As of this writing Israel has not responded to Iran’s massive attack against it Saturday night. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron relayed, after meeting with Israeli officials on Wednesday that it was ‘clear the Israelis are making a decision to act.’

‘We hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible,’ Cameron added in his best impersonation of Lord Halifax in 1938, and that Israel is ‘smart as well as tough.’

Rear Admiral (USN, Ret.) Mark Montgomery reviewed with me on Wednesday morning all the ways the Jewish State could strike directly at Iran They are many and varied. Israel possesses ballistic missiles just as Iran does. It has a fleet of F-35 fighter planes which are not only stealth aircraft but may also be able to reach the known nuclear facilities and which may possibly be fitted to carry payloads robust enough to damage significantly those nuclear facilities. (Admiral Montgomery added that it is widely believed that Israel also possesses submarines with the capability to launch cruise missiles.)

The target list is long, from those nuclear sites both known to the public and those only known to intelligence agencies and to every system that could be crippled by Israel’s robust cyber warfare capacities. There are the headquarters and barracks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and of course oil refineries and power grid facilities. Montgomery’s 30 minute Q-and-A explains that what Israel strikes depends entirely on what goal it wants to achieve. There are different sorts of deterrence the long-time grand strategist opined. We don’t yet know which if any Prime Minister Netanyahu and his colleagues have settled on, or if they have settled on any at all. The weather and the phase of the moon, Montgomery added, are more variables to figure into this incredibly complex calculation.

Very few media professionals have any serious idea what even is possible or what Iran might do in response. The leaks and counter-leaks to the media in Israel and the United States have created the proverbial ‘wilderness of mirrors.’ For a civilian, much less anyone not in the Israeli War Cabinet meetings, to predict anything is absurd.

But long time observers of the undeclared (until Saturday) Israel-Iran War can say with some certainty that it hard to imagine any circumstance in which Israel would strike directly at the nuclear program if not now. Certainly not after Iran achieves nuclear weapon ‘break out.’

The mullahs escalated Saturday night to a massive direct attack on Israel. They intended savage harm. Some of the attack was directed at Israel’s nuclear site at Dimona. Some asset at the Knesset was targeted too. The comprehensive defense of the Jewish State mounted by it and its allies frustrated every projectile, and prevented terrible destruction and casualties but if Iran had developed a nuke, would they have used it? Can Israel ever tolerate even the near approach to ‘break out’ after Iran dashed all the illusions of the ‘Iran just wants to be acknowledged as a leader in the region’ crowd?

Iran is a theocracy led by fanatics. That it did not unleash Hezbollah’s 150,000 rockets and missiles on Israel could mean that Iran wanted the message to be clear that the state actor with the upper hand when it came to escalation was in fact Iran, and it was confident of its superiority to Israel if escalation occurred. Alternatively Iran could have acted as it did to prevent the ground invasion of Lebanon for which Israel has been preparing for the six months since 10/7. It is hard to ‘think like a religious fanatic.’ We don’t know. And no American safe within our country can fully judge what Israel’s leaders must weigh in their deliberations and do so with their country’s long term interests in mind.

The ‘clarity window’ for the West is, however, wide open right now. Israel has absolute justice on its side —now and for a few more days or perhaps a couple of weeks (at best) because the world moves on quickly and forgets even faster. Once ‘stability’ returns the pressure on Israel to de-escalate will grow and grow by actors who just want to get ‘back to normal,’ as though that is actually possible.

If Israel does not strike back now, it seems very likely it won’t strike back until it is either too late to do so or at least do so confident that a large portion of its friends in the West will applaud and, if not applaud, at least grudgingly acknowledge that it was obliged to do so.

The other new factor: The faith in the ability of high-tech intelligence capabilities to warn Israel of deadly attacks and thus to allow it to preempt those attacks is gone after the surprise of 10/7. Yes, warning was given this past weekend. Will it be the next time? Could Iran achieve strategic surprise in the way Hamas achieved tactical surprise on 10/7?

What is clear beyond any doubt that an Israel that does not respond soon with a devastating counter-strike is an Israel that will have forfeited deterrence against attacks of at least equal intensity. At a moment when the United States and the United Kingdom are both led by very weak governments beset by electoral considerations, Israel has to decide for itself: Will it be cowed?

