INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy were scheduled to speak by phone Saturday night at 6 p.m. to discuss a potential debt limit deal, Fox News has learned.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

A source also said that Biden spoke with Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The revelation came after McCarthy sounded optimistic earlier in the day. 

"We do not have a deal," McCarthy told reporters. "We are not there yet. We did make progress, we worked well into early this morning. And we're back at it now."

Biden, who traveled to Camp David late in the week before heading to his Delaware home, told reporters, "It's very close and I'm optimistic." 

The Texas House of Representatives voted Saturday to impeach Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton over charges of bribery, disregard of official duties and abuse of public trust after hours of debate in an afternoon session -- sending the case to the state Senate.

The House voted 121-23 to impeach him, meaning he will step down temporarily as he faces trial in the upper chamber. A simple majority was required to impeach him. 

The House’s Committee on General Investigating had initiated an inquiry in March after Paxton and his office asked the legislature for $3.3 million to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by whistleblowers in the office. The former employees had called in 2020 for an investigation into Paxton’s actions regarding an Austin real estate investor who had his home searched by the FBI. They accused Paxton of using his office to protect him by authorizing an investigation into the FBI.

SEN. CRUZ DEFENDS TEXAS AG PAXTON AMID IMPEACHMENT EFFORTS FROM ‘SWAMP IN AUSTIN’ 

The articles of impeachment allege that the settlement delayed the discovery of facts and testimony to Paxton's advantage.

"Over the course of several months, the Committee and staff set out to determine if payment of the settlement was warranted because of the lack of discovery in the litigation and because Paxton and his office were not forthcoming about his conduct regarding the whistleblower’s good faith reports of his violations of his constitutional and statutory duties," a committee memo this week said.

The Republican-led investigation has presented findings that Paxton recommended the developer, Nate Paul, employ a woman with whom Paxton was allegedly having an affair, and that Paul aided Paxton with a renovation of his home in exchange for favorable legal help from Paxton’s office. Paxton is also accused of obstruction of justice and false statements in official records.

It is the latest allegation of wrongdoing against the conservative firebrand -- who has launched a number of high-profile lawsuits in support of conservative causes and against the Biden administration. He was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, but has yet to stand trial.

Paxton has dismissed the impeachment push as "political theater" based on "hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims."

TEXAS HOUSE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS IMPEACHING ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN PAXTON FOLLOWING INVESTIGATION

Ahead of the vote, Paxton secured the backing of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who called the proceedings "a travesty."

"For the last nine years, Ken has been the strongest conservative AG in the country. Bar none. No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously—and more effectively—than has Paxton."

TEXAS AG PAXTON SLAPS BIDEN ADMIN WITH LAWSUIT OVER USE OF CBP ONE APP: 'PRE-APPROVING MORE FOREIGN ALIENS'

"That’s why the swamp in Austin wants him out," he continued. "The special interests don’t want a steadfast conservative AG. I understand that people are concerned about Ken’s legal challenges. But the courts should sort them out."

Former President Donald Trump also gave his backing to the AG, saying on Truth Social: "Free Ken Paxton."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed -- I will fight you if it does," he warned.

Democrats in the House had presented their case against Paxton, with Rep. Ann Johnson accusing Paxton of being "desperate to keep this case in the court of public opinion."

"Because he has no ability to win in a court of law. See, in a court of law, a judge will provide over that case and he will be treated just as any other civil or criminal defendant," she said.

While some Republicans have backed impeachment, others had expressed concern about the method of the investigation and impeachment, calling it rushed and politicized.

"I don't think today is about whether there's guilt or innocence, it's about process," Rep. Tony Tinderholt said.

A two-thirds majority is required in the Senate to remove him from office. As the trial goes on, Gov. Greg Abbott will appoint an interim replacement.

Fox News' Kyle Morris and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nearly two dozen Republican-led states have backed Florida’s legal challenge to a Biden administration policy that allowed for the release of migrants into the U.S. interior without court dates -- but was blocked just hours before the expiration of the Title 42 public health order.

