The State Department is so far refusing to comment on a growing corruption crisis engulfing the Balkan nation of Albania — a vital U.S. ally in the region. 

Following an Albanian court’s decision to remove Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku from her position on allegations she interfered in two construction bids, socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama took the issue to the country’s Constitutional Court, which on Friday reinstated her until a ‘final decision’ could be made, according to media reports.

The Special Anti-Corruption and Organized Crime Structure (SPAK) issued a criminal indictment against Balluku on Oct. 31, alleging that she had been improperly influenced in her decision to favor one company in a tender for the construction of a 3.7-mile tunnel in southern Albania, Reuters reported. SPAK delivered an additional charge for violating rules in a Tirana road construction project on Nov. 21, the date when Balluku was removed from office.

The day prior to her November court appearance, Balluku told the country’s parliament that the accusations against her constituted ‘mudslinging, insinuations, half-truths and lies.’

As the second member of Rama’s cabinet to face corruption accusations since 2023, her charges have drawn the ire of Rama opponents.

Agim Nesho, former Albanian ambassador to the U.S. and the United Nations, told Fox News Digital that Balluku’s case demonstrates ‘the Rama government shows no sign of assuming moral responsibility or allowing justice the space to act independently. Instead, it appears intent on shielding Ms. Balluku, portraying the judiciary’s actions as an attack on the executive.’

Tirana’s ex-ambassador to Washington argued that ‘influencing the Constitutional Court may be an attempt to set a protective precedent — one that could prove useful if investigators ever seek to involve Mr. Rama himself in their investigations.’

‘It’s becoming increasingly clear that the emperor has no clothes, Nesho said, adding that Rama’s rule has amounted to ‘state capture’ as the ‘lack of checks and balances has enabled a recurring system of corruption across multiple of his terms.’

Nesho also claimed that Balluku had pointed to broader involvement of the Rama government in decision-making. Former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj, who went on the run after coming under SPAK investigation, has likewise alleged that Rama ‘directed all key decisions on tenders, finances, and public assets,’ according to Nesho’s claims.

Ahmetaj’s accusations included allegations that Rama is involved with mafia bosses. Rama responded to these insinuations by saying Ahmetaj ‘should not be taken seriously. Albanian politics is not tainted by the mafia,’ Balkanweb reported.

The U.S. has funded efforts for judicial reforms in Albania to aid its efforts toward accession into the European Union by cutting down on corruption. However, those reforms have led to legal backlogs that have drawn frustration and violence from the public.

Nesho said that ‘it is hard to see how a government that behaves like a banana republic gains accession to the E.U.’ He said that ‘Albania is a living contradiction in terms of law and order.’ While Nesho says Rama’s opposition has been ‘decimated by ‘lawfare’ and the compromising of legal institutions,’ Rama remains in office despite ‘documented multi-billion-dollar corruption scandals, documented electoral thefts across multiple voting cycles, and, most concerning, documented links to international drug cartels like the Sinaloa Cartel.’

Allegations that Rama is linked to the Sinaloa Cartel emerged after the prime minister met with Sinaloa-connected Luftar Hysa, who is sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury. Rama told an Albanian news outlet that he met with Hysa just once.

With Balluku’s removal, Nesho says that ‘public anger is directed not only at [her] but also at the irresponsible conduct of a regime that rules without accountability, abuses public property and finances, and faces no consequences despite society’s reaction.’ Nesho said many in the country have given the prime minister the nickname ‘Ramaduro,’ saying it’s ‘a direct comparison to the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.’

Rama’s press office told Fox News Digital that it declined to comment on Nesho’s allegations against him.

In May 2021, the State Department sanctioned former Prime Minister Sali Berisha over corruption allegations, which forbade him from traveling to the U.S. Fox News Digital asked the State Department whether it had plans to issue similar sanctions against Balluku.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘We have no comment on ongoing legal matters.’

The U.S. Embassy in Tirana issued the same response to Fox News Digital when asked whether it would suspend Balluku’s visa as a result of her removal from office.

