Republican lawmakers reacted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) opting out of having the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) monitor President Biden’s personal attorneys as they searched the president’s homes for Obama-era classified documents.

GOP Reps. Austin Scott of Georgia and Cory Mills of Florida reacted to a Wall Street Journal report that the DOJ had the FBI hold off on monitoring the president’s personal attorneys as they searched for classified documents.

‘So the same people that sent an FBI tactical squad to search Mar-a-Lago and seize documents let Biden’s own lawyers search for classified documents at his residence?’ Scott told Fox News Digital.

‘Did Biden’s lawyers even have the proper clearances to review or handle the documents that they went to search for?’ the Georgia Republican continued. ‘I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.’

Mills, a freshman and Army combat veteran, told Fox News Digital that accountability ‘shouldn’t be a partisan lightning rod.’

‘Yet here we are staring Democrats’ blatant hypocrisy in the face,’ Mills said. ‘The fact that President Biden allegedly ‘didn’t know’ about these three batches of secret documents is incomprehensible.’

‘Cooperation with investigators is the least the administration can do to show the American people – who already lack faith in our institutions – that this national security issue is cleared up,’ the Florida Republican added.

The Department of Justice debated whether to allow the FBI to monitor the search for classified documents in Biden’s home but eventually decided against it, according to a Tuesday report in the Wall Street Journal.

Three batches of classified documents were found on Biden’s property in recent months: one at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and two at his Wilmington, Delaware, property. But the FBI was not present as documents were recovered, and no raids have been conducted, which sources familiar with the matter told the Journal was because Biden’s lawyers turned over the documents quickly and continued to cooperate with the Justice Department in the investigation.

The sources added that the DOJ wanted to leave open the possibility of using the FBI if Biden’s lawyers did not cooperate as the investigation continued.

Biden’s scandal is developing by the day, with George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley warning that Biden’s attorneys are ‘likely witnesses in a criminal investigation.’

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, theorized prior to the scandal that the House GOP could consider impeaching Biden once the House flipped.

However, Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert told Fox News Digital she believes that Republicans’ intensely negative view of Vice President Harris is making them more hesitant to push for Biden’s impeachment than they otherwise would be. 

‘Kamala Harris is Biden’s shrewd insurance policy,’ said Boebert.

‘Joe Biden has failed the American people, and he’s keeping some members from calling for impeachment by having a historically unpopular vice president,’ the congresswoman continued.

‘Both have failed to faithfully uphold and execute the law, and both should be held fully accountable,’ she added.

Fox News Digital’s Patrick Hauf contributed reporting.

Alabama’s new secretary of state announced the state’s withdrawal Tuesday from a 32-state voter registration partnership, a data-sharing effort that was designed to maintain accurate voter rolls but has sometimes become the target of conservative ire and conspiracy theories.

A day after being sworn in, Secretary of State Wes Allen sent a letter to the Electronic Registration Information Center, a non-profit linking 32 states and the District of Columbia, saying the state will no longer participate in the sharing of voter registration data.

‘I made a promise to the people of Alabama that ending our state’s relationship with the ERIC organization would be my first official act as Secretary of State,’ Allen said in a statement. The letter said that Alabama would immediately cease transmitting data.

The Republican, who had pledged during his campaign to withdraw from ERIC, cited privacy concerns Tuesday for the decision.

‘Providing the private information of Alabama citizens, including underage minors, to an out of state organization is troubling to me and to people that I heard from as I traveled the state for the last 20 months,’ Allen said.

The database was created as a tool to maintain accurate voter rolls and combat fraud by allowing states to know when someone moves, dies or registers elsewhere, but has sometimes been targeted by critics.

In November, former Secretary of State John Merrill criticized Allen’s intent to withdraw. He said then that ERIC provides information that Alabama couldn’t otherwise access — such as other states’ voter registration and motorist driver’s license records — and has been a crucial tool for maintaining voting rolls.

‘I trust he has evaluated this situation and is making the decision based on what he believes to be in the best interest of the state of Alabama,’ Merrill said on Tuesday.