"The Administration’s en masse parole of aliens violates federal immigration law and abdicates its responsibility to secure the nation’s borders," the 23 states, led by Virginia, said in an amicus brief filed this week.

The policy, known as "parole with conditions" was outlined in a May 10 memo and came a day before the end of Title 42. The policy set out how migrants can be allowed into the country on parole – a process typically reserved for "urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit" – if Customs and Border Protection (CBP) faced overcrowding. 

Migrants released under the policy were required to make an appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or request a Notice to Appear by mail. The use of parole had been authorized if a sector capacity goes above 125%, if agents apprehend 7,000 a day over 72 hours or if average time in custody goes above 60 hours.

BIDEN POLICY TO RELEASE ILLEGAL MIGRANTS WITHOUT COURT DATES SUFFERS ANOTHER BLOW AS JUDGE EXTENDS BLOCK

It had been adopted just as authorities were seeing over 10,000 migrants a day ahead of the ending of the Title 42 public health order. Numbers have dropped since the ending of the order. In a court filing, the administration said nearly 9,000 migrants were released under the policy while it was in effect.

Florida quickly sued and it was blocked on May 11, with the judge accepting arguments that the policy was "materially identical" to a similar policy blocked by the same judge in March. The judge has since granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the policy as the case continues.

DHS had said it would comply with the ruling but called it harmful and warned that it would "result in unsafe overcrowding at CBP facilities and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants, and risks creating dangerous conditions for Border Patrol agents and migrants."

GOP-LED STATES STEP UP WITH TROOPS, LAW ENFORCEMENT TO HELP TEXAS TACKLE BORDER WOES

As the case goes on, the 23 states are backing the lawsuit in a supporting amicus brief, warning of the damages it says the states will face if the policy was allowed to resume.

"The en masse parole of aliens imposes huge, unrecoverable costs on Amici States, including surging expenses for education, law enforcement, and emergency medical care. It also threatens to overwhelm their public infrastructure and degrade their ability to provide critical services to their own citizens," they write. 

"Further, the Administration’s failure to secure the border has greatly exacerbated the severe problems of transnational crime, including the smuggling of Chinese-manufactured fentanyl that is killing more than 100,000 Americans per year, as well as human trafficking and the exploitation of minors," they say.

KEY BIDEN ASYLUM RULE FACING MOUNTING LEGAL BATTLES IN WAKE OF TITLE 42'S EXPIRATION 

They also put the blame for the ongoing migrant crisis on the administration’s policies.

"In short, the Administration’s failure to enforce federal immigration law and secure the border has imposed severe and irreparable harm on Amici States. The district court’s order enjoining the Administration’s unlawful policy should be left in place as the litigation proceeds," they say.

The legal battle is just one of a handful the administration is facing on immigration. It is also facing legal challenges from the left and right targeting its asylum rule to limit who can claim asylum at the southern border.

Despite those challenges, the administration has touted a 70% drop in encounters at the border since Title 42 ended -- while calling on Republicans in Congress to provide more funding and to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday gave his full backing to Ken Paxton as the Texas attorney general faced historic impeachment proceedings led by state Republicans.

Trump took to Truth Social to praise the embattled attorney general and condemn both “Radical Left Democrats” and “RINOS” alike.

“I love Texas, won it twice in landslides, and watched as many other friends, including Ken Paxton, came along with me,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed—I will fight you if it does.”

Trump lashed out in particular at Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who Trump called “barely a Republican at all.” Trump also declared the proceedings “election interference,” and said “Free Ken Paxton, let them wait for the next election!”

In 2020, Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Trump.

Scandals have followed Paxton throughout his career, with the latest accusations of bribery and abuse of public trust resulting in the GOP-majority House convening Saturday to begin impeachment proceedings.

If impeached — as only the third official in Texas’ history to meet such a fate — Paxton would be removed from office pending a Senate trial. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott would appoint an interim replacement. Final removal would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, where Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a member.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also expressed support for Paxton, calling the impeachment proceedings a “travesty” in a series of Tweets Saturday.

