House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday that Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell deserves a life sentence, rejecting the idea of a potential pardon for the convicted sex trafficker.  

In an appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ Johnson was asked if he supported a pardon for Maxwell, but the speaker emphasized that the decision ultimately belongs to President Donald Trump. 

‘I think 20 years was a pittance,’ Johnson said of Maxwell’s time behind bars. ‘I think she should have a life sentence, at least. I mean, think of all these unspeakable crimes.’ 

‘I mean it’s hard to put into words how evil this was and that she orchestrated it and was a big part of it, at least under the criminal sanction, I think is an unforgivable thing,’ Johnson added, acknowledging that federal prosecutors identified more than 1,000 victims, many of whom were underage. ‘So again, not my decision, but I have great pause about that as any reasonable person would.’ 

While leaving the White House on Friday en route for Scotland, Trump was asked if he considered a pardon or clemency for Maxwell. The president left the door open, responding: ‘I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.’

Johnson said he supports the position of the president, the FBI and the Justice Department that ‘all credible evidence and information’ be released, but emphasized the need for safeguards to protect victims’ identities. As for Maxwell, she was questioned by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, for two consecutive days last week. Her lawyer told reporters she answered questions on about 100 potential Epstein associates as she angles for clemency. 

‘That’s a decision of the president,’ Johnson said of a potential Maxwell pardon. ‘He said he had not adequately considered that. I won’t get in front of him. That’s not my lane. My lane is to help direct and control the House of Representatives and to use every tool within our arsenal to get to the truth. I’m going to say this as clearly and plainly and repeatedly as I can over and over. We are for maximum disclosure. We want all transparency. I trust the American people. I and the House Republicans believe that they should have all this information to be able to determine what they will. But we have to protect the innocent. And that’s the only safeguard here that we’ve got to be diligent about, and I’m insistent upon doing so.’ 

Johnson criticized a petition for the release of all the Epstein files brought by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-W.Va., and Ro Khanna, D-Penn., as ‘reckless’ and poorly drafted, arguing that it ignored federal rules protecting grand jury materials and ‘would require the DOJ and FBI to release information that they know is false, that is based on lies and rumors and was not even credible enough to be entered into the court proceedings.’ 

The speaker said the petition also lacked safeguards for minor victims who were subjected to ‘unspeakable crimes, abject evil’ and who risk being ‘unmasked.’ Johnson said Massie and Khanna ‘cite that they don’t want child abuse, sex abuse information uncovered, but they cite the wrong provision of the federal code, and so it makes it unworkable.’ The speaker argued Republicans on the House Rules Committee are committed to a better drafted approach that will protect the innocent. 

Asked about a potential pardon for Maxwell, Massie told NBC’s Kristen Welker earlier in the program that it ‘would be up to the president, but if she has information that could help us, I think that she should testify.’ 

‘Let’s get that out there, and whatever they need to do to compel that testimony, as long as it’s truthful, I would be in favor of,’ Massie said. 

Khanna said he did not believe Maxwell’s sentence should be commuted and that he was concerned that Blanche was meeting with her. He said he agreed with Massie that Maxwell should testify but noted she has been indicted twice for perjury.

‘This is why we need the files. This is why we need independent evidence,’ Khanna said. 

Former President Barack Obama issued a rare statement weighing in on the hunger situation in Gaza on Sunday, suggesting aid must flow to Palestinians regardless of whether Israel can secure a hostage deal for now.

Obama made the statement on social media in reference to reporting from the New York Times stating that ‘Gazans are dying of starvation.’ Israel, which blockaded aid to Gaza earlier this year, has recently begun to airdrop aid resources into the region, and its leaders argue reports of starvation are a false campaign promoted by Hamas. Reporting from Fox News’ Trey Yingst has indicated that hunger is indeed spreading across the region, however.

‘While a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel’s military operations, these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation,’ Obama wrote on X, providing a link to the Times.

‘Aid must be permitted to reach people in Gaza. There is no justification for keeping food and water away from civilian families,’ he added.

President Donald Trump touted U.S. efforts to provide aid to Gaza when asked about the situation on Sunday. Meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the time, he stated that Europe has not provided aid to Gaza. He also said that Hamas is stealing much of the aid being sent to Palestinians, a claim Israel has put forward repeatedly.

