The Senate will have a classified briefing on Ukraine, Israel and the Biden administration’s $106 billion request for an emergency national supplemental package on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET, sources familiar told Fox News Digital on Friday. 

The meeting comes as tensions are rising on Capitol Hill as the two chambers must come to a consensus for an emergency aid package. Deliberations have revolved around border security, Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan for several weeks, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that a vote on the package would occur as early as this week. 

Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., want to keep Ukraine and Israel aid tied together. Meanwhile, the House passed a $14.3 billion Israel-only aid package earlier this month that also included steep cuts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

But that package likely won’t pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, nor get the White House’s approval without funding to help Ukraine. 

The White House’s supplemental request, which was sent to Congress in October, includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel (with $10.6 billion allocated for military aid), $13.6 billion for some border measures such as speeding up asylum processing, and significant investments in Indo-Pacific security assistance, totaling around $7.4 billion. Additionally, there’s $9 billion earmarked for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate both passed a temporary spending patch in September to keep the government funded until next year that did not include continued funding for Ukraine, even though Biden requested it. 

The Israeli military said it launched its 10,000th airstrike against Hamas in the Gaza Strip late Sunday, as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) ramps up its offensive in the south.

Israel has vowed to do everything it can to protect civilians as it targets Hamas and its network of tunnels. Many of the 10,000 airstrikes have been aimed at destroying Hamas’ underground labyrinth.

Israel ordered evacuations from large sections of Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, on Monday. Critics say there are few places to evacuate to, as Southern Gaza is already crowded with Palestinians displaced during Israel’s campaign against Hamas in the northern part of the strip.

The IDF says it has struck over 400 separate Hamas targets since the cease-fire agreement collapsed on Friday. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Sunday that Hamas was to blame for the end of the cease-fire, because they did not release ‘additional women and children that we know that they are holding, and they’re refusing to let go.’

‘Our policy is clear — we will forcefully strike any threat posed against our territory,’ IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 700 Palestinians have been killed over the past 24 hours.

The increased volume of Israel’s barrage comes as the conflict threatens to spill into the wider region. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired rockets at trade vessels in the Red Sea on Sunday. U.S. Navy warship USS Carney also shot down three Houthi drones.

The U.S. has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region in an effort to deter Iran and its proxies from entering the war, but terror groups have still launched dozens of attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since mid-October.

President Biden’s administration has called for more extended humanitarian pauses in the conflict, with Biden arguing it can only end with a negotiated two-state solution.

Six months after launching a dark-horse bid for the 2024 Republican presidential campaign, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is suspending his White House bid.

In a statement and video released Monday morning, Burgum emphasized that he and his wife ‘are deeply grateful for each and every person who supported us with their ideas, prayers, advocacy, encouragement and enthusiasm. Kathryn and I will always remain committed to fighting for the people who make our nation so exceptional.’ 

The North Dakota governor becomes the latest White House hopeful call it quits, as the GOP field of contenders has rapidly shrunk after topping out at over a dozen candidates during the summer.

Burgum, a multi-millionaire former software company CEO turned two-term North Dakota governor, took aim at the Republican National Committee as he dropped out of the race. 

After making the stage at the first two GOP presidential debates, Burgum failed to qualify for the third showdown, and was unlikely to reach the increasing higher thresholds mandated by the RNC to make the stage at this week’s fourth debate.

The RNC is expected on Monday evening to announce which candidates qualified for the fourth debate.

‘The RNC’s clubhouse debate requirements are nationalizing the primary process and taking the power of democracy away from the engaged, thoughtful citizens of Iowa and New Hampshire,’ Burgum charged in his statement, as he pointed to the first two states to vote in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

‘The RNC’s mission is to win elections. It is not their mission to reduce competition and restrict fresh ideas by ‘narrowing the field’ months before the Iowa caucuses or the first in the nation New Hampshire primary. These arbitrary criteria ensure advantages for candidates from major media markets on the coasts versus America’s Heartland,’ he argued. ‘None of their debate criteria relate to the qualifications related to actually doing the job of the president. This effort to nationalize the primary system is unhealthy for the future of the party, especially for a party that proclaims to value leadership from outside of Washington.’

