More than a dozen politically exposed people and government officials’ names appear in the hundreds of thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein files made public Friday, sources said.

And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ discovered more than 1,200 victims and their families during the exhaustive review, explaining the process behind determining which files could be released in a letter to Congress exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.

Sources told Fox News Digital that new photos of Epstein with former President Bill Clinton are part of the release. 

The Justice Department redacted the names and identifiers of victims. Fox News Digital has learned that the same redaction standards were applied to politically exposed individuals and government officials. 

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter written by Blanche to members of the House of Representatives regarding Friday’s anticipated release of the files under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

‘We write to notify you that today the Department of Justice is producing hundreds of thousands of pages of responsive materials in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,’ Blanche wrote. 

‘Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, this unprecedented disclosure highlights our commitment to following the law, being transparent, and protecting victims,’ Blanche continued, noting that the production of documents comes within the 30 days required under the law signed by the president.

‘This letter will summarize the Department’s historic efforts and disclose specific details regarding the review and production process,’ Blanche continued.

‘Never in American history has a President or the Department of Justice been this transparent with the American people about such a sensitive law enforcement matter,’ he added. ‘Democrat administrations in the past have refused to provide full details of the Jeffrey Epstein saga. But President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Patel are committed to providing full transparency consistent with the law.’ 

In November, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed, requiring the government to release within 30 days all unclassified material in its possession related to Epstein’s and associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking cases. 

President Donald Trump signed the bill into law in November. 

The law allows the DOJ to omit or redact any references to victims and files that could jeopardize pending investigations or litigation, such as a probe Bondi recently opened in New York into Epstein’s ties to Democrats. Information could also be left out ‘in the interest of national defense or foreign policy,’ the law says.

Meanwhile, in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Blanche revealed that the Justice Department, through its sprawling internal process, learned of more than 1,200 victims.

‘This process resulted in over 1,200 names being identified as victims or their relatives,’ Blanche wrote. ‘We have redacted reference to such names. In addition to redacting the names of these victims, we have also redacted and are not producing any materials that could result in their identification.’

Blanche explained that ‘all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials that relate to: Jeffrey Epstein including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters’ are being released.

Also being released are any records relating to ‘Ghislaine Maxwell; flight logs or travel records..for any aircraft, vessel, or vehicle owned, operated or used by Jeffrey Epstein or any related entity.’

The DOJ is releasing any records or documents with ‘individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity or plea agreements, or investigatory proceedings;’ as well as any ‘entities..with known or alleged ties to Epstein’s trafficking or financial networks.’

The documents will also reference ‘any immunity deals, non-prosecution agreements, plea bargains, or sealed settlements involving Epstein or his associates.’

The DOJ also is making public any ‘internal DOJ communications, including emails, memos, meeting notes, concerning decisions to charge, not charge, investigate, or decline to investigate Epstein or his associates,’ Blanche said.

The documents will also include ‘all communications, memorandum, directives, logs or metadata concerning the destruction, deletion, alteration, misplacement, or concealment of documents, recordings or electronic data related to Epstein, his associates, his detention and death, or any investigative files.’

Blanche also said that any ‘documentation of Epstein’s detention or death, including incident reports, witness interviews, medical examiner files, autopsy reports, and written records detailing the circumstances and cause of death’ will also be released.

Blanche said the DOJ is continuing to review additional documents and other items for ‘potential responsiveness.’ 

‘Just this week, one of the Department’s components provided additional victim information requiring updated review of materials, and in the last few weeks multiple courts have granted the Department’s unsealing motions, requiring detailed review of thousands of pages of investigative and grand jury material.’

Blanche pointed to a ruling in the Southern District of New York requiring ‘additional layers of review to minimize the risk of inadvertent production of protected victim information.’

‘We anticipate this ongoing review being completed over the next several weeks.’

Blanche explained that prior to the passage of the new Epstein law, the DOJ conducted ‘a thorough review, including digital searches of databases, hard drives, and network drives as well as searches of real and personal properties.’ 

‘This review did not reveal credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals, nor did it undercover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,’ Blanche explained. He added that judges in the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York have authorized the DOJ to produce materials ‘previously prohibited from production by protective orders and grand jury secrecy laws.’

Blanche explained that the review protocol instructed attorneys to redact or withhold material that contained personally identifiable information of victims; depicted or contained child sexual abuse materials…; would jeopardize an active investigation or prosecution; depicted images of death, physical abuse, or injury; and property classified national defense or foreign policy information.’

