the White House’s Brady Briefing Room.

In a 2016 email to Miguel Magnani, a business tycoon and former Hunter associate from Mexico, Hunter admitted that he had ‘brought every single person [Miguel has] ever asked [him] to bring to the F’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration’ and blasted him for going ‘completely silent.’ Hunter also said he wanted Magnani to be at the plane with his parents when Biden landed in Mexico City. 

Hunter had previously introduced Magnani to his father during a White House tour on Feb. 26, 2014. White House visitor logs show that Magnani and his father, Miguel Aleman Velasco, visited the West Wing on Feb. 26, 2014, and Biden was later photographed with Hunter giving Velasco and Magnani a tour of the White House Brady Press Briefing Room.

Additionally, in December 2013, Hunter traveled with Biden on a trip to Asia, which included a stop in China, and introduced him to his Chinese business partner Jonathan Li in the lobby of the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying. 

A closed-door interview over the summer with Hunter’s former business partner, Devon Archer, revealed that the elder Biden would also have coffee with Li during the visit. Less than two weeks later, Hunter would enter into a joint-venture called BHR Partners, a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited.

The closed-door interview before House Oversight investigators also revealed that Hunter would use his dad as ‘defensive leverage’ to send ‘the right signals’ to his foreign business partners, while selling him as ‘the brand’ that offered ‘capabilities and reach,’ as well as a ‘unique understanding of D.C.’ The transcript said Hunter put his father on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times to sell ‘the brand.’

The elder Biden was also in attendance at a spring 2015 dinner at Washington, D.C.’s upscale restaurant Cafe Milano, which included Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi. The Biden campaign tried to discredit the New York Post’s initial reporting on the controversial dinner in 2020 and said, ‘No meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place,’ but Archer torpedoed that narrative.

Pozharskyi emailed Hunter the following day and said, ‘Thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure.’

A year earlier, Biden attended another dinner at Cafe Milano, according to a House Oversight memo, which included Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, former Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov and Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev. Earlier this year, Massimov was sentenced to 18 years behind bars for his reported role in an attempted coup.

The committee provided screenshots of bank records they say demonstrate that Baturina, the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton on Feb. 14, 2014, a couple of months before the dinner.

Fox News Digital also previously reported on how associates and top staffers at Hunter’s now-defunct company visited the Obama White House more than 90 times when he was vice president in the Obama administration.

Biden has repeatedly insisted that he had no knowledge of his son’s foreign business dealings and had no role in influencing them. He also repeatedly said he never spoke with his son about foreign business dealings, despite mounting evidence contradicting this claim.

‘First of all, I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period,’ Biden said in August 2019 during his campaign. ‘There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. It was the same kind of strict, strict rules. That’s why I never talk with my son or my brother or anyone else, even distant family about their business interest, period.’

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pressed Biden earlier this year on whether he lied ‘about never speaking with Hunter about his business deals,’ prompting the president to reply, ‘No.’ 

Hunter’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, declared a few months ago that the first son ‘did not share’ his business or his profits with his father, marking another notable shift in the narrative responding to allegations that link Biden to his son’s business dealings.

‘I can tell you that Hunter did not share his business with his dad,’ Lowell said at the time. ‘I can tell you that he did not share money from his businesses with his dad. And as the evidence out there, his dad, like all good parents, tried to help Hunter when Hunter needed that help.’

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

Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley traded barbs during Wednesday evening’s GOP presidential primary debate over their past positions on bathroom access for transgender people, with both candidates launching accusations against one another on the issue.

The tense exchange between the GOP presidential hopefuls came during the fourth Republican presidential primary debate, which was held on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, after DeSantis claimed Haley ‘killed’ a bill during her term as governor of South Carolina that would have prevented biological males from using female restrooms.

‘You know, they had a bill to say that men shouldn’t go into girls’ bathrooms and she killed that bill, and she brags that she killed that bill. Even to this day she brags that,’ DeSantis claimed during the event. ‘I don’t think men should be going into little girls’ bathrooms. I think it’s wrong.’

In response, Haley accused the Florida governor of lying about the matter.

‘First of all, Ron has continued to lie because he’s losing,’ Haley said.

‘That’s not a lie. You said it on tape,’ DeSantis interjected.