If so, it is hard to imagine circumstances when the Israel of 10/6 can be regained.

Hugh Hewitt is one of the country’s leading journalists of the center-right. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990, and it is today syndicated to hundreds of stations and outlets across the country every Monday through Friday morning. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and this column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio show today.

House Democrats in the ultra-progressive ‘Squad’ are being bolstered by a new joint fundraising venture as they face mounting threats to their jobs.

The ‘Protect The Squad’ website that was launched by Justice Democrats, a progressive PAC, appears to have been launched within the last week and is linked to Democratic fundraising giant ActBlue. It is the latest effort to insulate a group of progressive lawmakers who have faced bipartisan backlash over their harsh rhetoric toward Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack.

‘Every member of the Squad is up for re-election this year, and five of these young, working-class, Black and brown progressives are facing serious threats to their U.S. House seats: Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib,’ the website stated.

‘With right-wing megadonor-funded groups like AIPAC and Moderate PAC threatening to drop upwards of $100 million on attack ads and hand-picked challengers to unseat these Squad members, we need to come together to combat their attacks with the power of our grassroots movement.’

Of the ‘Squad’ members listed – which notably excludes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of the group’s original members – Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., is the only one not yet facing a primary challenger.

The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a pro-Israel group that works with both Republicans and Democrats to bolster the Middle Eastern U.S. ally’s relationship with Washington. AIPAC is spending heavily this election cycle to promote pro-Israel candidates.

AIPAC has endorsed primary challengers to Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Jamaal Bowman D-N.Y.

Tlaib said on Instagram this week that ‘Protect The Squad’ is aiming to raise $100 million by April 30.

‘Our Squad is strong, but our movement is under attack from GOP-funded corporate Super PACs,’ Tlaib wrote. ‘Together-for Palestine, for workers, for abortion rights, for LGBTQ+ people, for democracy-we’re unstoppable. We’re coming together to raise $100K for them all, chip in now!’

The issue of Israel has brought long-simmering divisions within the Democratic Party up to the surface in the wake of Oct. 7, though a growing number of lawmakers on the left have been increasingly critical of Israel’s responding invasion of Gaza.

Senate Republicans are introducing a bill on Wednesday that aims to prevent foreign nationals from improperly influencing American elections in response to a report outlining how a foreign billionaire allegedly funneled almost $250 million into a liberal dark money network that poured almost $100 million into nationwide ballot campaigns.

The Prevent Foreign Interference in American Elections Act, being introduced by Tennessee GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty, states that it will ‘amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to further restrict contributions of foreign nationals.’

The move comes after the Senate was briefed on a new report from Americans for Public Trust that shows Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss has sent more than $243 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund which then invested $97.6 million in ballot campaigns across 25 states over the past decade. Those states included the key swing states of Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, and Nevada.

The tens of millions of dollars from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has also been funded by George Soros, went into ballot measures promoting abortion access, lessening drug penalties and prison sentences, raising the minimum wage, automatic voter registration and other progressive causes.

Wyss, who is referred to by some as the ‘new George Soros’, also allegedly gave more than $135 million between 2016 and 2020 to a nonprofit that gave tens of millions to Super PACs that supported Joe Biden in 2020 and has steered tens of millions of dollars to Democratic fundraising committees, get out the vote efforts, and Democratic candidates via nonprofits. 

‘A single Swiss billionaire, Hansjörg Wyss, has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into various left-wing causes meant to influence American politics,’ Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital last year. ‘Since 2016 he has given at least $245 million to Arabella Advisors’ dark money behemoths New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund. In 2020 alone, CTCL (Center for Tech and Civic Life) received $25 million from New Venture Fund. CTCL and its new Alliance are opening avenues for foreign billionaires to pump funds directly into the heart of US elections.’

Caitlin Sutherland, who told Fox News Digital last year that Wyss is the ‘most influential figure in politics that you’ve never heard of’, wrote in the report’s forward that Sixteen Thirty Fund is using Wyss’s money as part of its ‘war chest’ to ‘support massive get out the vote drives, issue advocacy campaigns bolstering President Biden’s agenda, liberal pet projects from abortion to immigration, and attack ads against Republican lawmakers.’