James Boasberg, the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and a Biden appointee, is a judicial disgrace. Boasberg’s recent rulings show he is unfit for the bench.

His repeated abuse of judicial power, whether undermining national security, releasing violent threats, or enabling unlawful surveillance, demonstrates a blatant disregard for the Constitution and a dangerous partisan agenda that disqualifies him from holding a lifetime appointment.

The time has come for the House of Representatives to do its job and impeach him.

The Constitution fixes the term of service for a judge as ‘during good Behaviour.’ The Constitution also dictates that impeachment is proper for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’  House Democrats in 2020 argued an official can get impeached for an abuse of power even without a statutory crime, setting an important precedent. The Constitution draws no distinction between the requirements for impeaching Executive Branch and Judicial Branch officials. What is good for the Executive Branch goose is just as good for the Judicial Branch gander, so the House should not hesitate to pursue a judicial impeachment.

Boasberg’s first act of misconduct occurred during a judicial conference. During the earliest stages of President Trump’s second term, Boasberg expressed the view to Chief Justice John Roberts that President Trump would not follow court orders. The President has not violated a court order. Boasberg’s claim had no basis and was plainly partisan. Boasberg baselessly told Chief Justice Roberts that Trump wouldn’t follow court orders, an unfounded partisan claim that undermines any expectation of impartiality.

Tren de Aragua is a barbaric international state-sponsored terrorist organization from Venezuela. MS-13 is an animalistic gang based in El Salvador.  Thousands of these gang members have come to the United States and perpetrated horrific acts. In March, the Trump administration deported hundreds of these barbarians to El Salvador, where they were sent to a maximum security prison. Boasberg issued a highly illegal and dangerous order directing the government to turn around planes as they were in international airspace, flying over the Gulf of America. In doing so, Boasberg exposed an ongoing military operation and gave an order that could have endangered Americans.

Why would we have security in place in the United States to deal with an unexpected influx of hundreds of dangerous terrorist, because some rabidly partisan judge just illegally opened his courtroom and stunningly attempted to sabotage an ongoing military operation? Rather, the security footprint was in El Salvador—hundreds of military, intel, and law-enforcement officials—where the terrorists were expected to land. There was also a serious risk to the personnel on the planes, given that they had a limited fuel supply and were in the middle of the Gulf of America. Boasberg showed a blatant disregard for these serious risks in issuing a highly illegal and dangerous order that he lacked jurisdiction to give.

The planes landed in El Salvador, and Boasberg began contempt proceedings. Even after a D.C. Circuit panel rejected his reasoning, Boasberg pressed ahead, ordering the administration to detail its deliberations that March day. The Justice Department is objecting, asserting that Boasberg is violating the foundational principle of separation of powers by having executive branch officials illegally divulge privileged internal discussions.

Moreover, Boasberg played a key role in Operation Arctic Frost—one of the most dangerous spy scandals in our history. Biden Special Counsel Jack Smith, a political scud missile sent to take out President Trump via lawfare with the full blessing of Biden and his Justice Department, subpoenaed the phone records of nearly a dozen U.S. senators. Boasberg issued a gag order preventing the phone companies from disclosing the information for a year. With no basis, he reasoned that disclosure could lead to destruction of evidence and witness intimidation. The relevant statute, 2 U.S.C. § 6628, explicitly requires disclosure to the Senate when such spying occurs. Boasberg now is attempting to weasel his way out of this jam, claiming that he did not know that Smith was seeking the senators’ records. Either Boasberg is lying, or he was an illegal rubber stamp who signed whatever Smith put under his nose. It is disgraceful, and Boasberg, citing the same separation-of-powers claim that the Justice Department is using in the contempt proceeding, refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee last week.