“No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously—and more effectively—than has Paxton,” Cruz wrote. “That’s why the swamp in Austin wants him out. The special interests don’t want a steadfast conservative AG. I understand that people are concerned about Ken’s legal challenges. But the courts should sort them out.”

In a statement released Thursday, Paxton called the accusations “hearsay and gossip,” before claiming that the impeachment proceedings were “an attempt to overthrow the will of the people and disenfranchise the voters of our state.”

On Friday, he called for his supporters to “peacefully come let their voices be heard at the Capitol tomorrow.”

During the course of the proceedings Saturday, Republican state Rep. Charlie Geren took to the floor to allege that multiple members of the House body had received direct phone calls from Paxton threatening their political career.

“I would like to point out that several members of this House, while on the floor of this House, doing the state business, received telephone calls from [Attorney] General Paxton personally, threatening them with political consequences in their next election,” Geren said.

A federal judge ruled Friday that a rural Colorado school district can bar a high school student from wearing a Mexican and American flag sash at her graduation this weekend after the student sued the school district.

Judge Nina Y. Wang wrote that wearing a sash during a graduation ceremony falls under school-sponsored speech, not the student's private speech. Therefore, "the School District is permitted to restrict that speech as it sees fit in the interest of the kind of graduation it would like to hold," Wang wrote.

CORNELL MEDICAL SCHOOL OFFERING FREE ANTI-RACISM COURSE, HELPS STUDENTS APOLOGIZE FOR OLD SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

The ruling was over the student's request for a temporary restraining order, which would have allowed her to wear the sash on Saturday for graduation because the case wouldn't have resolved in time. Wang found that the student and her attorneys failed to sufficiently show they were likely to succeed, but a final ruling is still to come.

It's the latest dispute in the U.S. about what kind of cultural graduation attire is allowed at commencement ceremonies, with many focusing on tribal regalia.

Attorneys for Naomi Peña Villasano argued in a hearing Friday in Denver that the school district decision violates her free speech rights. They also said that it's inconsistent for the district to allow Native American attire but not Peña Villasano's sash representing her heritage. The sash has the Mexican flag on one side and the United States flag on the other.

POET BLASTS FLORIDA SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR RESTRICTING PIECE TO MIDDLE SCHOOLERS AFTER ONE PARENT COMPLAINT

"I'm a 200 percenter — 100% American and 100% Mexican," she said at a recent school board meeting in Colorado's rural Western Slope.

"The district is discriminating against the expression of different cultural heritages," said her attorney Kenneth Parreno, from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, at Friday's hearing.

An attorney representing the Garfield County School District 16 countered that Native American regalia is required to be allowed in Colorado and is categorically different from wearing a country's flags. Permitting Peña Villasano to sport the U.S. and Mexican flags as a sash, said Holly Ortiz, could open "the door to offensive material."

Ortiz further stated that the district doesn't want to prevent Peña Villasano from expressing herself and that the graduate could adorn her cap with the flags or wear the sash before or after the ceremony.
But "she doesn't have a right to express it in any way that she wants," Ortiz said.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD PARENTS BOYCOTT SCHOOL DISTRICT'S PLANNED PRIDE ASSEMBLY: 'KEEP YOUR KIDS HOME'

Wang sided with the district, finding that "the School District could freely permit one sash and prohibit another."

Similar disputes have played out across the U.S. this graduation season.

A transgender girl lodged a lawsuit against a Mississippi school district for banning her from wearing a dress to graduation. In Oklahoma, a Native American former student brought legal action against a school district for removing a feather, a sacred religious object, from her cap before the graduation ceremony in 2022.

What qualifies as proper graduation attire has been a source of conflict for Native American students around the country. Both Nevada and Oklahoma on Thursday passed laws allowing Native American students to wear religious and cultural regalia at graduation ceremonies.

