Former President Donald Trump blasted the Biden administration’s ‘two-tiered justice system’ claiming that his successor was getting the ‘white glove treatment’ after classified documents were found in his home.

‘There are two standards of justice in our country: One for people like you and me, and one for the corrupt political class of which there are many,’ Trump said in a video posted on Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter.

In Trump’s first video appearance since Biden’s attorneys ‘unexpectedly’ discovered the first batch of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., the former president compared the two special counsel investigations.

‘At the very same moment when my ultra secure Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI, Joe Biden was harboring classified documents in his China-funded Penn Center in his unsecured garage … right on the floor, piles of paper.’ Trump started in a two-minute video. ‘Yet while I’m being persecuted by a Trump-hating Special Counsel…Joe Biden, in the meantime, is being given white glove treatment by an establishment hack who tried to cover up the Russia hoax.’

On Jan. 12, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents months after officials discovered the classified documents at the Penn Center on Nov. 22. Garland tapped Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney, to handle the investigation. On Thursday, officials announced that they found a second small batch of documents with classified markings  in a storage space in Biden’s garage in Wilmington, Delaware, with one document being located in Biden’s personal library in his home.

Last week, Biden attempted to reassure the public by saying the stolen classified documents were in a locked garage next to his Corvette.

Just last year, the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida recovering some 300 classified documents which ensued calls from House Republicans and allies of the former President to defend the FBI after allegations that the Biden administration had ‘weaponized’ the Justice Department. 

Trump continued, saying that since Biden was serving as former President Barack Obama’s Vice President, and not president, he did not have had the power to declassify files like he did.

‘It’s a travesty.’ the former president continued. ‘Biden lied to the American people and weaponized the Justice Department, or what I like to say-the Injustice Department, to go after me for the very crime he actually committed. And he wasn’t president, so he didn’t have the right to declassify as I did.’

On Thursday morning, the former president had teased a ‘big political speech’ he planned to deliver, promising supporters ‘wild and exciting’ rallies as he rolls out his 2024 presidential campaign.

‘Making a big political speech today at TRUMP DORAL, in Miami,’ Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday morning.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Thursday that it has released nearly 3,000 detained immigrants in response to a data leak last year that resulted in personal information for thousands of immigrants in detention being posted online.

The agency was hit by an initial data leak on Nov. 28, which led to the information — including names, locations and other personally identifiable information — of 6,200 immigrants being published online. Of those, 5,100 were in custody while another 1,000 had been removed or released already.

ICE said the incident came while the agency was performing routine website updates and was up for approximately five hours before it was eventually removed. The document in question contained information related to those in ICE custody on Nov. 19, meaning if they weren’t in custody on that date, they were not affected.

A separate December incident involved the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accidentally revealing to Cuba that some immigrants on deportation flights had been affected by the data leak in November, thus revealing that they had applied for protection in the U.S. That incident affected just over 100 Cubans.

As the agency seeks to deal with the aftermath of the leak, which advocates have noted could put immigrants fleeing persecution or harm in danger, a spokesperson confirmed that ICE has now released 2,900 ‘impacted noncitizens’ from custody and is continuing to review the cases of an additional 2,200.

‘U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quickly implemented a robust response to the unintentional disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) of noncitizens that occurred in November and December 2022, providing timely notice of the disclosure to the noncitizens and their representatives (as applicable) and taking significant steps to prevent potential harm to the affected noncitizens,’ an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. The releases were first reported by the L.A. Times.

The agency reiterated that it is not deporting any of those impacted by the breach without allowing them to apply for ‘additional relief from removal’ while also giving them information about the breach ‘to make informed decisions regarding their immigration status.’

ICE said all those released have been served with Notices to Appear in immigration court so they can apply for protection from removal due to the breach. If an illegal immigrant with an order of removal had an order of removal in place, ICE said it wouldn’t object to oppose a motion to apply for protection. 

ICE has also said it is taking additional efforts to ‘clawback’ information from entities or individuals that may have downloaded or accessed the document — requesting they destroy or refrain from using the document.

