President-elect Trump tapped Kari Lake as the next director of the Voice of America, a state-funded U.S. government broadcaster.

‘I am pleased to announce that Kari Lake will serve as our next Director of the Voice of America. She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who I will announce soon, to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media,’ Trump wrote in a release on Wednesday night.

Lake was a longtime Arizona broadcaster who ran unsuccessfully for public office in 2022 and 2024. 

Voice of America is an influential broadcast channel that serves news, information, and cultural programming through the Internet, mobile and social media, radio, and television. 

The broadcaster serves in over 40 languages.

The House voted to pass its yearly defense bill Wednesday, adding about another $1 trillion to the $36 trillion national debt.

The 1,800-page bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), details how $895.2 billion allocated toward defense and national security will be spent.

On Wednesday, the bill passed 281-140, with 16 Republicans voting no. Only 81 Democrats voted yes, while 124 voted no.

The legislation now heads to the Senate for passage before heading to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

The bill’s passage comes as the U.S. national debt continues to climb at a rapid pace and shows no signs of slowing down.

As of Dec. 11, the national debt, which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors, fell to $36,163,442,396,226.61, according to the latest numbers released by the U.S. Treasury Department. The debt represents a decrease of $8.8 billion from the figure released the previous day.

By comparison, 40 years ago, the national debt hovered at about $907 billion.

The latest findings from the Congressional Budget Office indicate the national debt will grow to an astonishing $54 trillion in the next decade, the result of an aging population and rising federal health care costs. Higher interest rates are also compounding the pain of higher debt.

Should that debt materialize, it could risk America’s economic standing in the world.

The spike in the national debt follows a burst of spending by President Biden and Democratic lawmakers.

As of September 2022, Biden had already approved roughly $4.8 trillion in borrowing, including $1.85 trillion for a COVID relief measure dubbed the American Rescue Plan and $370 billion for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a group that advocates for reducing the deficit.

While that is about half of the $7.5 trillion that President-elect Trump added to the deficit while he was in office, it’s far more than the $2.5 trillion Trump approved at that same point during his first term. 

Biden has repeatedly defended the spending by his administration and boasted about cutting the deficit by $1.7 trillion. 

‘I might note parenthetically: In my first two years, I reduced the debt by $1.7 trillion. No president has ever done that,’ Biden said recently. 

That figure, though, refers to a reduction in the national deficit between fiscal years 2020 and 2022. The deficit certainly shrank during that period, though it was largely because emergency measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic had expired.

Despite adding to the national debt, the NDAA was strongly bipartisan, but some Democratic lawmakers were against the inclusion of a ban on transgender medical treatments for children of military members if such treatment could result in sterilization.

The bill also included a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5% increase for others as key to improving the quality of life for those serving in the military.

The defense act also includes measures to strengthen deterrence against China and calls for an investment of $15.6 billion to bolster military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region. The Biden administration had only requested about $10 billion.

Fox News’ Eric Revell and Morgan Phillips, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

Republicans and conservatives on social media are taking a victory lap after Senate Democrats failed in a last-minute attempt to keep control of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday after narrowly losing a vote to end debate on re-appointing the board’s chair, Lauren McFerran.

Outgoing Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had hoped to confirm McFerran, a President Biden pick, to a new five-year term that would have given Democrats control of the influential agency until at least 2026, but the vote failed, 50-49, with independent Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona voting against it. 

The vote, which conservatives had railed against for days by arguing that President-elect Trump should decide the pick after his November election victory, was celebrated by conservatives.

‘Working Americans just delivered a massive victory for President Trump and his pro-worker polices, so why on earth would we let Biden choose more NLRB nominees?’ Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘I’m glad we didn’t, and I look forward to working with President Trump to support policies and nominees that are good for working families and all Americans.’

‘Lauren McFerran’s abysmal record running the Biden-Harris NLRB includes undermining freelancers, crushing businesses of all sizes, and greenlighting vulgar union harassment of American workers,’ Tom Hebert, director of competition and regulatory policy for Americans for Tax Reform, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

‘Chuck Schumer tried to put the Trump-Vance NLRB under Democrat control by sneaking McFerran’s renomination through the Senate, anticipating Republican absences. Fortunately for American workers and businesses, Republicans showed up and blocked Schumer’s scheme, ensuring the Trump-Vance NLRB is controlled by pro-worker Republicans instead of anti-worker Democrats.’

