President Donald Trump has threatened legal action against author Michael Wolff and the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, insisting a newly released trove of Epstein-related files clears him of wrongdoing.

Trump was aboard Air Force One during a flight to Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday when he responded to a reporter’s question about the more than 3 million Epstein-related records and personal emails that the Justice Department released Friday.

‘It looked like this guy, Wolff, was a writer, was conspiring with Epstein to do harm to me,’ Trump said. ‘I didn’t see it myself, but I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it’s the opposite of what people were hoping, you know, the radical left, that Wolff, who’s a third-rate writer, was conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to hurt me, politically or otherwise, and that came through loud and clear.’

Trump said there was a high likelihood that he would sue Wolff and the Epstein estate ‘because he was conspiring with Wolff to do harm to me politically. That’s not a friend.’

In one March 2016 email between Epstein and Wolff that Fox News Digital reviewed, Wolff is encouraging Epstein to come up with an ‘immediate counter narrative’ to James Patterson’s book about him, ‘Filthy Rich: A Powerful Billionaire, the Sex Scandal that Undid Him, and All the Justice that Money Can Buy.’

‘You do need an immediate counter narrative to the book,’ Wolff writes. ‘I believe Trump offers an ideal opportunity. It’s a chance to make the story about something other than you, while, at the same time, letting you frame your own story.’

‘Also, becoming anti-Trump gives you a certain political cover which you decidedly don’t have now,’ Wolff continues.

In a February 2016 email previously released, Wolff had suggested to Epstein that the disgraced financier is the ‘bullet’ that could end Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Regarding the latest Epstein document dump, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News Digital on Friday that ‘in none of these communications, even when doing his best to disparage President Trump, did Epstein suggest President Trump had done anything criminal or had any inappropriate contact with any of his victims.’

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

A pair of Senate Republicans are pushing their House counterparts to reject the Trump-backed shutdown deal unless it includes Homeland Security funding and election integrity legislation. 

Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, are calling on House Republicans to push back against the Senate-passed funding package, which includes bills to fund five agencies, including the Pentagon, as a partial government shutdown continues. 

They contended that the package needs to be retooled, and must include a modified version of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, dubbed the SAVE America Act, and the Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, which was stripped out after Senate Democrats threatened to blow up the government funding process. 

Doing so could extend what was expected to be a short-term shutdown.

Scott said congressional Democrats would ‘NEVER fund DHS’ and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He voted against the package twice, arguing that the spending levels would further bloat the nation’s eye-popping $38 trillion national debt, and that the billions in earmarks betrayed Republicans’ previous vows of fiscal restraint.

‘If House Republicans don’t put the DHS bill back in, add the SAVE America Act and remove the wasteful earmarks, Democrats win,’ Scott said. ‘We must protect our homeland, secure our elections and end the reckless spending NOW!’

Lee also rejected the package in the Senate because of earmarks. He also agreed with Scott, and pushed for his SAVE America Act, which he introduced alongside Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, to be included.

‘To my friends in the House GOP: Please put DHS funding back in, then add the SAVE America Act,’ Lee wrote on X. 

The updated version of the SAVE Act would require that people present photo identification before voting, states obtain proof of citizenship in-person when people register to vote and remove noncitizens from voter rolls. 

But their demands run counter to the desire of President Donald Trump, who brokered a truce with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to strip the DHS bill following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an immigration operation in Minneapolis in order to ram the funding package through the Senate.

And any changes to the deal, like including the SAVE America Act or adding the DHS bill, would send the package back to the Senate, where Schumer and his caucus would likely reject it. 

That would create a back-and-forth between the chambers that would further prolong what was meant to be a temporary shutdown.

Their demands also place House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a precarious position, given that several House Republicans want to extract concessions from congressional Democrats. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is already leading a charge to include the SAVE Act in the funding package. 

Johnson will have to shore up any resistance among his conference, given that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made clear to the speaker that any attempt to fast-track the legislation on Monday, when the House returns, would fail.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the Trump Kennedy Center will close later this year for a two-year period to undergo renovations.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the complex will close on July 4, coinciding with the nation’s 250th anniversary, at which point construction will begin on what he described as a ‘new and spectacular entertainment complex.’

