House Republicans are claiming vindication after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted his company was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to ‘censor certain COVID-19 content’ during the pandemic.

‘For too long, the Harris-Biden admin pressured social media companies to censor Americans’ views online. This was a deliberate abuse of power to stifle free speech,’ Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the House GOP’s campaign arm, said on X. 

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the No. 3 Republican leader, said on the site, ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to [the House Judiciary Committee] leaves no room for doubt: this was an intentional assault on our First Amendment rights. This abuse of power must end now.’

Zuckerberg wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, earlier this week that he wished he and his company had been more outspoken about government censorship concerns in 2021.

‘Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure,’ the billionaire Facebook founder said. ‘I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.’

Zuckerberg said the administration ‘repeatedly pressured our teams for months,’ though he noted, ‘We regularly hear from governments around the world and others with various concerns around public discourse and public safety.’

Jordan has been conducting a monthslong investigation into whether the Biden administration colluded with social media companies to suppress free speech, something the White House has pushed back against.

But Republicans now say Zuckerberg’s letter is proof their suspicions were correct.

‘Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden-Harris regime pressured him to censor conservative voices. There must be accountability within the federal government,’ Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wrote on X.

Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said, ‘Wow. If it wasn’t glaringly obvious enough already (it was), Zuckerberg is now coming clean and admitting that Facebook censored information at the request of the Biden-Harris WH. It’s time to finally hold Big Tech accountable for their blatant censorship of conservatives.’

‘When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety,’ the White House said Tuesday of Zuckerberg’s letter.

‘Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.’

Fox News’ Kate Sprague contributed to this report.

The Biden-Harris administration may be attempting to ‘Trump-proof’ the Department of Justice (DOJ) by hiring permanent appointees to some federal positions, according to findings from a watchdog group’s public records request. 

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) and shared with Fox News Digital show the administration is using an ‘obscure hiring authority’ that bypasses normal hiring processes based on merit to secure DOJ positions that could thwart former President Trump’s agenda if he takes office in 2025. 

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is utilizing Schedule A hiring authority to fill hundreds of attorney and judge positions in career civil service roles without competitive selection, the watchdog group noted. 

‘The foundation of our democracy or our republic is the Constitution, and the Constitution vests decision making authority in the executive branch and the president, and then also in principal and inferior officers in the government agencies, so they are supposed to be representing the people,’ PPT founder and former U.S Department of Education worker Michael Chamberlain told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

‘The president is elected by the people. Now attempts to fight, whether it comes from career officials inside the government or others outside the government – especially inside the government – to undermine the ability of those principal and inferior officers to make those decisions, that seems to me to be very undemocratic,’ he said.

According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), while Schedule A is designed to hire individuals with disabilities or for specific roles like chaplains and scientists, it also secures positions beyond the current president’s term. 

Although federal law restricts Schedule A appointments from being ‘policymaking or confidential,’ they are being used to staff highly ‘politicized’ offices, such as the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), which plays a key role in advancing the Biden-Harris administration’s environmental policies and ensuring their continuity even under a potential future administration change.

According to the documents, more than 150 attorneys were placed inside the DOJ’s Anti-Trust Division, and more than 100 immigration judges. Immigration judges determine ‘whether a noncitizen may remain in the United States or must leave the country,’ according to the DOJ.

‘Until recently, anti-trust enforcement was a relatively technical and non-partisan division. But the Biden-Harris administration’s increasingly aggressive implementation has sparked complaints of politicized enforcement. The administration is also using Schedule A to install immigration judges – again, outside of the normal merit-based system – who will rule on cases of those in a position to benefit from the administration’s immigration policies,’ PPT said in a news release.

Schedule A was also used to hire attorneys for ENRD, which is responsible for enforcing environmental laws pertaining to the administration’s climate agenda, which includes the ‘collective pursuit of environmental justice,’ and upholding the interests of Native American tribes, according to its website.

‘The ENRD is a vital office in advancing the Biden-Harris administration’s energy and climate policies, and the placement of Biden-Harris loyalists is a means to defend those policies even if a future Trump (or other) administration seeks to change them,’ PPT said.