‘I am glad the Senate rejected Democrats’ partisan attempt to deny President Trump the opportunity to choose his own NLRB nominees and enact a pro-America, pro-worker agenda with the mandate he has from the American people,’ Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., posted on X.

‘Outstanding work @SenateGOP and free thinkers @SenatorSinema and @Sen_JoeManchin!’ Independent Women’s Voice senior policy analyst Carrie Sheffield posted on X. ‘Another antagonist of @elonmusk and free speech collapses. Paving the way for @realDonaldTrump to fix harmful policies. Great work.’

A point of frustration for Republicans was the fact that Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Bernie Sanders denied a request from Cassidy to hold a public hearing on McFerran before advancing her. McFerran’s nomination has been waiting for consideration since August.

In 2021, McFerran’s NLRB ordered Tesla to direct Musk to delete a tweet they said was damaging to a unionization effort at Tesla in a move that was eventually overturned by the U.S. Appeals Court. 

‘The current administration is doing everything possible to prevent government efficiency, but @DOGE is inevitable,’ Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk posted on X before the vote in response to a post lamenting the Democrat push to advance McFerran. 

Unlike most similar agencies, members of the NLRB cannot be removed by the president at will simply based on policy goals or changing administrations. 

‘Any member of the Board may be removed by the President, upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause,’ the NLRB website states.

In response to the McFerran vote, Democrats pulled the cloture vote for Republican NLRB nominee Joshua Ditelberg, giving Trump the opportunity to fill two seats if nothing changes before inauguration day. 

Schumer filed cloture on McFerran’s nomination on Monday, setting up a vote on Wednesday. In floor remarks, the New York Democrat did not acknowledge the lame-duck nature of the vote, telling his colleagues, ‘If you truly care about working families, if you care about fixing income inequality in America, then you should be in favor of advancing today’s NLRB nominees. You can’t say you are for working families, then go and vote ‘no’ today, because the NLRB protects workers from mistreatment on the job and from overreaching employers.’

In a statement after the vote, Schumer said, ‘It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee – with a proven track record of protecting worker rights – did not have the votes.’

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

Roughly half of Americans approve of how President-elect Trump is handling his transition to a second term in the White House, according to two new national polls.

Fifty-five percent of Americans said they largely approve of how the president-elect is handling the transition from the Biden to Trump administrations, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.

That’s a higher percentage compared to eight years ago, when Trump first won the White House, but it’s still well behind other recent presidents, according to CNN polling.

Meanwhile, 47% of people questioned in a Marist Poll also released Tuesday gave the former and future president a thumbs up when it comes to how he’s handling the transition, with 39% disapproving and 14% unsure.

Not surprisingly, the Marist survey indicates a massive partisan divide on the question, with 86% of Republicans approving of how the GOP president-elect is handling the transition. But 72% of Democrats disapproved. Among independents, 43% disapproved and 38% approved.

‘Although more people support Trump’s transition than oppose it, more independents are taking a wait-and-see position than more partisan voters,’ Marist Institute for Public Opinion Director Lee Miringoff said.

Miringoff added that ‘a note of caution for President-elect Trump is that fewer voters approve of the transition than gave a thumbs up to either Biden or Obama at this point.’

Marist questioned 3,131 adults nationwide from Dec. 3-5 for its survey, which had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

The CNN poll was conducted Dec. 5-8, with an overall sampling error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

The release of the polls came as Trump’s cabinet picks continued to meet with senators on Capitol Hill ahead of confirmation hearings starting next month.

Trump named his nominees for his cabinet and his choices for other top administration officials at a faster pace than he did eight years ago after his first White House victory.

But his transition has already faced some setbacks, including his first attorney general nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, ending his bid for confirmation amid controversy over allegations he paid for sex with underage girls.

Trump last weekend made his first international trip since defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in last month’s election, and he was courted by world leaders during a stop in Paris.

Trump will be inaugurated Jan. 20.

According to the CNN poll, 54% of Americans say they expect Trump to do a good job as president once he takes over the White House. 

The House voted Wednesday to pass its yearly defense bill that would give junior enlisted troops a significant pay bump and work to eliminate DEI programs at the Pentagon.

It passed 281-140, with 16 Republicans voting no. Only 81 Democrats voted yes – 124 voting no – a much larger margin than in years passed when the legislation typically enjoyed bipartisan support. 

Many Democrats opposed a provision of the bill that restricts coverage of transgender treatments for minors. 

The legislation now heads to the Senate for passage before heading to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature. 

The 1,800-page bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), details how $895.2 billion allocated toward defense and national security will be spent. It will be voted on more than two months after the start of the fiscal year. 