Trump said the decision followed a yearlong review involving contractors, arts experts and other advisers. He added that the temporary closure would allow the renovations to be completed faster and at a higher quality than if construction were carried out while performances continued.

Trump said the approach would be ‘the fastest way’ to elevate the center, adding that the planned grand reopening would surpass previous versions of the venue.

The Trump Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Trump said the funds to carry out the renovation were already in place, though he did not provide an estimated cost or explain whether the project would be financed through federal funding, private contributions, or a combination of both.

The Trump Kennedy Center hosts hundreds of performances each year and is home to several resident companies. It was not immediately clear whether those events would be postponed or moved to other venues.

Since his return to office, Trump has undertaken a series of changes aimed at reshaping the look and feel of the White House and other iconic Washington landmarks.

In October, Trump unveiled a new monument dubbed the ‘Arc de Trump,’ which is planned to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.

He has previously said that the large arch, a near twin of Paris’s iconic Arc de Triomphe, will welcome visitors crossing the Arlington Memorial Bridge from Arlington National Cemetery into the heart of the nation’s capital.

Trump’s taste for opulence is evident in the Oval Office, where gold accents now line the ceiling and doorway trim, reflecting his personal style.

Beyond the Oval Office, the administration has unveiled the ‘Presidential Walk of Fame,’ a series of portraits of past presidents displayed along the West Wing colonnade.

Among the largest projects underway is a 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom designed to accommodate roughly 650 seated guests. 

The administration has said the sprawling ballroom will adhere to the classical architectural style of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

A Russian drone strike hit a bus carrying miners in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Sunday, killing at least 12 people.

Ukrainian emergency services later reported the death toll had risen to 15 in one of the deadliest single attacks on energy workers since the start of the war. 

The attack Sunday came a few hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a new round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia had been postponed.

A spokesperson for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, which employed the workers, told Fox News Digital that drones had targeted the bus as it traveled ‘roughly 40 miles from the front line in central and eastern Ukraine.’

The DTEK spokesperson also described the incident as a ‘terrorist attack on civilian infrastructure.’

‘This strike was a targeted terrorist attack against civilians and another crime by Russia against critical infrastructure,’ the spokesperson added.

The bus was transporting miners after the end of their shift when it was hit by a Russian drone, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine also confirmed.

At least seven workers were injured, and a fire sparked by the impact was later extinguished by emergency crews.

‘The epicenter of one of the attacks was a company bus transporting miners from the enterprise after a shift in the Dnipropetrovsk region,’ the company also said in a statement.

Zelenskyy condemned the strike late Sunday, calling it another deliberate attack on civilians.

Earlier in the day, he announced that the next round of trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. would now take place Feb. 4-5 in Abu Dhabi, after originally being expected for Sunday.

‘Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,’ Zelenskyy said on X, adding that the delay had been agreed to by all sides.

The delay followed a surprise meeting Saturday in Florida between Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s special envoy and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.

The talks in Abu Dhabi are now expected to include representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S., according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy warned Russia is stepping up its aerial campaign against civilian and logistical targets. 

‘Over the past week, Russia has used more than 980 attack drones, nearly 1,100 guided aerial bombs, and two missiles against Ukraine,’ he wrote on X on Sunday. ‘We are recording Russian attempts to destroy logistics and connectivity between cities and communities.’

In a statement, DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko also explained the bus attack marked the company’s ‘single largest loss [of] life of DTEK employees since Russia’s full-scale invasion.’

‘We can already say with certainty that this was an unprovoked terrorist attack on a purely civilian target, for which there can be no justification,’ Timchenko said.

The attack marked ‘one of the darkest days in our history,’ he added. ‘DTEK teams are working with emergency services on the ground in Dnipropetrovsk region to ensure the injured, and families who have lost loved ones, get all the care and support they need. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten,’ he added.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on whether to refer former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges.