Burgum poured millions of his own money into his White House bid. That included offering $20 gift cards to people who donated at least a dollar to his campaign. The gimmick helped the candidate make the stage at the first debate, a Fox News-hosted showdown in August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

But Burgum’s two debate appearances, including a fesity performance at the second showdown, a Fox Business co-hosted event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California in late September, did little to boost his campaign.

Burgum – little known outside of North Dakota – was unable to see his poll numbers rise above the single digits as he struggled to compete against rivals with much higher national name recognition.

After failing to make the stage in the third debate, Burgum pledged to stay in the race through the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses and Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary. Burgum had campaign heavily in the two states, which kick off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

‘We’re going through all the effort to get our name on all 50 state ballots,’ he said last month. ‘Iowa, New Hampshire, absolutely positively. We’re going to be here. We’re going to be campaigning in Iowa, we’re going to be campaigning in New Hampshire.’

In ending his bid, Burgum emphasized that ‘while this primary process has shaken my trust in many media organizations and political party institutions, it has only strengthened my trust in America.’ 

Burgum centered his campaign on the economy, energy and national security, and repeatedly warned that China was the ‘number one threat’ to the U.S.

‘We’re running because we want to unleash the American economy and we want to improve every American life and the way we do that, of course, is to get our economy really rolling. To get our economy really rolling we’ve got to make sure we’ve got to make sure we’ve got an energy policy that’s 180 degrees different than the one we have under the Biden administration. When we fix energy policy, then we have an opportunity to really stabilize the world,’ he emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview as he announced his candidacy.

On Monday, Burgum argued that ‘just six months after our campaign launch, we’ve elevated the importance of an intelligent energy policy that grows jobs and our economy, reduces inflation, is good for the environment and – unlike Joe Biden’s fantasy green energy plan – stops enabling and empowering our adversaries, specifically China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea.’

Burgum also spotlighted his small-town North Dakota roots and his success in the private sector as central themes in his White House bid.

But unlike some of his rivals, Burgum mostly avoided any direct criticism of former President Donald Trump,  who remains the commanding front-runner for the GOP nomination as he makes his third straight White House run.

Burgum ruptured his Achilles tendon the day before the first debate – while playing a game a pickup basketball with his staff. He was able to appear at the debate the next night, and going forward used a scooter to get around on the campaign trail as he recovered from the injury.

The North Dakota governor becomes the latest Republican to drop out of the increasingly slimmed down field of presidential contenders.

Former Vice President Mike Pence – who make the stage at the first two debates – suspended his  presidential campaign on Oct. 28, during his address to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina ended his bid last month, after appearing in the third debate.

Four lesser known candidates who all failed to qualify for the debates had already suspended their campaigns.

There are former CIA spy and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, Florida, business leader and quality control expert Perry Johnson, and 2021 California gubernatorial recall election candidate and former conservative talk radio host Larry Elder.

Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie remain in the hunt for the GOP nomination race.

Even though he’s failed to make the stage since the first debate in August, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson also remains in the Republican race.

Sources told Fox News that senior campaign staff found out over this past weekend of Burgum’s intentions to end bid, with the rest of the staff being informed Monday morning.

Burgum has until next summer to decide if he intends to run for a third four-year term as North Dakota governor.

Hunter Biden set up monthly payments to Joe Biden from an account for a business of his that received payments from China, according to  House Oversight Committee Chairman Comer

Comer on Monday released subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made ‘direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.’ 

The payments, according to the bank document, were set up to occur ‘monthly,’ and total $1,380.00. 

‘This wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world,’ Comer said in a video message Monday. 