Finally, Boasberg has shown a flippant concern for the security of President Trump. Nathalie Rose Jones is a deeply disturbed woman. She made a social media post threatening to disembowel President Trump. She admitted to the post when the Secret Service visited her. Then, Jones attended a protest and was spotted near the White House carrying a knife. Authorities arrested her, and even Democrat-appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, exercising the most basic level of common sense, ordered her held without bail. Then, Boasberg stepped in and overruled Upadhyaya, releasing Jones to go home with an electronic monitor.

Boasberg has not simply issued a ruling with which conservatives disagree. Boasberg instead has engaged in a pattern of impeachment-worthy behavior—extremely lawless and dangerous partisan rulings—that shows no signs of ending. He is bolder than ever, refusing to testify before Congress and proceeding merrily along with his absurd contempt vendetta. The House disgraced itself with two impeachments of President Trump. It is time for the House to redeem itself by bringing reason back to the impeachment process. Boasberg is a more-than-worthy candidate, and the House should impeach him before they go home for the year.

GOP House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he plans to commence contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton for ignoring the committee’s subpoenas related to its ongoing probe into the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. 

In July, a bipartisan House Oversight Subcommittee approved motions to subpoena Bill and Hillary Clinton and a slew of other high-profile political figures to aid its investigation looking into how the federal government handled Epstein’s sex trafficking case. 

The subpoenas were then sent out in early August, and the Clinton’s were scheduled to testify Dec. 17-18. 

‘It has been more than four months since Bill and Hillary Clinton were subpoenaed to sit for depositions related to our investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes. Throughout that time, the former president and former secretary of state have delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony,’ Comer said in a press release issued Friday evening.

‘If the Clintons fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January, the Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings to hold them accountable.’

Comer’s threats come as Democrats from the House Oversight Committee released a new batch of photos obtained from Epstein’s estate, which included further images of the disgraced financier with powerful figures like President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Thousands of images were reportedly released, with potentially more to come.

Other high-profile figures subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee include James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, Robert Mueller, William Barr, Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzales.

In addition to testimony from these individuals, Comer and the Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for all documents and communications pertaining to the case against Epstein.

In September, the committee released tens of thousands of pages of Epstein-related records in compliance with the subpoena, and the Oversight Committee indicated the DOJ would continue producing even more records as it works through needed redactions and other measures that must occur before they are released.

A top Senate Republican argued that if allegations against ‘Squad’ member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that she married her brother to enter the U.S. were true, she’d be breaking several laws.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined the long-standing scrutiny against Omar Friday after President Donald Trump revived the allegations during a rally pushing his affordability agenda in Pennsylvania earlier this week.

In a post on X responding to a White House social media account that charged, ‘Yes, [Omar] married her brother,’ Cruz listed a trio of federal and state laws the progressive lawmaker may have violated.

‘If this is true, then Omar faces criminal liability under three different statutes,’ Cruz said.

Cruz argued that Omar could have committed federal marriage fraud, which stipulates that it is a felony to knowingly enter into a marriage to evade immigration laws, and could lead to up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and deportation.

Omar was born in Somalia and came to the U.S. in 1995 after her family was granted asylum. She became a citizen in 2000. Omar, who is Muslim, has been married legally three times, first in a religious marriage to Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in 2002, then to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 before later divorcing and legally marrying Hirsi. In 2020, she married political aide Tim Mynett. 

Cruz noted that Omar could also be breaking Minnesota’s state incest law, a felony in the state punishable by jail time up to 10 years. He also contended that she could be liable for tax fraud, specifically if joint tax returns were filed while she was not legally married.

That violation would levy up to a $100,000 fine and up to three years in prison.

The Senate Republican’s legal analysis of the situation comes after Trump resurrected the unsubstantiated claims that Omar had married her brother for immigration purposes that have dogged the lawmaker since she entered politics nearly a decade ago. She has denied the allegations.

Still, Trump charged, ‘She married her brother to get in, right?’

‘If I married my sister to get my citizenship, do you think I’d last for about two hours or something less than that? She married her brother to get in,’ he said. ‘Therefore, she’s here illegally. She should get the hell out.’

Fox News Digital did not immediately hear back for comment from Omar’s office.