The issue of participation in ERIC was raised in at least one other state. The Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state said during the campaign that he would withdraw from ERIC if elected, but he lost. Louisiana withdrew earlier this year.

However, another Republican campaigned on joining the partnership.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also a Republican, proudly noted in stump speeches that the state had joined ERIC. Raffensperger said in 2019 that it would be a tremendous step forward for the integrity of Georgia’s voter rolls.

According to the organization, the states that currently participate in ERIC are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia is also a member.

Florida Rep. Greg Steube was transported to a hospital Wednesday afternoon after he fell from a ladder.

‘Congressman Steube was involved in an accident on his property late this afternoon and has sustained several injuries. We will provide additional updates when possible. Please pray for the Congressman and his family,’ Steube’s office said in a statement on Twitter.

Florida GOP Vice Chair Christian Ziegler shared an update on Steube late Wednesday night.

‘I just heard that even though Congressman @RepGregSteube is still in the hospital, he is doing well. Big relief to hear,’ Ziegler tweeted.

He continued, ‘Our country, state & local community needs him to recover and get back to fighting for us in Congress ASAP.’

The 44-year-old Representative serves Florida’s 17th congressional district, which contains the outer suburbs of Sarasota and Fort Myers through the Everglades. 

Steube has been a congressman since 2019 and previously served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, as well as two years in the Florida Senate until 2018.

The fate of Indiana’s Republican-backed abortion ban on Thursday goes before the state Supreme Court as it hears arguments on whether it violates privacy protections under the state constitution.

Abortions have been allowed to continue in the state since a county judge blocked the law from being enforced in September, a week after the law approved in August had taken effect.

Indiana became the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated federal protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.

The arguments being made before the Indiana justices come after the top courts in two other conservative states split this month on similar state constitutional challenges to their abortion bans, with South Carolina’s ban being struck down and Idaho’s being upheld in the latest examples of the patchwork of state laws now in place.

The Indiana ban, which eliminated the licenses for all abortion clinics in the state, includes exceptions allowing abortions at hospitals in cases of rape and incest, before 10 weeks post-fertilization; to protect the life and physical health of the mother; and if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.

Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon, a Republican, blocked the Indiana ban from being enforced in the lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators, writing that ‘there is reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution’ and that the clinics could prevail in the legal challenge.

The five-member Supreme Court, all of whom were appointed by Republican governors, is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday morning from the state attorney general’s office and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinic operators challenging the ban.

The court faces no deadline for releasing a decision and typically takes several weeks or longer before doing so in cases it hears.

The state attorney general’s office has argued that Indiana had laws against abortion when its current constitution was drafted in 1851 and that the judge’s ruling wrongly created an abortion right.

‘The judiciary has no power to amend the Constitution by fiat,’ it said in a court filing. ‘Reading novel ‘rights’ into the Constitution would set the judiciary on a dangerous, unprincipled path destructive to rule of law.’

Court orders have allowed abortions to continue under previous Indiana laws generally prohibiting abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and tightly restricting it after the 13th week.

The ACLU said the clinics were not arguing that the state could not regulate abortion at all, but believed the ban violated ‘the core constitutional rights of privacy and bodily autonomy.’

‘Under (the ban’s) extremely narrow exceptions, only a tiny fraction of Hoosiers can access vital healthcare and only if they have suffered rape, incest, or certain severe medical threats,’ ACLU attorneys said in a court filing. ‘Even then, myriad logistical hurdles would prevent eligible Hoosiers from obtaining abortions.’

The question of whether the Indiana constitution protects abortion rights is undecided. A state appeals court ruled in 2004 that privacy is a core value under the state constitution that extends to all residents, including women seeking an abortion.

But the Indiana Supreme Court later upheld a law requiring an 18-hour waiting period before a woman could get an abortion without addressing whether the state constitution included the right to privacy or abortion.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed sympathetic to the arguments of a deaf student who sued his public school system for providing an inadequate education, a legal challenge important for other disabled students and their families.

The question for the justices involves a federal law that guarantees disabled students an education specific to their needs. During 90 minutes in the courtroom, liberal and conservative justices suggested they were inclined to rule for the student, Miguel Luna Perez.

