Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked President Donald Trump for pardoning him, writing on social media that he was ‘wrongfully convicted.’

‘My profound gratitude goes to President @realDonaldTrump for having the courage to defend justice at a moment when a weaponized system refused to acknowledge the truth. You reviewed the facts, recognized the injustice, and acted with conviction. You changed my life, sir, and I will never forget it,’ Hernández wrote on X in his first remarks since he was released by the Bureau of Prisons.

‘I was set up by the Biden Harris administration and the deep state through a rigged trial. There was no real evidence, only the accusations of criminals who sought revenge. Yet the truth of my innocence prevailed,’ he said in part.

Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in June 2024 for conspiring to distribute more than 400 tons of cocaine and for related firearms offenses.

Former Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ex-two-term president used his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.

‘Hernández received millions of dollars of drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere, and used those bribes to fuel his rise in Honduran politics,’ the Department of Justice said.

Hernández’s brother, Juan Antonio Hernández Alvarado, was also convicted in October 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.

Trump said he pardoned the former Honduran leader because ‘a lot of people in Honduras’ asked him to, adding he feels ‘very good about it.’

‘Well, he was the president, and they had some drugs being sold in their country, and because he was the president, they went after him – that was a Biden horrible witch hunt,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday.

Several GOP lawmakers criticized the pardon amid the White House’s targeting of alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., criticized the decision to pardon Hernández, saying it made little sense to free him while the U.S. continues to pursue Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on federal narco-terrorism charges.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., also criticized the move in an interview on CNN, saying he couldn’t understand how the U.S. could ‘threaten a potential land war against a thug and a narco-terrorist who plays like he’s the president of Venezuela, and then go easy on someone whose investigation that led to an indictment started in the Trump administration.’

The suspect who allegedly planted pipe bombs blocks from the U.S. Capitol on January 5, 2021, has been identified as Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Va., according to two sources briefed on the arrest.

The sources say Cole, 30, is in FBI custody as of Thursday following roughly five years of investigation.

The FBI arrested Cole in northern Virginia. 

Authorities have not released further details about the man, but one federal law enforcement source told Fox that the FBI is carrying out ‘court-enforced activity’ at Cole’s residence.

Authorities discovered the two pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committees’ headquarters around the same time that thousands of protesters a few blocks away began to storm the Capitol over the 2020 election results.

Neither bomb detonated, but authorities say both were viable and dangerous.

Video footage released by the FBI showed the suspect placing the pipe bombs near the two headquarters more than 16 hours before law enforcement found them.

The suspect was seen wearing a gray hoodie, Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers, a mask, glasses and gloves, but Cole’s identity had long been unknown.

Senate Democrats attempted to derail a batch of dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees but ended up giving Senate Republicans a surprise victory in the process.

Republicans were on the way to starting the long procedural process of confirming 88 of Trump’s picks but were blocked by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., over an issue with one of the nominees in the group.

When Senate Republicans went nuclear and changed the rules surrounding the confirmation process earlier this year to break through Senate Democrats’ blockade, they limited the scope to only sub-cabinet level positions that would be advanced through a simple, 50-vote majority.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said ahead of the vote that Democrats’ failed blockade of Trump’s picks could be chalked up to ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’

‘Democrats and their base still can’t deal with the fact that President Trump won last November,’ Thune said. ‘And so they have held up every single one, every single one of his nominations in revenge. But Republicans have not been daunted. We’ve just continued plowing ahead on nominations, helping us rack up a historic number of votes this year in the process.’

But one of the nominees in the group, Sara Bailey, was considered a ‘level 1’ nominee, meaning she would hold a cabinet-level position. Trump tapped Bailey in March to be his drug czar as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Her inclusion in the package meant that in order for the 87 other nominees to be confirmed, Republicans would have to break the 60-vote filibuster threshold, which was unlikely given Senate Democrats’ wholesale disapproval of many of Trump’s picks.

Senate Republicans took advantage of the opportunity and have decided to tack on even more of the president’s picks in a new, beefed-up package that will include 97 of Trump’s nominees. 

‘I think we’ll add some more and do it next week,’ Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told Fox News Digital. ‘You know what happened was, you can’t have cabinet-level, and I think drug czar is a cabinet-level now, and so the name was on the list, we just sort of invalidated the list.’

Bennet’s objection still pushes back Senate Republicans’ timeline to confirm the batch of nominees. Lawmakers had planned to move through the procedural steps and finish the process by the end of next week, but now the timeline is expected to stretch into the third week of December.

Once the process is finished, Republicans will have confirmed over 400 of Trump’s picks, putting him well ahead of former President Joe Biden, who at the same point last year had roughly 350 of his nominees confirmed.

And even though Senate Democrats believed they scored a win against the administration, Republicans are relishing the unexpected victory.

‘Senate Republicans will now have the opportunity to confirm even more qualified nominees! Thank you to the Democrats for making this possible,’ a spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a two-year healthcare framework that would extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

‘We are talking about whether or not the federal government is subsidizing a plan to the tune of 78 percent or 88 percent. But that difference means a lot to the 24 million people who are impacted by it,’ said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., at a press conference.

‘And so, we need to address that by having a two-year extension with reforms that will address some of the concerns that have been raised about these temporary tax credits that were put in place during COVID, while addressing some of the longer term issues with health care, including the insurance companies.’

The ‘CommonGround 2025: A Bipartisan Health Care Framework,’, co-led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Jen Kiggans, R-Va., would include a one-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credits, with targeted modifications to be voted on by Dec. 18, in the House and Senate.

It also calls for new guardrails to prevent ‘ghost beneficiaries’ and crackdown on fraud.

The 35 House members supporting the healthcare plan sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., urging them to consider the framework.