House Republicans have released a 111-page plan for reforming healthcare that they hope to vote on next week.

House GOP leadership aides also told reporters on Friday afternoon that they expected a vote on extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies to also happen next week as part of the amendment process to the final bill, called the ‘Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.’ The subsidies have been the subject of fierce inter-party debate for Republicans.

‘We expect that there will be an amendment that I believe is being worked on, so the process will allow for that amendment,’ aides said.

The plan as-is includes provisions to codify association health plans, which allow small businesses and people who are self-employed to band together to purchase healthcare coverage plans, giving them access to greater bargaining power.

Republicans also plan to appropriate funding for cost-sharing reductions beginning in 2027, which are designed to lower out-of-pocket medical costs in the individual healthcare market. House GOP leadership aides said it would bring down the cost of premiums by 12%.

New transparency requirements for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are also in the legislation, aimed at forcing PBMs to be more upfront about costs to employers.

PBMs are third parties that act as intermediaries between pharmaceutical companies and those responsible for insurance coverage, often responsible for administrative tasks and negotiating drug prices.

PBMs have also been the subject of bipartisan ire in Congress, with both Republicans and Democrats accusing them of being part of a broken system to inflate health costs.

But the most divisive measure for Republicans is likely not yet fleshed out. 

A majority of House Republicans are against extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which were designed to get affordable health insurance for more Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democrats voted to pass the enhanced subsidies in 2021 and extended them through 2022 when they controlled Congress.

A group of moderate House Republicans has joined Democrats now in vehemently pushing for those subsidies to be extended again, as millions of Americans face near-certain healthcare price hikes beginning in January.

Two separate bipartisan efforts have been launched to force a vote on extending the subsidies in some form. But any such push would require support from virtually all House Democrats to succeed, and their leaders have not given their blessing to either plan.

‘We’re going to evaluate every single good faith proposal. But it has to meaningfully provide certainty to the American people who are at risk of having their health care ripped away from them,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Friday.

But conservatives have warned they would not support any such extension unless paired with significant reforms to what they view as a long-broken system that fuels healthcare price inflation.

‘I think that would be a disastrous plan. I mean, we’ve clearly seen that Obamacare is the Titanic. It’s going down. I think throwing money after it is just going to be wasteful,’ House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News’ Chad Pergram on Friday.

President Donald Trump is being sued by a historic preservation group seeking to stop construction of his new White House ballroom.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration, arguing that it skipped mandatory reviews and failed to seek congressional approval before demolishing the East Wing of the White House.

‘No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,’ the lawsuit stated. ‘And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.’

Attorneys for the nonprofit argued Trump’s project ‘should be immediately halted’ and work on the 90,000-square-foot ballroom project should be paused until the reviews are completed.

When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate and beautify the White House – just like all of his predecessors did.’ 

Construction on the ballroom started in October, leading to the demolition of the White House’s historic East Wing. The project is being privately funded at an estimated cost of $300 million, up from a $200 million estimate in July when the project was unveiled.

The lawsuit claims the Trump administration failed to submit its demolition plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts and Congress before construction began, arguing it is ‘depriving the public of its right to be informed.’

Additionally, the National Trust said the project violates numerous federal statutes, including the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and claimed Trump circumvented the Constitution. 

‘The President, acting unilaterally, is wholly without constitutional authority to build or demolish anything on federal Grounds,’ the lawsuit stated.

The National Trust is requesting that a federal judge prevent the Trump administration from continuing work on the Ballroom project until the necessary federal commissions have reviewed and approved the project’s plans, an adequate environmental review has been conducted and Congress has authorized the ballroom’s construction.

The White House is expected to submit plans for Trump’s new ballroom to a federal planning commission before the end of the year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Partisan fights played out publicly in high-profile votes in the Senate this week, but lawmakers are quietly finding common ground in their support of a push to have the unedited footage of Caribbean boat strikes released.