Hagerty’s bill would clarify that the existing foreign-national ban on ‘indirect’ contributions covers attempts to circumvent the ban through intermediaries or instructions which conservatives have long argued poses a threat to Democracy when funds are dumped into dark money groups inside the U.S. from abroad.

‘Foreign nationals are prohibited from donating to U.S. political candidates, committees and super PACs but there is no federal law prohibiting foreign nationals from donating to ballot committees,’ the report’s conclusion explains. ‘Some state laws exist to try to prevent this type of foreign influence, but in a majority of states, foreign nationals like Hansjorg Wyss, are allowed to write blank checks to fund ballot issues that could prioritize their interests over those of the residents of the state.’

‘If state and federal law permits a Swiss billiionaire to fund ballot initiative campaigns, there is nothing stopping U.S. adversaries from Communist China, Russia, or North Korea from doing the same.’ 

The bill would prohibit foreign nationals from funding ballot harvesting and GOTV efforts, prohibit foreign nationals from funding U.S. election administration, and prohibit foreign nationals from spending money to influence ballot measures.

‘After years of hysteria over Russiagate and alleged foreign influence in American elections, it turns out Democrats have recently benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in election-related contributions from a shadowy foreign billionaire, sidestepping the federal ban on foreign-national contributions in U.S. elections,’ Hagerty said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

‘This type of influence undermines democracy and self-government here in America, and its staggering scope should be alarming. I’m pleased to introduce this commonsense and critical legislation that will put an end to covert foreign influence on our elections and protect Americans’ voice in electing their leaders.’

 In a statement, Sutherland said that ‘it is irresponsible and alarming that our laws leave the door open to foreign nationals and U.S. adversaries influencing American politics.’

‘Our report reveals that Sixteen Thirty Fund alone is acting as a conduit for massive amounts of money from a foreign billionaire with an expressed desire to reshape U.S. politics to align with his out-of-touch worldview. After years of national discourse about fears of foreign influence in our elections, this commonsense proposal to close the foreign influence loophole should be something everyone can support.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Sixteen Thirty Fund President Amy Kurtz said, ‘APT is Leonard Leo’s attack machine and is targeting Sixteen Thirty Fund because they oppose our work to support progressive causes.’

House Democrats are signaling that they are open to making a deal to help House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., keep his job if Republican rebels file a motion to oust him from leadership.

Several Democrats who spoke with Fox News Digital said they think their colleagues would insulate the Louisiana Republican if he put legislation on foreign aid on the House floor for a vote – specifically singling out Ukraine and Israel – though they all maintained that they would follow the lead of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and other Democratic leaders.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters, ‘I think it’s unlikely I would support vacating him. We’ll see.’

‘The big thing is, I want a vote on Ukraine. More to the point, I want Ukraine to get the aid. We waited months longer than we should have for highly questionable reasons. Now we’re down to the last minute, Ukraine’s hanging on by their fingernails,’ Smith said.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., became the second GOP lawmaker after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to threaten to file a motion to vacate against Johnson, which would trigger a vote on his ouster. Massie told Johnson in a closed-door Tuesday House GOP meeting that Johnson should step aside after a vote happens on his recently announced foreign aid plan or face the threat of losing his gavel.

Democrats do not necessarily have to vote against ousting Johnson. Any vote on vacating him would likely be preceded by a vote to table the motion, which would effectively kill it. Likewise, simply not showing up to vote on a motion to vacate would make the margins more favorable for Johnson.

The Louisiana Republican is leader of a razor-thin House GOP majority of just two seats. While that means that just a small amount of dissent can cost him the job, it also means he would likely only need a few Democrats to help him keep it.

‘I think Democrats are very open to a deal, but that has to come from Republicans,’ Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., said on Tuesday.

When asked if Johnson would have to reach out to Democrats to initiate that deal, Moulton said, ‘Of course, he’s the Speaker of the House. It’s his f—ing job.’