The incident, though accidental, sparked outrage from immigrant rights groups and some Democrats who lambasted the agency for the ‘unacceptable’ leak they said potentially put asylum seekers at risk of danger.

A local jurisdiction in northern Virginia moved closer to rejecting a clean energy developer’s plan to construct a massive 149-megawatt solar facility on a sprawling plot of farmland for the third time in three years.

The Culpeper County, Virginia, planning commission, a nine-member panel that reviews the county’s zoning and development proposals, voted unanimously during a public hearing last week to recommend the facility’s proposal be denied by the board of supervisors. During the meeting, both residents and members of the commission expressed concern about the size of the project and its agricultural and environmental impacts. 

The Maroon Solar project was first proposed by North Carolina-based energy developer Strata Clean Energy in 2020. The company withdrew its original application following intense pushback from locals and submitted a modified proposal in 2021. After that was turned down by the county, Strata returned with its third proposal last year.

‘We advocate for solar on covered parking lots along highways, on marginal brownfields or on industrial zone land,’ Susan Ralston, the founder of the Virginia-based group Citizens for Responsible Solar, told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘But what we don’t want to see is large swaths of farmland, agricultural land and timberland being taken out of [agricultural] use and used for solar.’

Ralston, who spoke at the hearing last week, founded Citizens for Responsible Solar in 2019 to help equip local solar opposition efforts with resources and information. The group has been active supporting grassroots movements against the development of solar facilities, including the Maroon Solar project and others in northern Virginia, on rural property.

Ralston also noted that Strata’s most recent proposal involves a $4 million siting deal.

‘It’s like a cash incentive, it’s like a bribe. You know, ‘If you approve our project, then we’re going to give you $4 million in cash once it gets approved,” Ralston said. ‘They’re going to throw as many incentives at our board to disregard the policy and disregard what residents want. There’s just a lot of money at stake.’

During the hearing Jan. 11, several local residents voiced concern with the project, echoing Ralston’s concerns.  

Among the main objections to the project was the potential environmental impact of water runoff that could disturb agricultural production in the area.

‘I’m from a farm family and maybe bring some sort of perspective to flooding,’ William Foshay, a local farmer, told the commission during the Jan. 11 hearing. ‘It’s a wet area with highly productive soils. In an average wet year, we get corn into the ground in the middle of May. If we are dealing with an enormous amount of impervious [solar] panel coverage and vast amount of tree clearing, the subsoil is going to remain impervious — runoffs are going to be substantial.

‘In just an average wet year, it means that the soils — we won’t get into them until June,’ he added. ‘Furthermore, for the truly bad years, you’re going to see enormous sediment runoff. You’re going to see vast amounts of erosion that permanently jeopardizes productive agricultural land.’

Josiah Wilkes, a young resident who was accompanied by his father, told the panel the project was about ‘the money a few people would make’ from it.

‘I think solar panels would be really good on top of office buildings and hospitals and even on top of people’s houses,’ Wilkes said. ‘Can we keep our farmland for the cows, the crops and the woods? The farmers need to grow the food and the lumber that we all need. We don’t have to be like other counties in Virginia that want money from data centers and solar fields.’

Wilkes’ father Joshua added that the proposal would benefit ‘a few select landowners who will pocket money’ while having the potential to cause ‘disastrous environmental issues and the wasting of land.’

Sarah Parmelee, a local landowner and a member of the Piedmont Environmental Council, wrote to the commission earlier this month, arguing the proposal would ‘destroy nearly a thousand acres of timberland.’

In addition to the environmental impacts, the planning commission voted against the proposal because it violated the county’s solar development policy approved in October 2019. The policy limits solar projects to 300 acres and requires certain limitations to disturbances caused by construction of such facilities.

The project, however, would stretch across 671 acres of farmland, and construction would impact surrounding property owners, the commission concluded. 