Tucked into the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a provision that would require the Pentagon to release the full, unedited footage of boat strikes carried out in the Caribbean in exchange for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s travel budget to be fully funded.

The Trump administration has come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill for repeated strikes on alleged drug boats from Venezuela over the last several months, which came to a head last week in the wake of the deadly Sept. 2 double-strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea.

‘I think we need to see all of the video footage, particularly of the second strike from Sept. 2,’ Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital.

Lawmakers in the upper chamber don’t know who slipped the provision into the colossal legislative package, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who told reporters, ‘I would imagine that it got added at the leadership level.’

The massive legislative package sailed through the House on Thursday and is set for a series of procedural tests in the Senate beginning on Monday. And many lawmakers broadly support the release of the footage, particularly of the double-tap strike, to Congress.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Digital that his committee, and ‘maybe the [Senate] Intel Committee,’ should have complete access to the unedited footage.

‘And then, based upon that, we can decide whether or not we would push further,’ Rounds said. ‘But let us look at the facts first.’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who also sits on the Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Digital that he fully supported the provision and noted that Hegseth and the Pentagon had already released partial footage, treating it like ‘almost a commercial.’

‘So you released part of the video, and you’re banging your chest about it,’ Kaine said. ‘You should release the whole thing.’

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, agreed and told Fox News Digital that it shouldn’t be a roadblock to passage of the broader defense package, either.

‘There’s no excuse for not releasing it. It shouldn’t. If somebody is not releasing something, it usually tells me that they don’t want it to see the light of day,’ he said. ‘I just want the video of the rest of the strike. That’s not me. It’s the American people who need to see this. They need to know what’s being done in their name.’

During the week, the so-called ‘Gang of Eight,’ which includes Republican and Democratic leadership from the Senate and House along with the chairs and ranking members of the intelligence committees in both chambers, met with Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a briefing on the strikes.

Neither Thune nor Senate Intel Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., commented on the briefing, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., characterized it as ‘very unsatisfying.’

‘I asked Secretary Hegseth, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, would he let every member of Congress see unedited videos of the Sept. 2 strike? His answer, ‘We have to study it well,’’ Schumer said. ‘In my view, they’ve studied it long enough. Congress ought to be able to see it.’

Some Republicans support more transparency on the matter, too, including Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who told Fox News Digital that he didn’t ‘have any problem’ releasing the footage.

But he emphasized that the entire point of the strikes was to combat the flow of drugs into the country.

‘We’re losing sight of the most important narrative, and that is, more Americans have died of illegal drugs in the last seven years than World War I, World War II and Vietnam combined,’ Daines said.

The White House accused Democrats from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of spreading a ‘cherry-picked’ and ‘false narrative’ Friday after they released another batch of photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, this time featuring prominent figures including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Woody Allen.

The release comes about a week after the same group said it ‘received never-before-seen photos and videos of Jeffrey Epstein’s private island that are a harrowing look behind Epstein’s closed doors.’

‘Oversight Dems received 95,000 new photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. These disturbing images raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. Time to end this White House cover-up. Release the files!’ Oversight Dems said Friday on X.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson accused Democrats of ‘selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative.’

‘Here’s the reality: Democrats like Stacey Plaskett and Hakeem Jeffries were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein AFTER he was a convicted sex offender,’ she added. ‘The Democrat hoax against President Trump has been repeatedly debunked, and the Trump administration has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have by repeatedly calling for transparency, releasing thousands of pages of documents and calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends.

‘It’s time for the media to stop regurgitating Democrat talking points and start asking Democrats why they wanted to hang around Epstein after he was convicted.’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., previously has fired back at accusations that he may have had dinner with Jeffrey Epstein or solicited donations from the disgraced financier. A House GOP effort to censure Plaskett also failed in mid-November.

A White House official also told Fox News Friday that the House Democrats selectively chose some of the photos to release, with random redactions intended for political purposes. None of the documents, the official added, have ever shown any wrongdoing by Trump.

Representatives for Clinton, Gates and Allen did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Other images released Friday included photos of sex toys. 