This year, Colorado passed a law making it illegal to keep Native American students from donning such regalia. Nearly a dozen states have similar laws.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The legal arguments often come down to whether the First Amendment protects personal expression, in this case the sash, or if it would be considered school sponsored speech, and could be limited for educational purposes.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz took to social media Saturday to defend Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ahead of a vote in the state House to impeach him, insisting Paxton has been the "strongest conservative AG" in America and that the "swamp in Austin" can't handle it.

A vote to impeach Paxton, slated for 1 p.m. local time, came after the Texas House Investigative Committee unanimously voted 5-0 to adopt articles of impeachment for Paxton earlier this week, according to FOX 4.

"What is happening to @KenPaxtonTX is a travesty," Cruz wrote in a series of tweets. "For the last nine years, Ken has been the strongest conservative AG in the country. Bar none. No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously—and more effectively—than has Paxton."

"That’s why the swamp in Austin wants him out," he continued. "The special interests don’t want a steadfast conservative AG. I understand that people are concerned about Ken’s legal challenges. But the courts should sort them out."

TEXAS HOUSE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS IMPEACHING ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN PAXTON FOLLOWING INVESTIGATION

Further defending Paxton, Cruz wrote, "Virtually all of the information in the articles was public BEFORE Election Day, and the voters chose to re-elect Ken Paxton by a large margin. In my view, the Texas Legislature should respect the choice of the Texas voters."

The committee vote came as Paxton, who commended Cruz for his comments, is under investigation in a corruption case being led by the FBI over accusations that the attorney general used his office to assist a donor. He was also indicted in 2015 on securities and fraud charges, but hasn't yet faced a trial.

Multiple aides from Paxton's office became concerned that the attorney general was misusing the office's power to help donor Nate Paul regarding unproven claims of a conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties was taking place.

Paxton also allegedly told staff members that he had an affair with a woman who worked for Paul.

TEXAS AG PAXTON SLAPS BIDEN ADMIN WITH LAWSUIT OVER USE OF CBP ONE APP: 'PRE-APPROVING MORE FOREIGN ALIENS'

In the articles of impeachment, lawmakers accuse Paxton of misusing public information law, using his office to help a donor, terminating employees who reported his "unlawful" conduct, bribery, misleading public officials, and more.

Multiple aides from Paxton's office became concerned that the attorney general was misusing the office's power to help donor Nate Paul regarding unproven claims of a conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties was taking place. 

Paxton also allegedly told staff members that he had an affair with a woman who worked for Paul.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

In the articles of impeachment, lawmakers accuse Paxton of misusing public information law, using his office to help a donor, terminating employees who reported his "unlawful" conduct, bribery, misleading public officials, and more.

In Texas, an impeachment from the House would require Paxton to leave his office immediately pending a trial in the Senate.

Fox News' Adam Sabes and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

A rule limiting and regulating asylum claims at the southern border, which marks a key element of the Biden administration’s efforts to regulate migrants in the wake of the end of the Title 42 public health order, is facing mounting legal challenges -- with lawsuits from both the left and the right.

The "Circumvention of Lawful Pathways" rule was implemented as Title 42, which had allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border, ended on May 11. But now both the left-wing American Civil Liberties Union and the Republican Texas attorney general are challenging the rule in separate cases from different perspectives.

The rule presumes migrants to be ineligible for asylum if they have entered illegally and have failed to claim asylum in a country through which they have already traveled. The administration has said it is designed to discourage irregular migration and encourage migrants to use the expanded legal pathways set up.

TEXAS AG PAXTON SLAPS BIDEN ADMIN SLAPS BIDEN ADMIN WITH LAWSUIT OVER CBP ONE APP

That presumption of ineligibility can be challenged if migrants can show exceptional circumstances and officials have rejected comparisons to the Trump-era travel ban. The rule also does not apply to unaccompanied minors. The rule has formed a central cog in the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle a post-Title 42 surge, along with messaging, cooperation with NGOs and Mexico and a stiffening of traditional Title 8 penalties.

"Starting tonight, people who arrive at the border without using a lawful pathway will be presumed ineligible for asylum. We are ready to humanely process and remove people without a legal basis to remain in the U.S.," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement as the public health order expired.

