Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., wants federal agents caught destroying or concealing government documents to be eligible for a life sentence in prison.

Luna, who is leading a task force on the declassification of government records, is introducing a new bill called the Stopping High-level Record Elimination and Destruction (SHRED) Act of 2025.

It would levy a mandatory sentence of 20 years to life for any government official or employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ), or anyone in the wider intelligence community, found to have concealed, removed, or mutilated federal records, according to bill text previewed by Fox News Digital.

Federal law currently dictates that anyone found knowingly destroying, falsifying, or obstructing government records ‘with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States’ is eligible for a fine or up to 20 years in prison.

Any custodian of public records found to be destroying or concealing those records could be fined up to $2,000 or face up to three years in prison, or both.

Luna’s push for increased penalties comes amid her continued standoff with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the declassification of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., among others.

Trump officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have repeatedly vowed to lead with transparency, including on the subjects of Epstein and Kennedy.

However, Luna told Fox News Digital earlier this week that she had not had significant communications with the DOJ about her task force matters.

‘The DOJ has not been really responsive,’ she said Tuesday. ‘Even if they are, you know, conducting a criminal investigation, you should probably pick up the phone and call us, and not talk about it on the news.’

Conservative influencer Benny Johnson reported on whistleblower allegations within the last month that rank-and-file agents within the FBI were destroying documents in a bid to block Patel’s work

Meanwhile, there has been a tidal wave of pressure from the right for Bondi and Patel to declassify documents about Epstein. An initial round of information, first released to conservative influencers at the White House, was blasted for containing no meaningful evidence implicating anyone in the deceased pedophile’s crimes.

Bondi told Fox News host Mark Levin earlier this month that she was misled on the Epstein documents, and that she was alerted after that initial release to the Southern District of New York ‘sitting on thousands of pages of documents’ that she was not in possession of.

She said Americans would see ‘the full Epstein files,’ adding, ‘We will have it in our possession. We will redact it, of course, to protect grand jury information and confidential witnesses, but American people have a right to know.’

The DOJ was not able to immediately return a request for comment by Fox News Digital.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday that ‘we have never been closer to peace,’ as the U.S. waits for Russia’s answer on a 30-day ceasefire agreement. Ukraine accepted the deal earlier this week after a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia, on the condition that Moscow commits to the plan.

Leavitt noted that this morning President Donald Trump put out a scathing Truth Social post that included a message urging the Russians to accept the U.S. ceasefire proposal.

‘He is putting pressure on President Putin and the Russians to do the right thing,’ Leavitt told reporters. ‘Yesterday was a productive day for the United States of America and for the world. In terms of peace, we have never been this close to peace.’

In celebrating the administration’s success, Leavitt pointed out that yesterday NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised Trump’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Rutte told Trump that he ‘broke the deadlock’ in the Russia-Ukraine war with this week’s peace talks in Saudi Arabia and the opening of a ‘dialogue with the Russians.’

‘Ukraine, you broke the deadlock, as you said, all the killing and the young people dying, cities getting destroyed. And the fact that you did that, you started a dialogue with the Russians and the successful talks in Saudi Arabia, now with the Ukrainians. I really want to commend you for this,’ Rutte said.

Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for tougher sanctions on Russia and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to drag out the peace talks to prolong the war.

However, on Thursday, while taking questions from reporters alongside Rutte, Trump said he would prefer peace to sanctions, but noted that there were things the U.S. could do financially that would be ‘very bad for Russia.’ He did not specify what that would entail.

– Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is keeping the door open to a possible Republican run next year in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Sununu, who enjoys a large national profile, thanks to his regular appearances the past few years on the cable news networks and Sunday talk shows, emphasized that the ‘door is not closed,’ when asked on Fox News Radio’s ‘The Guy Benson Show’ if he’s considering a Senate run. 

And Sununu, who was elected and re-elected to four straight two-year terms as governor of the key New England swing state, touted on Thursday that if he were to run, ‘I would win, by the way.’