‘Protecting victims is of the highest priority for President Trump, the Attorney General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Justice,’ Blanche wrote. ‘As part of the review and production, the Department solicited counsel for any victims of Jeffrey Epstein and invited counsel to provide us with names of victims, whether previously identified or not.

‘This process resulted in over 1,200 names being identified as victims or their relatives,’ Blanche wrote. ‘We have redacted reference to such names. In addition to redacting the names of these victims, we have also redacted and are not producing any materials that could result in their identification.’ 

Blanche said the Justice Department’s review team consisted of more than 200 DOJ attorneys working to determine whether materials were responsive under the Act and, if so, whether redactions or withholding was required.

The review had multiple layers, according to Blanche, including 187 attorneys from the DOJ’s National Security Division conducting a review of all items for responsiveness. Next, a quality control team of 25 attorneys conducted a second-level review to ensure that victims’ personal identifying information was properly redacted and that materials that should not be redacted were not marked for redaction.

Then, assistant U.S. attorneys from the Southern District of New York reviewed the responsive materials to confirm appropriate redactions.

‘The Department will continue to follow the Review Protocol and add to the public website materials that are responsive under the Act, and the Department will inform Congress when that review and production are complete by the end of this year,’ Blanche said.

‘The Department’s commitment to transparency, following the law, and protecting all victims under the leadership of President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Patel will never waver.’

Fox News’ Ashley Oliver contributed to this report. 

The Justice Department posted thousands of pages related to Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking cases on a public website Friday and said additional documents were forthcoming.

The trove of documents was released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law passed last month that imposed a 30-day deadline on the DOJ to publish all unclassified material related to the cases.

The files came from the DOJ, the FBI, the Southern District of New York and other entities, and they were expected to include public and nonpublic information about Epstein, a registered sex offender who faced charges of trafficking underage women before dying in prison in 2019 in what authorities said was a suicide.

The bill also required the DOJ to release flight logs, the DOJ’s internal communications about the cases, information on Epstein’s death and any material about people, government entities or companies with ties to Epstein’s ‘trafficking or financial networks.’

The documents included redactions and reasons for blocking out the information. The transparency bill gave the DOJ wide latitude to withhold information that could identify victims, child pornography and material that could jeopardize open investigations or litigation. The government could also leave out information ‘in the interest of national defense or foreign policy,’ the bill said.

Because President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on Nov. 19, the statutory deadline for release is Dec. 19.

The DOJ is already facing scrutiny for missing the cutoff date after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday’s documents were incomplete during an interview with Fox News.

Blanche said he expected the government to upload ‘several hundred thousand more’ pages in the coming couple of weeks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that Democrats are ‘working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts’ to address the anticipated late files.

This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.

The Treasury Department announced new sanctions Friday that target seven family members and associates tied to Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which the Trump administration continues to put in its crosshairs.

The action, carried out by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), seeks to address corruption and deceptive practices involving the Venezuelan state.

‘Today, Treasury sanctioned individuals who are propping up Nicolás Maduro’s rogue narco-state. We will not allow Venezuela to continue flooding our nation with deadly drugs,’ Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. 

‘Maduro and his criminal accomplices threaten our hemisphere’s peace and stability. The Trump Administration will continue targeting the networks that prop up his illegitimate dictatorship.’

This builds on sanctions issued earlier this month, with the Treasury now targeting family networks, not just individuals. The Treasury release names the familial networks of Carlos Erik Malpica Flores (Malpica Flores) and Ramon Carretero Napolitano (Ramon Carretero).

The named and sanctioned individuals in the Treasury release include Eloisa Flores de Malpica, Malpica Flores’ mother and the sister of Cilia Flores; Carlos Evelio Malpica Torrealba, his father; Iriamni Malpica Flores, his sister; Damaris del Carmen Hurtado Perez, his wife; and Erica Patricia Malpica Hurtado, his adult daughter.

According to the Treasury Department, sanctions are not meant to punish indefinitely, and OFAC provides a formal process for petitioning removal.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso, a daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, called for the abolition of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Thursday, asserting that she had been treated poorly by agents and endured an ‘absurdly invasive pat-down.’ 

‘TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. Pls abolish,’ she wrote in a post on X, tagging President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem.

In another post, she explained her negative experience.