The $895.2 billion represents a 1% increase over last year’s budget, a smaller number than some defense hawks would have liked. 

A significant portion of the legislation focused on quality-of-life improvements for service members amid record recruitment issues, a focus of much bipartisan discussion over the last year. That includes a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted troops and increasing access to child care for service members while also providing job support to military spouses.

The measure authorizes a 4.5% across-the-board pay raise for all service members starting Jan. 1. 

The NDAA typically enjoys wide bipartisan support, but this year’s focus on eliminating ‘woke’ policies could be hard for Democrats to stomach.

The policy proposal to prohibit Tricare, the military’s health care provider, from covering transgender services for the minor dependents of service members has raised concerns, prompting the leading Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, to reconsider his support for the bill.

‘Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong,’ he said in a statement. ‘This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills.’

The goal of that provision is to prevent any ‘medical interventions that could result in sterilization’ of minors.

Other provisions, like a blanket ban on funding for gender transition surgeries for adults, did not make their way into the bill, neither did a ban on requiring masks to prevent the spread of diseases. 

The bill also supports deploying the National Guard to the southern border to help with illegal immigrant apprehensions and drug flow. 

Another provision opens the door to allowing airmen and Space Force personnel to grow facial hair; it directs the secretary of the Air Force to brief lawmakers on ‘the feasibility and advisability’ of establishing a pilot program to test out allowing beards. 

Democrats are also upset the bill did not include a provision expanding access to IVF for service members. Currently, military health care only covers IVF for troops whose infertility is linked to service-related illness or injury.

But the bill did not include an amendment to walk back a provision allowing the Pentagon to reimburse service members who have to travel out of state to get an abortion.

The bill extends a hiring freeze on DEI-related roles and stops all such recruitment until ‘an investigation of the Pentagon’s DEI programs’ can be completed.

It also bans the Defense Department from contracting with advertising companies ‘that blacklist conservative news sources,’ according to an internal GOP memo.

The memo said the NDAA also guts funding for the Biden administration’s ‘Countering Extremist Activity Working Group’ dedicated to rooting out extremism in the military’s ranks. The annual defense policy bill also does not authorize ‘any climate change programs’ and prohibits the Pentagon from issuing climate impact-based guidance on weapons systems.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., touted $31 billion in savings in the legislation that would come from cutting ‘inefficient programs, obsolete weapons, and bloated Pentagon bureaucracy.’

The compromise NDAA bill, negotiated between Republican and Democrat leadership, sets policy for the nation’s largest government agency, but a separate defense spending bill must be passed to allocate funds for such programs.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, signaled he is not finished with his oversight of FBI Director Christopher Wray’s handling of the bureau, even after the intelligence official announced he was stepping down.

Jordan said Wray’s resignation was ‘great’ news and lambasted his handling of the FBI in comments to Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

‘I mean, Chris Wray was, you know, investigating moms and dads who show up for school board meetings. He was putting out a memorandum on saying, ‘If you’re a pro-life Catholic, you’re an extremist.’ The FBI retaliated against whistleblowers who came and gave us that kind of information. We learned yesterday that they were spying on congressional staffers and their metadata. And of course, he raided President Trump’s home,’ Jordan said.

Wray previously denied targeting pro-life activists. He also defended the FBI’s handling of a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo raising alarms about conduct at school board meetings, though he said last year that there was ‘no compelling nationwide law enforcement justification’ for the directive to be issued.

Jordan has made no secret of his thoughts on Wray’s leadership, overseeing multiple inquiries by the House Judiciary Committee into his leadership.

When asked by Fox News Digital if that oversight will continue, Jordan said, ‘Oh, yeah.’

‘And there’s, we think, reports coming that are going to, you know, shed even more light on what’s been going on down line from the from the inspector general,’ Jordan said.

He also praised President-elect Trump’s new nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel.

Fox News first reported Wray’s intent to resign seven years into his 10-year term earlier on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Trump’s pick to replace him had already been meeting with senators for days ahead of an anticipated confirmation hearing.

‘After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the Bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current Administration in January and then step down. My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day,’ Wray told FBI colleagues. ‘In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.’   

Jordan told Fox News Digital he was not surprised at Wray’s decision.

‘I mean when the president nominates someone to replace you, you’ve got to go, man,’ Jordan said.

Longtime Biden confidante and former senior adviser Anita Dunn criticized the president’s handling of his son Hunter’s pardon on Wednesday, saying that she disagreed with the ‘timing’ and the ‘rationale’ while describing it as an ‘attack on our judicial system.’