‘When I see the children and when I see, especially over the last couple of weeks people are stealing the food, they’re stealing the money, they’re stealing the money for the food. They’re stealing weapons, they’re stealing everything,’ Trump told reporters.

‘It’s a mess, that whole place is a mess. The Gaza Strip, you know it was given many years ago so they could have peace. That didn’t work out too well,’ he added.

The IDF says it conducted 28 drops in a matter of hours on Sunday, in addition to transferring some 250 aid trucks over the course of the week.

‘Let me be clear: Israel supports aid for civilians, not for Hamas. The IDF will continue to support the flow of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,’ an IDF spokesperson said Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also pushed back on criticism of his regime, arguing that the United Nations has been falsely pushing claims of widespread starvation. He told the Jerusalem Post on Sunday that it has long been Israel’s policy to allow aid into Gaza so long as it did not benefit Hamas.

‘We’ve done this so far,’ Netanyahu told the paper. ‘But the U.N. is spreading lies and falsehoods about Israel. They say we don’t allow humanitarian supplies in, yet we do. There are secure corridors. They’ve always existed, but now it’s official. No more excuses.’

Artificial intelligence is no longer a niche tool for tech labs or science-fiction thrillers. It’s now the battleground where the future of American power, prosperity, and freedom will be decided. With the release of ‘Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan,’ the Trump administration is rightfully treating this moment as the 21st-century equivalent of the space race or the nuclear age. 

This bold strategy outlines over 90 policy actions that span three key pillars: Accelerating Innovation, Building American AI Infrastructure, and Leading in International Diplomacy and Security. Each of these pillars sends a clear message to the world: America intends to lead – not follow – on artificial intelligence. 

And we must. This is a race we can’t afford to lose. 

President Donald Trump’s AI plan: strong, strategic and patriotic 

The Trump administration’s plan does what Washington too often fails to do: it combines vision with action. From fast-tracking permits for critical data centers and chip fabrication plants, to expanding the skilled trades workforce needed to maintain those facilities, the plan hits both high-tech and firsthand realities. 

Crucially, the plan calls for exporting secure, full-stack American AI packages – hardware, software, models, applications and standards – to trusted allies. That’s smart policy. In a world where China exports authoritarian surveillance technology, America must counter with liberty-based alternatives. 

And most refreshingly, the plan defends free speech. It mandates that federal procurement contracts only go to developers of large language models that are free from ideological censorship. That’s a huge win for constitutional values in a time when Big Tech algorithms increasingly silence dissent. 

But here’s the hard truth: AI could also unleash chaos 

The optimism in this action plan is well-founded – but incomplete. As foreign policy analysts Matan Chorev and Joel Predd recently warned in their Foreign Policy article, the U.S. must also assume the worst about artificial intelligence – especially artificial general intelligence (AGI). That’s the version of AI that can perform at or above human levels across a wide range of tasks.  

Unlike nuclear weapons, AGI won’t announce itself with a mushroom cloud. It may slip quietly into our systems, our economy and even our military decision-making – without a clear warning shot. The nightmare scenario? A rogue AI, either built by an enemy nation or evolving beyond human control, triggering economic collapse or catastrophic warfare.  

That’s why the U.S. must not only pursue victory in AI, but vigilance. Planning for worst-case scenarios isn’t fearmongering – it’s common sense. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us what happens when leaders fail to prepare for known risks. With AI, we may not get a second chance.  

We need break-glass plans — now 

What happens if a U.S. company suddenly claims to have developed AGI and asks for national security protections – access to classified data, regulatory exemptions and federal backing? What if China gets there first?  

The Biden-era playbook of strategic ambiguity and global appeasement won’t cut it. America needs break-glass protocols: clear, tested plans to respond to AI emergencies – whether cyberattacks, misinformation campaigns or autonomous systems going rogue. 

This requires massive coordination across the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, our intelligence community and private industry. The federal government must build the analytical muscle to separate hype from real breakthroughs – and act fast when a threat emerges. 

Cyber defenses must be ‘attribution-agnostic’ 

Advanced AI attacks may not come with a digital return address. Whether an attack comes from Beijing, a terrorist network or a self-replicating algorithm, our cyber defenses must be able to detect, contain and recover without waiting for attribution. 