‘I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s ‘safe.’ After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job,’ Duffy-Alfonso wrote in a post on X.

‘Perhaps things would have gone more smoothly if I’d handed over my biometric data to a random private company (CLEAR). Then I could enjoy the special privilege of waiting in a shorter line to be treated like a terrorist in my own country. Is this freedom? Travel, brought to you by George Orwell — and the privilege of convenience based solely on your willingness to surrender biometric data and submit to radiation exposure? The ‘golden age of transportation’ cannot begin until the TSA is gone,’ she added.

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the TSA noted, ‘We are aware of the incident in question. TSA takes complaints about airport security screening procedures seriously and investigates complaints thoroughly to ensure the correct procedures are applied.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation for comment. 

Duffy-Alfonso noted in another post that the TSA falls ‘under DHS,’ which is lead by Noem, but asserted that if the TSA were under her father’s purview, ‘he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it.’

‘To be clear, I am 100% behind all that @POTUS & @DHS has done to keep out terrorists and illegals, especially at the border. In fact, President Trump & @Sec_Noem aren’t getting enough credit for achieving zero illegal border crossings and stopping deranged terrorists from coming into the U.S.,’ Duffy-Alfonso wrote in another post on X.

‘But there needs to be more common sense around how we treat Americans exercising their right to travel. And I hope TSA works on improving their treatment of expectant mothers who don’t want to go through body scanners to protect their unborn children. We can do both,’ she added.

Her husband, Michael Alfonso, is running for U.S. Congress in Wisconsin. 

Duffy-Alfonso’s mother, Rachel Campos-Duffy, is ‘FOX & Friends Weekend’ co-host.

A handful of conservative energy and climate groups released a report outlining the top 10 challenges that rocked climate change activism in 2025, as President Donald Trump returned to the White House with a mandate to unleash American energy this year.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has signed a series of executive orders and legislation to scale back America’s green energy efforts. Now, a group of prominent conservative energy groups are declaring 2025 as the year of the cultural departure from climate activism.

‘This year has proven to be an unexpected tipping point for climate realism,’ the conservative groups declared in a report shared exclusively with Fox News Digital.

The American Energy Institute, The Energy & Environment Legal Institute, Truth in Energy & Climate, The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and The Heartland Institute signed the ‘2025: Climate Hysteria’s Surprising Tipping Point,’ outlining 2025 as a pivotal year in trading climate activism for energy production and economic realism.

‘This is the great climate tipping point the radicals never saw coming,’ American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac told Fox News Digital. ‘The world is waking up to the reality that net-zero was never achievable, never affordable, and never honest. Governments, investors, and even climate activists are abandoning the hysteria and choosing energy security, affordability, reliability, and common sense. President Trump led this shift by putting America’s energy strength first.’

According to the United Nations, net-zero is the global effort to cut carbon emissions to ‘a small amount of residual emissions that can be absorbed and durably stored by nature and other carbon dioxide removal measures, leaving zero in the atmosphere.’

‘As of June 2024, 107 countries, responsible for approximately 82 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, had adopted net-zero pledges either in law,’ or through other policy commitments, according to the U.N.

President Barack Obama led efforts to reach the Paris Climate Agreement on Dec. 12, 2015, a nonbinding accord in which nearly 200 nations pledged to curb greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the impacts of climate change.

Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement during his first administration, while his successor, President Joe Biden, quickly rejoined and pursued policies to expand federal climate and clean energy initiatives during his four-year tenure.

After returning to office this year, Trump immediately rolled back restrictions on domestic energy production and began reversing U.S. participation in global climate commitments.

Trump signed an executive order ‘unleashing American energy’ on his first day back in office.

He also signed his marquee domestic policy legislation, The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, into law on July 4. It included a series of tax provisions that unwind clean energy credits from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and ease federal incentives for renewable energy, while prioritizing fossil fuel development. 

‘2025’s ‘tipping points’ are the product of President Trump’s energy dominance agenda and 35 years of valiant work by ‘cancelled’ climate realists who knew from the start that climate alarm was a hoax,’ Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute and a former member of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The report itself outlines 10 instances of shifting rhetoric from legacy media outlets and climate change activists, explaining why 2025 was the year of ‘climate hysteria’s surprising tipping point.’

In the first instance, the conservative signatories cite The New York Times reporting on ‘why global momentum on climate action is faltering, even as clean energy technology rapidly advances.’

