Iran’s top prosecutor pushed back Friday on a recent announcement from President Donald Trump that Iran canceled more than 800 executions, alleging that the president’s remarks are ‘completely false.’ 

Trump wrote on Truth Social last week, ‘I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!’ 

However, Iran’s top prosecutor, Mohammad Movahedi, said Friday that, ‘This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision,’ according to The Associated Press. 

‘We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances, take instructions from foreign powers,’ Movahedi reportedly added in comments published by the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency.

When asked for reaction Friday, a White House official told Fox News Digital that Trump is monitoring the situation in Iran very seriously and that all options remain available if the regime in Tehran executes protesters. 

The official added that following Trump’s warnings to Iran, demonstrators who were set to be sentenced to death there were not. 

The White House official also said Trump believes this is good news and is hoping the trend continues.

‘What I will say with respect to Iran is that the president and his team have communicated to the Iranian regime that if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week. 

As of Friday, there have been 5,032 deaths during the crackdown against anti-government protesters in Iran, the AP reported, citing the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Iran’s government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people had been killed. It claimed that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being ‘terrorists.’ 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

House conservatives are reviving various pushes to impeach judges accused of blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gave his tacit approval earlier this week.

‘I just spoke to him on the House floor, and he’s still in support, so we’re going to push to move forward on at least one,’ Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital in the early evening on Thursday.

Ogles was among the conservative Trump allies who led the push to impeach judges last year as the administration engaged in legal battles with federal courts across the country over various rulings.

He previously introduced impeachment articles against U.S. District Judge John Bates for blocking a Trump executive order targeting transgender recognition under federal law, as well as District Judge Theodore Chuang after his ruling to stop a crackdown on foreign aid by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Neither of those impeachment resolutions or others targeting several other judges went anywhere at the time, however. House GOP leaders made clear they believed impeachment was an impractical way to deal with what Republicans saw as ‘activist judges’ trying to influence policy rather than interpret law.

Johnson and other leaders instead favored a bill by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to limit district judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions. That bill passed the House along partisan lines last year but was never taken up in the Senate.

The speaker sounded more enthusiastic about impeachment during his press conference on Wednesday, telling reporters, ‘I’m for it.’

He named U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, specifically, who’s been targeted by Republicans after rulings on several key immigration cases involving Trump’s policies, including flying migrants to El Salvador and other countries instead of detaining them in the U.S.

Boasberg more recently raised GOP ire when it was revealed that Boasberg had signed off on decisions that allowed for the seizure of some Republican lawmakers’ phone records in former special counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe.

A resolution to impeach Boasberg led by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, gained traction among conservatives last year, and the Texas Republican told Fox News Digital he was heartened by Johnson’s comments on Thursday.

‘We’re going to do everything we can to push that forward. I mean the reality is that Boasberg has been acting as an agent of the Democrat Party for quite some time now,’ Gill said. ‘I’m thrilled to see the speaker get on board. I think his leadership will be crucial in getting this passed.’

Gill said it was still early to predict whether it would see a House-wide vote but said his office was in contact with Johnson’s office about the measure, which he said was ‘moving in the right direction.’

A source familiar with his effort told Fox News Digital that his resolution to impeach Boasberg gained two new House GOP co-sponsors after Johnson’s comments this week.

Other House Republicans who supported the push last year indicated they would do so again.

‘I’d be all for it,’ Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital. He said of Boasberg specifically, ‘I think he’s one of the most forthright judicial activists on the bench and that’s not why he was put on the bench.’

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., said Johnson expressing support could strengthen the push.

‘There’s a lot of respect for Speaker Johnson, especially as a constitutional lawyer — he’s someone that a lot of people have a lot of confidence in,’ Stutzman told Fox News Digital. ‘The fact that he’s willing to step out there as a Speaker of the House, it says a lot.’

Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital, ‘I think there’s more of an appetite and less of a hesitation than there was earlier in the Congress. We had an agenda. We didn’t want to be distracted with potential impeachment, but I think now, as we’re realizing things are not getting better, the people around the nation are expecting us to hold this judge and others like him accountable.’

But not all Republicans were as enthusiastic.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., who was supportive of the GOP’s judicial impeachment fervor last year, told Fox News Digital Thursday that he was not sure it could survive the committee process needed before a House-wide vote.

House GOP Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore, R-Utah, said ‘everybody has to be willing to consider impeachment’ as a power of Congress but said he did not know the details of the specific initiatives.

‘I will reinforce how much I like Issa’s bill. It moves it away from political rhetoric into, ‘Hey, let’s do something substantive here,” Moore told Fox News Digital. ‘It’s a pretty innovative solution in a very sound way.’

Democrats and other critics of the impeachment push have called it an unwarranted persecution of a co-equal branch of government, but supporters say it’s well within Congress’ right to use the impeachment process when they believe abuses have taken place.

