Buried among the roughly 3 million pages of Justice Department documents is a brief exchange revealing disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein discussing the removal of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell with then–Trump advisor Steve Bannon.

The 2018 emails, bearing the subject line ‘Re: Trump has discussed firing Fed chief after latest interest rate hike: report,’ show Epstein and Bannon weighing who should exit the Trump administration next.

Epstein opened the exchange by endorsing the idea of removing Powell, who Trump had appointed to the role a year prior.

‘Should have been done months ago too old!!!!’ Epstein wrote.

The exchange took place two days after then–Defense Secretary James Mattis stunned Washington with his resignation, and Epstein dismissed the foreign policy upheaval as secondary to changes at the Fed.

‘Getting rid of Powell much more important than Syria/Mattis. I guess Pompeo, only one left,’ Epstein wrote in a follow-up email, adding that ‘Jared and Ivanka need to go,’ referencing Trump’s daughter and son-in-law who held positions in the administration. 

Bannon responded by asking whether Powell or then–Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin could be removed.

‘Can u get rid of Powell or really get rid of Mnuchin,’ Bannon wrote.

Epstein replied that Mnuchin should remain in place.

‘No, Mnuchin is ok,’ Epstein wrote.

The revelation of the email correspondence underscores a moment years in the making, as President Donald Trump moves forward with a criminal investigation into Powell and names Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the central bank.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stood in the way of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE) this week, claiming that it represents ‘Jim Crow’ segregation laws, leading many on social media to bring up his identical claim about a Georgia voting law that resulted in record Black turnout.

Schumer pushed back on a Republican plan to add the SAVE Act, which would require states to obtain proof of citizenship in-person when people register to vote and remove non-citizens from voter rolls, to the spending package being debated in Congress.

‘I have said it before and I’ll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow-type laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate,’ Schumer said on Monday. ‘It is a poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached to… The SAVE Act is reminiscent of Jim Crow era laws and would expand them to the whole of America. Republicans want to restore Jim Crow and apply it from one end of this country to the other. It will not happen.’

Many on social media quickly pointed to Schumer previously calling a Georgia election integrity law ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ before the law resulted in record Black turnout in the 2022 state election.

‘Schumer used the same line to describe Georgia laws that indisputably expanded voter access back in 2022,’ commentator and writer AG Hamilton posted on X. ‘It’s incredibly offensive and unserious to pretend that every voting law equates to a renewal of Jim Crow.’

Many Democrats, from Schumer, to President Joe Biden, to failed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, warned that the Georgia voter integrity law would be ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ and Major League Baseball even pulled its All-Star Game from Atlanta in 2021 amid public pressure.

Ultimately, the Georgia Secretary of State revealed that the law did not suppress turnout, but rather increased it, particularly among minority voters.

‘Chuck Schumer sounds like a broken record,’ Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital. ‘When Georgia passed a new voting law in 2021, Schumer labeled it ‘Jim Crow’ even though the state went on to see explosive turnout in 2022.’

Snead pointed to a University of Georgia poll after the 2022 election finding that 0% of Black respondents had a poor experience voting. 

Snead continued, ‘Now, Schumer is smearing the SAVE Act the same way because he has no legitimate excuse for opposing a law that makes sure only American citizens are voting—which more than 80% of Americans support. Schumer’s smears were false then, and they are false now.

‘Schumer and the Democrats keep trying to rig the rules of our elections by pushing failed, California-style election laws that invite chaos and fraud. That’s not what Americans want.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment.

A House Foreign Affairs Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday underscored what lawmakers and witnesses repeatedly described as a ‘historic’ but ‘narrowing’ opportunity to weaken Hezbollah and restore Lebanese state sovereignty, while exposing sharp disagreement over whether current U.S. policy is moving fast or forcefully enough.

Opening the hearing, Chairman Mike Lawler, R-NY., said Lebanon is ‘at a crossroads’ following the Nov. 2024 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, arguing the moment offers ‘an unprecedented opportunity’ to help Lebanon ‘break free of the shackles of Iran’s malign influence.’ He warned, however, that progress has been uneven, saying implementation of the Lebanese Armed Forces’ has been ‘haphazard at best.’

The ranking member, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., struck a more confrontational tone toward the administration, warning that Hezbollah is already rebuilding and that U.S. policy risks squandering the moment.

‘There is a historic opportunity in Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah and remove its grip on the Lebanese state,’ he said. ‘That window of opportunity, however, is narrow. Hezbollah is working hard to rebuild, rearm and to reconstitute itself.’

He criticized cuts to non-security assistance and faulted comments by a Trump administration envoy who described Hezbollah as ‘a political party that also has a militant aspect to it,’ arguing such language ‘sent the wrong signals’ at a critical moment.

David Schenker, senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, testified that while Hezbollah has been weakened militarily, the pace of disarmament remains slow and obstructed.

‘The LAF has a presence in the south that it didn’t have prior to November 2024,’ Schenker said. ‘But they are not in control. Hezbollah still controls the region.’

Schenker said the obstacle is no longer capability but political will. ‘At this point, the question of disarmament is not a matter of capability but of will,’ he told lawmakers, warning that Hezbollah continues to thrive amid corruption and a cash-based economy.

Hanin Ghaddar, senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that even full weapons surrender would not dismantle Hezbollah’s power.

‘Hezbollah is not sustained by weapons alone,’ Ghaddar said. ‘It survives through an economic and political ecosystem that protects cash flows, penetrates state institutions and enables military rebuilding.’

She warned that Lebanon’s unregulated cash economy has become Hezbollah’s most durable asset. ‘Weapons can be collected, but money keeps flowing,’ Ghaddar said. ‘Disarmament without dismantling the cash economy… will not be durable.’