Moulton, however, said passing aid to Ukraine would not be enough in exchange for the Democrats’ help. ‘The bar’s been pathetically low for the Republican Party for a long time. But no, in my personal opinion, simply doing his job and allowing a democratic vote on legislation is not enough for a deal,’ he said, though he did not elaborate on what a deal should entail.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., told Fox News Digital that Jeffries signaled there is a way forward for Johnson to make a deal with Democrats. 

‘Hakeem Jeffries has made that clear a number of times. You know, I’ve said same thing – I hate the idea of punishing Mike Johnson for doing the right thing,’ Beyer, a progressive, told Fox News Digital in regard to a foreign aid plan. ‘The one I think most of us care the most about is Ukraine aid, and then secondarily, some kind of Israel-Gaza package.’

Beyer would not say if Johnson’s proposal on foreign aid would be enough for Democrats to help him, given the lack of legislative text, but he did not rule it out, either. Meanwhile, Johnson has faced bipartisan pressure to take up the Senate’s $95 billion supplemental aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and Gaza.

‘Hopefully he’s found a way to manage his disruptive caucus by breaking it into pieces…without having to put the whole Senate bill on the floor, which is apparently not a winning strategy from his perspective,’ Beyer said.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said he would consider voting to table a motion to oust Johnson if he put foreign aid up for a vote – if only not to empower the right wing of the Republican conference.

‘At the end of the day, if my job is to make sure that we can continue the world order, and that my job is to make sure that we get our allies the aid that they need so that our allies don’t look at the U.S. as a non-functioning body anymore, and turn to China and turn to Russia, if the idea is voting for a motion to table or letting [Massie and Greene] take this all down, yeah, I would vote for motion to table,’ Moskowitz said.

However, Republicans were skeptical about that being a permanent safety net.

‘I don’t think that works,’ Massie told reporters on Tuesday. ‘I think for every Democrat that comes to save him he’ll lose at least two or three more in our conference, and that makes it toxic.’

Another GOP lawmaker who spoke with Fox News Digital suggested Johnson would lose control of the House GOP conference if Democrats saved him during a vacate vote.

‘I think it’s a different conference then,’ the GOP lawmaker said. ‘If I’m the Democrats and I get asked to do that, the quid pro quo on that would make it enormously difficult to lead the conference. I mean, he’s really gonna be the leader of the uniparty then.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson and Jeffries’ offices for comment.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is having the House vote on a border security bill alongside his proposal for foreign aid after its lack of measures to deal with the U.S. migrant crisis spurred threats of rebellion from his fellow Republicans.

‘After significant Member feedback and discussion, the House Rules Committee will be posting soon today the text of three bills that will fund America’s national security interests and allies in Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and Ukraine, including a loan structure for aid, and enhanced strategy and accountability,’ Johnson told GOP lawmakers.

Those three bills total $95.34 billion in proposed foreign aid – $60.84 billion for Ukraine, $26.38 billion for Israel, and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific – roughly the same as the Senate’s bipartisan foreign aid package passed in February. It also includes provisions like banning funds for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which aids Palestinian refugees.

A fourth bill would combine miscellaneous national security priorities, including the House’s recently passed bill that could pave the way to a TikTok ban and the REPO Act, a bipartisan measure to liquefy seized Russian assets and send that money to Ukraine, as well as ‘sanctions and other measures to confront Russia, China, and Iran,’ according to Johnson.

‘The Rules Committee will also be posting text on a border security bill that includes the core components of H.R.2,’ Johnson said.

H.R.2 is a comprehensive border security bill passed by House Republicans last year, which includes measures like the Trump administration-era ‘Remain In Mexico’ policy and would expand expulsion authorities for law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats have panned H.R.2 as a nonstarter.

The border security bill would move through the House Rules Committee separately from his four foreign aid bills, but each is being teed up for a Saturday evening vote.

Johnson said lawmakers would be able to submit amendments for all five pieces of legislation as well. 

It comes as he’s also dealing with threats led by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to oust him from power over the foreign funding. But Congress has been under mounting pressure to find a way forward in aiding Israel and Ukraine as conflicts in both regions escalate at an alarming rate.

That proposal, unveiled Monday, almost immediately got pushback from House Republicans who demanded that he leverage their razor-thin majority to include U.S. border policy provisions alongside any foreign aid. 