‘You are lying,’ she quipped. ‘I will say, when I was governor, 10 years ago when the bathroom situation came up, we had maybe a handful of kids that were dealing with an issue.’

Explaining her positioning on the issue at the time during Wednesday’s debate, Haley said she believed there wasn’t a ‘need to bring government into’ the situation and insisted that boys should ‘go into boys’ bathrooms and girls go into girls’ bathrooms.’

Recognizing that the ‘issue has exploded’ from what it was during her tenure as governor, Haley said she believed at the time that anyone who had an issue with that policy should ‘use a private bathroom.’

‘This shows how hypocritical Ron continues to be,’ she added. ‘When he was running for governor and they asked him about that he said he didn’t think bathroom bills were a good use of his time. You can go look that up.’

‘I signed a bathroom bill in Florida, so that’s obviously not true,’ he responded.

‘The idea that you would say I was against it –’ Haley said before being cut off.

‘I signed it, you didn’t,’ DeSantis told Haley. ‘You killed it, I signed it. I stood up for little girls, you didn’t do it.’

DeSantis also claimed he had spoken with South Carolina legislators from the time who told him that the reason the measure was raised was because boys were going into girls’ bathrooms in some Palmetto State schools.

‘There was this going on,’ he said. ‘I was actually just in South Carolina. Some of the legislators told me at the time there were boys going into the girls’ bathroom. That’s the whole reason why they did it.’

‘No, no, no, no, no,’ Haley interjected.

‘And so they say when she does that explanation that that doesn’t hold water,’ he added. ‘This is the upstate of South Carolina. I signed the bill. I protected the girls. She did not do it. I know that.’

Haley strongly rejected DeSantis’ premise, saying that South Carolina officials ‘never allowed that to happen’ and that it wasn’t as big of an issue at the time.

‘You are not going to talk about my state like that because I will tell you for a fact South Carolinians never allowed that to happen and we did not have that issue at the time,’ she said. ‘What I have always said is boys go into a boys’ bathroom, girls go into a girls’ bathroom.… But I also say that biological boys shouldn’t be playing in girls’ sports and I will do everything I can to stop that because it’s the women’s issue of our time.’

Attempting to simmer the conversation, the three debate moderators told the candidates they were moving on, but not before DeSantis said, ‘I actually get this stuff done.’

Though DeSantis was correct in concluding that the bill went nowhere and Haley had criticized it, the South Carolina measure, which would have applied to public and school restrooms, never made it to Haley’s desk because it didn’t make it out of committee.

In 2016, Haley said she didn’t believe it was ‘necessary’ at the time to pass a bill forcing individuals in the state to use a bathroom that aligned with their sex.

Discussing the same bill during a 2022 appearance on Fox News Channel, Haley said she ‘strong-armed’ the bill and insisted that they weren’t ‘gonna have that in South Carolina’ because she believed schools should work directly with parents on the issue.

But Haley’s point about DeSantis’ past support for certain bathroom bills also stands, though he ultimately signed into law a measure in May 2023 that prevents transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity in public schools, universities, government buildings and prisons.

Prior to that action, however, DeSantis insisted that bathroom issues were not a top concern of his in 2018.

Asked by moderator Frank Luntz during a GOP gubernatorial forum whether he would support or oppose a law that would allow a transgender person to pick the bathroom that they choose, DeSantis responded, ‘I would not pass a law. I would leave it as it is and stay out of that.’

‘Obviously, I’d have to read the bill, but I think getting into the bathroom wars – I don’t think that’s a good use of our time,’ he added at the time.

Senate leaders are holding silent on whether they’d move to expel disgraced New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, in the wake of the House’s recent expulsion.

Fox News Digital asked the offices of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., if the senators would support expelling Menendez in the wake of the removal of now-former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.

Menendez is facing federal bribery charges that were announced by the Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier this year. Santos, who is facing criminal charges in his own case, was expelled from the House on Friday, weeks after a damning ethics committee report.

Only McConnell’s office responded to Fox News Digital, pointing to the minority leader’s comments to the press leaving action against Menendez up to the Democrats.

The offices of Schumer, Durbin and Thune did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Thune appeared behind McConnell at the press conference earlier this week.

‘I’m glad he’s not a Republican,’ McConnell said, repeating his previous comments. ‘This is an internal problem with the majority.’