That means hardening critical infrastructure, isolating vulnerable data centers and ensuring military continuity of operations in a high-tech crisis. These aren’t science-fiction concerns – they’re strategic imperatives. 

The world needs American values — not just American technology 

The Trump administration’s emphasis on exporting U.S. technology to allies is critical – but we must also export American values. Freedom. Accountability. Innovation with restraint. Our allies want alternatives to China’s surveillance-driven tech regime. America can lead that coalition – but only if we speak as clearly about ethics as we do about engineering.  

David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, put it plainly: ‘To win the AI race, the U.S. must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships. At the same time, we must center American workers and avoid Orwellian uses of AI.’ 

He’s right. Victory in AI is not just about lines of code – it’s about preserving what it means to be human in an age of machines. 

Bold innovation, clear-eyed preparedness 

Winning the AI Race is a historic first step. It champions free markets, American jobs, national strength and liberty-based governance in the AI era. But we must not mistake ambition for immunity. 

America needs a dual-track strategy: drive innovation with urgency – and prepare for disaster with equal urgency. Our adversaries won’t wait. Neither will the technology.  

We can – and must – lead the world into the AI future. But let’s do it with eyes wide open, grounded in our values and ready for anything. 

To endorse, or not to endorse, that is the question for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as New York City and the nation wait to see if this top Democrat will throw his backing behind socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

According to Zany Zohran’s backers, this should be a no-brainer. After all, Mamdani won the primary fair and square, but given his far-left proposals like city-owned grocery stores, free buses, and replacing cops with social workers. Jeffries is rightfully wary.

This week, would-be Mayor Mamdani ran away to Uganda to let the heat die down over a guy who once said the state should control the means of production potentially governing Wall Street.

This Africa adventure gives Jeffries a little more time to decide whether to endorse, but not much. The moment is still coming.

What makes this choice so hard for Jeffries is that he knows better than anyone just how dangerous these Democratic Socialists can be. In fact, it’s the whole reason he is now in line for the speakership should Democrats retake the House.

In 2019 Jeffries replaced another New Yorker named Joe Crowley as chair of the Democratic Caucus in the House. The coveted spot in leadership was available because Crowley had suffered a shocking primary defeat at the hands of whom? A bartender named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In spite of the fact that AOC opened the door to power for Jeffries, he is actually much more of a Crowley than a Cortez. He might be the poster child for the old-school Democrat machine politician.

Jeffries was born and raised in Brooklyn, state college undergrad, masters in public policy from Georgetown, law degree from NYU, clerked with a federal judge, a decade of private practice, two years in the state assembly and now, Congress. That is how it used to be done.

Now, Hakeem Jeffries’ party is being overrun with theater kids who skirt through college and whose political training comes almost exclusively from far-left activist organizations and Marxist tracts, and they want him to sign off on it.

The political reality for Jeffries is that if he endorses Zohran, then this 33-year-old, who can be credibly called a communist, will be hung like a millstone around the neck of every Democrat running for the House.

Even moderate House Democrats who try to distance themselves from Mamdani and his parade of pathetic and stale socialist programs will be sharply and publicly reminded that the guy they want to make Speaker of the House endorsed a communist.

Nowhere is this more true than close to home in the suburban New York districts that Republicans swept in 2024 to keep their slim House majority. There is no path back to power that doesn’t flow through Long Island and Westchester.

Republican House candidates like incumbents Mike Lawler and Nick LaLota will absolutely make Mamdani a focal point of their campaigns, no matter who their actual opponents are.

There is no easy way out of this predicament for Jeffries. Either he refuses to endorse Mamdani, and sets off an angry civil war in his party, or he does endorse him, and watches Democrats’ chances to win the House and make him speaker diminish greatly.

For any party leader, herding the cats is a great challenge. It was for Nancy Pelosi, and it is for Jeffries. But the Mamdani question is bigger than managing normal ideological differences. Jeffries has to decide if he will, for the first time, usher actual communists into the Democrats’ tent.

Most of us were born at a time when Democrats still proudly called themselves the party of Jefferson and Jackson. Today, it is starting to look more like the party of Marx and Guevara. Can Hakeem Jeffries hit the brakes? Don’t count on it.

My sources in Gotham, in both parties, the ones I trust the most, all think Jeffries will eventually, as quietly as possible, give his support to Mamdani. I’m not completely convinced, but it is the path of least resistance, which is a siren call for most politicians.