The signatories also cited The New York Times’ reporting on the final document from the U.N. COP-30 climate conference not mentioning ‘fossil fuels.’

In another instance, the conservative energy groups referenced the resurgence of ‘climate denial’ at the annual U.N. climate talks, citing another article by the Times. 

‘When nearly 200 nations signed the 2015 Paris Agreement, acknowledging the threat of rising global temperatures and vowing action, many hoped that the era of climate denial was finally over. Ten years later it has roared back, arguably stronger than ever,’ journalists Lisa Friedman and Steven Lee Myers wrote in the article cited in the report.

More reporting from The New York Times included in the report pointed to Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., backing away from New York’s 2019 climate law and quoting her as saying, ‘We need to govern in reality.’

The ‘tipping points’ also included Reuters’ reporting on ExxonMobil questioning the feasibility of net-zero efforts and The New York Times Magazine reporting that ‘the world has soured on climate politics.’

Additionally, the report pointed to The Washington Post’s reporting that political priorities are shifting from climate activism to energy affordability, and The Guardian reporting that a ‘dramatic slowdown in melting of Arctic sea ice surprises scientists.’

And the report cited The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board arguing that billionaire climate activist Bill Gates has reversed course on his earlier ‘doomsday’ view of climate change.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul and Gates for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused the Trump administration of orchestrating a ‘cover-up’ as the deadline for the release of documents and materials related to the late Jeffrey Epstein arrives.

Schumer on Friday blasted the Department of Justice (DOJ) following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s admission that the administration would not be releasing all the documents in one, massive tranche.

Congress last month passed a law, later signed by President Donald Trump, that compelled the DOJ to dump all the documents, albeit with certain exceptions, including materials that reveal victims’ identities or medical files, child sex abuse materials, information that could jeopardize active investigations, images of graphic death or injury, or classified national security information.

‘This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth,’ Schumer said in a statement. ‘Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by Pam Bondi. We will not stop until the whole truth comes out.’

‘People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files,’ he continued. ‘This is nothing more than a cover-up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.’

Earlier in the week, Schumer warned that failure to release the documents on Friday would result in legal and political ramifications for Trump and the DOJ.

His ire came after Blanche, in an interview with Fox News, said that the DOJ would be following through with releasing hundreds of thousands of documents related to Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, known associates and entities linked to Epstein and Maxwell, internal DOJ decision-making on the Epstein case, records on destroying or tampering with documents, and all documents on his detention and death.

But, it wouldn’t be every shred of information on the late pedophile.

‘Now the most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that [FBI Director Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims,’ Blanche said. ‘And so what we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.’

‘And so I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,’ he continued. ‘So today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.’

More than 100 House Republicans are demanding increased oversight of Syria as the U.S. prepares to repeal longstanding sanctions against the country.

Reps. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., are leading 134 fellow GOP lawmakers in calling for guarantees that the Syrian government will adhere to terms in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that set the stage for repealing those sanctions, while warning the U.S. needs to be prepared to reverse that if Syria falters on its progress.

‘Many Members of Congress, committed to seeking peace, prosperity, and tolerance for religious minorities in the region, worked with the Trump Administration and House leadership to secure assurances that snapback conditions regarding the repeal of Syrian sanctions would be enforced if Syria does not comply with the terms highlighted in the repeal language,’ their joint statement read. 

‘The mass murder of the Syrian Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other religious and ethnic minorities must be a thing of the past.’

They said Congress was committed ‘to keeping a watchful eye on the new al-Sharaa Administration to ensure protections for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.’

It comes after two members of the Iowa National Guard serving in Syria were killed in an ambush by an ISIS gunman.

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa took power in Syria after the previous government led by Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.

The new leader has sought friendlier relations with the West, even visiting the White House in November of this year.

The House GOP lawmakers said they ‘look forward’ to being invited to Damascus themselves to see that his administration ‘has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region.’

‘We look forward to confirming that these terms have not been squandered by the Syrian government–whether by their President or by rogue military officials–and seeing for ourselves that the al-Sharaa Administration has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region,’ they said.

‘As Members of Congress, we understand that the Syrian government’s adherence to the conditions laid out in the NDAA’s sanction repeal language is essential for lasting peace in the Middle East and Syria’s prosperity.’

President Donald Trump signed the NDAA into law on Thursday evening.

As the United Nations adopted a resolution condemning Iran for its execution spree ‘in the strongest terms,’ a leading dissident group released a report accusing Tehran of putting 2,013 Iranians to death under President Masoud Pezeshkian between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 of this year.

TheMujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) report says this more than doubles the total of 975 executions that the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights counted in 2024. The U.N. noted that the 2024 figure was the highest recorded since 2015. Thegroup counted a similar total of 1,001 executions in 2024.

According to MEK documents provided to Fox News Digital, a free-falling Iranian currency, nationwide protests, factional power struggles, ‘snapback’ U.N. sanctions and fractures among leaders are stoking the increase in executions. The MEK says that this year’s execution total is the highest recorded since the 1980s.

A State Department spokesperson condemned Iran’s continued abuse of human rights, telling Fox News Digital that, ‘We strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s use of execution as a tool of political repression.  For decades, the regime has subjected Iranians to torture, forced confessions, and sham trials, resulting in unlawful executions. Today, innocent civilians are being used as scapegoats for the regime’s military and economic failures.’

The spokesperson continued, ‘The Trump Administration restored the policy of maximum pressure, ending the Biden Administration’s policy of announcing fig-leaf sanctions while handing the regime billions.  Since January, we have designated dozens of people and over 180 vessels in Iran’s shadow fleet to deplete the regime’s coffers.’

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program, said there are more steps needed to be taken by Washington. He told Fox News Digital that the U.S. has ‘been lagging behind’ other Western partners who have responded to Iranian human rights violations with sanctions and other measures, most recently Canada, which sanctioned four individuals after a protest in the Iranian city Mashhad in December.

‘The lack of practical measures to support the Iranian people is a strategic own goal,’ Taleblu said. 

Taleblu noted that Iran ‘arrested over 21,000 people’ following the 12-Day War in June, alongside a ‘political repression that is even much more expansive than ever before.’ He said that the Islamic Republic ‘understands how weak it is,’ and any efforts to appear more socially lenient, including regarding hijab laws, are an attempt to ‘retain their oligarchic political position in a post-Khamenei Iran.’

Noting the prior Trump administration’s strong stance on Iran, Taleblu says that ‘it certainly can do better much more cheaply and more cost effectively than it thinks.’ Taleblu said that one ‘simple’ messaging strategy will present itself in March during President Trump’s Nowruz address, when he can ‘give an homage to the most pro-American, the most pro-Israeli population in the heartland of the Muslim Middle East.’

‘The imperative for Washington to support Iranian protesters… stands,’ Taleblu said. ‘But that should be a constant in U.S. foreign policy, given the disposition of the Iranian street, which is almost entirely against the Iranian state. U.S. human rights policy towards Iran should not be limited to merely having social media accounts that are the stenographers for Iran’s decline into failed state status.’ 

The MEK has urged U.S. policymakers to recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist and overthrow the regime, which they claim is the only means for eliminating the country’s theocracy.

On Dec. 10, the European Parliament marked International Human Rights Day by calling for the world to take action against Iran on account of its execution campaign. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, addressed the parliament with her concerns that Iran is attempting to crush dissent. She urged that ‘all relations with the regime must be conditioned on the halt of executions,’ with members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence placed ‘on the terrorist list.’

Among those sentenced to death is Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old engineer and mother who the MEK say was given her sentence after a ‘sham 10-minute trial… without her chosen legal representation.’ MEK documents say Tabari was arrested because she held a banner reading ‘Woman, Resistance, Freedom.’

The total number of executions in Iran has doubled since October. At the time, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Iran was murdering up to nine prisoners each day, which they called an ‘unprecedented execution spree.’  In response, death row prisoners staged a hunger strike.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not offer comment on the report. 

Vice President JD Vance speaks Sunday at Turning Point USA’s America Fest conference. But the vice president landed a major endorsement when the annual conference, held by the increasingly influential conservative group, kicked off on Thursday.

Ericka Kirk, widow of the assassinated Turning Point co-founder Charlie Kirk, endorsed Vance in the 2028 presidential election during her speech in front of thousands of activists gathered in Phoenix, Arizona.

‘We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,’ in 2028, she said. ‘Forty-eight’ refers to the number of the next president.

Kirk, who took over the reins of Turning Point after her husband’s murder, also emphasized, ‘We are building the red wall.’

‘We’re going to make sure that President Trump has Congress for all four years,’ she added, as she pointed to next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will defend their majorities in the House and Senate.