Comer in September had subpoenaed personal and business bank records belonging to Hunter Biden and James Biden as part of the panel’s investigation into the Biden family foreign business dealings and whether President Biden benefited from those ventures. 

A source familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital that Owasco PC sent payments at least three times to Joe Biden’s personal account. 

The payments occurred on Sept. 17, 2018; Oct. 15, 2018; and Nov. 15, 2018. 

‘At this moment, Hunter Biden is under an investigation by the Department of Justice for using Owasco PC for tax evasion and other serious crimes,’ Comer said.

Fox News Digital reported last week that a bank investigator raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s receipt of a $5 million wire from a Chinese company in August 2018 to his bank account, Hudson West III. Hunter Biden then transferred $400,000 to his Owasco PC account. Funds were then transferred to a business account belonging to James Biden, and later transferred to a personal account belonging to James Biden and Sara Biden. Comer claims they used those funds to then cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000. That check was labeled as a ‘loan repayment.’  

‘Based on whistleblower testimony, we know the Justice Department made a concerted effort to prevent investigators from asking questions about Joe Biden. I wonder why?’ Comer said Monday, referring to allegations that assistant U.S. attorney Lesley Wolf worked to ‘limit’ questions about ‘the big guy.’ Sources say ‘the big guy’ is Joe Biden. 

‘Payments from Hunter’s business entity to Joe Biden are now part of a pattern revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes,’ Comer said. 

‘When Joe Biden was Vice President, he spoke by phone, attended dinners, and had coffee with his son’s foreign business associates.

He allowed his son to catch a ride on Air Force Two at least a dozen times to sell the ‘Biden Brand’ around the world,’ Comer said. ‘Hunter Biden requested office keys to be made for his ‘office mate’ Joe Biden in space he planned to share with a Chinese energy company.’ 

‘We’ve revealed how Joe Biden received checks from his family that were funded by the Bidens’ influence peddling schemes – with China no less,’ Comer said. 

Comer added: ‘The House Oversight Committee continues to investigate Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s domestic and international business schemes at a rapid pace.’

Comer vowed to ‘continue to uncover the facts and provide transparency about the findings of our investigation.’ 

‘President Biden and his family must be held accountable for this blatant corruption,’ Comer said. ‘The American people expect no less.’

Comer is jointly leading the impeachment inquiry against President Biden alongside House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith. 

FIRST ON FOX: More than a dozen state attorneys general signed a letter to media outlets such as the New York Times and Reuters, putting them ‘on notice’ that providing material support to terrorist organizations such as Hamas is illegal, Fox News Digital exclusively learned. 

‘We will continue to follow your reporting to ensure that your organizations do not violate any federal or State laws by giving material support to terrorists abroad. Now your organizations are on notice. Follow the law,’ 14 state attorneys general stated in a letter to the chiefs of CNN, The New York Times, Reuters and The Associated Press on Monday afternoon. 

Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird spearheaded the letter, which detailed concerns that journalists embedded with Hamas may actually have deep connections with the terrorist organization ‘and may have participated in the October 7 attack.’ 

‘Reporting credibly alleges that some of the individuals that your outlets hire have deep and troubling ties to Hamas—and may have participated in the October 7 attack. In the wake of those alarming reports, some of you have cut ties with these so-called journalists whose connections to terror groups have become too obvious to hide. Good. But one factor in determining whether an organization has provided material support for terrorism is that it be ‘knowing,’’ the letter states. 

The attorneys general said the four outlets have a responsibility to fully vet potential hires and ensure they have no connections to terrorist organizations before putting them on the payroll and embedding them during armed conflicts. 

‘If your outlet’s current hiring practices led you to give material support to terrorists, you must change these policies going forward. Otherwise, we must assume any future support of terrorist organizations by your stringers, correspondents, contractors, and similar employees is knowing behavior,’ they wrote. 