When and if Jeffries makes this cowardly choice, Republicans must be prepared to explain, quite clearly, to Americans that one of their major political parties, its oldest, in fact, has come to embrace communism.

For Hakeem Jeffries this is an existential choice, not just for his political future, but the future of his political party, and of our nation itself.

The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to fire numerous Democrat-appointed members of independent agencies, but one case still moving through the legal system carries the greatest implications yet for a president’s authority to do that.

In Slaughter v. Trump, a Biden-appointed member of the Federal Trade Commission has vowed to fight what she calls her ‘illegal firing,’ setting up a possible scenario in which the case lands before the Supreme Court.

The case would pose the most direct question yet to the justices about where they stand on Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the nearly century-old decision regarding a president’s power over independent regulatory agencies.

John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told Fox News Digital he thinks the high court is likely to side with the president if and when the case arrives there.

‘I think it’s unlikely that Humphrey’s Executor survives the Supreme Court, at least in its current form,’ Shu said, adding he anticipates the landmark decision will be overturned or ‘severely narrowed.’

What is Humphrey’s Executor?

Humphrey’s Executor centered on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to fire an FTC commissioner with whom he disagreed politically. The case marked the first instance of the Supreme Court limiting a president’s removal power by ruling that Roosevelt overstepped his authority. The court found that presidents could not dismiss FTC commissioners without a reason, such as malfeasance, before their seven-year terms ended, as outlined by Congress in the FTC Act.

However, the FTC’s functions, which largely center on combating anticompetitive business practices, have expanded in the 90 years since Humphrey’s Executor.

‘The Federal Trade Commission of 1935 is a lot different than the Federal Trade Commission today,’ Shu said.

He noted that today’s FTC can open investigations, issue subpoenas, bring lawsuits, impose financial penalties and more. The FTC now has executive, quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, Shu said.

SCOTUS greenlights other firings

If the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily allow two labor board members’ firings is any indication, the high court stands ready to make the FTC less independent and more accountable to Trump.

In a 6-3 order, the Supreme Court cited the ‘considerable executive power’ that the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board have, saying a president ‘may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf.’

The order did not mention Humphrey’s Executor, but that and other moves indicate the Supreme Court has been chipping away at the 90-year-old ruling and is open to reversing it.

The case of Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya gets closest to the heart of Humphrey’s Executor.

Where does Slaughter’s case stand?

Slaughter enjoyed a short-lived victory when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., found that Trump violated the Constitution and ruled in her favor on July 17.

She was able to return to the FTC for a few days, but the Trump administration appealed the decision and, on July 21, the appellate court paused the lower court judge’s ruling.

Judge Loren AliKhan had said in her summary judgment that Slaughter’s case was almost identical to William Humphrey’s.

‘It is not the role of this court to decide the correctness, prudence, or wisdom of the Supreme Court’s decisions—even one from ninety years ago,’ AliKhan, a Biden appointee, wrote. ‘Whatever the Humphrey’s Executor Court may have thought at the time of that decision, this court will not second-guess it now.’

The lawsuit arose from Trump firing Slaughter and Bedoya, the two Democratic-appointed members of the five-member commission. They alleged that Trump defied Humphrey’s Executor by firing them in March without cause in a letter that ‘nearly word-for-word’ mirrored the one Roosevelt sent a century ago.

Bedoya has since resigned, but Slaughter is not backing down from a legal fight in which Trump appears to have the upper hand.

‘Like dozens of other federal agencies, the Federal Trade Commission has been protected from presidential politics for nearly a century,’ Slaughter said in a statement after she was re-fired. ‘I’ll continue to fight my illegal firing and see this case through, because part of why Congress created independent agencies is to ensure transparency and accountability.’

Now a three-judge panel comprising two Obama appointees and one Trump appointee is considering a longer-term pause and asked for court filings to be submitted by July 29, meaning the judges could issue their decision soon thereafter.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a slew of documents this month, revealing that Obama administration officials ‘manufactured’ intelligence to push the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.

Here’s a look at the newly declassified records:

Declassified Presidential Daily Brief

Documents revealed that in the months leading up to the November 2016 election, the intelligence community consistently assessed that Russia was ‘probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means.’