‘[Menendez] obviously has some external problems, and I’ll leave it up to the majority leader to decide how to deal with him,’ McConnell said.

Menendez is facing calls to resign amid criminal bribery charges levied by the DOJ earlier this year.

Several gold bars discovered by federal agents in the senator’s residence as part of a high-profile bribery investigation can be traced to a violent robbery a decade ago, it was reported this week.

According to a sprawling indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in September, Menendez and his wife allegedly played a role in a years-long bribery scheme that involved the Egyptian government and local businessmen, including Fred Daibes, a wealthy New Jersey real estate developer. Prosecutors revealed they retrieved multiple gold bars from Menendez’s home that were allegedly used as payment in the scheme.

At least four of the gold bars discovered by investigators can be linked to Daibes, both because of their unique engraved serial numbers and thanks to court documents related to a 2013 robbery which Daibes was a victim of, an NBC New York investigation revealed Monday. In November 2013, four assailants beat and robbed Daibes at gunpoint in his Edgewater, New Jersey, apartment, stealing 22 gold bars, jewelry and cash.

Photographs released by the Department of Justice in September showing the gold bars discovered at Menendez’s home, for example, reveal one of the bars has a serial number of ‘590005.’ Daibes reported a gold bar with that same serial number stolen during the 2013 heist, NBC New York reported.

And the federal indictment notes that the serial numbers on the gold bars indicate they had previously been possessed by Daibes.

Fox News Digital’s Thomas Catenacci contributed reporting.

‘Squad’ Democrats gathered on Capitol Hill to call for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza on Thursday, doubling down on accusations that Israel is targeting civilians and committing ‘genocide.’

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., held the press conference alongside Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. They also invited members of the Doctors Without Borders organization, which provides humanitarian aid in Gaza. Bush had vicious words for Israel during her opening remarks.

‘When we hear genocidal rhetoric, when we witness devastation and mass murder, when we finance the bombs being dropped, when we intentionally disregard the suffering, we allow the people we represent to be complicit in mass atrocities,’ Bush said.

‘And let me be clear about what’s happening: These are war crimes. The targeting of civilians is a war crime; the targeting of medical facilities is a war crime, the starvation and withholding of water and electricity is a war crime; the collective punishment of 2.3 million people is a war crime, and we refuse to be silent,’ she added as Omar and Tlaib nodded in agreement.

Israel, meanwhile, gave civilians in the Gaza Strip warnings and urged them to evacuate war zones ahead of strikes targeting Hamas’s terror infrastructure. While many Palestinian civilians have died during the war, the Biden administration has defended Israel’s right to self-defense, noting that civilian deaths, while tragic, are a result of ‘the nature of conflict.’

The ‘Squad’ trio has already faced heavy criticism for their incendiary rhetoric around the Israel-Hamas war. Tlaib herself was censured in the House of Representatives in November after she defended a chant calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.

Tlaib also jumped to accuse Israeli Defense Forces of bombing a hospital in Gaza in October.

‘Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,’ Tlaib wrote on social media at the time.

Data would later show that the explosion came from a terrorist rocket that fell short of its target in Israel. The true death toll was also only a fraction of the 500 deaths Tlaib suggested.

Israel’s war with Hamas entered its third month on Thursday, with Israeli forces making significant progress against Hamas following the collapse of a cease-fire late last week.

House Republicans are approaching the new year wary about their slimming majority in the wake of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announced exit.

McCarthy, R-Calif., said he would leave Congress by the end of this month after he was ousted from the speakership two months ago. It comes on the heels of the House expelling scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. 

House Republicans will only be able to lose three votes on any legislation to pass it without Democratic votes for the first several weeks of the new year, until special elections bring new members and change the margins yet again. 

‘I mean, we’re operating on razor-thin margins here,’ Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital. ‘Between God, gravity, indictments, and retirements, we’re one day away from losing the majority depending on what happens.’

GOP Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore, R-Utah, conceded that the numbers were tight but argued it was not much different than their current situation.

‘It’s tough to operate in a four-seat [majority], it’s tough to operate in a two-seat [majority]. We’ve got to be judicious in what we get done, and do something that we can all get behind,’ Moore said.

However, others echoed Garcia’s concerns that the slim majority would mean that any single member’s absence is consequential when the House is in session.

Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., said he did not believe it would make a difference ‘from a policy standpoint,’ but he added, ‘I just think from an attendance standpoint, it’d be hard.’

‘What are we going to be governing by, one vote? It’s always a concern when people get sick, they get injured. It makes the whip’s job measurably more difficult with a narrower majority,’ said Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C.

A special election will take place to replace Santos in mid-February. California Gov. Gavin Newsom must set a date for an election to replace McCarthy.

That means House Republicans are likely to stay on thin margins through their Jan. 19 deadline for funding part of the government.

Conservatives like Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, urged GOP leaders to resist giving Democrats concessions to pass legislation until the numbers in the House change.

‘It’s gonna be tight…We’ve dealt with it before, though, and I think that Speaker Johnson is doing an excellent job of keeping everybody together. And, frankly, I think people will realize how important it is to stay together,’ Self explained.

‘What I do not want to see is bills put on the floor that pass with more Democrat than Republican votes. No, that is not a way to govern.’

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill Thursday to safeguard U.S. schools from foreign adversaries’ influence. 

The legislation, first obtained by Fox News Digital, prohibits higher education institutions, their faculty and staff from establishing or maintaining relationships with specified individuals, or undercover foreign adversaries, referred to as ‘covered persons.’ 

Additionally, universities would be required to develop and enforce policies that necessitate faculty and staff disclosure of such relationships, along with guidelines to prevent these connections or identify existing ones. Institutions owned or controlled by these covered persons would eventually lose eligibility for federal funding.

‘The integrity of our schools is one of the most basic guarantees that we should give to our students. Current federal policies to protect our students from adversaries are incomplete and disappointing. The U.S. is being infiltrated through its educational institutions,’ Rubio said in a statement. 

‘This bill aims to close those gaps, securing a robust defense against malign foreign influence in our classrooms,’ he added.

The bill comes as the bipartisan, bicameral U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission sent its annual report to Congress last month. One of its 30 recommendations requested that the House and Senate ‘address China’s state-sponsored influence and interference’ within U.S. education. 

Rubio’s bill doesn’t stop at higher education; it also targets K-12 schools. States receiving administrative funds for schools must create rules stopping school staff from having relationships with identified foreign adversaries. The secretary of education also has to report these relationships to Congress each year, and private schools run by covered persons won’t be eligible for federal funds.

For educational institutions receiving gifts or contracts from foreign sources, the bill would reduce the minimum value for reporting such gifts or contracts from $250,000 to $50,000 and expand reporting obligations to include faculty and staff, not just the institution.

Exemptions from foreign agent registration only stand if the activities don’t further a foreign government’s political agenda and compliance with these rules becomes a prerequisite for federal funding. 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is cosponsoring the legislation. 

In September, a congressional hearing entitled, ‘Academic Freedom Under Attack: Loosening the CCP’s Grip on America’s Classrooms,’ explored alleged CCP influence in American schools through Confucius Classrooms, whose stated purpose is to promote Chinese language and culture. They have been described by the National Association of Scholars as ‘a smaller version’ of the Confucius Institutes.

In July, Parents Defending Education (PDE), a grassroots organization dedicated to fighting indoctrination in the classroom, said it uncovered disturbing evidence linking Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-sponsored financial entities to American K-12 schools.

The findings were detailed in a report dubbed ‘Little Red Classrooms,’ which was sent to 34 governors, key lawmakers and committee chairs.

Fox News’ Brian Flood and Gabriel Hays contributed to this report. 

Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski is demanding President Biden ‘stop lying’ about his meeting with Biden in 2017 and called on him to ‘correct the record.’

‘Why is Joe Biden blatantly lying to the American people and the world by claiming that he did not meet with me face to face?’ Bobulinski told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘He should call his son Hunter and brother Jim as they can remind him of the facts. The American people deserve the truth!’

He added: ‘I call on Mr. Biden to stop lying and correct the record.’

Bobulinski said he is a ‘former decorated Naval Officer who was willing to die for this great country and held the highest security clearance issued by the Department of Energy.’

Bobulinski worked with Hunter Biden to create the joint venture SinoHawk Holdings with Chinese energy company CEFC.

Despite Biden’s recent denials of involvement with his son’s business dealings, text messages dating back to May 2017 reveal that Biden met with Bobulinski months after he left the vice president’s office. Fox News Digital first reported on the text messages and that meeting in October 2020.

