After being confirmed by the U.S. Senate, President Donald Trump’s new FBI Director Kash Patel is not wasting any time in taking the reins at the country’s top investigative agency, which has been marred by recent scandals and a breakdown in public trust.

Even before being sworn in to begin his 10-year term later this afternoon, Patel will be spending the day meeting with his new staff at the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover Building.

Patel has previously said that he would shut down the FBI building on day one. Though there is no indication that Patel plans to do that today, he is expected to make some changes. These include moving agents and other employees into the field and working to instill transparency between the agency and the public.

In his first statement to Fox News post-confirmation, Patel said that his mission is clear: ‘Let good cops be cops—and rebuild trust in the FBI.’

Patel was confirmed Thursday afternoon in a narrow 51-49 vote in the Senate. He faced staunch opposition from Democrats who accused him of wanting to reform the FBI for the sake of political interests.

Rank-and-file agents, however, have expressed to Fox that they agree change is needed, but many are waiting to see how far Patel will go.

The FBI under the Biden administration’s leadership has faced repeated scandals over the last four years. 

Among those was when former FBI Director Christopher Wray faced backlash amid the attempted assassination against Trump when he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and cast doubt on whether the president was struck by a bullet or just shrapnel. 

In January 2023, conservative lawmakers slammed an internal FBI memo from the Richmond field office titled ‘Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.’

The memo identified ‘radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]’ as potential ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists’ and said that ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.’

The DOJ and FBI were also heavily criticized by parents nationwide in 2021 when Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to use counterterrorism tools related to parents speaking out at school board meetings against transgender-related issues and critical race theory curricula.

Speaking at CPAC on Thursday night, Elon Musk said that he is hopeful Patel will get to the bottom of the assassination attempt, earning cheers from the crowd.

After being confirmed, Patel said that the ‘politicization of our justice system has eroded public trust—but that ends today.’

‘American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice,’ Patel said. ‘Working alongside the dedicated men and women of the Bureau and our partners, we will rebuild an FBI the American people can be proud of. And to those who seek to harm Americans—consider this your warning. We will hunt you down in every corner of this planet. Mission First. America Always. Let’s get to work.’

Patel will be sworn in as the ninth director of the FBI outside the Hoover Building at 4 p.m. on Friday. Vice President JD Vance is expected to be present for the swearing-in ceremony. 

Fox News Digital politics reporter Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday said the Jeffrey Epstein client list is ‘sitting on my desk right now’ and she is reviewing the JFK and MLK files as well after President Donald Trump’s earlier directives. 

‘It’s sitting on my desk right now to review,’ Bondi told ‘America Reports’ host John Roberts on Friday. ‘That’s been a directive by President Trump.’

Bondi also stated she is ‘reviewing’ the JFK and MLK files, which the president signed an executive order to declassify at the start of his second term. 

‘That’s all in the process of being reviewed, because that was done at the directive of the president from all of these agencies,’ Bondi said. 

When asked if she had ‘seen anything,’ Bondi responded, ‘Not yet.’

Trump’s return to the Oval Office came with the prospect of the public finally being able to see Epstein’s long-awaited ‘black book’ amid inquiries into the deceased financier and sex trafficker.  

Epstein, a 66-year-old millionaire financier with a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands and mansions around the country, died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Bondi herself advocated for the release of the Epstein list in 2024, telling Sean Hannity at the time, ‘It should have come out a long time ago.’ 

Shortly after kicking off his second term, Trump signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. 

‘Everything will be revealed,’ Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office.

Trump had previously promised on the campaign trail to declassify the documents upon entering his second term, saying at the time, ‘When I return to the White House, I will declassify and unseal all JFK assassination-related documents. It’s been 60 years, time for the American people to know the TRUTH!’

Earlier this month, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the attorney general reached their deadline to release their proposed plan for the declassification of the JFK files. 

The FBI announced shortly thereafter that it had uncovered thousands of records connected to the JFK assassination. Axios initially reported that the agency had released 2,400 records tied to the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of Kennedy, which were not provided to the board that reviewed and disclosed the files.

It was upon DNI’s plan submission to release the files that it reportedly disclosed the records’ existence. 

Fox News confirmed at the time with a person familiar with the records that the files were uncovered during the review.

Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Patrick Ward contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump’s leadership will soon bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz vowed, assuring that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would sign the deal. 

‘Under Trump, this war will end. And it will end soon,’ Waltz said at the Conservative Political Action Conference near the nation’s capital on Friday. ‘He is the president of peace.’

Waltz defended the Trump administration’s decision to come to the negotiating table with Russia during meetings in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, echoing Thursday’s sentiments from Vice President JD Vance. 

‘You can’t end a war unless you talk to both sides, and that’s what we’re doing,’ Waltz said.

Waltz also said that the U.S. was coordinating with Ukraine, Russia and other European allies to determine everyone’s needs in order to secure a peace deal.  

On Thursday, Waltz told reporters at the White House that Trump’s frustration with Zelenskyy was increasing, and that Wednesday’s discussions between U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg and Ukrainian officials were focused on helping Ukraine to ‘understand’ the war must end. 

‘It certainly isn’t in Russia’s interest or in the American people’s interest for this war to grind on forever and ever and ever,’ Waltz said on Thursday. ‘So a key part of his conversation was helping President Zelenskyy understand this war needs to come to an end.’

The increased pressure on Ukraine to agree to a deal comes on the heels of several tense days between Trump and Zelenskyy, as each hurled insults back and forth toward one another after meetings between U.S. and Russian officials. 

Ukraine was absent from the meetings, and Zelenskyy told reporters in Turkey that ‘nobody decides anything behind our back,’ after stressing in recent days that Kyiv would not agree to a peace negotiation without Ukraine’s input.

While Zelenskyy accused Trump of perpetuating Russian ‘disinformation’ on Wednesday, Trump took a jab back and labeled Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ who has failed his country and suggested Ukraine initiated the war. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Waltz met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, to hash out ways to end the conflict.

U.S. officials also have met with Ukrainian officials about a peace deal, and Kellogg said Wednesday in a post on X that the U.S. remains committed to ending the war and finding ways to establish ‘sustainable peace.’

The chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm is dismissing potential ‘headwinds’ against the GOP in its fight to keep control of the chamber for President Donald Trump’s entire second term.

National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chair Richard Hudson, R-N.C., expressed confidence Republicans would keep the House in 2026 after the group’s Democratic counterpart out-raised the NRCC in the first month of 2025.

‘Despite the national narrative and headwinds, House Republicans once again delivered and earned the votes of the American people,’ Hudson told Fox News Digital of the prior election cycle.

He pledged Republicans would ‘raise the funds necessary to retain and grow this majority.’

‘Last cycle, the NRCC used every dollar to maximize turnout, support our candidates, and secure 74.5 million votes cast for a Republican for Congress,’ Hudson said. ‘I’m confident in our plan to win again in 2026.’ 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced earlier this week that it raised over $9 million in the month of January, its best ever total for that month in a non-election year.

‘Only one month into the Republican trifecta and it’s clear House Republicans have no plans to lower costs or address issues that matter to everyday Americans, instead choosing to cater to their billionaire benefactors,’ DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said in a press release.

‘House Democrats will hold House Republicans accountable for their failure to deliver on their campaign promise.’

The NRCC raised just under $6 million in the same period, according to financial data viewed by Fox News Digital.

It is not uncommon for the minority party in the House or Senate to outraise the party in power, particularly in the months immediately after an election. The national Democratic Party also notably outraised the GOP in the election period from Jan. 2023 through Sept. 2024, according to federal election data.

The DCCC outraised the NRCC by roughly $78 million in that period.

Despite that, Republicans kept the House and flipped control of the White House and Senate.

Political history dictates that the trifecta will not hold for long – the first midterm after the White House changes hands traditionally sees a political backlash against the president’s party, particularly if they held Congress for their first two years.

However, Hudson told Fox News Digital that he sees Republicans breaking that trend in an interview during the annual House GOP retreat in Miami late last month.

Trump is in his second term, and Hudson argued that the 2024 presidential race was a referendum between two clear White House records.

‘He has a mandate that I think is unique in history. And so this isn’t a first-term president going into his first midterm. I mean, this is someone the American people know, and they’ve chosen,’ Hudson said.

He also pointed out that Democrats will be defending 13 lawmakers whose districts Trump won, while Republicans only had to hold onto three seats that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

‘The battlefield out there for us going into 2026 favors Republicans,’ Hudson said. 