‘We were struck mainly by the magnitude of the hires rather than by any individual names,’ Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain added that certain offices, including ATF, the Office of the Inspector General and the Civil Rights Division, denied sharing records under privacy or related exemptions.

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration made it harder to fire federal workers. 

Biden deemed the rule to be ‘a step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people.’ 

The Office of Personnel Management, the government’s chief human resources agency, implemented new regulations this year barring career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees, or as other at-will workers, who are more easily dismissed from their jobs. It comes in response to Schedule F, an executive order Trump issued in 2020 that sought to allow for reclassifying tens of thousands of the 2.2 million federal employees and thus reduce their job security protections, according to The Associated Press. 

Fox News Digital did not hear back from the White House by publication deadline. 

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is issuing a subpoena for information on the political work conducted by the daughter of New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.

Jordan sent a letter to Michael Nellis, the founder and CEO of Authentic Campaigns — a company that’s done political work for top Democratic clients like President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — accusing him of failing to comply with House investigators’ demands for any and all documents related to the prosecution of former President Trump.

The committee wrote to Loren Merchan, the company’s president and Judge Merchan’s daughter, earlier this month requesting documents in its probe into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump.

Jordan pointed out in his Wednesday letter that Nellis himself rejected that request as well as a subsequent one later in the month.

‘As such, the Committee is left with no choice but to resort to compulsory process,’ Jordan wrote. ‘Popularly elected prosecutors, such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have engaged in an unprecedented abuse of authority by prosecuting a former President of the United States and current nominee for that office. Of relevance to the Committee’s oversight is the impartiality of Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding trial judge, due to his refusal to recuse himself from the case in light of his apparent conflicts of interest and biases.

‘One such conflict is Ms. Merchan’s — daughter of Judge Merchan and President of Authentic Campaigns — work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the possible financial benefit that Ms. Merchan and Authentic Campaigns received from the prosecution and conviction of President Trump.’

Jordan said public reports indicated to him that both Nellis and Loren Merchan were ‘closely involved in the presidential campaigns of both President Biden and Vice President Harris.’

‘During Ms. Merchan’s employment with the Harris campaign, Authentic Campaigns received over $7 million in compensation for its services. You also worked for then-presidential candidate Harris and it appears you continue to do so. Authentic Campaigns conducted work for the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign and, according to public records, was paid just over $2 million in a one-month period for its work,’ he wrote.

The subpoena is narrower in scope than Jordan’s previous request for information. His Aug. 1 letter demanded Loren Merchan hand over documents related to any work for Biden and Harris, in addition to any work that refers to Trump’s prosecution or indictment.

Jordan is giving Nellis until Sept. 13 to comply, according to the subpoena viewed by Fox News Digital.

Nellis reacted to the subpoena in a post on X on Wednesday afternoon, saying the company was ‘thoroughly reviewing the subpoena with our legal team and will provide updates as soon as we have more information.’

‘Let us be clear: these allegations against our company are completely false and purely politically motivated,’ Nellis wrote. ‘This is a blatant attempt to intimidate us and divert attention from Donald Trump’s conviction. We refuse to be bullied, and we will not allow House Republicans or MAGA extremists to spread lies about our work. We remain steadfast in our mission and are deeply grateful for the unwavering support of our friends and family during this time.’

Republicans have accused Judge Merchan of political bias over his daughter’s political work. Trump’s legal team asked Merchan to recuse himself before the trial began, which he did not.

A New York state ethics panel backed Merchan’s decision in a June 2023 decision.

Jordan argued in his letter, however, ‘Judge Merchan’s conflicts of interest and biases in the case against President Trump, the Republican nominee in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, implicate serious federal interests.’

‘Congress has a specific and manifestly important interest in preventing politically motivated prosecutions of current and former presidents, especially in venues in which real or perceived biases exist. Among other things, if state or local prosecutors are able to engage in politically motivated prosecutions of Presidents of the United States (current or former) for personal acts, this could have a profound effect on how presidents choose to exercise their powers while in office,’ the letter said.

Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to claims he paid an adult film actress to keep quiet about their affair — which the ex-president has denied. His lawyers are appealing that ruling in light of the Supreme Court’s July decision fleshing out presidential immunity. 

His sentencing hearing is currently scheduled for Sept. 18.

Fox News Digital reached out to Authentic Campaigns for comment.

FIRST ON FOX – Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts on Wednesday unveiled a new website created by the conservative think tank that aims to inform Americans about Vice President Kamala Harris’ ‘dangerously liberal’ policy record, as well as a six-figure text campaign targeting independent voters in key swing states. 

The website, dangerouslyliberal.com, summarizes the Biden-Harris administration’s history of what the organization calls ‘failed liberal policies’ on the border, the economy and inflation, energy, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), education and parental rights, ‘government weaponization,’ health care and crime. As Roberts explained to Fox News Digital, the website serves as a resource to fill the gap as the Harris-Walz campaign still has yet to roll out a policy website of their own.

‘It tells us everything we need to know about the policy record of the vice president, when her campaign is running away from posting any policy prescriptions on their campaign website,’ Roberts told Fox News Digital. ‘And the reason that the vice president is running away from that policy record is because it’s awful. I thought that I would never live through another presidency as disastrous to Americans as Jimmy Carter’s. But the Biden-Harris administration has been even worse, particularly on the economy, on inflation, on energy, on the border, on foreign policy. Our website calls the balls and strikes. It gives Americans sort of the report card on the vice president’s policy record. And the reason she doesn’t want to talk about it is because that policy record is why Americans are suffering.’ 

‘The best description, just speaking philosophically, of Vice President Harris’s policy record is dangerously liberal. I actually can’t think of a better phrase to describe it,’ he added. 

The Harris-Walz campaign, meanwhile, is reportedly planning to roll out an ad blitz Wednesday that will run until Election Day in an attempt to tie former President Donald Trump to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. The project has been billed by the conservative think tank as a blueprint for a future Republican administration to restructure many parts of the U.S. government. The Trump campaign has stressed that it is not affiliated with the project, and Trump himself has gone on record saying he does not agree with all of their positions.

Roberts rejected ‘mischaracterizations’ by the Harris-Walz campaign, which he says has been lacking ‘a real focus on policy, substance.’ The Harris campaign website, which includes pages to buy merchandise, donate and get to know the candidate’s background, remains devoid of any policy plans more than a month after she became the Democratic presidential nominee. 

‘Taking a step back from our own ideological perspective, we know that Americans on the political left want to have that conversation, too. And even though we might disagree, in fact we do disagree with many Americans on some of these issues, I think what the American republic needs right now is a real policy conversation,’ Roberts told Fox News Digital. ‘So we were sitting back this summer thinking about all the mischaracterizations by the Harris campaign, by the radical left on our policy projects. And while we welcome an intellectually honest conversation, we also know that that hasn’t been happening.’

‘So we decided to launch this website, dangerouslyliberal.com, to focus on the vice president’s policy record. And I think that Americans will really welcome that conversation, because they trust the credibility of the Heritage Foundation and calling balls and strikes about what the vice president has done in her position the last few years, and also what people down ballot might do and for U.S. Senate and U.S. House races.’ 

The website, which Fox News Digital accessed before its public roll-out, opens on a message, ‘The Biden-Harris Administration’s policies have resulted in a wide-open southern border, increased illegal immigration, skyrocketing inflation, higher taxes, lower wages, aggressively woke ‘DEI,’ and much more.’ 

The Heritage Foundation said the million-dollar effort aims to provide ‘fact-based, concise, and informational content to educate millions of Americans to shape policy and share ideas.’ 

It outlines the president and vice president’s ‘extreme policy positions related to the unsecured border, mass amnesty and sanctuary policies for illegals, the Green New Deal energy agenda, disastrous economic stances, Medicare For All, and the desire to advance the left’s DEI and CRT schemes,’ the think tank said. 

The Heritage Foundation said it will also run two six-figure text message and advertising campaigns across multiple platforms to drive website engagement and ‘further educate the public on the impact of the Biden-Harris Administration’s radical policy and societal viewpoint for America.’ The push to appeal to independent votes comes also as independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, once a dynastic Democrat, announced Friday he was discontinuing his White House bid and endorsing Trump. Kennedy is unable to remove himself from the ballot, however, in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin. 