In recent days, the administration has been taking a muted and cautious victory lap as numbers have dropped sharply post-Title 42 by over 70% since the highs of over 10,000 encounters a day before the order expired. However, it is not clear what is causing that drop, and officials have warned against concluding that numbers will remain low.

But the rule has found both criticism and now legal action from both left and right -- raising the distinct possibility the rule could be blocked in the coming months, putting a wrench in the works of the Biden administration’s plans.

BIDEN POLICY TO RELEASE ILLEGAL MIGRANTS WITHOUT COURT DATES SUFFERS ANOTHER BLOW AS JUDGE EXTENDS BLOCK

Left-wing groups argue that the rule unlawfully restricts access to asylum. They argue that migrants should still be able to claim asylum in the U.S. even if they enter illegally between ports of entry, and if they have traveled through multiple countries to get to the U.S. They also objected to a requirement for migrants to schedule an appointment at a port of entry on the CBP One app, noting that such appointments are limited to approximately 1,000 a day. 

"The Biden administration’s new ban places vulnerable asylum seekers in grave danger and violates U.S. asylum laws. We’ve been down this road before with Trump," Katrina Eiland, managing attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement announcing the filing of its suit. "The asylum bans were cruel and illegal then, and nothing has changed now."

Days later, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit challenging the rule, focusing on the use of the CBP One app to allow migrants into the U.S.

"In a farcical attempt to address the invasion of illegal aliens across the southern border following the end of Title 42, the Biden Administration published a new Final Rule inviting migrants to download an app to schedule a convenient time and place to cross the border illegally," the lawsuit, first reported by Fox News Digital, says.

GOP-LED STATES STEP UP WITH TROOPS, LAW ENFORCEMENT TO HELP TEXAS TACKLE BORDER WOES

Paxton accused the administration of having an aim of "illegally pre-approving more foreign aliens to enter the country and go where they please once they arrive."

The complaint says that neither the app nor CBP officials ask if migrants are seeking asylum. It claims that the administration is encouraging migrants to cross the border "without establishing that they meet some exception from removal or have a legal basis to remain in the country." Texas argues that by inviting migrants into the U.S., Texas will be hit by extra costs for education, health care and other services. 

"The Biden Administration’s attempt to manage the southern border by app does not meet even the lowest expectation of competency and runs afoul of the laws Congress passed to regulate immigration, and the Final Rule should be enjoined," it says.

The challenges mark the latest in a long line of legal efforts that have either challenged or torpedoed a number of Biden-era immigration policies. Title 42 itself had also faced a legal back-and-forth as activists sought to end the rule, while Republican-led states sought to keep it in place. The battle went right up to the Supreme Court, but was dismissed as the expiration of the order with the end of the COVID-19 national emergency meant it expired on its own terms.

Meanwhile, a "parole with conditions" policy that was introduced to relieve overcrowding on May 10 and allowed for migrants to be released into the U.S. without court dates has been blocked in response to a lawsuit from Florida. The case, which is separate from another lawsuit filed against the same policy by Texas, is ongoing.

Nikki Haley, the first and only woman in the 2024 presidential race, knows there's still a long way to go until election day.

"This is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. I’m not concerned with where things are now. I’m concerned about touching as many voters as we can and watching that go," the candidate told USA Today on Thursday. "It’s slow and steady wins the race."

The former ambassador to the United Nations, 51, has kept her pace since launching her campaign earlier this year. 

The outlet said her campaign has hosted nearly 20 grassroots events in New Hampshire and more than 20 in Iowa.

NIKKI HALEY, 2024 REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, VOWS TO SIGN FEDERAL ABORTION BAN IF ELECTED PRESIDENT

In the Granite State, Haley also said she was unconcerned regarding polling performance there, pointing to former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s lead in Iowa. He led the field there in summer 2015 but dropped out before the state’s caucuses after support for him fell. 

The former South Carolina governor is running on a multitude of issues, including some her fellow Republican contenders have been hammering as well. 