One instance was on Dec. 7, 2016, weeks after the election. Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s talking points stated, ‘Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome.’

Fox News Digital obtained a declassified copy of the Presidential Daily Brief, which was prepared by the Department of Homeland Security, with reporting from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, State Department and open sources, for Obama, dated Dec. 8, 2016.

‘We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure,’ the Presidential Daily Brief stated. ‘Russian Government-affiliated actors most likely compromised an Illinois voter registration database and unsuccessfully attempted the same in other states.’

But the brief stated that it was ‘highly unlikely’ the effort ‘would have resulted in altering any state’s official vote result.’

‘Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes,’ it stated. 

The brief noted that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed that any Russian activities ‘probably were intended to cause psychological effects, such as undermining the credibility of the election process and candidates.’

The brief stated that cyber criminals ‘tried to steal data and to interrupt election processes by targeting election infrastructure, but these actions did not achieve a notable disruptive effect.’

Fox News Digital obtained declassified, but redacted, communications from the FBI in the Presidential Daily Brief, stating that it ‘should not go forward until the FBI’ had shared its ‘concerns.’

Those communications revealed that the FBI drafted a ‘dissent’ to the original Presidential Daily Brief. 

The communications revealed that the brief was expected to be published Dec. 9, 2016, the following day, but later communications revealed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ‘based on some new guidance,’ decided to ‘push back publication’ of the Presidential Daily Brief. 

‘It will not run tomorrow and is not likely to run until next week,’ wrote the deputy director of the Presidential Daily Brief at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose name is redacted. 

The following day, Dec. 9, 2016, a meeting convened in the White House Situation Room, with the subject line starting: ‘Summary of Conclusions for PC Meeting on a Sensitive Topic (REDACTED.)’

The meeting included top officials in the National Security Council, Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, among others, to discuss Russia.

The declassified meeting record, obtained by Fox News Digital, revealed that principals ‘agreed to recommend sanctioning of certain members of the Russian military intelligence and foreign intelligence chains of command responsible for cyber operations as a response to cyber activity that attempted to influence or interfere with U.S. elections, if such activity meets the requirements’ from an executive order that demanded the blocking of property belonging to people engaged in cyber activities.

After the meeting, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Clapper’s executive assistant emailed intelligence community leaders tasking them to create a new intelligence community assessment ‘per the president’s request’ that detailed the ‘tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election.’

‘ODNI will lead this effort with participation from CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS,’ the record states.

Later, Obama officials ‘leaked false statements to media outlets’ claiming that ‘Russia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election.’

By Jan. 6, 2017, a new Intelligence Community Assessment was released that, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ‘directly contradicted the IC assessments that were made throughout the previous six months.’ 

Intelligence officials told Fox News Digital that the ICA was ‘politicized’ because it ‘suppressed intelligence from before and after the election showing Russia lacked intent and capability to hack the 2016 election.’ 

Officials also said it deceived the American public ‘by claiming the IC made no assessment on the ‘impact’ of Russian activities,’ when the intelligence community ‘did, in fact, assess for impact.’ 

‘The unpublished December PDB stated clearly that Russia ‘did not impact’ the election through cyber hacks on the election,’ an official told Fox News Digital.

The official also said the ICA had assessed that ‘Russia was responsible for leaking data from the DNC and DCCC,’ while ‘failing to mention that FBI and NSA previously expressed low confidence in this attribution.’ 

Officials said the intelligence was ‘politicized’ and then ‘used as the basis for countless smears seeking to delegitimize President Trump’s victory, the years-long Mueller investigation, two Congressional impeachments, high level officials being investigated, arrested, and thrown in jail, heightened US-Russia tensions, and more.’

Declassified House Intelligence Committee Report

A report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2020 said the intelligence community did not have any direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but, at the ‘unusual’ direction of then-President Barack Obama, published ‘potentially biased’ or ‘implausible’ intelligence suggesting otherwise.

The report, based on an investigation launched by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was dated Sept. 18, 2020. At the time of the publication of the report, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chairman of the committee.

The report has never before been released to the public and instead has remained highly classified within the intelligence community.

Fox News Digital obtained the ‘fully-sourced limited-access investigation report that was drafted and stored in a limited-access vault at CIA Headquarters.’ The report includes some redactions.