The state AGs pointed to a recent letter sent by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to Reuters asking ‘how its journalist knew to be available for the October 7 attack,’ and called on the outlet to address whether it had prior knowledge of the attack or if one of the organization’s journalists had been in contact with Hamas before the attack. 

Israel was catapulted into chaos on Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists launched surprise attacks on the nation that quickly escalated to war between Israel and Palestine. At least 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers have since been killed, another estimated 5,000 Israelis injured and 13,300 Palestinians and Hamas terrorists killed. 

The letter went on to argue that the issue of providing material support to terrorist organizations is not new, pointing to a watchdog group telling the AP five years ago that ‘one of its journalists worked for the Hamas-affiliated Quds TV.’ While The New York Times, the AGs continued, published an op-ed in 2020 penned by Taliban deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani. 

‘Mr. Haqqani himself is on the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions List. Did the Times pay for that piece? If so, whom did it pay? Was that payment consistent with federal and State laws? These questions are still unanswered,’ the letter stated. 

The letter details that material support statutes recognize that terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, ‘are so tainted by their criminal conduct that any contribution to such an organization facilitates that [criminal] conduct.’ 

The federal government ‘defines material support to include ‘any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments . . . expert advice or assistance . . . communications equipment, facilities . . . and transportation, except medicine or religious materials,’’ the AGs continued. 

The letter notes that material support statutes ‘have survived First Amendment scrutiny’ and that a law ‘distinguishes material support for terrorism from protected speech.’

‘The First Amendment and core free-speech principles protect the right to hold even disgusting views. For example, this letter does not call for any action regarding the New York Times’s decision to hire a reporter to cover the ongoing war in Israel–despite that reporter’s praise for Adolf Hitler and the ‘state of harmony’ Hitler achieved while perpetrating the Holocaust’ the AGs wrote. 

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton also sent a letter last month to Attorney General Merrick Garland, CNN, The Associated Press, Thomson Reuters and The New York Times, inquiring for details surrounding reporters embedded with Hamas. 

‘I write regarding reports that so-called ‘journalists’ employed by the Associated Press, CNN, New York Times, and Reuters accompanied Hamas terrorists into Israel during the October 7 terror attack. These individuals almost certainly knew about the attack in advance, and even participated by accompanying Hamas terrorists during the attack and filming the heinous acts. In at least one case, one of the individuals affiliated with these media outlets even took a selfie while being kissed on the cheek by a Hamas leader who helped mastermind the attack,’ Cotton wrote in his letter. 

The AGs’ letter cited Cotton and argued The New York Times ‘avoided giving Senator Tom Cotton a meaningful response to his legitimate concerns that the newspaper had provided material support for terrorists.’

‘It instead stated that ‘[n]o employee’ was embedded with Hamas or had advance knowledge of the October 7 attacks. Notably absent from that defense are non-employees—freelancers, stringers, or other payees. Even more conspicuous is the absence of an acknowledgment that Times-paid photographers accompanied Hamas terrorists during the attacks,’ the AGs wrote. 

Reuters, AP, CNN and The New York Times have all previously issued statements denying any prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. CNN and the AP previously reported they cut ties with a freelance photographer who was reportedly with Hamas terrorists when the war was launched. 

Reuters told Fox News Digital later Monday that it ‘categorically denies that it had prior knowledge of the attack or that we embedded journalists with or otherwise accompanied Hamas on October 7.’

‘Reuters acquired photographs from two Gaza-based freelance photographers who were at the border on the morning of October 7. We had no prior relationship with either journalist. The photographs published by Reuters were taken two hours after Hamas fired rockets across southern Israel and more than 45 minutes after Israel said gunmen had crossed the border. Reuters staff journalists were not on the ground at the locations referred to in the claims published on social media,’ a spokesperson for the outlet continued. 

The spokesperson added that no evidence of alleged ‘coordination with Hamas by the two freelance journalists whose images we published.’