‘It’s fascinating to me that in the span of about 48 hours, the radical left went from trying to keep Mr. Kennedy off the ballot to now fighting to keep him on the ballot and act because of that, and because he does have a real draw, across the spectrum from the center left to the center right. We’ve seen that at Heritage,’ Roberts told Fox News Digital. ‘Heritage really exists to plug that kind of gap, the gap that exists between what DC elites in power tell you that they’re going to do versus what the American people surmise they have done.’ 

‘And I think the credibility that we have just in terms of being the policy umpire, which we’re often called in DC and pairing that with this dissemination of this website in the swing states will have a real effect on the knowledge base that voters have to make their decision,’ he added. ‘They will make their decision. Ultimately, they’re the ones. The American voters are the ones who will influence the outcome of the election, to state the obvious. This website can be, I think, a very helpful tool as they sit down and look at all of the resources, all of the information at their disposal, to make an informed decision.’

The website includes an explanation and key statistics about Harris’ record on key issues, including how inflation ‘has grown by 20% since the Biden-Harris administration took office in 2021.’ Heritage assesses that Americans have lost an average of $10,000 per household due to high energy costs since the Biden-Harris administration took office. On the border security and illegal immigration, the website states, ‘Under Border Czar Harris, there have been over 10.3 million total inadmissible alien encounters recorded by the U.S. Border Patrol, and over 85% of these illegal aliens have been released into the United States.’ 

It also provides examples of Harris’ past statements supporting the think tank’s claim that Harris ‘has been a long-time supporter of letting biological men compete in female sports’ and highlights how the Biden-Harris administration’s changes to Title IX added ‘gender identity’ to the list of sex-based protections in federal law, ‘consequently allowing men into women’s private spaces, athletics, and educational opportunities.’ 

‘We have to stay woke,’ Harris once said, as the site notes. ‘Like everybody needs to be woke. And you can talk about if you’re the wokest or woker, but just stay more woke than less woke.’

When Project 2025’s leader, Paul Dans, stepped down in June, the Trump campaign released a statement saying, ‘reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed,’ as the then-Biden campaign tried to use the 900-page conservative plan to steer voters away from another Trump administration. Despite this, Democrats at their national convention in Chicago this month further tried to tie Trump to Project 2025. 

‘His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy,’ Harris told the DNC of Trump. ‘His explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens. Consider, consider the power he will have, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.

‘We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisers,’ she said. ‘Its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back.’ 

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report. 

Experts researching advancements in artificial intelligence are now warning that AI models could create the next ‘enhanced pathogens capable of causing major epidemics or even pandemics.’ 

The declaration was made in a paper published in the journal Science by co-authors from Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University and Fordham University, who say that AI models are being ‘trained on or [are] capable of meaningfully manipulating substantial quantities of biological data, from speeding up drug and vaccine design to improving crop yields.’ 

‘But as with any powerful new technology, such biological models will also pose considerable risks. Because of their general-purpose nature, the same biological model able to design a benign viral vector to deliver gene therapy could be used to design a more pathogenic virus capable of evading vaccine-induced immunity,’ researchers wrote in their abstract. 

‘Voluntary commitments among developers to evaluate biological models’ potential dangerous capabilities are meaningful and important but cannot stand alone,’ the paper continued. ‘We propose that national governments, including the United States, pass legislation and set mandatory rules that will prevent advanced biological models from substantially contributing to large-scale dangers, such as the creation of novel or enhanced pathogens capable of causing major epidemics or even pandemics.’ 

Although today’s AI models likely do not ‘substantially contribute’ to biological risks, the ‘essential ingredients to create highly concerning advanced biological models may already exist or soon will,’ Time quoted the paper’s authors as saying. 

They reportedly recommend that governments create a ‘battery of tests’ that biological AI models must undertake before being released to the public – and then from there officials can determine how restricted access to the models should be. 