His lawyer, Roman Martinez, said that for 12 years, the public school system in Sturgis, Michigan, ‘neglected Miguel, denied him an education and lied to his parents about the progress he was allegedly making in school.’

‘This shameful conduct permanently stunted Miguel’s ability to communicate with the outside world,’ Martinez said.

Justice Elena Kagan indicated that she believed the argument that Perez had done ‘everything right’ in pursuing his case.

‘It’s hard for me to see how that’s not true. What should Miguel have done differently from what he did do in this case?’ Kagan said. The liberal justice suggested to a lawyer for the school system, Shay Dvoretzky, that such cases are pursued ‘by parents who are trying to do right by their kids.’

Perez, now 27, was in the courtroom. He watched with the assistance of American Sign Language translators and Certified Deaf Interpreters, who can help when a person’s communication skills are limited.

It remains difficult for Perez, who emigrated to the United States from Mexico at age 9, to make himself understood. Perez’s lawyers say the school system failed him by not providing a qualified sign language interpreter. An aide who helped him did not know ASL but tried to teach herself so-called Signed English from a book. She essentially invented a system of signing only she and Perez understood, leaving him unable to communicate with others, his lawyers said.

The school system also misled his parents into believing he was on track to earn his high school diploma. Just before graduation, however, his family was told he qualified only for a ‘certificate of completion,’ not a diploma.

His family responded by pursuing claims under two laws: the broad Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against disabled people, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The latter guarantees children with disabilities a free public education that is tailored to their specific needs.

Perez’s family and the school district ultimately settled the IDEA claims. The district agreed to pay for extra schooling and sign language instruction for Perez and his family, among other things. The family then went to federal court and, under the ADA, sought monetary damages, which are not available under the IDEA.

Lower courts said the settlement barred Perez from pursuing his ADA claims in federal court. Perez’s lawyers said the 2-1 decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, written by Judge Amul Thapar, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, was out of line with every other federal appeals court that has considered the issue.

Former federal education officials were among those who told the Supreme Court in written briefs that the appeals court’s decision was wrong. The officials said upholding the lower court decisions would hurt children with disabilities by forcing them to choose between immediately getting issues resolved but forfeiting other claims or delaying to try to get fuller relief.

While the IDEA encourages settlements, upholding the lower court decision would force students and their families to ‘forgo speedy relief and waste time, money and administrative resources’ to preserve their other claims, they said. The Biden administration also urged the court to side with Perez.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was among the justices who seemed inclined to agree with Perez. The liberal justice said it was her understanding that ‘Congress thought that dual actions at least in some circumstances were possible and that was fine.’

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, noted that rejecting an IDEA settlement offer means risking not being able to seek attorneys fees. Her fellow conservative, Justice Neil Gorsuch, suggested that the text of the IDEA also supports Perez.

A national school board association and an association of school superintendents were among those who told the court in written briefs that lower courts were right. They said ruling otherwise would weaken the IDEA’s collaborative process to resolve issues and lead to more lengthy and expensive court proceedings.

Perez graduated from the Michigan School for the Deaf in June 2020 with a diploma. He said in a written statement provided with the assistance of an interpreter and a translator that he learned building skills at the school and wants to build houses as a job. His case at the Supreme Court is hard for him to understand, he said, though he understands part of it is ‘about having no interpreter.’

‘I wish I could have gone to college,’ he said. ‘I don’t have a job, but I want to have one. I want to make my own choices.’

A decision in his case, Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools, 21-887, is expected by the end of June.

Vice President and border czar Kamala Harris won’t visit the border during her trip to Arizona Thursday.

The vice president will travel to Tonopah, Arizona, which is about 100 miles away from the southern border with Mexico. Harris was given the task of finding the root cause of mass migration and the crossing of hundreds of thousands of migrants, but has visited the border just once since she took office, in 2021.

Instead of stopping at the border, Harris is instead scheduled to attend the groundbreaking of a 125-mile-long transmission line that will transport wind and solar energy through the area. The vice president will be joined by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi to tout the Biden administration’s investment in clean energy.