All three witnesses emphasized U.S. support should be tied to measurable performance such as progress on disarmament of Hezbollah and economic reform.

Schenker called for renewed sanctions against corrupt Lebanese officials, saying, ‘We should be sanctioning leaders right now… who are obstructing reform.’

Dana Stroul, director of research and senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, warned that Washington’s approach remains incomplete.

‘For the past year, U.S. policy has focused on Hezbollah disarmament, which is critical, but on its own is only a partial strategy,’ Stroul said.

She cautioned that upcoming parliamentary elections could either ‘strengthen or undermine the anti-Hezbollah government,’ calling it the ‘worst-case outcome’ if Hezbollah-aligned politicians retain power.

Ghaddar said Hezbollah’s weakening has shifted Lebanese public discourse. ‘The mythology of resistance has shattered,’ she said. ‘Peace is no longer taboo.’

She argued that normalization with Israel would raise the political cost of Hezbollah’s rearmament and help lock in reform. ‘Without a credible peace horizon, disarmament and economic reform will be temporary. With one, they become structural,’ Ghaddar said.

Leaked documents from the Iranian regime reveal a coordinated plan by its security apparatus, approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to violently suppress nationwide protests using force, surveillance and internet shutdowns.

Excerpts of the documents, reviewed by Fox News Digital, show that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council developed the strategy after the 2019 nationwide protests that came amid fuel price hikes and economic collapse.

At a National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) press briefing Tuesday covering the regime’s pre-planned orders behind the protests and mass killings, Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the Washington office, said the documents ‘were obtained from within the regime’ and later cited The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) as having gained access to them.

‘This Directive by the National Security Council was obtained by the network in Iran of the MEK, which has access to sources within the regime,’ he confirmed to Fox News Digital.

‘These documents show the regime’s efforts to prevent the resurgence of the uprising and, if it occurred, to suppress it,’ Jafarzadeh added before stating that there are ‘clear operational plans allocated to the IRGC to use lethal force to kill as many people as needed to stay in power.’

The first document, classified ‘top secret,’ was issued Mar. 3, 2021, with the regime codifying four escalating law enforcement and security conditions. The regime defined how unrest would be handled and which authorities would be in command at each stage.

Initial law enforcement and non-armed security situations placed command authority with Iran’s national police force, with support from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Intelligence Ministry (VAJA).

In the most severe category, designated an ‘armed security situation,’ full command authority rapidly shifted to the IRGC.

‘For now, this compilation should be communicated for two years,’ Khamenei wrote before ordering the blueprint implemented nationwide.

The secret guidelines became the blueprint for crushing the January 2026 protests, which erupted amid soaring inflation, currency collapse and anger toward clerical rule.

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 6,854 people have been killed during the protests, with 11,280 cases under investigation.

Internal regime assessments cited in other leaked files describe three phases of the 2026 uprising: an initial law enforcement phase, followed by a non-armed security phase and finally an armed security situation beginning Jan. 8 when authority shifted fully to the IRGC that played the command role and carried out armed killings.

The documents specify that during armed security situations, the IRGC operated with support from other security bodies, while Iran’s Ministry of Communications was ordered to impose internet restrictions, including full shutdowns.

A second classified document, compiled in 2024 by the IRGC’s Sarallah Headquarters, reveals how far the regime went to prepare for dissent.

The 129-page ‘Comprehensive Security Plan of Tehran’ details extensive surveillance and repression measures, identifying members of the opposition MEK and family members of executed dissidents as ‘level number one’ enemies subject to monitoring and control.

‘It also shows how far the regime is prepared to go to kill as many people as needed, which they did in January 2026. However, these killings further convinced the people that there is only one way to end the killings, and that is to overthrow the regime,’ Jafarzadeh added.

‘There are more people, especially young ones, who have joined the ranks of the organized force to confront the IRGC and liberate the nation,’ he said.

The House Republican majority just got reduced to a perilously slim one-vote margin thanks to a Democrat’s victory in Texas over the weekend.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swore in newly minted Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Texas, on Monday evening, bringing the overall House of Representatives margin to 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats.

That means if a bill gets no Democratic support and the House is in full attendance, losing more than one GOP vote will result in a 216-216 tie — meaning it would fail to pass.

Johnson is no stranger to dealing with slim margins and has eked out significant GOP victories while dealing with majorities between two and three seats. 

But this is a particularly difficult week for House GOP leaders who are scrambling to end an ongoing partial government shutdown.

The House is expected to vote on a funding compromise hashed out between Senate Democrats and the White House sometime on Tuesday, and Republicans will need nearly everyone in lockstep for the legislation to survive a chamber-wide ‘rule vote.’

Rule votes are procedural hurdles that traditionally fall along partisan lines.

Menefee, a former attorney for Houston’s Harris County, won a special congressional election in a left-leaning district in Texas that has been vacant for nearly a year.

He’s replacing the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Texas, who died while in office in March 2025.

The Associated Press reported that Menefee defeated former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, a fellow Democrat, in Saturday’s runoff election to fill the seat left vacant when Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner died last March.

Sylvester, a former longtime state lawmaker, served two terms as Houston mayor before winning election to Congress in 2024 to fill the seat of the late longtime Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

While Texas has redrawn its congressional maps for the 2026 midterms, as part of the high-stakes redistricting battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats, the special election used the state’s current district lines.

The addition of another lawmaker into the House Democrats’ ranks will give Republican leadership in the chamber further headaches.

And House GOP leaders are painfully aware of the politically difficult situation they’re in.

‘They’d better be here,’ Johnson said of his Republican members last month. ‘I told everybody, and not in jest, I said, no adventure sports, no risk-taking, take your vitamins. Stay healthy and be here.’