‘We need to plan now,’ Anita Cicero, the deputy director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and one of the co-authors of the paper, said according to Time. ‘Some structured government oversight and requirements will be necessary in order to reduce risks of especially powerful tools in the future.’ 

Cicero reportedly added that biological risks from AI models could become a reality ‘within the next 20 years, and maybe even much less’ without the proper oversight. 

‘If the question is can AI be used to engineer pandemics, 100% percent. And as far as how far down the road we should be concerned about it, I think that AI is advancing at a rate that most people are not prepared for,’ Paul Powers, an AI expert and CEO of Physna – a company that helps computers analyze 3D models and geometric objects – told Fox News Digital. 

‘The thing is that it’s not just governments and large businesses that have access to these increasingly powerful capabilities, it’s individuals and small businesses as well,’ he continued, but noted that ‘the problem with regulation here is that one, as much as everyone wants a global set of rules for this, the reality is that it is enforced nationally. Secondly is that regulation doesn’t move at the speed of AI. Regulation can’t even keep up with technology as it has been, with traditional speed.’ 

‘What they are proposing that you do is have the government approve certain AI training models and certain AI applications. But the reality is how do you police that?’ Powers said. 

‘There are certain nucleic acids that are essentially the building blocks for any potential real pathogen or virus,’ Powers added, saying, ‘I would start there… I would start on really trying to crack down on who can access the building blocks first.’ 

Former President Trump’s shifting stance on some of his abortion policies to attract independents and some disillusioned Democrats could alienate those who helped get him elected in 2016 – his pro-life base. But his growing support from middle-of-the-road voters could make up for it.

‘No one owns the pro-life vote,’ leading pro-life organization Live Action founder Lila Rose told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday. ‘It has to be earned.’

Rose stirred controversy on X, formerly Twitter, Monday by reposting a clip from Sen. JD Vance’s recent ‘Meet the Press’ interview, where he pledged that a Trump-Vance administration would likely veto a federal abortion ban.

‘If you don’t stand for pro-life principles, you don’t get pro-life votes,’ Rose said in the post.

When asked about the post, Rose said that as of now, Trump doesn’t have her vote – and he could be at risk of alienating others in the pro-life movement. She said she hopes she will be able to vote for him come November.

‘We’re over two months out of this election, and Trump has changed his position in the past, as everyone knows, and I think that he’s changing it now to support abortion,’ Rose said. ‘Thankfully, the election is not today, and he has two months to change his tune.’

‘I hope that Trump changes course,’ Rose said. ‘I think it’s politically foolish and morally wrong what he’s doing. I think he’s not winning any pro-abortion people to his side. Kamala Harris spent an entire week at the DNC cheerleading for the abortion industry to shore up her base, and then President Trump comes out and throws his base under the bus and tries to cheerlead for Kamala’s base.’

This election cycle, Trump has countered Democratic attacks by stating he would leave abortion access to the states, as determined by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and opposes a federal abortion ban. The Republican Party also abandoned its long-standing position of advocating for abortion limits in July. However, Trump has remained opposed to late-term abortions.

‘President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion and has been very clear that he will NOT sign a federal ban when he is back in the White House,’ Trump-Vance campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘President Trump also supports universal access to contraception and IVF. Contrarily, Kamala Harris and the Democrats are radically out of touch with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth and forcing taxpayers to fund it.’

But Rose says the opposition to not supporting a federal ban is precisely the problem, because ‘the whole point of the pro-life movement politically, is to restrict abortion to save human lives.’

‘Increasingly, his platform and his rhetoric is pro-abortion and that should disturb and concern the pro-life movement as it is,’ she said.

To earn her vote, she said, Trump would need to champion pro-life laws and oppose Amendment Four – the right to abortion initiative – in Florida.

On Friday, Trump also upset anti-abortion activists when he posted on his Truth Social platform, ‘My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.’ He has also indicated he would not restrict access to abortion prescriptions. 

Meanwhile, Trump continues to make gains with independents and former Democrats. On Sunday, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Trump, and a day later, former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also endorsed the former president. Both politicians are now signed on to Trump’s ‘transition team,’ according to the campaign.