But the rebellious flank of his conference is already signaling that his new plan may not be enough – and that Johnson will need to seek help from Democrats to advance his foreign aid plans.

‘Anything less than tying Ukraine aid to real border security fails to live up to [Johnson’s] own words just several weeks ago. Our constituents demand – and deserve – more from us,’ Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., wrote on X.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, similarly said, ‘The Republican Speaker of the House is seeking a rule to pass almost $100 billion in foreign aid – while unquestionably, dangerous criminals, terrorists, & fentanyl pour across our border. The border ‘vote’ in this package is a watered-down dangerous cover vote. I will oppose.’

And Heritage Action, a key conservative group, is warning that it’s against Johnson’s idea to combine the four foreign aid bills before sending them to the Senate. 

‘While each bill may receive individual votes, any effort to combine the measures before sending them to the Senate undermines the intent to consider the bills on their own merits. Attempting to circumvent accountability for a vote on any of the individual bills with the understanding that they will be combined on the back end is disingenuous for members who claim to oppose the Senate-passed foreign aid supplemental,’ the group said,

Western powers are urging the Israeli government to show restraint in its expected response to the Iranian missile strikes last week.

Officials from Germany, the United Kingdom and elsewhere have asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration not to escalate the situation into an active conflict — but those same officials say Israel is not listening to outside input.

‘It’s right to have made our views clear about what should happen next, but it’s clear the Israelis are making a decision to act,’ British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, a former prime minister, reported after a Wednesday trip to the Jewish nation. 

He added, ‘We hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible.’

Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday in response to an apparent strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on April 1 that killed 12 people, including two Iranian generals. 

The Iranian government blames Israel for the attack, although Israel has not claimed any involvement.

‘The region must not step-by-step slide into a situation with a totally unpredictable outcome,’ said German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock after the same Wednesday trip to Israel. ‘Everyone must now act prudently and responsibly.’

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has vowed to completely destroy Israel should it proceed with even the ‘tiniest invasion’ of its country. 

Raisi spoke Wednesday at an annual army parade, warning Israel of a ‘massive and harsh’ response, as the country braces for potential Israeli retaliation after Iran’s missile and drone attack over the weekend.

Netanyahu left no doubt in a statement later the same day regarding what his country might do should current tensions with Iran escalate further.

‘Israel will do whatever it needs to defend itself,’ Netanyahu said in a statement.

‘They have all sorts of suggestions and advice. I appreciate that. But I want to be clear: Our decisions we will make ourselves,’ the prime minister added.

Fox News Digital’s Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.

A nonprofit legal organization filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Wednesday, alleging it has deleted federal employees’ emails in violation of existing statute.

In a sweeping complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the America First Legal Foundation (AFL), the group headed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, accused the Department of Health and Human Services of regularly deleting official emails and violating the Federal Records Act. The group also named the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which is tasked with overseeing the unlawful destruction of federal records, as a defendant. 

‘If the National Archives decides not to use the legal authorities it has regarding federal records, it certainly shouldn’t make up legal authority that it doesn’t have when it comes to presidential records,’ America First Legal Vice President Dan Epstein said in an interview.

‘We expect our government to act in a transparent and accountable way and exercise equanimity when it decides to investigate certain allegations. We clearly haven’t seen that in this case.’

According to Epstein, the lawsuit will have deep ramifications in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing case against former President Donald Trump. 

Smith is prosecuting Trump in connection to the former president’s handling of classified documents and other presidential records after leaving the White House in early 2021. In June 2023, the Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment accusing Trump of 37 felony counts in connection with obstruction of justice and mishandling government records.

Epstein, though, argued that Trump is being held to a different standard than federal employees who regularly delete emails and records without any repercussions. He said potentially tens of thousands of records are deleted every year without authority.

The AFL’s case is tied to a February 2023 records request the group filed under the Freedom of Information Act with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The group particularly requested records related to the CDC’s support for ‘teacher-led indoctrination of children with radical gender ideology.’

However, shortly thereafter, a CDC officer told the AFL in an email that the agency, which is housed at HHS, deletes most employee files 30 days after said employee departs the agency.

