Contributing Writers

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.

The Justice Department made public Volume I of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his now-closed investigations into President-elect Donald Trump, days before he is set to be sworn into office. Attorney General Merrick Garland released the first volume, which focuses on the election case against Trump, of Smith’s report on Tuesday at midnight after back-and-forth in the federal court system.

Special Counsel David Weiss’ final report on his years-long investigation into Hunter Biden determined the first son’s drug abuse could not explain away not paying taxes on millions of dollars of income earned off of his “last name and connections.” “As a well-educated lawyer and businessman, Mr. Biden consciously and willfully chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over a four-year period. From 2016 to 2020, Mr.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary, laying out a bevy of accusations and about 100 questions that she expects him to answer at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.  Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, penned the 33-page letter last week to Hegseth.

“Lone actors” pose the greatest threat to safety during the upcoming presidential inauguration events, according to U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger. He referenced two incidents last week on Capitol Hill where people sought to “disrupt” congressional proceedings with potentially violent tactics. An estimated 250,000 ticketed guests will attend the formal inauguration on Jan. 20, according to law enforcement.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is meeting with Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Democrats on Monday evening to discuss the confirmation hearing for controversial Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth — just hours before its set to take place. A Senate Democratic source confirmed the last-minute meeting to Fox News Digital.

How to cut federal spending – and by how much – consumes Congressional Republicans right now.Firestorms are scorching Southern California. But a political firestorm is about to singe Capitol Hill.The natural disaster dynamic has morphed into a regular fiscal nightmare in Congress. And frankly, the way lawmakers address natural disasters creates a hyper obstacle to making a serious dent in the deficit and national debt.Expect staggering costs.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and President-elect Trump met on Saturday and discussed the “mutual importance” of a U.S.-Canadian energy relationship and the hundreds of thousands of American jobs supported through Albertan exports.”Over the last 24 hours I had the opportunity to meet President [Trump] at Mar-a-Lago last night and at his golf club this morning,” Smith wrote in a post on X.

President-elect Donald Trump is giving Republicans his blessing to negotiate on a key tax that could prove critical to the GOP’s negotiations for a massive conservative policy overhaul next year.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan claimed in an interview Sunday that Russia, China and Iran are “weaker” and the United States is “safer” after four years under President Biden’s leadership. “Our alliances are stronger than where we found them four years ago,” Sullivan said on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to President-elect Trump’s first term. “They’re stronger than they’ve been in decades.

Gov. Gavin Newsom defended his handling of the raging fires in the Los Angeles area with a new website intended to combat “misinformation” that also links to Democratic Party fundraising giant ActBlue, Fox News Digital found. Fires have been raging in the Los Angeles area since Tuesday, destroying thousands of acres and homes and leaving more than a dozen people dead in its wake.

Former Vice President Mike Pence revealed his brief exchange with President-elect Trump, which was caught on camera at former President Carter’s state funeral.The pair have not been seen publicly together since leaving the White House in disagreement over the 2020 election results. At the service at the National Cathedral, Pence stood up to shake Trump’s hand, and they appeared to exchange pleasantries.

As fires wreak havoc in California, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., claimed in a post on X the catastrophe is “what a climate emergency looks like.” In another tweet, he took aim at President-elect Trump, asserting the incoming president has been bought off by the oil industry.”Trump has been bought for $1 billion by Big Oil. Just a payoff to kill the IRA and the Green New Deal. We know what will happen. More fires, more climate disasters, more death.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom invited President-elect Trump to visit the Golden State to witness the destruction wildfires have wrought, meet with victims and thank first responders.The governor’s message to Trump Friday came as fires continued ravaging parts of California.Newsom urged against politicizing “human tragedy” and disseminating “disinformation.

Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from his position at the Department of Justice Friday, Fox News has learned.The resignation, which had already been expected since President-elect Trump was elected in November, was quietly announced in the footnote of a court filing Saturday. “The Special Counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and separated from the Department on January 10,” the note said.

President-elect Trump announced incoming deputies for several key Cabinet positions in a series of social media posts Saturday as his inauguration date gets closer.Trump, who takes office in less than 10 days, made the announcement on Truth Social Saturday afternoon. He began by naming Katharine MacGregor as the next deputy secretary of the interior, a position she held in Trump’s first administration.

A review of last year’s California state budget shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom cut funding for wildfire and forest resilience by more than $100 million.The budget, signed in June and covering the 2024-25 fiscal year, eliminated $101 million from seven “wildfire and forest resilience” programs, according to a report from Newsweek.The California fires, responsible for destroying more than 10,000 buildings in the Los Angeles area, are still not contained.

President-elect Trump announced his latest picks to join the growing number of Cabinet choices as his Jan. 20th inauguration nears. Trump, in a Friday evening announcement, said that Bill Briggs would serve as the next Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. If confirmed, Briggs will serve alongside Trump’s pick for SBA Administrator, Kelly Loeffler.

EXCLUSIVE: A wife desperate to bring her husband home from 2½ years of wrongful detainment in Afghanistan has flown to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to implore President-elect Trump to take up her case. Ryan Corbett was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2022 just as the U.S. was pulling out of the country, and Anna Corbett says she has been trying to get a meeting with the Biden administration ever since.

FIRST ON FOX: Newly sworn-in Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in his first letter as a member of the Senate, sent a blistering inquiry to the Department of Homeland Security demanding answers on the extension of deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals from a slew of countries.

While Los Angeles officials were stripping millions in funding from their fire department ahead of one of the most destructive wildfires in state history, hundreds of thousands of dollars were allocated to fund programs such as a “Gay Men’s Chorus” and housing for the transgender homeless.Deadly fires erupted across Southern California this week, which were amplified by fierce winds that resulted in about 10,000 homes and businesses being destroyed.

A federal appeals court rejected a bid to block the release of a portion of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report detailing his investigation and prosecution of President-elect Trump’s alleged 2020 election interference and alleged improper retention of classified records. The U.S.

President-elect Trump announced a series of Cabinet picks as his Jan. 20 inauguration nears and Senate confirmation begins.Trump nominated former Fox News contributor Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney, as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice.”He will work alongside Harmeet K.

A federal appeals court has delayed Friday’s scheduled military court hearing where suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-conspirators were expected to plead guilty as part of a deal negotiated with prosecutors. The pause, though welcomed by the many who opposed the plea deals, prolongs a decades-long crusade for justice by the victims’ families.

President-elect Donald Trump said he respects the Supreme Court’s decision to deny his request to stop his sentencing in New York v. Trump from moving forward, but said Thursday night he will appeal, while stressing that “lawfare” has been an “attack on the Republican Party.” Trump’s comments came just moments after the Supreme Court denied Trump’s emergency petition to block his sentencing from taking place on Friday, Jan. 10.

FIRST ON FOX: A New York Court assigned a new judge to preside over the civil fraud case against President-elect Trump brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, seemingly replacing Judge Arthur Engoron, but hours later, the court put him back on the case, sources close to Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed to Fox News Wednesday that he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump the day before Trump’s high court appearance but said they did not discuss an emergency application the former president’s legal team planned to file to delay the sentencing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is firing back at President-elect Donald Trump for comments he made Wednesday about the response to deadly wildfires currently devastating Southern California.Trump spoke with reporters after attending meetings Wednesday on Capitol Hill and accused Newsom of not “[doing] a good job,” but noted they “worked well together” and would again when he takes office later this month.