The 78-year-old Shaheen, the first woman in the nation’s history to win election as governor and as a U.S. senator, announced this week that she would retire at the end of next year rather than seek a fourth six-year term in the Senate.

Even before Shaheen’s announcement, her seat in New Hampshire was considered one of the GOP’s top pick-up opportunities in the 2026 midterms – along with Michigan, where Sen. Gary Peters is also retiring, and Georgia, where Republicans consider first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff vulnerable – as Republicans hope to expand their current 53-47 majority.

Sununu, in 2021, expressed interest in running for the Senate against his predecessor as governor, Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan, who was up for re-election in 2022. And the popular governor was heavily courted by national Republicans to take on Hassan.

But on Nov. 9, 2021, Sununu announced that he would instead run for a fourth term as governor, upsetting many Republicans in the nation’s capital.

And he heavily criticized the Senate.

‘When you look at what their (senators) job is and what a governor’s job is . . . it’s not even close. I can’t tell you how many senators told me, ‘You’re just going to have to wait around a couple of years to get anything done.’ Can you imagine me sitting around a couple of years,’ Sununu emphasized at the time. ‘They debate and talk and nothing gets done. . . . That’s not the world I live in.’

Fast-forward to this past year, and Sununu repeatedly said he wouldn’t seek to run for the Senate in 2026.

In a November interview with Fox News Digital, the then-governor reiterated what he had first said in a July interview.

‘Definitely ruling out running for the Senate in 2026. Yeah, definitely not on my dance card,’ Sununu said in an interview along the sidelines of the Republican Governors Association winter meeting in Florida.

The 50-year-old Sununu, who when he was first elected in 2016 was the nation’s youngest governor, was asked again about a 2026 Senate run in a Fox News Digital interview in early January, in his last full day in office.

‘I’m not planning on running for anything right now. I’m really not, at least for the next two, four, six years,’ he emphasized. ‘Who knows what happens down the road, but it would be way down the road and nothing, nothing I’m planning on, nothing my family would tolerate either short term.’

Sununu, in his interview on Thursday, cautioned that while he’s keeping the door open to a potential 2026 campaign, ‘I’m not saying it’s a high probability. Can’t wait to jump in. Definitely not.’

As for his change of mind from his steadfast no to a slight maybe, Sununu said that ‘some folks in New Hampshire especially, and some of our mutual friends in Washington, D.C., have asked me to at least keep the door open and reconsider, and I am.’

As for his timetable for making a decision, Sununu said on Friday in an interview on Fox News’ ‘America’s Newsroom’ that he would ‘take a few weeks to think about it.’

Sununu isn’t the only Republican mulling a Senate bid in New Hampshire.

Former Sen. Scott Brown, of Massachusetts, who later narrowly lost to Shaheen in New Hampshire in the 2014 election, is seriously considering a 2026 run.

Brown, who served four years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during President Donald Trump’s first administration, has been holding meetings with Republicans across New Hampshire for a couple of months and has met multiple times with GOP officials in the nation’s capital.

Brown recently met with top Trump administration political officials at the White House, sources tell Fox News Digital.

Brown, who told Fox News Digital late last year that he was seriously considering a Senate run, took aim at Granite State Democrats, arguing that ‘they’re just completely out of touch with what we want here in New Hampshire. And the more I think about it, I think we can do better.’

Sununu, who’s long been known for his frenetic pace and his confidence on the campaign trail, highlighted, ‘I know how to run. I know how to win. . . . I think we’ve got a great record here. I just know my voters, and they know me. . . . And so, if I really wanted to do this, I have no doubt we could be very, very successful. I know that sounds arrogant. . . . I don’t care. I’m just saying things are the ABCs of me winning.’