‘Mrng plse let me knw if we will do early dinner w your Uncle & dad and where, also for document translation do you want it simple Chinese or traditional?’ Bobulinski texted Hunter Biden on May 2, 2017.

‘Not sure on dinner yet and whatever is the most common for a Chinese legal DOC,’ Hunter Biden replied.

‘Chinese legal docs can be both, i’ll make it traditional,’ Bobulinski said.

Hunter replied: ‘Dad not in now until 11- let’s me I and Jim meet at 10 at Beverly Hilton where he’s staying.’

Later, Bobulinski sent a text to Jim Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, on the same day, May 2, 2017, saying: ‘Great to meet u and spend some time together, please thank Joe for his time, was great to talk thx Tony b.’

The following day, May 3, 2017, Bobulinski sent another text to Jim Biden, saying: ‘Morning, please let me know all set for things this mrng. I don’t have credentials to get into Milken so just want to make sure not an issue to get me in, where should we meet this mrng?’ 

‘Milken’ was in reference to the 2017 Global Conference, which, in part, was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, according to the program directory. 

Joe Biden, on May 3, 2017, spoke at the conference, hosting ‘A Conversation with the 47th Vice President of the United States Joe Biden.’ 

The meeting on May 2, 2017, would have taken place just 11 days before the now-infamous May 13, 2017, email, which included a discussion of ‘remuneration packages’ for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Biden as ‘Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC,’ in a reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.

The email includes a note that ‘Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.’ A proposed equity split references ’20’ for ‘H’ and ’10 held by H for the big guy?’ with no further details.

Bobulinski has repeatedly said ‘the big guy’ was Joe Biden. IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who claimed that politics had influenced the yearslong federal investigation into Hunter Biden, also said ‘the big guy’ was known to be Joe Biden.

The president this week was asked whether he had communicated with his son’s business partners. The question came after Fox News Digital first reported that IRS whistleblowers turned over metadata to the House Ways & Means Committee revealing that he had used an email alias to communicate hundreds of times with Hunter Biden and his business associate Eric Schwerin during his time as vice president. 

‘I did not, they’re lies. It’s a bunch of lies,’ Biden said Wednesday at the White House.

Meanwhile, Bobulinski last month suggested that he and President Biden, Hunter Biden and James Biden ‘appear together’ before Congress for a public hearing.

His suggestion came after Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell sent a letter to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, claiming that Bobulinski lied to the FBI during an interview Oct. 23, 2020, about his business dealings with the president’s son.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby evaded a reporter’s question on Thursday when asked about President Biden’s decision to unlist Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen as a terrorist group.

During the daily White House press briefing, Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich asked Kirby whether Biden holds any ‘regret’ for delisting the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, and whether the administration is reconsidering the move. 

‘I’ve already said that we are going to review that decision. We are,’ Kirby replied, although he gave no time frame for the review. 

‘I don’t have a date certain for you or any outcome to brief, Jacqui, but we said we’re already gonna take a look and review that decision,’ he added.

Several of the president’s Republican critics in Congress have urged the Biden administration to consider reclassifying the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). The Trump administration applied the designation to the group as one of its final acts, but Biden reversed that decision as one of its first acts upon taking office.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the time argued that the administration removed the designation over concerns that it might have ‘a devastating impact on Yemenis’ access to basic commodities like food and fuel.’

However, since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, the Houthis are one of several Iran-backed proxy groups who have harassed Israeli and U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East.

Earlier in November, a group of Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Steve Dains, R-Mont., introduced legislation that would force the administration to redesignate the Houthis as a terrorist organization. 

The Standing Against Houthi Aggression Act would allow the U.S. to enact several measures and sanctions against the group, including disruption of financial support networks.

The designation makes it unlawful for a person in the U.S. or subject to U.S. jurisdiction to knowingly provide material support or resources to an FTO, and members of an FTO are inadmissible and – under certain conditions — subject to removal from the U.S. 

The legislation came in response to the attacks on U.S. forces. 

In the most recent incident, three commercial vessels came under attack in international waters on Sunday. The Houthis took credit for the attack, claiming it launched multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at two Israeli vessels. Israel denied any link to the ships.