For example, she spotlights defending Second Amendment rights, cracking down on illegal immigration, creating jobs and a pro-life point of view on her website.

Notably, abortion has been a touchy subject for former President Donald Trump – something the newest GOP candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has focused on in recent weeks.

Haley, a mother to two children, has committed to signing a federal abortion ban, although noting she believes the prospect of such a ban getting through Congress is unlikely. Conversely, Trump said earlier this month that Florida's six-week restriction was "too harsh." 

Trump has been on the trail for a while, but DeSantis is just officially crossing the start line. While DeSantis seeks to separate himself from Trump – widening the divide in a Friday interview with Ben Shapiro – Haley has called DeSantis "an echo" of the former president.

ONLY ON FOX: AS DESANTIS ENTERS THE RACE, HALEY ARUGES FLORIDA GOVERNOR IS ‘COPYING TRUMP’

While she is "unapologetically pro-life," Haley reportedly told people attending the Saint Anselm College and New England Council’s "Politics and Eggs" event that she is going to "treat [the issue] with the respect it deserves."

An April Fox News Poll showed a majority of American voters think the FDA-approved prescription medication used to end a pregnancy, mifepristone, should be legal.

To note further, around 70% of women in the U.S. were registered to vote in 2022, according to Statista. 

The article also highlighted that suburban women can make or break elections and that Haley believes she is in the right spot to capture those votes.

"I know the challenges they face. I know whether they’re taking care of elderly parents because I’m doing that. I know about their spouses in the military. I’m a military wife. I know about that," she told USA Today. "I know about raising children and the concerns you have."

Haley pointed out that women focus on issues from education to border safety and national security.

"I know not only what they care about, but I also know how to communicate that to them because I can relate to what they’re feeling," she said.

The controversial leadership of an embattled George Soros-bankrolled prosecutor in St. Louis who resigned earlier this month amid allegations of neglecting her duties is still having ripple effects as the city looks to turn the page.

Kim Gardner, a Democrat long mired in scandal and misconduct allegations, stepped down last week as St. Louis circuit attorney, the city's top prosecutor. Gardner is one of the first progressive prosecutors whom Soros, a liberal billionaire and Democrat mega-donor, bankrolled in 2016 and again for her re-election in 2020. She announced last month that she would seek a third term.

For years, Gardner's office faced criticism for mishandling cases and office dysfunction. One of the more prominent cases involved Levi Henning.

In April 2020, Henning, now 21, was arrested for murdering a high school student. He was charged with murder the following March. Five months later, police processed DNA evidence collected from the scene that suggested someone else was there. According to Henning's lawyer, David Mueller, however, the Circuit Attorney's Office waited six months to disclose that evidence to him and still didn't drop the charges. He also said prosecutors had ballistics evidence tying the killing to a murder committed by another man but sat on it for over a year.

SOROS-BACKED PROSECUTOR IN ST. LOUIS ABRUPTLY RESIGNS AFTER SCANDAL-RIDDEN TENURE

Earlier this year, Gardner's office dropped the charges against Henning, citing lack of evidence.

"I've never seen a case this bad," Mueller told local CBS affiliate KMOV at the time. "It's either gross negligence or willful denial of a defendant’s constitutional rights."

However, Henning remained in jail since he still faced a separate carjacking case from 2018, when police accused him of stealing a woman’s car at gunpoint. Henning, who was 17 at the time, spent a year in the city jail and was released to a "Teen Challenge" program in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Henning is accused of absconding from the program.

The carjacking case brought Henning to court on Thursday. During Thursday's hearing, Mueller argued prosecutors again failed to turn over evidence.

"Since July 1st of 2019, we've known the DNA has been pending and we have no idea where it is, if it's ever been tested, or what it says," said Mueller. "We've got five years of failure to hand over DNA evidence over here; it's a disaster."

"If you're going to lock somebody up, if you're going to put them in the cage," added Mueller, "you have to provide the discovery and the evidence against them. That's never been done in this case."