‘The sheer size and scale of this project will undoubtedly in many ways change the character of the area and should be considered,’ staff for the planning commission wrote in a report Dec. 28. ‘Converting several hundred acres of productive, commercial forestland to solar panels will change the character of the immediate area.

‘Staff cannot recommend support of this project at this time as proposed as it does not conform closely enough to the county’s most current Utility Scale Solar policy.’

Strata Clean Energy did not respond to a request for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: The head of Border Patrol pushed back against the Biden administration’s handling of a false ‘whipping’ controversy aimed at his agents in 2021, emails from the days after the incident seen by Fox News show — with the chief reprimanding officials for failing to highlight migrant assaults on agents, as well as the lives his agents were saving.

Emails obtained by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project via FOIA, and provided to Fox News, shed new light on the Sept. 2021 Haitian migrant crisis in Del Rio, and a related incident in which Border Patrol agents on horseback encountered migrants coming across the river. Photographs from the incident were misinterpreted by commentators, reporters and some Democrats as showing the agents whipping migrants. In fact, the agents were using reins to control their horses, were not carrying whips and did not whip anyone. 

But the controversy went viral on social media and made national news, leading to a scrambled response from the Biden administration. The emails show how on the day after the incident, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials were immediately under pressure for a response. 

‘Hi all. We need to get the more [sic] details on this as soon as possible,’ one Sept. 20 2021 email from a redacted official said. ‘Just got a call from White House [Office of Inter-Governmental Affairs]/Political — the footage is getting everywhere.’

‘DHS wants to be able to update the talking points for media inquiries to say an investigation is underway. Please let me know if/when I can confirm that,’ another says minutes later.

Eventually, a statement was put out in which DHS says that the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility was investigating the matter and in which the footage was described as ‘extremely troubling’ with a promise that an investigation will ‘define the appropriate disciplinary actions to take.’

The email chain also includes redacted talking points for officials to use. But, in response to the back-and-forth, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz expressed his frustration at the failure to highlight the good work his agents were doing or the violence and abuse they faced at the hands of migrants.

‘This horse business is awfully negative but there are great efforts occurring and we aren’t highlighting any of them,’ he said in a furious email. ‘Everyday we are providing lifesaving efforts to migrants under the bridge.’

‘Our agents are being assaulted and we aren’t saying a word,’ Ortiz said.

The Chief then also noted incidents in which Haitian migrants on removal transportation had hijacked buses and attempted to escape — something he said had not been commented on by the agency – as well as the long hours they were putting in, often in intense heat and under difficult conditions.

‘The bus contractors and pilots are dealing with Haitians escaping or trying to overrun drivers and we stay quiet. Agents and pro staff are working 14 hour days in difficult conditions, nothing said,’ he said. ‘We have to change the narrative or these stories will be only story.’

Ortiz’s words do not appear to have been heeded. While Mayorkas had given an initial defense of the agents alongside Ortiz that day, noting the distinction between the use of reins and any use of whips, he later walked that back — saying it was before he saw the footage.

In the emails, Mayorkas is told in an email from an unnamed official that DHS ‘will need to clarify what reins looks like vs a horse whip, and clarify use of force.’

By the end of the week, Mayorkas was deferring to the OPR’s investigation, while also expressing his horror at the images.

‘Our nation saw horrifying images that do not reflect who we are. We know that those images painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism,’ Mayorkas said at a press conference.

President Biden meanwhile, came out swinging at the agents directly, angrily (and falsely) accusing them of assaulting migrants — and promising that there would be consequences.

‘To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped — it’s outrageous,’ Biden told reporters, making a whipping motion with his hand. ‘I promise you, those people will pay. There will be an investigation underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences.’

In the emails obtained by Fox, an official flags Biden’s remarks to Ortiz, who responds: ‘The tremendous work that took place over the last 10 days is what I’m gonna choose to focus on.’ 

Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller responds simply: ‘Agree.’

Months later, in March 2022, an official appeared to scold Ortiz’s comments he made in a local radio interview in which Ortiz said he hoped the investigation would be wrapped up ‘relatively quickly.’