On Wednesday, a federal judge cleared the Justice Department to release secret grand jury transcripts from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman reversed his earlier decision to keep the transcripts under wraps, citing Congress’ recent action on the Epstein files. Berman had previously warned that the contents of the roughly 70 pages of grand jury materials contain little new information.

That move came just one day after Judge Paul Engelmayer granted the DOJ’s motion to unseal separate grand jury transcripts and exhibits in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case.

Fox News’ Kate Sprague, Anders Hagstrom, Diana Stancy, Emma Colton and Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz recently returned from a Middle East swing, touting the ‘amazing progress’ in the implementation of President Donald Trump’s Israel–Gaza peace deal, and telling Fox News Digital that the situation abroad is ‘night and day to where we were a year ago.’

Fox News Digital spoke exclusively with Waltz Thursday evening, just hours after he returned to the United States from the Middle East.

Waltz traveled from the Lebanese border to the Syrian border, the Egyptian border, Jordan to Israel and beyond.

‘The purpose of the trip was to get on the ground and see the implementation,’ Waltz said. ‘We met with the Jordanians, the king, the prime minister and president of Israel — we met with our troops.’ 

Waltz explained that there is a ‘small contingent’ of approximately 100 U.S. troops in Israel — not in Gaza — to help to pull together humanitarian aid and military coordination.

‘We have had air defense assets in Israel for quite some time to deal with attacks from Iran,’ Waltz said. ‘This is now a small headquarters element to provide a coordination — no one was talking to each other, and the U.S. military is doing what it does best.’

Waltz said the U.S. troops in Israel are working with the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, the Israelis, Egyptians and Arab countries, while having contact with Palestinians and ensuring that humanitarian aid is being delivered.

‘From an ‘America First’ standpoint, the United States shouldn’t be doing this alone,’ Waltz said. ‘Burden-sharing is a key component and dozens are helping under President Trump’s leadership.’

Waltz led the charge at the United Nations, implementing the now-adopted resolution that endorses the Board of Peace, sets parameters for Gaza’s transitional governance and launches the International Stabilization Force outlined in Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.

Trump’s plan to end the Gaza conflict calls for Gaza to be a de-radicalized, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors. It also calls for Gaza to be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza and more.

Under the peace plan, Israeli forces would withdraw from the region, and a temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people of Gaza will be created.

That government will be under the oversight of a new international transitional body called the Board of Peace, chaired by Trump and other members and heads of state.

The resolution makes the plan international law.

‘At the end of the day, Hamas has to go,’ Walz explained. ‘What we cannot let happen is Hamas survives, and the international community pours billions of dollars into the situation — Hamas attacks Israel again, as they previously pledged to do, and Israel responds, and we are in the same situation — we cannot let that happen again. That’s why we are doing things differently this time.’

Waltz pointed to the Board of Peace led by Trump, as well as the newly formed stabilization force, with troops from countries like Indonesia and Azerbaijan — as well as the technocratic committee responsible for turning government services back on.

‘This has never been done before,’ Waltz said. ‘My job was to get the United Nations and the international community to bless that, and we did.’ 

‘The bottom line is this: this was not a big symbolic thing or deal for the president,’ Waltz continued. ‘He is serious about bringing Middle East peace once and for all.’ 

Waltz explained that the ‘next strategic step will be an extension of the Abraham Accords,’ which he described as the president’s ‘true objective.’

Waltz explained that the implementation of the peace deal ‘unlocks the next round of the Abraham Accords.’

‘There are a number of great conversations ongoing,’ he said.

‘We have to remember where we were a year ago, and see everything in perspective,’ he explained. ‘You had Iran marching towards a nuke; Hezbollah launching rockets on Israel; hostages in tunnels, and now you have hostages out; Lebanon has the best chance in a generation; and Iran had its nuclear capabilities obliterated in Operation Midnight Hammer—all in ten months.’

Waltz added: ‘It is truly incredible. It is night and day to where we were a year ago.’