An internal GOP memo shared with Fox News Digital shows the NRCC nearly doubled its grassroots fundraising from $1.7 million in January 2023 to $3.2 million in January 2025.

‘Comparing January 2025 to previous cycles, the NRCC is in the top half for fundraising and the bottom half for spending,’ the memo said.

Assistant to the President and Special Presidential Envoy for Russia and Ukraine Keith Kellogg called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a ‘courageous leader’ in a tweet after President Donald Trump assailed the foreign figure as ‘A Dictator without Elections’ earlier this week.

Kellogg met with Zelenskyy this week.

‘A long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine. Extensive and positive discussions with @ZelenskyyUa, the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war and his talented national security team,’ Kellogg tweeted.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Friday but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Kellogg’s positive characterization of Zelenskyy came after Trump targeted the Ukrainian president on Truth Social this week. 

‘A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,’ Trump declared in the post. 

America has provided billions worth of aid to assist Ukraine as the embattled Eastern European nation fights Russia.

But Trump is seeking an end to the deadly, years-long Russia-Ukraine war. 

‘In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died,’ he asserted in the Truth Social post.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said anti-Israel student protesters who are in the United States on visas and threatening American students ‘need to be kicked out of the country.’

‘All of our students deserve to be safe,’ Bondi said on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington, D.C., while joining the stage with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and radio show host Ben Ferguson on a live podcast of the ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz’ podcast. ‘First of all, these students who are here on visas, who are threatening our American students, need to be kicked out of this country.’ 

‘Amen,’ Cruz responded to Bondi. 

Bondi, who was sworn in as the nation’s 87th attorney general Feb. 5, added that carrying out the rule of law as the nation’s top cop is ‘pretty basic.’

Bondi added that the anti-Israel college protests that rocked the U.S. were anything but ‘peaceful protests.’ 

‘When I was just a citizen, before I had this job … I’m watching these — but these aren’t peaceful protests. We all believe in peaceful protest. Oh. I’m sorry, unless you’re a liberal, and you don’t want a parent to quietly pray outside an abortion clinic, or you’re a Catholic, or a parent at a school board, they’re going to call you a domestic terrorist,’ she said, adding that the anti-Israel protests were ‘violent.’

Agitators and student protesters flooded college campuses nationwide in 2024 to protest the war in Israel, which also included spiking instances of antisemitism and Jewish students publicly speaking out that they did not feel safe on some campuses. 

Protesters on Columbia University’s campus in New York City, for example, took over the school’s Hamilton Hall, while schools such as UCLA, Harvard and Yale worked to clear spiraling student encampments where protesters demanded their elite schools completely divest from Israel. 

Terrorist organization Hamas launched a war in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which initially fanned the flames of antisemitism on campuses in the form of protests, menacing graffiti and students reporting that they felt as if it was ‘open season for Jews on our campuses.’ The protests heightened to the point that Jewish students at some schools, including Columbia, were warned to leave campus for their own safety. 

Bondi added, in her conversation with Cruz and Ferguson, that after her 15 days as attorney general, the ‘volume of how bad’ and politicized the Department of Justice had become under former President Joe Biden ‘concerned’ her ‘the most.’

‘What concerned me the most? It’s the volume of how bad it was, and it still is. We’re working on it. It’s day by day by day, but we’ve got a team of great people. And on day one, I issued 14 executive orders. And number one is the weaponization ends. And it ends now. And that’s what we do,’ she said. 

Overall, however, Bondi said that ‘a lot’ of DOJ employees have remarked to her that they are grateful for her leadership, arguing that the majority of employees want ‘to fight crime.’ 

‘The majority of the people are great people, who went to law school, became prosecutors, became law enforcement agents to fight crime,’ she said. 

President Donald Trump on Thursday appointed Alice Marie Johnson, a woman he pardoned during his first term, as ‘pardon czar.’

The announcement came during a Black History Month event at the White House.

The ‘pardon czar’ will be responsible for making recommendations about who should be granted clemency.

The New York Times first reported Trump was thinking about naming Johnson ‘pardon czar.’

Johnson was convicted of nonviolent drug trafficking in Memphis, Tennessee, and after serving 21 years, her life sentence was commuted by Trump.

