President Biden is facing mounting pressure to lift the ban on Ukraine using U.S. weapons to strike deep inside Russia and appeared to admit on Tuesday that his administration is moving in that direction. 

‘We’re working that out right now,’ he said when asked by reporters whether he would allow Ukraine to use the long-range Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to target sites inside Russia.

Support for lifting the ban has come from all sides.

A group of high-level House Republicans wrote to the president this week arguing that such restrictions ‘have hampered Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russia’s war of aggression and have given the Kremlin’s forces a sanctuary from which it can attack Ukraine with impunity.’

The House GOP letter was signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, House Intelligence Committee Chair Michael Turner, House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers and other committee leaders.

It critiques the Biden administration but contrasts statements from top Republicans like Donald Trump, who have suggested he could bring a diplomatic end to the war. 

On Wednesday, a group of liberal and progressive former high-level national security officials authored a letter calling on the U.S. and U.K. to allow unrestricted use of their weapons to strike Russian territory. 

A bipartisan group of House and Senate members sent another letter arguing that with the ban, Russia ‘is far too comfortable in its ability to focus on its offensive operations rather than defending itself.’

‘Easing the restrictions on Western weapons will not cause Moscow to escalate,’ they wrote. ‘We urge you to listen to your partners in Kyiv this week and allow Ukraine to strike all legitimate targets in Russia with the weapons the U.S. and U.K. have provided. Let Ukraine defend itself.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has implored U.S. officials to lift the ban they placed to avoid escalation of U.S. involvement in the war. Washington in recent months has partially done so, allowing Ukraine to use U.S. weapons for defensive strikes ‘within sovereign Ukraine territory.’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and were expected to gather information on how such long-range strikes would factor into Ukraine’s broader battlefield strategy. The U.K. is also considering whether to allow Ukraine to strike deeper inside Russia with its own long-range system, the Storm Shadow.

Asked about the ‘green light’ to target inside Russia on Thursday, Blinken did not indicate any change in policy but restated a desire to keep adapting to Russia’s aggression.

Blinken said he expects Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss the topic when they meet Friday in Washington.

Last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed back on the notion that lifting restrictions and allowing Ukraine to hit deeper into Russia would change the tides of the war. 

‘There’s no one capability that will, in and of itself, be decisive in this campaign.’

‘There are a lot of targets in Russia, a big country, obviously,’ Austin said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany on Friday. ‘And there’s a lot of capability that Ukraine has in terms of (unmanned aerial vehicles) and other things to address those targets.’

The debate about whether to remove the restrictions comes amid the worrying beginning of transfers of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia.

Some worry the U.S. has a limited number of ATACMS to offer Ukraine without affecting U.S. readiness and that using the weapons to strike deep into Russia could deplete their supply for other parts of the military campaign, like inside Crimea. But advocates of lifting the ban argue Ukraine is already using ATACMS on territory that Russia sees as its own in Crimea.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe spoke with members of both the House and Senate in closed sessions Thursday to discuss the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Rowe briefed members in both chambers about the agency’s interim report examining the USSS’s security lapses that led to a gunman being able to scale a nearby building and open fire on Trump, just minutes into his rally. 

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the lead Democrat on the Trump Assassination Task Force told Fox News Digital that the briefing with Rowe was a ‘very lengthy and very candid discussion.’ 

‘They discussed the … failings that occurred that day and what’s been done to fix it, as well as some of the resourcing constraints the Secret Service has faced this election cycle,’ Crow said of Rowe’s briefing with lawmakers. ‘He made an outline of their internal report and briefed us on their internal mission evaluation, which is now complete.’

Fox News was previously informed that the overall mission assurance probe conducted by the Secret Service is nearly complete and will soon be made public. 

According to Crow, Rowe told lawmakers that he had looked ‘at everything from the site selection and the planning for security for that day; interaction between local law enforcement and campaign staff for the event; the communication, or lack of communication as the case might be in several instances between Secret Service and local law enforcement; the issue of perimeter security and lines of sight and then the clearing of lines of sight.’

Speaking about his own visit to the site of the July rally, Crow said ‘the perimeter itself was too small…and the fact that the shooter was on a roof of a building a little more than a hundred yards away from the platform where the former president was standing and that was outside the perimeter is problematic.’ 

The Task Force is slated to hold its first public hearing with a focus on local law enforcement later this month. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters Thursday that lawmakers ‘will have a report very, very soon that I think will absolutely shock the American people about the lapses and lags in protection that was afforded that day and the breakdown in communication, failure and responsibility.’