‘Had this pardon been done at the end of the term in the context of compassion the way many pardons will be done, I’m sure, and many commutations will be done, I think it would have been a different story,’ Dunn told a New York Times panel at the DealBook Summit 2024.

‘So I will say, I absolutely agree with the president’s decision here, I do not agree with the way it was done, I don’t agree with the timing, and I don’t agree frankly with the attack on our judicial system.’

When asked by the moderator to elaborate on her ‘attack on our judicial system comment,’ Dunn said, ‘I think the president’s statement has to be taken at its face value and clearly, like everyone else in the world, he has the prerogative of changing his mind, and that is indeed what he kind of said and he did there.’ 

‘I think that from a Democratic Party perspective, from a Democratic perspective, as we were in the midst of the president-elect rolling out his nominees and in particular in the middle of a Kash Patel weekend, kind of throwing this into the middle of it was exceptionally poor timing, and that the argument is one that I think many observers are concerned about a president who ran to restore the rule of law, who has upheld the rule of law, who has really defended the rule of law, kind of saying, ‘well, maybe not right now,” she said.

Dunn, who served as a political strategist and adviser to Biden on his 2020 campaign and a senior adviser in the Biden White House until leaving for the Harris campaign this summer, went on to reiterate that she agrees with the pardon, but disagreed with the ‘timing,’ the ‘argument’ and the ‘rationale.’

Fox News Digital reached out to White House but did not immediately receive a response. 

Dunn added that she was never part of any conversation at the White House about pardoning Hunter besides what to tell the press, which she says was a one-word answer: ‘No.’

Dunn’s comments come as recent polling shows that Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter after previously vowing on several occasions he would not give his son a pass has the approval of only 20% of Americans.

Dunn’s comments drew immediate reaction on social media, including from former Jill Biden press secretary Michael LaRose, who posted on X, ‘Yikes.’

President Biden attempted to make the case when he pardoned his son earlier this month that Hunter had been unfairly prosecuted. 

‘Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,’ Biden wrote in a statement at the time. ‘From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.’

‘Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,’ Biden added. ‘Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.’

The president also referenced his son’s battle with addiction and blamed ‘raw politics’ for the unraveling of Hunter’s plea deal.

‘There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,’ the 82-year-old father wrote. ‘In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.’

A Marine lieutenant colonel from Ohio who publicly spoke out against the Afghanistan withdrawal will lead rank-and-file service members door-to-door in the Senate next week in support of defense nominee Pete Hegseth.

Stuart Scheller, who was imprisoned in a Jacksonville, N.C., brig for his public criticisms of military brass, told Fox News Digital Wednesday he is organizing enlisted men and women to engage with senators next Wednesday.

Scheller stressed that service members who are participating are not prominent fellows at think tanks or in any governmental or related seats of power. 

‘Pete has made public comments that he wants to move to a meritocracy, and he believes that we need more courage in the ranks. So, I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have been reprimanded [if he was secretary],’ Scheller said.

‘I still think there probably was some reprimand that needed to happen, but it would go across the board.

‘The difference is, if Pete was the secretary of defense, the general officers would have also been held accountable [for the botched withdrawal], and I would not have had to go to the lengths that I had to go to bring attention to the situation.’

Scheller said that, in the last decade or two, the U.S. military is ‘not winning anything, and we need to turn it into a winning organization.’

Scheller said Hegseth has planned to hold accountable Pentagon leaders who have ‘become stagnant’ in the lieutenant colonel’s words.

He also stressed that Hegseth is the first Pentagon nominee in decades who is not from the officer corps or defense contracting firms.

Outgoing Secretary Lloyd Austin III is a retired CENTCOM general but also came from the board of Raytheon.

‘Forty years to become a four-star general really removes you from the forces,’ Scheller said of the past several officer-corps secretary choices overall.

‘Pete’s middle management — a major. I mean, he’s like the perfect guy … and he’s been sitting here talking to veterans when he was developing his book, trying to understand their pulse and the heartbeat. So, that book that he wrote probably prepared him in terms of the current culture and sentiment and frustrations more than any other secretary of defense.’

As for his plans for the Hill next week, Scheller said he and fellow service members are focused on those who may appear to be on the fence about Hegseth.

‘I’m looking for more [of] the right people than the total quantity,’ he said.

Scheller will also release a video announcing his Wednesday mission.