The committee focused on the creation of the Intelligence Community Assessment of 2017, in which then-CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the inclusion of the now-discredited anti-Trump dossier despite knowing it was based largely on ‘internet rumor,’ as Fox News Digital previously reported.

According to the report, the ICA was a ‘high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter.’

‘Production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly DCIA,’ the report states. ‘The draft was not properly coordinated within CIA or the IC, ensuring it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions.’

The committee found that the five CIA analysts and drafter ‘rushed’ the ICA’s production ‘in order to publish two weeks before President-elect Trump was sworn-in.’

‘Hurried coordination and limited access to the draft reduced opportunities for the IC to discover misquoting of sources and other tradecraft concerns,’ the report states.

The report states that Brennan ‘ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard — containing information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased, or implausible — and those became foundational sources for the ICA judgements that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton.’

‘The ICA misrepresented these reports as reliable, without mentioning their significant underlying flaws,’ the committee found.

‘One scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win,’ the report states, adding that the ICA ‘ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged — and in some cases undermined — judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump.’

The report also states that the ICA ‘failed to consider plausible alternative explanations of Putin’s intentions indicated by reliable intelligence and observed Russian actions.’

The committee also found that two senior CIA officers warned Brennan that ‘we don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected.’

Despite those warnings, the Obama administration moved to publish the ICA.

The ICA ‘did not cite any report where Putin directly indicated helping Trump win was the objective.’

The ICA, according to the report, excluded ‘significant intelligence’ and ‘ignored or selectively quoted’ reliable intelligence in an effort to push the Russia narrative.

The report also includes intelligence from a longtime Putin confidant who explained to investigators that ‘Putin told him he did not care who won the election,’ and that Putin ‘had often outlined the weaknesses of both major candidates.’

The report also states that the ICA omitted context showing that the claim that Putin preferred Trump was ‘implausible —if not ridiculous.’

The committee also found that the ICA suppressed intelligence that showed that Russia was actually planning for a Hillary Clinton victory because ‘they knew where (she) stood’ and believed Russia ‘could work with her.’

The committee also noted that the ICA ‘did not address why Putin chose not to leak more discrediting material on Clinton, even as polls tightened in the final weeks of the election.’

The committee also found that the ICA suppressed intelligence showing that Putin was ‘not only demonstrating a clear lack of concern for Trump’s election fate,’ but also indicated ‘that he preferred to see Secretary Clinton elected, knowing she would be a more vulnerable President.’

Declassified Hillary Clinton section of House Intelligence Committee Report

One section of the declassified House Intelligence Committee report states that the material in Putin’s possession included Russian intelligence on Democratic National Committee information allegedly showing that senior Democratic leaders found Clinton’s health to be ‘extraordinarily alarming.’ 

‘As of September 2016, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service had DNC information that President Obama and Party leaders found the state of Secretary Clinton’s health to be ‘extraordinarily alarming,’ and felt it could have ‘serious negative impact’ on her election prospects,’ the report states. ‘Her health information was being kept in ‘strictest secrecy’ and even close advisors were not being fully informed.’ 

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service also allegedly had DNC communications that showed that ‘Clinton was suffering from ‘intensified psycho-emotional problems, including uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness.” 

‘Clinton was placed on a daily regimen of ‘heavy tranquilizers’ and while afraid of losing, she remained ‘obsessed with a thirst for power,’’ the report states.

The Russians also allegedly had information that Clinton ‘suffered from ‘Type 2 diabetes, Ischemic heart disease, deep vein thrombosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.’’

The Russians also allegedly possessed a ‘campaign email discussing a plan approved by Secretary Clinton to link Putin and Russian hackers to candidate Trump in order to ‘distract the American public’ from the Clinton email server scandal.’ 

Gabbard, during the White House press briefing Wednesday, said there were ‘high-level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary’s, quote, psycho-emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression and cheerfulness, and that then-Secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers.’ 

A tranquilizer is a drug used to reduce mental disturbance, such as anxiety and tension. Tranquilizers are typically prescribed to individuals suffering from anxiety, sleep disturbances and related conditions affecting their mental and physical health. 

A Clinton aide dismissed the claims as ‘ridiculous.’ 

Neither Clinton nor Obama responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. 