The House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper before most legislation gets a chamber-wide vote, is slated to consider a pair of contempt of Congress resolutions targeting the Clintons at 4 p.m. ET on Monday.

Those resolutions are expected to pass through the committee along party lines, teeing them up for final passage as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.

Both Clintons were subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee to testify for Congress’ probe into Jeffrey Epstein.

Despite months of back-and-forth between the former first couple’s lawyers and Oversight staff, they never appeared on terms dictated by Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., pushing him to initiate contempt proceedings.

‘This shows that no one is above the law,’ Comer told reporters after his panel advanced the resolutions last month. ‘I’m just real proud of the committee and look forward to hopefully getting the Epstein documents in very quickly and trying to get answers for the American people.’

The committee voted along bipartisan lines to move forward with contempt resolutions against the Clintons. Nine Democrats joined the Republicans to advance the resolution against Bill Clinton, while three voted to advance Hillary Clinton’s.

The majority of Democrats, however, have accused Comer of partisan motivations behind his Clinton contempt efforts.

The Clintons were two of 10 people subpoenaed by Comer as part of the panel’s investigation into Epstein. The subpoenas were issued following a bipartisan vote by an Oversight subcommittee panel during an unrelated hearing on illegal immigration.

Democrats on the committee have pointed out that Comer has not pushed to hold others who did not appear in contempt, nor has he made any threats against the DOJ for failing to produce all of its documents on Epstein by a deadline agreed to by Congress late last year. The department has produced a fraction of the documents expected so far.

Comer has said he is in contact with the DOJ about its document production.

If the vote this week is successful, the House will have recommended both the Clintons for prosecution by the DOJ.

A contempt of Congress charge is a felony misdemeanor that carries a maximum fine of $100,000 and up to a year in jail.

House Democrats are poised to rebel against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s spending deal with the White House, Fox News Digital is told, an act that could prolong the ongoing partial government shutdown. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that the plan by Republicans to fast-track the legislation on Monday evening would fail, four House GOP sources told Fox News Digital.

That means Johnson will need to lean heavily on his razor-thin House GOP majority to pass the bill through multiple procedural hurdles before it can see a final vote, likely Tuesday at the earliest.

The federal government has been in a partial shutdown since the wee hours of Saturday morning after Congress failed to find a compromise on the yearly budget by the end of Jan. 30.

Some areas of the government have already been funded, but spending for the departments of War, Transportation (DOT), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among others, is now in question.

House Democrats do not feel bound by the deal their counterparts in the Senate struck with President Donald Trump’s White House, the sources told Fox News Digital. 

The sources said House Democrats are also frustrated that Schumer put them in a position where they were expected to take the deal on.

‘Democrat division creates another government shutdown,’ one House Republican told Fox News Digital.

But it could be difficult for House GOP leaders to corral all the votes needed as well. Multiple Republicans have already expressed concerns about the compromise requiring them to negotiate with Democrats on reining in Trump’s immigration crackdown, while others like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., are pushing their own priorities to be included in exchange for their support.

Luna told Fox News Digital that she would not support the legislation if it did not include an unrelated measure that would require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process, a separate but widely-accepted GOP bill.

Johnson told House Republicans in a lawmakers-only call on Friday that he hoped to pass the legislation under ‘suspension of the rules,’ which would fast-track the bills in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority of the chamber to two-thirds.

But now the House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper before most chamber-wide votes, will be considering the legislation on Monday afternoon.

Then it must survive a House-wide ‘rule vote,’ a procedural test vote that normally falls on party lines, before voting on final passage.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., signaled to Fox News Live anchor Aishah Hasnie earlier on Saturday that he expected Jeffries to go rogue on Schumer.

‘We can’t trust the minority leader to be able to get his members to do the right thing. That’s the issue,’ Emmer told Hasnie.

The deal that passed the Senate on Friday combined five spending bills that already passed the House, while leaving off a bipartisan plan to fund DHS.

Instead, it would fund DHS at current levels for two weeks while Democrats and Republicans could negotiate a longer-term bill that would also rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democrats demanded that in the wake of federal law enforcement-involved killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during anti-ICE demonstrations there.