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., told reporters, ‘The most important point that we want to make is this is bipartisan.’ 

‘We truly believe the American people need to know the full truth, and the only way they’re going to have confidence in it is if it’s in a completely nonpartisan way.’ 

Meanwhile, Several senior Secret Service officials who planned to retire soon have been encouraged to do so more urgently to escape the scrutiny from Congress over the next several months.

Fox News has been informed that several high-level Secret Service officials who have either direct or indirect connections to the Butler, Pennsylvania security situation are retiring. While the employees are eligible for retirement, they’ve been encouraged by senior leadership to do so more quickly to avoid lengthy congressional interviews and investigations.  

Separately, the FBI is conducting a separate investigation into the shooter, and that is still ongoing. 

The Biden administration imposed sanctions Thursday against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and several of his associates for undermining the electoral process and violating the civil and human rights of its citizens.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced the sanctions while speaking to reporters during a briefing Thursday.

‘President Biden’s approach to foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere has been based on his belief that democracy is fundamentally vital for sustained economic prosperity and security,’ she said. ‘Now, Venezuela is no exception, and the blatant electoral fraud following the July 28 presidential elections must continue to be condemned and those obstructing democracy held accountable.

‘And that is why, to that end, today we took two important actions to hold Nicolás Maduro and his cronies accountable for their blatant electoral fraud, obstruction of a competitive and inclusive election and violation of the civil and human rights of the people.’

Jean-Pierre said U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen placed sanctions on 16 of Maduro’s affiliated officials along with visa restrictions on a number of his allied officials who ‘undermined’ the electoral process in Venezuela and ‘are responsible for acts of repression.’

The press secretary also said the U.S. has, to date, sanctioned over 140 current and former Venezuelan officials while also taking steps to impose visa restrictions on about 2,000 individuals.

Critics contend the real problem lies with allowing the Maduro regime continued access to lucrative oil contracts.

‘The current approach appears to be overly focused on a single tactic. What is the point of imposing sanctions if, at the same time, oil licenses continue to be renewed? Feeding kleptocracy $20B per year,’ Isaias Medina III, a former U.N. Security Council diplomat and Harvard Mason fellow, told Fox News Digital Thursday. 

‘Real pressure comes from taking decisive actions, such as issuing a red notice from Interpol, intercepting every drug shipment and blocking the coast to prevent the movement of oil. Instead of simply warning them, concrete steps should be taken to expose their involvement in drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption and human rights violations. This includes pushing for their removal from the United Nations due to their illegitimacy and compelling the international community to take a unified stance against them.’

Venezuela’s July 28 election saw Maduro claiming victory by more than 1 million votes. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, was seeking a third six-year term. Meanwhile, the main opposition coalition, Vente Venezuela, has accused him of trying to steal the vote. The Vente Venezuela campaign has released records showing opposition candidate Edmundo González winning by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The main leader of the opposition, González, and opposition leader María Corina Machado have gone into hiding since the vote.

The opposition suffered a further setback when Venezuela’s controversial Supreme Court reasserted Maduro as the winner of the disputed elections. Maduro’s hand-picked court declared the voting tallies showing any reports of his loss were fabricated.

The U.S., European Union (EU) and a slate of Latin American countries have categorically rejected the Venezuelan high court’s certification. Maduro and his government have refused to release official tally sheets from last month’s election.

Maduro’s claim of victory ignited protests across Venezuela, prompting his regime to engage in a wave of violent repression. Security forces have apprehended more than 2,000 demonstrators, many of whom were taken to torture camps.

Earlier this month, the U.S. seized a plane owned by Maduro in the Dominican Republic.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) flew Maduro’s personal plane back to the United States Monday morning, when it landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is now in U.S. custody, a U.S. official told Fox News following an initial report by CNN.

The plane, described by officials as Maduro’s version of ‘Air Force One,’ is used for Maduro’s state visits around the world and was seized in the Dominican Republic after it was purchased through a straw company in violation of sanctions laws and export controls, the official said. U.S. authorities cited a specific violation of U.S. Executive Order 13884, signed by former President Trump in 2019. 