As President Donald Trump aims to build a ballroom at the White House, federal Judge Richard Leon on Thursday reportedly asked Justice Department lawyers to point to what authority allows the president to engage in a construction project at the White House.

‘Where do you see the authority for the president to tear down the East Wing and build something in its place?’ the judge asked, according to The Washington Post. 

While the outlet reported that Leon said he could issue a decision next month, NBC News reported that the judge promised that he would issue a decision in February.

Attorney Thad Heuer, who represents the National Trust for Historic Preservation, contended that the president lacks the constitutional power to rip down the East Wing and build a ballroom, according to NBC News, which quoted Heuer as saying, ‘He’s not the owner.’

The outlet reported that the judge seemed to be leaning in the direction of pausing the project.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Friday.

‘The president didn’t want $400 million in taxpayer money to be used for this,’ Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth said, according to NBC News. 

‘He wanted to use donations,’ Roth noted.

The project began last year at the behest of Trump, but he has asserted that it is being funded by private donations, not taxpayer dollars.

‘I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer!’ Trump declared in an October Truth Social post. ‘The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!’ 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is taking a big step toward holding its first-ever midterm convention.

The RNC on Friday approved a change to the party’s rules that would allow Chair Joe Gruters to convene a convention during a midterm election year.

National political conventions, where party delegates from around the country formally nominate their party’s presidential candidates, normally take place during presidential election years.

But with Republicans aiming to protect their narrow control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in this year’s elections, President Donald Trump announced in September that the GOP would hold a convention ahead of the midterms ‘in order to show the great things we have done’ since recapturing the White House.

As first reported by Fox News Digital, the rule change was adopted Thursday evening by the RNC’s Rules Committee during the party’s winter meeting in Santa Barbara, California.

The full RNC membership, meeting Friday during the confab’s general session, approved the rule change in a unanimous vote.

A memo obtained by Fox News Digital highlighted ‘the possibility of an America First midterm convention-style gathering aligned with President Trump’s vision for energizing the party this fall.’

And speaking with reporters on Friday, Gruters called the convention a ‘Trump-a-palooza’ where ‘we can really highlight all the incredible things that this president has done.’

But the president’s approval ratings remain well underwater, with many Americans giving him a big thumbs down on the job he’s doing with the economy and the issue of affordability.

‘Trump has historically low approval ratings because he has put America last, sold out working families to hand out favors to billionaires, and made life unaffordable,’ Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin told Fox News Digital in a statement.

The party in power, in this case the Republicans, normally faces stiff political headwinds in the midterms. And the hope among Trump and top Republicans is that a midterm convention would give the GOP a high-profile platform to showcase the president’s record and their congressional candidates running in the midterms.

Gruters, in a statement to Fox News Digital, touted that the RNC’s winter meeting ‘shows how completely united Republicans are behind President Trump and our efforts to win the midterms. The RNC has been aggressively focused on expanding our war chest, turning out voters and protecting the ballot in this fall’s elections. We’re building the operation needed to protect our majorities and give President Trump a full four-year term with a Republican Congress.’

Details on the date and location of the midterm convention will come at a later date and will likely be announced by the president.

But a Republican source told Fox News Digital it’s probable the convention would be held at the same time as the RNC’s summer meeting, which typically occurs in August.

The DNC may also hold a midterm convention. Sources confirmed to Fox News Digital last summer that Martin and other party leaders were quietly pushing the idea of a convention ahead of the midterms.

Democrats held a handful of midterm conventions in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chaos engulfing northeastern Syria has sparked fresh security fears after Syria’s new governing authorities moved against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, forcing the U.S. military to rush ISIS detainees out of Syria and into Iraq.

The U.S. military launched an operation Wednesday to relocate ISIS detainees amid fears that instability could trigger mass prison breaks. So far, about 150 detainees have been transferred from a detention center in Hasakah, Syria, with plans to move up to 7,000 of the roughly 9,000 to 10,000 ISIS detainees held in Syria, U.S. officials said.

The operation comes as Syria’s new government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, ordered the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — Washington’s longtime partner in the fight against ISIS — to disband following a rapid offensive over the weekend that severely weakened the group.

Syrian government forces have since assumed control of several detention facilities previously guarded by the SDF. At least 120 ISIS detainees escaped during a breakout at the al-Shaddadi prison in Hasakah this week, according to Syrian authorities, who say many have been recaptured. U.S. and regional officials caution that some escapees remain at large.

The deteriorating security situation also has raised alarms around al-Hol camp, a sprawling detention site housing the families of ISIS fighters and long viewed by Western officials as a breeding ground for radicalization.

Kurdish forces announced they would withdraw from overseeing the camp, citing what they described as international indifference to the ISIS threat.

‘Due to the international community’s indifference towards the ISIS issue and its failure to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter, our forces were compelled to withdraw from al-Hol camp and redeploy,’ the SDF said in a statement.

The camp is currently home to about 24,000 people, mostly women and children linked to ISIS fighters from across the Middle East and Europe. Many residents have no formal charges, according to aid groups, and humanitarian organizations have long warned that extremist networks operate inside the camp.