But Jeffries made no promises on the deal after it passed the Senate Friday, saying in a public statement, ‘The House Democratic Caucus will evaluate the spending legislation passed by the Senate on its merits and then decide how to proceed legislatively.’

A failure to move forward with the plan quickly risks the limitation or pausing of paychecks for military service members, airport workers, as well as putting funding for natural disaster management and federal healthcare services into question.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jeffries, Schumer, and Johnson’s offices for further comment but did not immediately hear back.

Shouts of ‘Trump act now!’ filled the sunny Saturday afternoon on New York’s Fifth Avenue as hundreds of anti-Iranian regime protestors denounced the theocratic regime in Tehran and called for the U.S. to take action against Iran.

‘We want freedom for the Iranian people,’ said protester Sarah Shahi. ‘We want this theocracy that has been taking people’s rights away to be taken out with whatever means necessary. We need help when so many people have been killed.’

The protesters gathered across the street from the residence of Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations and called for the regime in Tehran to be toppled.

The ornate 19th century limestone townhouse was originally purchased by the Iranian government under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran who ruled from 1941 until 1979. It has been the official home of the country’s UN representative ever since. Protests have been rare at the location, but at some point, overnight, someone spray-painted the words ‘terrorists’ and ‘killers’ on the front facade.

The building’s location is one of the most exclusive on the Upper East Side, diagonally across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and less than a block away from the former residence of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

One protester’s sign showed a photograph of current Iranian UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani with the words ‘A terrorist lives here.’

‘For the people of the Islamic republic to be residing here is just so unjust,’ said Shahi. ‘But it is the closest thing we have to an embassy’ as a protest location.

Since Iran does not have diplomatic relations with the United States, the building is the only Iranian government-owned property in the country.

President Trump has ordered U.S. warships to within striking distance of Iran as he considers potential attacks against the regime’s nuclear program, oil and military targets. The buildup is in response to Iran’s continued support of terrorism and its brutal mass killings of protesters, with estimates saying as many as 30,000 people have been killed for participating in anti-regime street demonstrations.

The protesters in Manhattan are supporters of the late shah’s son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has been speaking out for weeks against the regime as its barbaric crackdown continued. Pahlavi has been in exile for 47 years, since his father fled and the Iranian revolution ushered in the hardline religious Anti-American regime of the Mullahs.

The chants from the protesters were no less impassioned than those of their brethren who have flooded the streets of Iranian cities. Signs demanded ‘End the regime in Iran,’ and ‘Brave Iranians are fighting on the ground. The U.S. and Israel must act against a common enemy now.’ Other signs proclaimed, ‘No to the Islamic Republic regime,’ and ‘Make Iran Great Again.’

The protesters say they are waiting for President Trump to take military action against the regime so that the nation can finally taste freedom.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Saturday alerted U.S. citizens of ongoing security operations north and south of the embassy and in Croix-de-Bouquets. 

Heavy gunfire was reported in the Haitian capital, prompting U.S. government personnel to halt all movements, according to an alert from the Department of State.

The embassy remains open for emergency services.

Officials urged nearby U.S. citizens to avoid the area and monitor local media for updates.

Armed gangs control large portions of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, according to the U.S. State Department and the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). 

Croix-de-Bouquets, one of the areas referenced in Saturday’s security alert, has long been considered a ‘400 Mawozo’ gang stronghold.

‘400 Mawozo’ gang leader Joly Germine, 34, of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, was sentenced to life in prison in December for his role in the 2021 abduction of 16 American citizens, including five children, Fox News Digital previously reported.

The victims, with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, were on their way back from an orphanage when they were taken hostage, according to the Justice Department.

The State Department currently maintains a Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ advisory for Haiti, citing kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest and limited health care.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

Amber Rose is sticking up for Charlie Kirk’s widow.

During a recent appearance on a Kick livestream with Sneako on Thursday, the 42-year-old model came to Erika Kirk’s defense, against those who criticize the way she reacted to Charlie’s death.