On his past criticism of how the Senate functions, Sununu noted that ‘there’s something that definitely changed from when I really didn’t want to do it in ’22 to today. You know, specifically just the priority. I mean, back then, I had Republicans in the U.S. Senate telling me balancing budgets didn’t matter,’ Sununu elaborated.

And he argued that ‘clearly that has changed.’

Sununu, who regularly highlights that he is a ‘budget hawk,’ pointed to President Donald Trump’s recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to overhaul and downsize the federal government. DOGE, steered by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, has swept through federal agencies, rooting out what the White House argues was billions in wasteful federal spending. It has also taken a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees. The moves by DOGE have triggered a slew of lawsuits in response.

‘We have DOGE going on. Thank you, President Trump. He’s talking about balancing budgets. He’s driving that message. And clearly, there’s a need for some leadership on something that I believe very, very strongly,’ Sununu said. ‘There’s a different attitude here. They’re taking their job seriously.’

Following Trump’s first term in the White House and in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of former President Biden’s 2020 election victory, Sununu became a leading vocal GOP Trump critic.

Sununu was a top surrogate and supporter of former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s final challenger in the 2024 GOP presidential primaries. 

But he did back the Republican nominee in the general election.

Asked about his current relationship with Trump and his team, Sununu shared in his Fox News Radio interview, ‘I was at the white House three weeks ago and emphasized ‘that relationship is not of concern.’

‘There’s a great understanding. I’ve been very supportive of what he’s [Trump] been doing, Sununu added. ‘Everyone has seen me out in the media for the last year, working hard for the Republican Party, working hard to get folks to vote the right way.’

And he added that his relationship with Trump and the president’s team ‘is the least of my concerns, to be honest.’

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., wants federal agents caught destroying or concealing government documents to be eligible for a life sentence in prison.

Luna, who is leading a task force on the declassification of government records, is introducing a new bill called the Stopping High-level Record Elimination and Destruction (SHRED) Act of 2025.

It would levy a mandatory sentence of 20 years to life for any government official or employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ), or anyone in the wider intelligence community, found to have concealed, removed, or mutilated federal records, according to bill text previewed by Fox News Digital.

Federal law currently dictates that anyone found knowingly destroying, falsifying, or obstructing government records ‘with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States’ is eligible for a fine or up to 20 years in prison.

Any custodian of public records found to be destroying or concealing those records could be fined up to $2,000 or face up to three years in prison, or both.

Luna’s push for increased penalties comes amid her continued standoff with the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the declassification of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., among others.

Trump officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have repeatedly vowed to lead with transparency, including on the subjects of Epstein and Kennedy.

However, Luna told Fox News Digital earlier this week that she had not had significant communications with the DOJ about her task force matters.

‘The DOJ has not been really responsive,’ she said Tuesday. ‘Even if they are, you know, conducting a criminal investigation, you should probably pick up the phone and call us, and not talk about it on the news.’

Conservative influencer Benny Johnson reported on whistleblower allegations within the last month that rank-and-file agents within the FBI were destroying documents in a bid to block Patel’s work

Meanwhile, there has been a tidal wave of pressure from the right for Bondi and Patel to declassify documents about Epstein. An initial round of information, first released to conservative influencers at the White House, was blasted for containing no meaningful evidence implicating anyone in the deceased pedophile’s crimes.

Bondi told Fox News host Mark Levin earlier this month that she was misled on the Epstein documents, and that she was alerted after that initial release to the Southern District of New York ‘sitting on thousands of pages of documents’ that she was not in possession of.

She said Americans would see ‘the full Epstein files,’ adding, ‘We will have it in our possession. We will redact it, of course, to protect grand jury information and confidential witnesses, but American people have a right to know.’

The DOJ was not able to immediately return a request for comment by Fox News Digital.

The ‘hostile political climate’ of the Trump administration means that states must ‘rethink’ their mandated abortion reporting requirements and ‘vigorously oppose new ones,’ according to the nation’s leading abortion research institute. But one pro-life activist told Fox News Digital such a move would be a ‘serious mistake.’