The plane, valued at $13 million, is a Dassault Falcon 900-EX. The seizure was a result of a joint investigation between HSI and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In August 2019, Trump issued Executive Order 13884, which prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with persons who have acted or purported to act directly or indirectly for or on behalf of, the government of Venezuela, including as a member of the Maduro regime. To protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, the Department of Commerce has also imposed export controls for items intended, entirely or in part, for a Venezuelan military or military-intelligence end user, according to the Department of Justice.

Fox News’ Kyra Colah, Danielle Wallace and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

A New York appeals court on Thursday denied former President Trump’s request to pause his criminal case stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. 

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said in a filing that Trump’s motion for an emergency administrative stay in New York v. Trump is denied, following Judge Juan Merchan’s decision to delay the former president’s sentencing until after the presidential election. 

Trump’s sentencing was set for Sept. 18, but Merchan granted the former president’s request to move that date until late November — Nov. 26. 

This week, Trump’s attorneys, in a letter to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, asked for the case to be paused, arguing that there was not enough time between the court’s Nov. 12th presidential immunity ruling and the Nov. 26th sentencing to allow for appeal. 

Bragg’s office said a pause would be ‘legally unavailable’ and ‘unnecessary in light of the state criminal court’s adjournment of the sentencing. They also argued there is time for Trump to appeal the presidential immunity decision before sentencing. 

Trump’s initial sentencing was set for July 11 — just days before the Republican National Convention, where he was set to be formally nominated as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, but Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay that until Sept. 18. 

Trump requested the sentencing be moved until after Election Day, citing ‘naked election-interference objectives.’ 

Merchan granted that request last week, pushing the sentencing date ‘if necessary’ to Nov. 26. 

Trump has appealed the verdict, after pleading not guilty to all charges. Trump attorney Todd Blanche said the verdict should be overturned based on the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, granting presidents limited immunity for official acts.

Judge Merchan will also now make a decision on Nov. 12 on Trump’s motion to vacate.

Blanche also pointed to Merchan’s daughter’s work at Authentic Campaigns, which represents top Democratic candidates. 

In his arguments for dismissal, Blanche argued that Bragg offered official acts as evidence during the six-week-long unprecedented criminal trial. Blanche said that included official White House communications with staffers like Hope Hicks, Madeleine Westerhout and others. 

The Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office but not for unofficial acts. The high court said Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for ‘official acts’ but left it to the lower court to determine exactly where the line between official and unofficial is.

Trump spoke exclusively with Fox News Digital after Merchan granted the former president’s request to have his sentencing delayed until after the presidential election in November. 

‘The case was delayed because everyone realizes there was no case and I did nothing wrong,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘It is a case that should never have been brought.’ 

Trump said ‘the public understands that and so does every legal scholar that has looked at it and studied it.’ 

‘I greatly respect the words ‘if necessary’ being used in this decision because there should be no, ‘if necessary,’’ Trump said. ‘The case should be dead.’

Trump was referring to a section of Merchan’s letter Friday, in which he notifies Trump attorneys of the delay, and says that ‘the sentencing on this matter, if necessary, is adjourned to November 26, 2024 at 10am.’ 

Merchan also said Friday the ‘public’s confidence in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion.’

Trump was found guilty in an unprecedented criminal trial on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree after a six-week trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation.

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, told Fox News Digital, ‘There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA’s election interference witch hunt. As mandated by the United States Supreme Court, this case, along with all of the other Harris-Biden hoaxes, should be dismissed.’

A new national poll conducted entirely after Tuesday’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump indicates Harris leading Trump by five points.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted two-day poll, Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has the support of 47% of registered voters nationwide. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, lands the backing of 42% of registered voters questioned.

The five-point advantage for Harris is up slightly from a four-point margin in the previous Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted in late August, prior to the debate.

The survey indicates that voters agree with political pundits in saying that Harris bested Trump during their Philadelphia showdown, which was their first and potentially only presidential debate.

Fifty-three percent of survey respondents who said they had heard at least some of Tuesday’s debate said that the vice president had won, with just 24% saying that the former president was the winner.

The poll surveyed 1,690 adults nationwide, including 1,405 registered voters. The survey had a sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for registered voters.

With seven and a half weeks until Election Day and early voting getting underway this month in some of the key battleground states, most national surveys and swing state polls indicate a margin-of-error race between Trump and Harris, who enjoyed a wave of momentum in the weeks after replacing President Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket in mid-July.

Harris, at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, reiterated to her supporters that ‘ours is going to be a tight race until the end.’

‘We are the underdog,’ she emphasized. ‘We’ve got some hard work ahead of us… hard work is good work.’