‘To reiterate, Reuters had no employees embedded with or otherwise accompanying Hamas during the October 7 attack or since. Reuters at no time has provided funding to Hamas or its affiliates.’

The AGs’ letter continued that Reuters and the AP hired an individual accused of ‘posting a video showing that he was carrying a grenade on a motorcycle during the conflict’ and that The New York Times had suggested there were ‘red flags’ concerning the journalist, including posing for a photo showing a Hamas leader kissing the individual on the cheek. 

‘That type of close relationship with a well-known terrorist mastermind should raise concerns for organizations worried about providing material support for terrorists—all the more because that journalist was identified to AP in 2018 for his relationship with Hamas,’ they said. 

The letter was signed by Republican attorneys general in Iowa, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, Utah, Montana, Virginia, South Carolina, West Virginia and Tennessee. 

‘We reiterate: material support of terrorist organizations is illegal. You should ensure that you are taking all necessary steps to prevent your organizations from contracting with members of terror organizations. We urge you in the strongest terms to take care that your hiring practices conform to the laws forbidding material support for terror organizations,’ the letter continued. 

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reportedly told TF1 television on Sunday that the country was ‘durably under threat from Islamist terrorism’ after a prosecutor identified the French 26-year-old born to Iranian parents accused of fatally stabbing a German tourist and injuring two others steps away from the Eiffel Tower in Paris over the weekend. 

At a news conference on Sunday, France’s top anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said suspect Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, a French national, recorded a video speaking in Arabic before the attack in which he swore allegiance to the Islamic State group, used a name to introduce himself that referred to the Islamic State in Afghanistan and expressed support for Islamic extremists and jihadists operating in various areas around the world, including in Africa, Iraq, Syria, Egypt’s Sinai, Yemen, Iran and Pakistan. 

Ricard said Rajabpour-Miyandoab and three others, including family members and associates, were taken into police custody for questions after the attack. 

On Sunday, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called a special cabinet meeting with key ministers and officials charged with security ‘to provide a full update on the security arrangements in place, the treatment of the most dangerous individuals and the aftermath of this fatal attack,’ her office said, according to The New York Times. 

Rajabpour-Miyandoab could face a preliminary charge of murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, Ricard said. 

The prosecutor said the video was published on Rajabpour-Miyandoa’s account on X, which was opened last month, and his recent posts included references to the Israel-Hamas war. 

Rajabpour-Miyandoab was born in 1997 in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, outside Paris, in a family with no religious affiliation. He converted to Islam at the age of 18 and quickly adhered to Islamic extremist ideology, according to Ricard. In 2016, he had planned to join the Islamic State group in Syria. The same year, he was convicted and imprisoned for four years, until 2020, on a charge of planning violence. He was under psychiatric treatment and was on a special list for feared radicals, the prosecutor confirmed.

Since a probation period during which he received mandatory psychiatric care ended earlier this year, Rajabpour-Miyandoab was placed under the surveillance of intelligence services, Ricard said. In October, his mother expressed ‘concerns’ over her son isolating himself, but no evidence was found that could have led to criminal proceedings, he added.

Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV, Darmanin said Monday that around one-third of suspected radicals under surveillance have psychiatric issues, arguing that authorities should be given greater powers to force psychiatric treatment on people in such cases. 

‘There appears to have been a psychiatric failing because doctors on multiple occasions decided that he was better, that he was more normal and could live freely,’ the interior minister said of Rajabpour-Miyandoab, specifically. 

Rajabpour-Miyandoab reportedly stopped to ask a German couple for a cigarette, then plunged his knife into the 22-year-old male victim, aiming at the head, then the back. 

‘He knew where to strike,’ emergency physician Patrick Pelloux, who was among the first at the scene, told BFM-TV. 

A taxi driver reportedly stopped to intervene, and as police pursued the suspect, he ran across a bridge and injured two more people, a Frenchman and a British citizen, with a hammer. Authorities said Rajabpour-Miyandoab shouted ‘Allahu Akbar,’ or ‘God is great’ while being taken into custody. 