The SDF said guards were redeployed to confront the threat posed by Syrian government forces advancing into Kurdish-held territory. On Tuesday evening, Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops agreed to a four-day ceasefire, though officials warned the truce remains fragile.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials are weighing whether to withdraw the roughly 1,000 American troops still stationed in Syria, raising questions about Washington’s long-term ability to secure ISIS detainees as local alliances shift.

Two U.S. Army soldiers were killed in Syria in December 2025 by a lone ISIS gunman.

ISIS lost its last territorial stronghold in Syria in 2019, when U.S. forces and their SDF partners overran the group’s enclave in Baghouz. While the defeat ended the group’s self-declared caliphate, U.S. and allied officials say ISIS has since regrouped as a decentralized insurgency, repeatedly targeting prisons and detention camps in Syria and Iraq.

Western governments have cautiously backed al-Sharaa — a former militant once designated as a terrorist — since his forces overthrew longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, framing the support as a pragmatic security calculation rather than an endorsement of his past.

U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack urged Kurdish leaders to reach a permanent deal with the new Syrian government, emphasizing Washington’s focus on preventing an ISIS resurgence rather than maintaining an indefinite military presence.

‘The United States has no interest in a long-term military presence,’ Barrack said, adding that U.S. priorities include securing ISIS detention facilities and facilitating talks between the SDF and the Syrian government.

Iran’s top prosecutor Thursday denied President Donald Trump’s claim that Tehran, Iran, halted mass executions of imprisoned protesters under U.S. pressure — a rebuttal that comes as Trump openly warned Iran it would face consequences more severe than recent U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities if the executions went forward.

Trump has said he pulled back from threats to intervene militarily after Iran agreed to stop the execution of as many as 800 detained demonstrators following days of anti-regime unrest.

‘This claim is completely false, no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision,’ Mohammad Movahedi was quoted by Iranian state media as saying Friday. 

‘We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances, take instructions from foreign powers,’ he added.

Movahedi is an Iranian cleric and judge who serves as the nation’s prosecutor general. He previously warned that those taking part in the protests were ‘enemies of God,’ a crime punishable by death. 

Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the discrepancy between Trump and Movahedi’s claims. For News Digital also reached out to the State Department for more details and has not yet received a response. 

A White House official said Trump ‘is watching the situation in Iran very seriously and all options are on the table if the regime executes protesters.’ 

The official declined to say where Trump had learned executions were being halted but added: ‘As a result of President Trump’s warnings, Iranian protesters who were scheduled to be sentenced to death were not. As President Trump stated, he thinks this is good news and hopes this trend continues.’

The denial reopens questions raised in the past week, when Trump publicly warned Iran and encouraged protesters by saying ‘help is on its way,’ setting expectations of U.S. action as security forces carried out a violent crackdown. U.S. and regional security officials said at the time that restraint reflected concern over retaliation against U.S. forces and allies — not a retreat from confrontation.

Trump has since argued that pressure worked, saying Iran backed away from planned executions after he warned of severe consequences. Iran’s rejection of that claim now sharpens the stakes, raising the prospect that Washington may soon face a test of whether it is prepared to act if executions resume — or risk its warnings being dismissed.

Trump on Thursday told reporters that a U.S. ‘armada’ was heading toward Iran, signaling that Washington is prepared to escalate if the country continues executions or intensifies its crackdown.

Recalling a conversation with Iranian envoys, Trump said: ‘I said, if you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit.’

‘It will make what we did to Iran nuclear look like peanuts,’ he said. ‘And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled. And they actually said they canceled and they didn’t postpone it they canceled it. So that was a good sign.’ 

‘We have an armada heading in that direction. And maybe we won’t have to use it,’ Trump said. ‘We’ll see,’ 

The president said the U.S. has ‘a big force going to Iran,’ adding, ‘I’d rather not see anything happen,’ but warning that ‘we have a lot of ships going that direction just in case.’

The Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group set sail from the South China Sea toward the Middle East in the past week and is expected to arrive in the region soon, placing significant U.S. firepower within striking distance of Iran amid rising tensions. The Lincoln carries F-35C stealth fighters, F/A-18 Super Hornets and destroyer escorts armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and advanced air-defense systems.

The deployment has renewed questions over whether the United States is prepared to intervene militarily if Iran resumes executions or continues its crackdown on protesters, which already has left thousands dead.

Iranian state television has acknowledged that more than 3,000 people have been killed during the unrest, while activists and human rights groups say the true death toll is significantly higher — a discrepancy that underscores the regime’s tight control over information as international scrutiny intensifies.

By publicly tying U.S. military action to the fate of detained protesters, Trump has drawn a clear red line. Iran’s refusal to acknowledge U.S. pressure, even as American naval forces move closer, leaves little room for ambiguity — and raises the risk of escalation as both sides test each other’s resolve.