A Guttmacher Institute policy analysis report published this month concluded that ‘the benefits of state-mandated abortion reporting no longer outweigh the risks, a shift that is likely to accelerate as anti-abortion policymakers double down on punitive approaches to data collection while using the resulting data to further restrict abortion rights and access.’

‘The enactment of abortion reporting requirements for purely political reasons and their increasing weaponization against patients and providers are clear indications that the harms of this mandatory data collection now outweigh its benefits,’ researchers for the pro-abortion rights group said. ‘To prevent further harms, policymakers at all levels of government should work to remove existing reporting requirements and vigorously oppose new ones, along with any attempt to tie federal funding to abortion reporting.’

Guttmacher, which is considered the gold standard for accurate abortion statistics since it provides more comprehensive data and receives more reporting than the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recommended that, instead of doing away with reporting altogether, state policymakers should implement a voluntary form of data collection.

Pro-life advocates object to the Guttmacher recommendation.

‘Rolling back state-mandated abortion reporting would be a serious mistake,’ Mia Steupert, research associate at Charlotte Lozier Institute, a pro-life research group, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

‘Considering Dobbs placed the authority to enact protections for unborn children in the hands of the American people and their elected representatives at the federal and state levels, it’s critical to have access to good data so that the impact of those abortion policies can be evaluated,’ Steupert said, referring to the 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

The normative practice of abortion data collection comes primarily from states that report their numbers to the CDC. The data is then compiled to give a snapshot of how many abortions there are nationwide, the age of the mother and how far along she was. However, while most do, not every state requires abortion providers, hospitals and other medical providers to report their numbers.

Currently, 46 states and the District of Columbia have some form of mandated abortion reporting, according to the institute. California, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey do not require reporting.

‘Even the CDC agrees that accurate abortion data is important for public health in terms of measuring unintended pregnancies and tracking changes in clinical practice,’ Steupert said. ‘Ending state reporting requirements would give the abortion lobby a monopoly on abortion reporting, leaving the American people in the dark about the horrific realities of abortion.’

The information gathered in abortion reports varies by state but generally includes details such as the names of the medical facility and clinician involved in the abortion service. Demographic data on the person receiving an abortion, including age, race, ethnicity, marital status, place of residence, gestational age of the pregnancy, the type of abortion elected and number of previous live births are also included. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Guttmacher said their ‘recommendation isn’t an argument against states collecting abortion data, but a discussion of the risks and burdens of how it’s collected.’ 

‘Ending government-mandated abortion reporting does not contradict the collection of rigorous and accurate abortion data. We urge states to consider changing their laws and regulations to switch to voluntary models of data collection, which can produce high quality data while protecting the safety and privacy of patients and providers. We strongly oppose the intrusive and punitive federal abortion reporting mandate laid out in Project 2025,’ the spokesperson said. 

Project 2025 refers to a policy blueprint by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank and is not an official Trump administration policy guide.  

The report comes nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – the 1973 decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to abortion – and many states have since enacted abortion bans. 

The Trump administration also rolled back a Biden-era executive order that federally funded abortion services, re-enacting the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal taxpayer dollars for elective abortions.

Democrats pounced on President Donald Trump’s purchase of a red Tesla on Tuesday — even though former President Joe Biden similarly paraded a Jeep Wrangler at the White House in 2021. 

Trump flaunted the vehicle on the White House’s South Lawn with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is also heading up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as Tesla’s stock floundered earlier in the week. The share price rose following the White House event.

Democrats decried the move, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee labeled the Trump administration the ‘most corrupt administration in American history.’ 

But Biden also conducted a similar event at the White House in August 2021, when he drove an electric Jeep Wrangler on the White House South Lawn as part of a meeting with top executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. 

That event corresponded with Biden signing an executive order aiming for zero-emission vehicles manufactured in the U.S. to make up half of its vehicle production by the end of the decade. 