‘[Hegseth] is a combat veteran from our generation and … he’s not a puppet for the military industrial complex. He’s not going to end up on one of their boards like every general officer of our generation,’ Scheller says in the video.

‘I’m going to be in Washington, D.C., walking through the halls of the U.S. Senate, talking to all the U.S. senators, advocating for peace.’

The incoming chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is pledging a thorough accounting of how taxpayer dollars have been used by the State Department when he takes the reins of the influential panel next year.

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., is expected to take the helm from current Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who is term-limited.

‘When you’re dealing with the State Department, it is dollars going to foreign companies, foreign countries, foreign NGOs and, like Afghanistan, foreign adversaries – the Taliban. And that needs – to have to use a word out there – a colonoscopy, to say the least,’ Mast told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

‘That will be the focus of the committee. That will be the focus of each and every subcommittee – is getting into each of the branches of the bureaus across the State Department, working with [Trump Secretary of State nominee Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.], of course, and … really having a way to put sunlight on this in a way that this [Biden] administration did not allow.’

Mast said he wants the State Department to be required to notify Congress of each grant it issues, ‘So we have eyes on where you’re sending these dollars, to third-party and fourth-party and fifth-party places abroad, and be able to [say], ‘No, that’s not one that we’re going to authorize.’’

The decorated Afghanistan war veteran won a crowded four-way race to succeed McCaul as the top Republican on the House committee overseeing the State Department and U.S. foreign relations.

He’s been in Congress for less time than the Republicans he ran against, but Mast has stood out as one of Trump’s most crucial allies in the 2024 presidential campaign.

Mast led the Veterans For Trump coalition and was a surrogate at several events related to service members.

The Florida Republican is also notably less hawkish on Ukraine than two of the Republicans he ran against: Reps. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and Joe Wilson, R-S.C., as well as McCaul.

Like Trump, he’s critical of continued U.S. aid to Ukraine and has voted against supplemental funding in the past.

‘President Trump wants Ukraine to have victory. He wants this to absolutely be a reprimand [of] the actions of Russia and [President] Vladimir Putin, and he wants to bring this to an end promptly. He has a plan for doing that. He will execute that, and he will have every bit of my support in doing that as the authorizing side of foreign affairs for the House,’ Mast said.

He also pointed out his deep relationships with the Trump administration, including ties to Rubio and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., the incoming national security adviser.

Asked if his ties to Trump were part of his argument to win the gavel, Mast said that it ‘certainly was.’

But his overall aim for the committee, Mast said, would be based on the principle of ‘Every diplomat and every dollar puts America first.’

‘If you’re a diplomat that’s out there apologizing for America and not putting America first, you’re going to be under our microscope. That’s for sure. And I hope that has a chilling effect on them,’ Mast said while pointing out that Rubio would likely be a partner in that goal.

‘But as we all know, when our colleagues get these opportunities to take over these agencies … you go in there with years and years and years of decades-long employees there that maybe are not ideologically aligned. Well, guess what? If you were one of the 15 people that were signing on to spending half a million American taxpayer dollars on atheism, then you should know that we’re looking for you.’

President-elect Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, said Wednesday that he is seeking a ‘smooth transition’ to replace Christopher Wray, who had announced just moments earlier that he plans to step down from his post leading the bureau at the end of the Biden administration.

‘I look forward to a smooth transition,’ Patel told Fox News Digital on Wednesday in response to the announcement from Wray. ‘I will be ready to serve the American people on day one.’

Trump, during his first term as president, had tapped Wray to replace James Comey. Trump fired Comey in 2017, fewer than four years into his tenure.

Trump said earlier this month that he planned to replace Wray with Patel, a close ally of the president-elect. Patel served in the first Trump administration, both as a deputy assistant and as the senior director for counterterrorism. 

In a statement shared on Truth Social, Trump praised the news of Wray’s resignation, describing it as a ‘great day for America’ and a departure that would end what Trump has repeatedly criticized as the ‘Weaponization’ of the Justice Department. 

‘Kash Patel is the most qualified Nominee to lead the FBI in the Agency’s History, and is committed to helping ensure that Law, Order, and Justice will be brought back to our Country again, and soon,’ Trump added. 

The remarks from Patel and Trump came shortly after Wray told FBI employees on Wednesday he planned to step down from his position as FBI director at the end of President Biden’s tenure in January.

‘After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the Bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current Administration in January and then step down,’ Wray told FBI employees, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. ‘My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day. In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.’

This is a breaking news story. Check back shortly for updates.