‘That is correct,’ the officer said in an email to the AFL. ‘Unless they were a capstone director/manager etc., it is my understanding all other employees’ emails are deleted 30 days after they leave the agency.’

When the matter was brought to NARA, the AFL said the agency determined that, because the ‘CDC instructs individual email account holders to apply retention based on the email’s content value and its applicability to a NARA-approved records schedule,’ the matter was considered closed.

‘In effect, it appears that NARA entrusts individual CDC employees to decide which emails can be automatically deleted,’ the group said in a statement.

Federal law states that government agencies must ‘make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency’s activities.’

The AFL argued that NARA’s conclusion is ‘patently inconsistent with the law.’

‘You have maybe tens of thousands of government records every year that are destroyed without authority,’ Epstein told Fox News Digital. ‘But when it comes to Donald Trump, he gets prosecuted. Everyone else who doesn’t have to stand for election gets a free pass.’

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan were also named in the group’s lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Fox News Digital reached out to HHS and NARA for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

A former National Security Council member and U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, who admitted to secretly acting as an agent for the government of the Republic of Cuba, blames the radical politics pushed on him during his formative college years for turning on his country.

A federal judge sentenced 73-year-old Victor Manuel Rocha of Miami to 15 years in prison last week for working against the U.S. government for decades for communist Cuba in ‘clandestine intelligence-gathering missions.’

Before the judge handed down the sentence, Rocha issued a statement on his guilty plea, which was shared by Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., on X.

‘I am a 73-year-old man. During my formative years in college, I was heavily influenced by the radical politics of the day,’ Rocha said. ‘My deep commitment at that time to radical social change in the region led me to the eventual betrayal of my oath of loyalty to the United States during my two decades in the State Department.’

Rocha graduated from Yale University in 1973 before going on to earn his master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1976, then a master’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 1978, according to the State Department’s website archives.

Fox News Digital reached out to Yale for a comment regarding Rocha’s statement. The university declined to comment.

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

According to a criminal complaint from the DOJ, Rocha used his employment in the State Department between 1981 and 2002 to obtain classified information and affect U.S. foreign policy.

Following his employment at the State Department, Rocha transferred in 2006 as an advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, a joint command of the U.S. military whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.

The DOJ said that Rocha provided false and misleading information to the U.S. to maintain his secret status, traveled outside the U.S. to meet with Cuban intelligence operatives and made false and misleading statements to obtain travel documents.

After serving the foreign service, he settled in Miami as a businessman in the private sector.

‘Today, I no longer see the world through the radical eyes of my youth,’ Rocha said in his statement. ‘I left the Government 22 years ago, moved to this great city, and dedicated the rest of my life to my family and the education of my children. My long and successful transition to the private sector culminated in my becoming a top international executive in the mining sector for well over a decade.

‘The latter, however, cannot erase the damage done during my earlier career working for the Government,’ he added.

Rocha told the judge he takes full responsibility for his actions and accepts the penalty he has to pay.

‘Importantly, I am making, and will continue to make as required, significant amends through my unconditional collaboration to those I have betrayed,’ the former ambassador said. ‘I know that my actions have caused great pain to my family, former colleagues, and the closest of friends. I ask them all for their understanding and their forgiveness.’

The judge accepted Rocha’s guilty plea to counts 1 and 2 of the indictment, which charged him with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiring to defraud the U.S. and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice as required by law.

He was then sentenced to the statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, three years of supervised release and a special assessment. 

‘Convicted spy Victor Manuel Rocha worked as a spy for Communist #Cuba, while he served as a United States Ambassador,’ Gimenez said in a post on X in which he shared Rocha’s statement. ‘He is a traitor to our nation [and] must face the MAXIMUM sentence. No one believes his bogus Statement of Allocution!’

Under the terms of the parties’ plea agreement, Rocha must cooperate with the U.S., including assisting with any damage assessment related to his work on behalf of the Republic of Cuba. Rocha must relinquish all future retirement benefits, including pension payments, owed to him by the U.S. based upon his former State Department employment. 

He must also assign to the U.S. any profits that he may be entitled to receive in connection with any publication relating to his criminal conduct or his U.S. government service.

Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Danielle Wallace and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.