Ricard said the suspect had a history of contacts via social networks with one of the two men notorious for the gruesome killing of a priest during Mass in 2016 in Saint-Etienne du Rouvray. He said the suspect was also in touch with the man who killed a police couple at their home in Yvelines, west of Paris, a month earlier.

France has been under a heightened terror alert since the fatal stabbing in October of a teacher in the northern city of Arras by a former student originally from the Ingushetia region in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains and suspected of Islamic radicalization. 

Three years earlier, another teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed outside Paris, beheaded by a radicalized Chechen later killed by police. Six teenagers are currently on trial in Paris for allegedly inciting the murder after Paty showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class during a discussion on secularism and freedom of expression. 

The attack near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday night has drawn special concern for the French capital less than a year before it hosts the Olympic Games, with the opening ceremony due to take place along the River Sienne. Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra insisted Monday that France was capable of safeguarding the opening festivities.

‘We don’t have a Plan B. There is a Plan A within which there are several sub-plans,’ Oudéa-Castéra said on France Inter radio.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia is accused of calling Cuban dictator Fidel Castro ‘Comandante’ and describing the United States as the ‘enemy,’ according to an unsealed criminal complaint Monday. 

At the top of a meeting of the DOJ’s Reproductive Rights Task Force, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland first announced a ‘significant national security related enforcement action’ the Justice Department has taken in charging Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, with ‘illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government.’ 

Rocha, who is from Miami, Florida, is a former U.S. Department of State employee who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and ultimately as U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. 

His service also included deputy principal officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, Garland said. 

After leaving the State Department, Rocha served as adviser to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, a joint command of the United States military whose area of responsibility includes Cuba, from about 2006 to 2012. 

‘This action exposes one of the highest reaching and longest lasting infiltrations of U.S. government by a foreign agent,’ Garland said. ‘Specifically, the criminal complaint alleges that for over 40 years, Rocha acted as a covert agent of the Cuban government. That, and the complaint alleges, Rocha sought out employment with U.S. government that would provide him with access to nonpublic information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy.’ 

The complaint outlines actions Rocha took allegedly ‘in support Cuba’s clandestine intelligence gathering mission against the United States.’  

Rocha repeatedly referred to the United States as ‘the enemy’ during discussions with an undercover FBI agent, the complaint says. 

He also allegedly told the undercover agent that his efforts to infiltrate the United States government were ‘meticulous and very disciplined’ and he repeatedly bragged about the significance of his efforts, saying that ‘what has been done has strengthened the revolution immensely,’ Garland said. 

When the undercover agent told Rocha he was ‘a covert representative here in Miami’ whose mission was ‘to contact you, introduce myself as your new contact, and establish a new communication plan,’ Rocha answered, ‘Yes,’ and proceeded to engage in a lengthy conversation during which he described and celebrated his activity as a Cuban intelligence agent, according to the complaint. Throughout the meetings, Rocha behaved as a Cuban agent and used the term ‘we’ to describe himself and Cuba, prosecutors say. 

Rocha additionally praised Fidel Castro as the ‘Comandante,’ and referred to his contacts in Cuban intelligence as his ‘Compañeros’ (comrades) and to the Cuban intelligence services as the ‘Dirección,’ the complaint says. Rocha allegedly also described his work as a Cuban agent as ‘a grand slam.’

The FBI arrested Rocha on Friday in Miami and he will make his first court appearance in the Southern District of Florida on Monday afternoon, Garland said. 

‘Those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the United States are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve,’ Garland said Monday. ‘To betray that trust, by falsely pledging loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with the full force of the Justice Department. 

As the only Cuban-born member of Congress, Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., reacted Sunday to reports of Rochas’ arrest for allegedly spying for Cuba, calling for the ‘immediate implementation of sanctions against the Castro regime’ and a full investigation.