Musk and Tesla weren’t invited to Biden’s 2021 electic vehicle event. Musk had called out the Biden administration in a post on X at the time, saying, ‘Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn’t invited.’ 

When asked at the time why the White House had excluded Tesla, the largest electric vehicle maker in the U.S., White House press secretary Jen Psaki suggested that Tesla would receive an invitation for future events. 

‘Well, we of course welcome the efforts of automakers who recognize the potential of an electric vehicle future and support efforts that will help reach the President’s goal, and certainly Tesla is one of those companies,’ Psaki said in August 2021’I would not expect this is the last time we talk about clean cars and the move toward electric vehicles, and we look forward to having a range of partners in that effort.’

Meanwhile, the Biden’s administration’s refusal to meet with Musk served as the catalyst for Musk’s departure from the Democratic Party, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported in July 2024 that Musk had voted for Biden in 2020 and had reached out to the Biden White House following his inauguration, but the White House had refused to speak with him. 

The Journal reported that the Biden White House had hesitated to take Musk up on the offer due to concerns that ties to him would upset the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, since Tesla is the only non-union automaker in the U.S. 

Psaki said that for the electic vehicle event it had selected the ‘three largest employers of the United Auto Workers, so I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.’

Others criticized Trump for his Tuesday Tesla show. ‘I’m sure all the people losing their retirement, jobs, and health care because of Trump are glad to see the White House turned into a car dealership for the richest man on the planet,’ Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in an X post.

Fox Business’ Breck Dumma contributed to this report. 

The Senate will take a key procedural vote on Friday afternoon to potentially tee up final passage of a crucial stopgap government spending bill to avoid a shutdown as time runs out. 

After tense caucus meetings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed that he would vote for the House-passed short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), because ‘a shutdown would be a gift’ for President Donald Trump and Republicans. 

The Friday cloture vote was scheduled shortly after his Thursday evening announcement. It will take place shortly after 1:15 p.m. ET.

In order to move forward to a final passage vote, the stopgap bill will need 60 favorable votes to beat what’s known as the legislative filibuster. 

During a partial government shutdown, federal agencies and non-essential services would be halted. However, government functions deemed ‘essential’ would continue. National security protocols, such as border patrol, law enforcement and disaster response, stay active during shutdowns, for example. 

House Republicans managed to pass a CR earlier in the week that would keep spending levels the same as fiscal year (FY) 2024 until Oct. 1. But if a spending bill is not passed by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, the government will enter into a partial shutdown.

While some Senate Democrats, such as Schumer and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., have committed to supporting the CR, far more of their colleagues have publicly stated that they will oppose it. 

 ‘The House bill also irresponsibly fails to impose any constraints on the reckless and out-of-control Trump Administration,’ Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said in a late Thursday statement.  

‘I will oppose the House budget proposal. The best available solution is a 30-day stopgap funding measure to avoid a shutdown, during which time Congress can do its job to properly pass a bipartisan budget,’ he said. 

Democrats had pushed for a month-long CR, but Republicans didn’t budge from the House-passed plan. 

Before Schumer revealed his intention to support the bill while the rest of his caucus made their own decisions, meetings between the Democrats became so contentious that the press could hear a senator yelling, through thick, heavy wooden doors on Thursday. The voice was identified as that of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., by press, but her office would not confirm. 

Earlier Thursday, Fetterman slammed his colleagues for pledging to vote against the short-term bill, joking that their video announcements were ‘spicy.’

‘It wasn’t that long ago before we were lecturing that you can never shut the government down. So, that’s kind of inconsistent,’ he told reporters. 

‘We can all agree that it’s not a great CR, but that’s where we are, and that’s the choice,’ Fetterman explained. 

If the procedural vote on Friday garners enough votes to beat the legislative filibuster, a vote on final passage will be planned for within the next day and a half. It could come sooner if parties reach a time agreement.