Former Republican Arizona Mayor John Giles told Fox & Friends Thursday that he is pleased to see Harris promote the new energy plan in his state but believes she should also make time to raise more awareness about the surge of migrants and dangerous drugs to the southern border.

‘It is a lost opportunity to visit the border and bring attention to the security issues we’re facing,’ Giles said. ‘There is absolutely security issues at the border we would love for the vice president to bring more attention to and to bring more resources to.’

The vice president’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

President Biden visited the southern border for the first time in his presidency this month, when he traveled to El Paso, Texas. He announced a plan to use federal laws to turn away migrants at the border from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua as his administration expands the formal asylum seeking process for those migrants. This followed a trip to Arizona weeks prior where Biden did not visit the border, which defended by saying ‘there are more important things going on.’

The White House was unable to describe how Harris is working to counter mass migration when asked about the subject in December.

‘I don’t have anything to lay out specifically on what that work looks like,’ press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Harris has spent three days in Latin America on two separate trips in her role. The last public appearance Harris made on the topic of immigration was on June 15, according to a tracker of Harris’ scheduled events and meetings from the Los Angeles Times. Harris had 20 events on immigration as vice president, with all but three taking place in 2021.

Southern border encounters have hit more than 200,000 each month since June, according to Customs and Border Protection. These numbers are expected to increase after the pending expiration of the Title 42 policy that allows agents to turn away migrants in order to stop the spread of COVID.

The House Oversight Committee announced it will hold a border crisis hearing in early February to address President Biden’s policies that are ‘fueling’ the migrant crisis.

Oversight Republicans are calling on a handful of Biden administration career officials to testify, including Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agents Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino and Gloria Chavez and Acting Chief Border Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel.

‘President Biden’s radical open borders agenda has ignited the worst border crisis in American history,’ Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital.

‘The Biden administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws,’ he said. ‘Republicans will hold the Biden administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town.’

Comer also sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding documents and communications related to the surge at the border and the administration’s handling of the massive influx of migrants.

‘The American people deserve answers about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) role in undermining Customs and Border Protection agents’ efforts to secure the southern border,’ Comer wrote to Mayorkas.

‘The Committee requests documents and information to understand DHS’s policies, the costs of the emergency measures needed to respond to the worsening crisis, and the national security risks created by these policies,’ the letter said.

‘Instead of working to resolve the situation, the Biden administration is lying to the American people that the border is secure – despite thousands of illegal aliens and massive quantities of deadly fentanyl evading apprehension every day – and persisting in its ultimate goal to enact a massive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens,’ Comer wrote.

A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘DHS will respond to Members of Congress through official channels.’

There were more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in FY 2022 and the first months of FY23 have outpaced the same time period from the prior year. Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News this week that encounters for December are set to exceed 250,000, a new record.

The first House Judiciary Committee hearing of the 118th Congress will also be border related and is likely to happen at the end of January or beginning of February, according to a congressional source.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams led fellow mayors across the U.S. in bashing the federal response to the immigration crisis on Wednesday.

Adams made the comments while at a conference of U.S. mayors on Wednesday. The group called on President Biden and Congress to provide further funding to cities and to enforce a more even distribution of migrants flowing across the border.

Thanks to a bussing program from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, NYC alone has received more than 30,000 migrants in the past 12 months.

‘Just a few days ago, I was in El Paso to see for myself the asylum-seeker crisis affecting our border states and our entire nation,’ Adams said during his remarks. ‘What I saw was not a state problem or city problem. It is a national problem driven by global forces impacting regular people.’

‘Every attempt to deal with this immigration on a national level through legislation has been sabotaged,’ he continued. ‘Mostly by right-wing opposition, and cities are bearing the brunt of this failure.’

Adams notably made no call for the U.S. to enact policies that might stem the flow of illegal immigration, calling only for more programs that might help cities deal with the influx.

Adams also reiterated his call for Biden to appoint a ‘national czar’ to handle the immigration crisis. Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris as his border czar in 2021, but she has made little progress on the issue.

The immigration crisis has broken record after record since Biden took office in 2021. The number of migrant encounters at the besieged southern border exceeded 250,000 for the first time ever in December. The previous record, 230,000, had been broken in October.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) saw an estimated 718,000 border encounters in the first 100 days of fiscal year 2023, which began October 1.