Reality television star Kim Kardashian West met with Trump at the White House a week prior to her release to discuss the great-grandmother’s case.

She was arrested in 1993 and convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering in 1996.

A series of unfortunate events, including the death of her son, financial troubles and a divorce, led her to involvement with cocaine dealers.

‘Back in the 1990s, I was a single mother about to lose my house,’ Johnson wrote in a Fox News Digital opinion article. ‘In a desperate moment, I made a life-altering bad decision to become a low-level player in a drug operation. When law enforcement authorities broke up the drug operation, I was prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison.’

While Johnson claims she never ‘touched, saw or sold a single drug,’ she admitted to assisting in communications. 

While in prison, she worked in the prison hospice, volunteered in the prison church, became an ordained minister, and started writing and directing plays.

After being pardoned, she remained under federal supervision for five years.

She became a champion for overburdened case officers and has fought against unnecessary supervision post-incarceration.

Her work on criminal justice reform led her to launch ‘Taking Action For Good,’ which advocated for clemency and pardons for over 100 people.

She also published a book and partnered with the philanthropic organization, Stand Together.

Fox News Digital’s Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Emma Colton and Alice Marie Johnson contributed to this report.

Donning his ‘Dark Gothic MAGA’ hat, a black coat and sunglasses, and wielding a chainsaw, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk made a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday evening.

Musk spoke on a wide range of topics, including the latest DOGE updates, the Democratic and media hatred towards him and the importance of reducing waste and abuse in the federal government.

He also mentioned that he is in talks with President Donald Trump about issuing tax refunds to U.S. citizens from the money saved by DOGE.

At the start of his speech, the DOGE chief was joined by Argentinian President Javier Milei, who is also known for dramatically slashing the size of government in his country. The two men wielded a chainsaw hearkening back to a viral video of Milei and symbolizing their shared goals of cutting down government waste.

‘I wasn’t really that interested in being political. It’s just like there was at a certain point no choice,’ Musk explained. ‘The actions that we’re taking, with the support of the president and the support of the agencies, is what will save Medicare, what will save Social Security.’ 

‘That’s the reason I’m doing this,’ he said. ‘Because I was looking at the big picture here and it’s like, man, it’s getting out of control.’ 

‘A country is no different from a person,’ he went on. ‘[A] Country overspends, a country goes bankrupt in the same way as a person who overspends usually goes bankrupt. So, it’s not like optional to solve these things, it’s essential.’

Musk confirmed he is in talks with the president about the possibility of issuing ‘DOGE dividends’ to U.S. taxpayers from the savings from cutting government waste.

‘I talked to the president, and he’s supportive of that and so it sounds like, you know, that’s something we’re going to do,’ he said. ‘So, as we’re finding savings, that’s going to translate directly to reductions in tax.’

He also criticized the Biden administration and entrenched government bureaucrats for what he called a ‘very obvious’ scheme to use taxpayer dollars for their own ideological agenda, which he said included importing voters through mass immigration.

‘You don’t actually have to assume some grand conspiracy, you just need to look at basic incentives,’ he said. ‘If the probability [is] that an illegal is going to vote Democrat at some point … then the incentive is to maximize the number of illegals in the country. That is why the Biden administration was pushing to get in as many illegals as possible and spent every dollar possible to get as many [as they could] because every one of them is a customer.’

Since Trump returned to the White House, Musk has been the center of much of Democratic and media vitriol because of his role with DOGE and work gutting wasteful government programs, many of which have been rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and other favorite liberal causes.

DOGE claims that it has already cut $44 billion in previously wasted taxpayer dollars. 

‘People ask me, what’s the most surprising thing that you’ve encountered when you got to DC?’ he said. ‘Well, the most surprising thing is the scale of the expenditures and actually, how easy it is to – when you add caring and competence where it was absent before – you can actually save billions of dollars sometimes in the span of an hour. Like it’s wild.’

‘It just shows that they really lack empathy for the average taxpayer who’s working hard, paying taxes and then and then they say: ‘Oh: ‘$1 million doesn’t matter.’ I’m like: ‘I think it matters a lot to people.’’

He made light of the widespread criticism against him from the media and the left.