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Republican John Nagel, who is running against Dem. Rep. Ilhan Omar in her Minneapolis district, spoke to Fox News Digital about the responsibility she holds in the unfolding massive fraud scandal that has garnered national headlines.

‘Where did this actually start?’ Nagel told Fox News Digital. ‘She passed legislation. Her legislation actually started and it allowed people to get into Feeding Our Future. If you look at where the fraud is, it’s primarily her [5th Congressional District], the district that I’m running in against her. And it’s really odd to think that you know all the fraud just happened in a particular area, and it was a bill that she, you know, particularly put together.’

Nagel is referring to allegations that the free meals at the center of the massive fraud scandal were made possible by the 2020 MEALS Act, introduced by Omar and passed with bipartisan support. He told Fox News Digital the public deserves to know who helped her craft that legislation.

Members of Omar’s inner circle personally profited from the $1 billion welfare fraud scandal in her district that has placed her Somali constituency under a White House microscope, Nagel said. He also said that Omar held events at one of the restaurants, Safari Land, which was named in the fraud case, knew one of its now-convicted owners and had a staffer who was also convicted.

‘If you look at the Safari Land restaurant, if you’re gonna be in politics, you need to go through the people at the Safari Land restaurant,’ Nagel said. ‘They kind of control the politics. She had all of her fundraising things. I mean, that was sort of her hangout. That’s where she spent money, got donations.’

Guhaad Hashi Said, sometimes referred to as an ‘enforcer’ for Omar’s campaign, is one of the over 70 people who have been indicted for his role in the Feeding Our Future scandal. Nagel told Fox News Digital the public deserves answers on that relationship and what Omar knew about the fraud.

‘There’s a lot of really deep, deep ties,’ Nagel said.

‘I think time will tell with the investigation. But again, there’s just too much circumstantial evidence to look at this and say, she had to have known something, or what staff member knew something?’

The Small Business Administration is investigating a network of Somali groups in Minnesota that it says is tied to the scandal, and a House Oversight Committee has opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s role.

President Donald Trump last week criticized Omar and blamed the Somali community for the scope of fraud occurring in Minnesota. 

Nagel also asserted that there was a money trail potentially funneled to Omar from her associates tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, and he said that she has returned some of the money but not all of it.

‘A whole lot of people that were convicted donated a whole lot of money. Omar says that she gave the money back,’ Nagel said. ‘Well, if you go into public records, she gave some money back, but there’s a whole lot more money there that she didn’t report. And I think if people were just to go through the everyday records that are out there, you’ll find out that her involvement in the money that she has is questionable.’

Nagel told Fox News Digital, ‘If she truly cared about the fraud, her name wouldn’t be attached all over to these other people. She came on and she made a statement about how terrible it is to basically steal food from children. Yeah, okay, that’s a really nice thing to say, but you have way too many people that you’re associated with that actually did that. Now she yells racism anytime somebody puts any pressure on her.’

Fox News Digital asked Nagel what can be done to fix the fraud issues. He said, first and foremost, Minnesota must elect a new governor.

‘The things that we can do to fix this is you get yourself a new competent, honest governor, you get yourself a new honest, competent AG,’ Nagel said. ‘We get rid of Ilhan Omar, and we put people in the state of Minnesota that actually want to do the right thing. They’re not in it for the money, they’re in it because they’re great state employees and they’re serving the public. That’s what we’re gonna have to do. You’re gonna have to entirely root the Democratic Party, and then anybody that’s been appointed to a position, we’re gonna have to root them out too, to find out if you know they’ve been letting things slide.’

Nagel described the fraud situation in Minnesota as a ‘cancer’ that will continue to ‘spread’ unless ‘you cut the entire cancer out.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Omar’s office for comment. 

‘I think what happened is that, you know, when you have these kind of new programs that are, um, designed to help people, you’re oftentimes relying on third parties to be able to facilitate. And I just think that a lot of the COVID programs that were set up — they were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created,’ Omar said last week.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.