‘And we’re going to find out, you know, really, what the truth was behind that incident, and I’m confident that almost all of those [agents] will be exonerated. And what we’ll find is it was probably, you know, mischaracterized,’ he said.

The email flags the remarks and then reminds the recipients of ‘our approved messaging on this’ which emphasizes sharing the results of the investigation when it is complete ‘consistent with the need to protect the integrity of the investigation and individuals’ privacy.’

The subsequent investigation, which did not reveal its findings until the summer of 2022, found ‘no evidence’ that agents struck migrants and found that they were not carrying whips, but it still faulted agents on more minor infractions. An agent was accused of using ‘denigrating and offensive’ language against migrants regarding national origin and gender, and of having maneuvered a horse around a child in an ‘unsafe manner’ – while agents were said to have used ‘unnecessary use of force’ to drive the migrants back.

In a statement, former acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan and former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan said that the emails ‘paint a picture of the Biden administration’s continued incompetence and politicizing of border security.’

‘They offer more proof that Secretary Mayorkas was made aware the ‘whipping’ narrative was false, days before he continued to insinuate otherwise from the White House podium,’ they say. ‘They show the White House pressuring CBP for answers in what quickly became a politicized investigation.’

The former officials also claimed that DHS leadership ‘do not care’ about how the administration’s policies impact the morale and well-being of the Border Patrol. 

‘Mayorkas, in particular, as one of the chief architects and consistent defenders of this radical agenda, bears unique responsibility for the cratering of morale across the force. Even his own agents have lost confidence in his ‘leadership,’’ they say.

Brandon Judd, the head of the National Border Patrol Council, accused the administration of vilifying law enforcement in order to appease its base.

‘President Biden, Vice President Harris and Secretary Mayorkas knew they could use the court of public opinion to make their base supporters happy by prematurely convicting the overworked and overwhelmed Horse Patrol agents with their political rhetoric,’ he said. 

‘They knew the evidence would ultimately come to light to show the agents not only did nothing wrong but actually carried out their duties lawfully and in accordance to orders from an Executive Branch Department they control. They obviously didn’t care,’ he said. They knew by the time all evidence came to light, the damage would be done and the political points they desperately wanted would be scored.

President Biden said Thursday he has ‘no regrets’ about his handling of classified documents that were discovered at his home and former Washington, D.C. office. 

The president made the remarks while touring California to assess the damage from a series of recent winter storms that pummeled the state. 

At the conclusion of his speech, a reporter shouted a question about the classified documents. 

‘You know what, quite frankly, bugs me is that we have a serious problem here we’re talking about. We’re talking about what’s going on,’ Biden said, referring to the damage. ‘And the American people don’t’ quite understand why you don’t ask me questions about that.’ 

The president then allowed the question to proceed. The reporter asked Biden whether he had any regrets about not revealing the existence of those documents when they were discovered – less than a week before the November midterms.

‘We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,’ Biden said. ‘We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department. We’re fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.’ 

He added: ‘I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no there there.’ 

The White House said Biden attorneys discovered classified documents and official records on four separate occasions — on Nov. 2 at the offices of the Penn Biden Center in Washington, on Dec. 20 in the garage of the president’s Wilmington, Delaware, home, and on Nov. 11 and 12 in the president’s home library.

Biden previously lambasted his predecessor over his possession of such sensitive records. 

‘When you saw the photograph of the top secret documents laid out on the floor at Mar-a-Lago, what did you think to yourself looking at that image?’ CBS’ Scott Pelley asked. 

‘How that could possibly happen, how one anyone could be that irresponsible,’ Biden responded. ‘And I thought what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods. By that, I mean, names of people helped or et cetera.’ 

‘And it’s just totally irresponsible,’ Biden added.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last week appointed Robert Hur, a former Maryland U.S. attorney, to serve as special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s inquiry into the documents.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for clarification on Biden’s Thursday remarks. 

Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.