President Donald Trump’s approach with Russian President Vladimir Putin pivoted drastically this month when, for the first time since returning to the White House, he not only confirmed his support for Ukraine in a NATO arms agreement but issued an ultimatum to the Kremlin chief.

The warning came in a clear message: Enter into a peace deal with Ukraine or face stiff international sanctions on its top commodity, oil sales.

While the move has been championed by some, it has been questioned by others who debate whether it will be enough to deter Putin’s war ambitions in Ukraine. One security expert is arguing the plan will work, but it might take years to be effective.

‘I think it will be effective, and he’s going to stick to that strategy. He’s going to continue to push Putin to return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith, not come to the bargaining table, make promises that the Russians don’t plan on keeping,’ Fred Fleitz, who served as a deputy assistant to Trump and chief of staff of the National Security Council during the president’s first term, told Fox News Digital.

‘That’s something Trump’s not going to tolerate,’ Fleitz added. ‘We will see this is just the first six months of the Trump presidency. This may take a couple of years to solve.’

But Trump campaigned on ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, which has proven to be more complicated than he suggested from the campaign trail. And not everyone in the Republican Party has backed his approach when it comes to Europe, including a staunch Trump supporter, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

‘We do not want to give or sell weapons to Ukraine or be involved in any foreign wars or continue the never-ending flow of foreign aid,’ Greene said on X. ‘We want to solve our own problems plaguing our own people.’ 

Fleitz pointed to Trump’s decision to directly strike Iran and argued it reflected Trump’s ability to be nimble as a leader. 

‘He looked at the intelligence and realized it was getting too close, and he decided to adjust his policy, which was first diplomacy,’ Fleitz said.

‘But Trump also specified something very important. He said to his supporters, ‘I came up with a concept of the America-first approach to U.S. national security, and I decide what’s in it,’ Fleitz added. ‘He has ownership of this approach, and he will adjust if necessary.’

Though Trump had made clear from the campaign trail that he wanted to see Europe take a leading role in the war in Ukraine, last week he countered a major talking point from some within his party, including Vice President JD Vance.

Vance has argued against arming Ukraine and said in an op-ed last year, ‘[It] is not just a matter of dollars. Fundamentally, we lack the capacity to manufacture the amount of weapons Ukraine needs us to supply to win the war.’

Trump agreed to sell NATO nations top U.S. arms that will then be supplied to Ukraine.

‘We want to defend our country. But, ultimately, having a strong Europe is a very good thing,’ Trump said, sitting alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Security experts have largely argued that the future of Ukraine’s negotiating ability and, ultimately, the end of the war, will play out on the battlefield. 

On Thursday, John Hardie, deputy director of FDD’s Russia Program, told U.S. lawmakers on the Helsinki Commission, also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, in a defense briefing that Ukraine needs to be supplied with long-range strike capabilities that can hit key Russian missile and drone plants.

‘Ukraine shouldn’t be restricted merely to shooting down ‘arrows’,’ Hardie said. ‘An optimal approach will combine both offense and defense. Ukraine needs to be able to hit the ‘archer’ and the factories that make the ‘arrows.’

‘Putin will continue his unprovoked war so long as he believes it’s sustainable and offers a pathway to achieving his goals,’ Hardie argued. ‘By shoring up Ukraine’s defense of its skies and enabling Ukraine to inflict growing costs on Russia’s war machine, as well as pressuring the Russian economy and exhausting Russia’s offensive potential on the ground, we may be able to change that calculus.’

But Fleitz, who serves as vice chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, said he believes this war will only be brought to an end when an armistice agreement is secured. 

‘I think there’s probably going to be an armistice where both sides will agree to suspend the fighting,’ Fleitz said. ‘Someday, we will find a line where both nations will agree to stop fighting.’

Ultimately, he believes this will happen by Ukraine agreeing not to join NATO for a certain period of time, though with Moscow’s understanding that Kyiv will be heavily armed by Western allies. 

‘I think there’s a way to do this where Russia wouldn’t be concerned about growing Western European influence in Ukraine, and Ukraine would not be worried that Russia will invade once a ceasefire or armistice is declared,’ he added. ‘Maybe this is a pipe dream, but I think that’s the most realistic way to stop the fighting.

‘We know from history conflicts like this take time; peacemaking takes time,’ Fleitz said. ‘I think that over time, Trump is going to have an effect on Putin.’