The backing of the vice president by Turning Point, which is particularly influential among younger conservatives and whose political arm has built up a powerful grassroots outreach operation, could give Vance a major boost should he decide to run for president in the 2028 election.

A longtime adviser to President Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that ‘it wasn’t a surprise to see her endorse, given that while he was still alive, Charlie couldn’t have been more explicit about supporting Vance in 2028.’

‘Last night simply reaffirmed that Turning Point’s entire political machinery will be behind him if he decides to run. It’s another big get for the vice president and a warning shot to other potential candidates,’ added the adviser, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely.

Vance and Charlie Kirk were close friends, and the vice president credits Kirk with his political rise.

Vance honored his late friend by flying with Kirk’s casket back to Arizona from Utah, where he was assassinated in September, aboard Air Force Two. And Vance hosted Kirk’s popular podcast as it returned following Kirk’s death.

While Vance has yet to say anything publicly on whether he’ll launch a 2028 campaign to succeed the term-limited Trump, he is considered by many on the right to be the president’s heir apparent to eventually take over the MAGA mantle.

Senate Republicans tried to advance a funding package as their last act of the year, but a last-minute block by Senate Democrats sent lawmakers home frustrated as the deadline to fund the government creeps closer.

Lawmakers have spent the last month since the government shutdown building consensus on a five-bill spending package that would go a long way toward preventing another one come Jan. 30.

The package would have funded the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, which represent a massive chunk of Congress’ overall funding responsibilities.

But a deal never materialized, and the lights of the Senate chamber went out for the last time of the year as lawmakers beelined from Washington, D.C., back to their home districts. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., remained hopeful that when the Senate returned, Democrats would cross the aisle to finish the job.

‘The Democrats are indicating that they want to do them, they just didn’t want to do them today,’ Thune said. ‘So hopefully, when we get back, we’ll test that proposition, and hope that we’ll take them to face value, and hopefully we’ll get moving, and get moving quickly, because we’ve got a lot to do.’

Before the last gavel rang through the chamber, however, there was still hope that a deal could be reached.

As the clock ticked deeper into the night and the smell of jet fumes grew stronger in the Senate, top Republicans kept working the phones and trying to negotiate a path forward on the package.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Fox News Digital that Republicans had cleared the decks on their end after several weeks of holds on the package from fiscal hawks demanding amendment votes on earmarks, among other thorny issues.

When asked if Senate Democrats would play ball, she said, ‘I don’t know.’

‘I’m about to call one of the people,’ Collins said before ducking into her office.

When she emerged, Collins said that there was only one hold left. And that last remaining blockage appeared to be from Sens. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who were incensed by the Trump administration’s plan to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought called the facility in a post on X ‘one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,’ and vowed a comprehensive review was underway and that any ‘vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.’

Hickenlooper suggested that he and Bennet would lift their hold only if they received a guaranteed outcome on an amendment vote — a proposition Republicans have time and again this year for several other Democratic issues that they said they couldn’t do.

‘We need to find some Republican supporters. All we’re trying to do is just protect the budget that was already there,’ Hickenlooper said. ‘So, whatever disagreement there is between the state, the governor of Colorado, and the President of the United States, that shouldn’t affect a scientific institution. Science should be free of that kind of politics.’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was more blunt.

‘What the president did to Colorado is disgusting, and Republicans ought to get him to change,’ Schumer said.

Republicans opted to open the floor late following a signing ceremony at the White House for the annual, colossal defense package in order to finish the confirmation process for a tranche of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

It was a bid to buy time to keep negotiations alive in the hopes of a breakthrough. They even tacked on a handful of extra votes to keep the machine whirring, but in the end, Senate Democrats wouldn’t budge.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, remained hopeful ahead of the vote and said the goal was ‘to stay until we get it finished.’

‘If we want the Senate to matter, we should figure it out,’ Britt said.

Failure to advance the package on Thursday does not guarantee another government shutdown next month, but it does tee up what will likely be a brutal January in the upper chamber.

Lawmakers are still scrambling to find a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire on Dec. 31, and they will have to contend with the funding deadline at the end of the month. And anything that can pass in the Senate has to make its way through the House and ultimately be approved by Trump.

Despite the inability to move forward with the funding package, for now, it appears that neither side wants to thrust the federal government into another shutdown.

‘I don’t think either side wants to see that happen,’ Thune said. ‘I think that’s toxic for both parties. So I’m hoping that there will be goodwill, and we’ll figure out how to fund the government.’