YET ANOTHER MISSOURI OFFICIAL MAY TAKE SOROS-BACKED PROSECUTOR TO COURT AS MORE ASSISTANTS RESIGN

Last week, the judge let Henning out on bond, but prosecutors immediately filed to revoke bond, saying they needed time to alert the victim.

In Thursday's hearing, the city prosecutor said he was told to file the motion by the staff of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whose office is helping run the Circuit Attorney's Office following Gardner's resignation.

The prosecutor also said he was the latest to touch the Henning case and told the judge bluntly: "I'm not that well prepared."

The comments were reminiscent of Gardner's office, which came under fire for prosecutors frequently not showing up for court dates or showing up unprepared.

"Not much has changed since Ms. Gardner's resignation, it appears," said Mueller. "I'm concerned because all the evidence I've seen come out of the office has been more of the same."

Mueller is running for St. Louis circuit attorney. He cited Henning's case as what ultimately motivated him to run when he announced his campaign last month.

JUDGE SHREDS SOROS-BACKED PROSECUTOR, MOVES TO HOLD HER IN CRIMINAL CONTEMPT: ‘RUDDERLESS SHIP OF CHAOS‘

Bailey's office also cited the Henning case as an example of Gardner's mishandling of cases in his effort to oust her from office. The final straw for Bailey, a Republican, came in February when a teenage volleyball player visiting St. Louis with her team was struck by a car and lost both of her legs.

A man was charged in the crash with assault, armed criminal action and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license. He was out on bond awaiting trial for a separate armed robbery case despite violating the terms of his bond several dozen times.

Gardner argued that her office had tried to put the suspect back in jail but that a judge had denied their request. However, there are no court records of her office — which is responsible for monitoring compliance with bond conditions and revoking them when those terms are violated — asking for his bond to be revoked, according to local reports.

In the wake of the incident, Bailey filed a petition quo warranto, the legal mechanism under a state statute that allows the attorney general to remove a prosecutor who neglects the job's duties.

Bailey claimed that nearly 12,000 criminal cases had been dismissed by what he called Gardner's failures. He also said more than 9,000 cases had been thrown out as they were about to go to trial, forcing judges to dismiss more than 2,000 cases due to what Bailey described as a failure to provide defendants with evidence and speedy trials.

SOROS-BACKED PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE UNDER FIRE FOR MURDER CASE NO-SHOW AS TRIAL SET FOR POTENTIAL REMOVAL

Gardner had refused to leave office for months, calling Bailey's efforts a political "witch hunt" and a form of "voter suppression." She also suggested that racism and sexism are behind some of the criticism against her.

A St. Louis judge had set a tentative trial date for Sept. 25 to hear arguments from both sides.

Meanwhile, Gardner's office was facing two proceedings for contempt of court after prosecutors failed to appear for multiple court dates. In one contempt case, a Missouri judge said Gardner had "complete indifference and a conscious disregard for the judicial process" and called her office a "rudderless ship of chaos."

Several assistant prosecutors recently resigned from Gardner's long understaffed office, which was plagued by persistent personnel issues, creating low morale and a dysfunctional working environment.

Gardner's tenure was riddled with allegations of misconduct and mishandled cases long before her latest legal issues. In one case, she was publicly reprimanded and fined by the Missouri Supreme Court.

EMBATTLED SOROS-BACKED PROSECUTOR, FACING MISSOURI AG EFFORT TO OUST HER, NOW GETS 2024 CHALLENGER

More broadly, Gardner has been scrutinized for what critics have deemed soft-on-crime policies.

Gardner was St. Louis' first Black chief prosecutor.

On Thursday, Mueller noted how Bailey's office had cited the Henning case as an example of Gardner's mishandling of cases, questioning what's happening now if the goal is to fix the alleged wrongdoing of St. Louis prosecutors in recent years.

"They were saying Ms. Gardner's office had violated his constitutional rights, had kept him locked up for reasons that made no sense, and yet here they are saying that once again it needs to be reconsidered, and he needs to be locked up," Mueller told KMOV.