A U.S. Navy destroyer, the Carney, shot down three drones as it answered distress calls from the vessels, which the U.S. military said were connected to 14 separate nations.

‘These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security. They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world,’ U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said. ‘We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran.’

U.S. forces in the Middle East have been attacked at least 75 times since the middle of last month. The Pentagon does not count attacks on U.S. warships at sea in this number.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken, Danielle Wallace, Andrea Vacchiano, Lucas Tomlinson and Liz Friden contributed to this report.

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have asked for a pause while they challenge the ruling that he is not immune from prosecution in an effort to delay the federal trial relating to charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election. 

Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal Thursday, indicating that they will challenge U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision rejecting Trump’s bid to derail the case headed to trial in Washington, D.C., in March. 

The one-page filing was accompanied by a request from the Trump team to put the case on pause so the appeals court can take up the matter.

‘The filing of President Trump’s notice of appeal has deprived this Court of jurisdiction over this case in its entirety pending resolution of the appeal,’ Trump’s lawyers wrote. ‘Therefore, a stay of all further proceedings is mandatory and automatic.’

The case charges Trump with conspiring to overturn the will of voters in a desperate move to cling to power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. It is the first of four criminal cases Trump is facing that are scheduled to go to trial, though it is possible the appeal of the immunity issue could delay the case.

Trump’s legal team is working to get the trial postponed until after the 2024 election is decided, or until after the Republican Party holds its nominating convention in July.

Trump’s lawyers have stated that he cannot face criminal charges because the actions spelled out in the indictment fell within his duties as president.

Trump and his family have denied any wrongdoing and have claimed that the former president has repeatedly said his assets were actually undervalued.

FIRST ON FOX: Top Congressional Republicans are requesting a briefing with Eventbrite’s CEO over their policies and terms, spotlighting the platform’s hypocrisy in hosting organizers’ purported antisemitic events while removing one by girls’ sports advocate Riley Gaines.

‘In the last few weeks, Eventbrite, it seems, has selectively enforced its terms of service by removing some events while allowing potentially violative events to remain on the site,’ the letter reads. ‘We raise the issues below not to dictate or remove events and users from your marketplace, but to better understand your Community Guidelines enforcement process.’

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the House Committee on Energy and Senate Committee on Commerce, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chair of the Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, Subcommittee on Oversight and Commerce, Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis, R-Fla., and Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations signed the letter. 

In October, Eventbrite removed former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines’ speaker tour stop at the University of California, Davis, from its marketplace. Gaines has been outspoken about transgender females’ participation in women’s sports.

An email from Eventbrite Trust & Safety stated that the event violated the company’s ‘community guidelines and terms of service.’ 

‘We struggle to comprehend the rationale for removing this event, while other Eventbrite listings that seemingly violate several of Eventbrite’s Community Guidelines remain live, including some that feature speakers espousing allegiance to entities designated by the U.S. Government as foreign terrorist organizations,’ the senators wrote. 

Lawmakers highlighted that Eventbrite includes events and speakers with connections to controversial and potentially offensive statements and actions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These instances involve references to the Israeli massacre on October 7, as Eventbrite promoted a fully booked ‘Palestine Center 2023 Annual Conference’ in Washington, D.C., where the organizers described Israel as ‘Israeli apartheid’ within the event’s description on the platform’s ‘About this event’ section.

‘Because Gaines’s promotion of the widely held view to preserve women’s athletics starkly contrasts with events on Eventbrite featuring speakers sympathetic to genocide, this leads us to wonder if pro-terrorist and antisemitic events and event speakers do not plainly violate Eventbrite’s prohibition of content that would ‘discriminate against, harass, disparage, threaten, incite violence against, or otherwise target individuals or groups based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religion, national origin,’’ the letter said. ‘We seek information on what metrics Eventbrite uses to enforce its Community Guidelines on selected issues such as women’s athletics versus terrorism and antisemitism.’

Senators request information by December 21 from Eventbrite about the company’s review process, the violation of Community Guidelines, the handling of alleged pro-Hamas and antisemitic events, the identification of terrorist organizations, metrics used to enforce guidelines, and the comparison of complaints and review timelines among different events.

‘We appreciate your stated commitment to be ‘a platform that values diverse opinions and a vibrant community . . .’ but are not confident that you are enforcing this policy with any consistency,’ the letter concluded.