‘They’re always saying like ‘threat to our democracy.’ But if you just replace democracy with bureaucracy, yeah, it makes a lot of sense. It makes perfect sense, big threat to the bureaucracy,’ he said laughing. 

Musk also explained some of his personal motivations for caring about fixing government overspending. 

‘I grew up in South Africa, but my morality was informed by America. I read comic books, you know, played Dungeons and Dragons and I watched American T.V. shows, and it seemed like America cared about being the good guys, you know? About doing the right thing,’ he said. ‘So, I was like, yeah, you want to be on the side of good, you want to care about what’s right.’ 

The Trump administration is increasing pressure on Ukraine to broker a peace deal ending the conflict with Russia as President Donald Trump grows increasingly irritated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to the White House. 

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Thursday admitted that Trump’s patience with Zelenskyy is running thin, and said that discussions Wednesday between U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg and Ukrainian officials focused on assisting Kyiv ‘understand’ the war must come to a halt. 

‘President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelenskyy, the fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered,’ Waltz told reporters Thursday in a White House press briefing. ‘I think he eventually will get to that point, and I hope so very quickly.’ 

‘It certainly isn’t in Russia’s interest or in the American people’s interest for this war to grind on forever and ever and ever,’ Waltz said. ‘So a key part of his conversation was helping President Zelenskyy understand this war needs to come to an end.’ 

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday also defended the Trump administration’s decision to meet with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, despite frustration from Ukraine that it was absent from those meetings. Vance stressed that communicating with Russia is key to advancing a deal, and said he believes Europe is on the ‘cusp of peace’ for the first time in three years. 

‘How are you going to end the war unless you’re talking to Russia?’ Vance said at the Conservative Political Action Conference near the nation’s capital. ‘You’ve got to talk to everybody involved in the fighting. If you actually want to bring the conflict to a close.’ 

Meanwhile, U.S. officials also have met with Ukrainian officials about a peace deal, and Kellogg said Wednesday in a post on X that the U.S. remains committed to ending the war and finding ways to establish ‘sustainable peace.’ 

The increased pressure on Ukraine to agree to a deal comes on the heels of several tense days between Trump and Zelenskyy, as each hurled insults back and forth toward one another after the meetings between U.S. and Russian officials. 

While Zelenskyy accused Trump of perpetuating Russian ‘disinformation’ on Wednesday, Trump took a jab back and labeled Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ who has failed his country and suggested Ukraine initiated the war. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Waltz met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, to hash out ways to end the conflict. 

Zelenskyy said Ukraine didn’t receive an invitation to the meeting and told reporters Tuesday in Turkey that ‘nobody decides anything behind our back,’ after stressing in recent days that Kyiv will not agree to a peace negotiation without Ukraine’s input.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has signaled interest in giving way to some of Russia’s demands for a peace agreement in recent days, and Trump told the BBC on Wednesday that he believes Russia is the one that has ‘the cards a little bit, because they’ve taken a lot of territory.’ 

As of January, Russia has taken control of approximately 18% of Ukraine’s territory, according to the Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Brookings Institution. Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Feb. 12 that it wasn’t realistic for Ukraine to regain its pre-war borders with Russia, prompting criticism that Ukraine is being forced to give into concessions. 

‘Putin is going to pocket this and ask for more,’ Brett Bruen, director of global engagement under former President Barack Obama, told Fox News Digital on Feb. 13. 

Additionally, the U.S. has suggested it backs holding an election in Ukraine — a key condition for Russia to agree to a peace deal. 

Nearly a year after Zelenskyy’s five-year term was slated to end, he has remained in his position leading Kyiv because the Ukrainian constitution bars holding elections under martial law. Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022.

However, Russia wasn’t the only one exerting pressure to force Ukraine to hold an election, Trump said Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.  

As a result, Zelenskyy’s hands may be tied and he may have no other option but to give in to the concessions, according to Trump’s former deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland. 

‘If President Zelenskyy is going to walk away from this and somehow say, ‘I’m against any deal with Russia, I’m against any deal with America.’ Really?’ McFarland said Thursday in an interview with FOX Business Network’s ‘Mornings with Maria.’ 

‘Well, how does he plan to keep this country safe for the next 20, 30, 40 years?’ McFarland said. 

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Trump vowed on the campaign trail in 2024 that he would work to end the conflict if elected again.

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.