The Circuit Attorney's Office is currently using Missouri Gov. Mike Parson's spokeswoman as its media contact during the transition period. Fox News Digital has reached out to the governor's spokeswoman for comment for this story.

Mueller filed a motion to dismiss the carjacking case against Henning, citing continued failures by the Circuit Attorney's Office. The judge is reviewing the motion. In the meantime, Henning will remain on bond pending further review.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would be "welcoming" of a measure from Congress to defund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) if he's elected president next year.

The comments from DeSantis, who officially announced this week that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, came during a conversation with radio host and Second Amendment advocate Dana Loesch on The Dana Show.

During the interview, DeSantis was asked whether he would sign a measure from Congress to abolish the IRS through funding means, as well as what he would replace the system with.

"Are you for a far tax, a flat tax, where do you stand on that?" Loesch asked DeSantis.

DESANTIS TAKES SHOTS AT TRUMP SAYS HE IS 'RUNNING TOWARDS THE LEFT' CLAIMS HE 'IS A DIFFERENT GUY TODAY'

"So, the answer's yes. I think the IRS is a corrupt organization and I think it's not a friend to the average citizen or taxpayer," DeSantis responded. "We need something totally different."

"I've supported all of the single rate proposals, I think they would be a huge improvement over the current system and I would be welcoming to take this tax system, chunk it out the window and do something that's more favorable to the average folks."

DeSantis, who has repeatedly taken aim at the IRS for its unfair practices and crackdown on the middle class, said last August that an effort from the Biden administration to expand the IRS with 87,000 new agents was a "middle finger to the American public."

"Of all the things that have come out of Washington that have been outrageous, this has got to be pretty close to the top," DeSantis said at the time. "I think it was basically just the middle finger to the American public, that this is what they think of you."

DeSantis – highlighting the notion that Washington is "going after you" – also suggested at the time that the new agents would be more out to target those with small businesses or those who work to make ends meet through ordinary, day-to-day jobs.

"They are going to go after independent contractors, they’re going to go after small business people, they’re going to go after someone that may be driving an Uber or a handyman or all these things," DeSantis added at the time. "Why would they do that? Because you’re not going to be able to contend with the audit, so they’re going to crush a lot of people by doing that."

DESANTIS’ POLITICAL TEAM PUSHES BACK ON ‘DISHONEST’ PRO-TRUMP PAC AD THAT CLAIMS DESANTIS TRIED TO RAISE TAXES

Discussing the same subject that month, DeSantis, who was commenting on the FBI's raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate at the time, wrote in a tweet: "The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic."

During a 2013 appearance on Fox News, DeSantis said from a "policy perspective" that he believes the IRS "is really past its point of usefulness."

"I think we need to move to a fair or flat tax and give the government less power," DeSantis, then a member of the House Oversight and Judiciary committee, said at the time.

Ahead of DeSantis' announcement that he will seek the White House, several of his detractors, including a super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump's 2024 endeavors, took aim at the governor over his support for a national sales tax during his time representing the Sunshine State's 6th Congressional District in the House from 2013 to 2018.

"In Congress, Ron DeSantis backed a national sales tax, a 23% tax hike on almost everything you buy … from the gas station to the grocery store," stated an ad from MAGA Inc., the leading super PAC aligned with Trump's candidacy in the 2024 race for the White House.

While true DeSantis supported a bill that proposed introducing a 23% federal sales tax, key details were omitted from the ad. In accordance with the bill's proposed federal sales tax, all other federal taxes, including the income tax, would have been eliminated if the bill had passed.

Known as the Fair Tax Act, or HR25, a version of the bill has been introduced in Congress multiple times since 1999. DeSantis co-sponsored the bill in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

"In Congress, the governor supported the concept of a Fair Tax, a plan to lower the overall tax burden on an individual by replacing all federal taxes — including income tax — with a lower tax," Bryan Griffin, the DeSantis political team press secretary, said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital last week. "The plan also sought to end the IRS, which, at the time, was being weaponized by the Obama administration."