The White House long sought to dismiss the surge as an annual occurrence, but historical data shows the current crisis is far beyond traditional yearly surges.

The U.S. Secret Service is prepared to offer names of individuals who visited President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home if requested by Congress, Fox News has learned.

The White House continues to insist that there exists no formal visitor log for the personal residence where two troves of classified documents were found. 

While the White House has not kept a formal list, the Secret Service does collect information on guests with regular access to the home. 

Retention of the names of those vetted by the Secret Service depends on a variety of factors, including proximity to the president and the nature of the background check.

‘The Secret Service does not maintain visitor logs at the private residences of protectees,’ said U.S. Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi. ‘While the Secret Service does generate law enforcement and criminal justice information records for various individuals who may come into contact with Secret Service protected sites, we are not able to comment further as this speaks to the means and methods of our protective operations.’

A source familiar with the situation told Fox News that the Secret Service is prepared to provide available background information on vetted guests to Biden’s residence if requested by Congress.

Biden again ignored reporters’ questions on Tuesday as they tried to get him to address the classified documents from his time as vice president that were recently found at his Delaware home and at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

‘Will you commit to speak to the special counsel?’ one reporter could be heard asking in reference to Robert Hur, who has been appointed to investigate the documents and how they were kept.

Biden did not acknowledge the questions as he smiled while White House staff urgently rushed the media out of the room.

South Dakota lawmakers are considering a number of tax cuts this year, including Gov. Kristi Noem’s campaign promise to repeal the grocery tax. The only problem is deciding on which ones.

Republican lawmakers are proposing alternative tax cut schemes, such as scaling back the sales tax and property tax. Other lawmakers also say the state has a long list of programs to fund this year, leaving little room in the surplus for tax cuts.

Although Democrats have proposed grocery tax cuts for years, they gained a powerful bipartisan ally when Noem made it a key part of her reelection campaign. Noem, who is considering a 2024 White House bid, has trumpeted the proposal as the largest tax cut in South Dakota history.

Noem says cutting the tax, which brings in more than $100 million annually, would help household budgets squeezed by inflation.

‘They need relief — and we can afford to give it to them,’ the Republican governor said in a statement.

Advocates for repealing the grocery tax say it weighs heaviest on low-income people who spend a larger percentage of their income on food. Only 13 states levy taxes on groceries, and South Dakota is just one of three that tax groceries at the rate of other sales, according to the Tax Foundation, a pro-industry think tank.

But many of the governor’s fellow Republicans have been resistant.

House Speaker Hugh Bartels said that when he has discussed the grocery tax repeal with the governor’s staff, his message has been that constituents are not calling for it.

‘I’m waiting until the budgeting process is done,’ he said, adding ‘You’ve got to weigh the option of unfunded programs and tax cuts.’

For people like Fred Steffen, who traveled to the Capitol on Wednesday to tell lawmakers of shortfalls in the state’s program to provide home health aides to disabled adults such as his son, it made little sense to discuss tax cuts when it appears government programs lack necessary funding.

‘If they are talking about cutting the food tax, there’s a place in there that could benefit the disabled population,’ he said.

Pierre resident Barry Sargent said he generally supports tax cuts but fears they could cut into essential government services if not well planned.

‘I don’t think anybody’s against paying taxes as long as they’re used for stuff that they can see — that benefits people or pays for schools or pays for roads,’ he said.

Republican state Rep. Chris Karr, who has pushed for a reduction in the state’s sales tax, pointed to the state’s $310 million in ongoing revenue growth and argued that the state could afford to fund programs and cut taxes.

‘Those dollars belong to the people,’ he said.

But a recent report from the state’s legislative research office shows that South Dakota’s revenue growth has been driven by inflation and federal stimulus funds rather than organic economic growth.

State Sen. Reynold Nesiba, the Senate’s Democrat leader, suggested the competing proposals and pressing needs could result in an incremental tax cut, such as reducing, rather than repealing the tax on groceries.

He said, ‘I think there is a way forward to compromise.’