‘Yeah, I mean they talk s— about her too,’ Rose said. ‘Everyone grieves differently, and I tell people that, like maybe she feels like it’s her duty to keep him alive in a sense by kind of doing everything that he was doing. I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t tell someone how to grieve you know what I mean?’

Charlie, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. He and Erika had two children.

Following his assassination, Erika became the new CEO and chair of TPUSA, and has made public appearances at various events.

‘This woman should be kicked to the curb,’ liberal podcaster, Jennifer Welch, said on her ‘I’ve Had It’ podcast about Erika. ‘She is an absolute grifter, just like Donald Trump, and just like her unrepentant, racist, homophobic husband was.’

Elsewhere during the livestream, Rose responded to Ariana Grande’s support of the protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), urging Americans to skip work, school and shopping.

Grande posted an Instagram story encouraging her followers to stay home from work or school on Friday, in honor of the protest, writing, ‘ICE out! Nationwide shutdown! No work. No school. No shopping. Jan 30, 2026.’

‘Ariana Grande … I think she’s worth, I don’t know, $250–300 million dollars, telling people to not go to work, protest ICE. It’s like, ‘Girl, shut the f— up,’ Rose said.

She continued: ‘Do you want to give your money away to these people to stay home from work? Stop telling people to do that … I think anyone that tells people to not go to work, not go to school, not f—ing buy things for their family, and they’re worth $250-300 million dollars, they should shut the f— up.’

Rose famously supported President Donald Trump during his campaign for the presidency in 2024, even speaking at the Republican National Convention.

At the convention, she told the audience she decided to ‘put the red hat on’ and ‘let go’ of any fear she had of being ‘misunderstood’ or ‘of getting attacked by the left.’ 

She later told Maxim in a January 2025 interview she was ‘canceled’ during the election.

‘Unfortunately, the ‘woke’ left cancels people for having a different ideology,’ she told Maxim. ‘Fortunately for me, I don’t give a f— and will always stand 10 toes down until the wheels fall off, regardless of what my beliefs may be. I used to be on the left and thought I was doing the right thing. That’s why it’s so important to have open conversations.’

‘On the left, there’s no objective truth. It’s only about feelings,’ she added.

President Donald Trump said Saturday he believes Iran is negotiating ‘seriously’ with the U.S., stressing that he hopes an ‘acceptable’ deal can be brokered.

The president’s comments were made as he reportedly weighs options on a possible military strike on Iran amid widespread protests and a violent crackdown in the country.

When asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One whether he had decided on a strike against Iran, Trump responded, ‘I certainly can’t tell you that.’

‘But we do have very big, powerful ships heading in that direction,’ he added. ‘I hope they negotiate something that’s acceptable.’

The president then sidestepped a question about whether Tehran would be emboldened if the U.S. opted not to launch strikes on Iran, saying, ‘Some people think that. Some people don’t.’

‘You could make a negotiated deal that would be satisfactory with no nuclear weapons,’ Trump said. ‘They should do that, but I don’t know that they will. But they are talking to us. Seriously talking to us.’

Trump has said the U.S. will not share military plans with Gulf allies while negotiating with Iran, even as U.S. naval forces surge into the region.

Speaking with Fox News Channel senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich on Saturday, Trump said, ‘We can’t tell them the plan. If I told them the plan, it would be almost as bad as telling you the plan — it could be worse, actually.’

‘But, look, the plan is that [Iran is] talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something,’ Trump continued. ‘Otherwise, we’ll see what happens. … We have a big fleet heading out there, bigger than we had — and still have, actually — in Venezuela.’

On Sunday, the speaker of Iran’s parliament said the Islamic Republic now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups after the bloc declared the country’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terror group over its crackdown on nationwide protests.

Iran again invoked a 2019 law to declare other nations’ militaries terrorist groups following the United States’ designation of the Guard as a terror organization that year.

The announcement by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, comes as the Islamic Republic also planned live-fire military drills for Sunday and Monday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade passes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.