Gottheimer said families have seen their health insurance premiums surge during open enrollment and warned that, with the expiring ACA tax credits, millions of families could see their health premiums rise an average of 26% next year.

‘In Jersey, where we live, it could be even rougher with a 175% increase. That’s $20,000 for a family of four. And that’s why we’re all here together to try to solve this problem, do something about it,’ he told reporters.

More than 160 House Democrats voted against a pair of bills Thursday aimed at keeping foreign influence out of U.S. schools.

Both pieces of legislation passed with bipartisan support, though Democrats’ top ranks opposed each one.

‘We just want to educate our children, focus on reading, writing and arithmetic, developing a holistic child, giving the ability to them to think critically,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital when asked about the pushback.

‘We’re not going to be lectured by a group of Republicans who are dismantling the Department of Education in real-time. Literally 90% of the Department of Education as it existed last year is now gone.’

He accused Republicans of ‘attacking public education just like they’re attacking public health and attacking public safety.’

One of the two bills was led by House GOP Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., and would block federal funds from elementary and secondary schools that have programs, cultural exchanges or other class-related activities that get dollars from the Chinese government.

It would also block federal funds from schools that either directly or indirectly get any kind of support from entities or people related to the Chinese government.

That bill passed 247–166, with 33 Democrats in favor and 166 against.

The second piece of legislation, led by Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., would require every public elementary and secondary school to notify parents that they have a right to request information about any ‘foreign influence’ in their child’s school.

The notification would have to come via the school’s local education agency (LEA), bodies such as school boards that have administrative control over that and other schools in the area.

The second bill passed 247–164, with 33 Democrats in favor and 164 against.

Republicans argued these were commonsense bills aimed at keeping malign foreign influence out of U.S. schools.

But Democrats criticized both during debate on the House floor.

‘The bill gives no guidance on what acting directly or indirectly on behalf of means, or how you are supposed to know and how a parent’s contribution to a school program should be evaluated,’ Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said. ‘And really, are you supposed to scrutinize all parents’ contributions or just those from parents of Chinese American students?’

House Republicans are scrambling to find a solution to sky-high health costs as the clock ticks on Obamacare tax credits that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

House GOP leaders have been busy working with different factions within their conference this week to shape the contours of a package aimed at lowering healthcare costs for Americans, but it’s not clear if there is yet consensus on legislation that could get support from all 220 Republican lawmakers — and those in the Senate.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Bloomberg News on Thursday that the House would vote on a healthcare plan by the end of this month.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., was less certain of a specific timeline, however, telling reporters, ‘We are meeting with all of our caucuses and building a coalition. And so when we’re ready to go, we will.’

‘But the focus has always been, you know, bills that will lower costs and give families options to help them, so they’re not trapped in the unaffordable care act,’ Scalise said.

He was referring to the Obama administration-era Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially known as Obamacare. Republicans have long criticized it as a broken system that’s served to fuel inflationary health insurance premium costs, but finding a solution that’s palatable to both Americans and officials in Washington has long eluded the GOP.

Democrats in Congress voted twice to expand Obamacare during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to get more Americans healthcare coverage. That expansion is set to run out by the end of 2025, and Democrats claim that it will push Americans’ healthcare costs sky-high if the enhanced subsidies are allowed to expire.

It’s also been a concern for a handful of Republicans, many of whom represent battleground districts that were critical to the GOP winning and keeping the House majority.

Multiple bipartisan initiatives have been unveiled in recent weeks aimed at stopping that healthcare cliff from coming. Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., are planning to release legislation expanding the enhanced Obamacare subsidies for two years, albeit with reforms aimed at streamlining the system for those who need it most.

Fitzpatrick told Fox News Digital that legislation could come out as soon as Thursday.

Meanwhile, a group of 20 Democrats and 15 Republicans led by Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., released a framework on Thursday morning that would expand a version of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies for a year, followed by a modified health plan the following year that would include ‘continued health insurance premium savings’ with ‘more significant reforms.’

The extension would reform the system with new ‘guardrails’ aimed at rooting out fraudulent actors and inactive enrollees, along with new income requirements to qualify.

‘It proposes a short-term and longer-term fix. But the bottom line is in just a few days, for millions and millions of Americans, their health insurance premiums are going to spike significantly,’ Gottheimer told reporters.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., a part of that group, said, ‘The extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidy with reforms is something we all agree is necessary, and then have a much longer-term discussion about how we actually fix healthcare costs in America.’

Kiggans told Fox News Digital in a brief interview that allowing the enhanced subsidies to just expire would hike costs for millions of Americans who Republicans tried to help make life more affordable for with President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

She said she understood and agreed with the notion of needing to phase out COVID-19-era tax programs but added, ‘We are facing a deadline with this one where, unfortunately, if we just cold turkey let those premium tax credits expire, we’re going to see spikes worth thousands of dollars.’

But conservatives within the House GOP have signaled heavy opposition to extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies, arguing it would do little to lower healthcare costs.

‘I don’t know why Republicans, or people who consider themselves to be conservative, would give tacit approval and support of Obamacare by expanding subsidies of Obamacare,’ House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. ‘I don’t know why they would give tacit agreement that somehow, by extending those subsidies, COVID-era subsidies, that they would be making healthcare more affordable.’

Arrington said he could see bipartisan avenues to make aspects of Obamacare itself work better, but suggested he was against extending the enhanced subsidies even with reforms.

‘I see no utility at all in expanding in any form. No matter how much lipstick you put on that pig, it’s still a pig. And you need a whole different animal if you’re going to bring the cost down,’ he said.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who spoke with Fox News Digital the night before the bipartisan unveiling, said, ‘If they really wanted to build a coalition with Republicans, they’d be coming over and pitching us first on what their ideas are. I haven’t seen that.’

‘Let’s remember that these were COVID-era Biden subsidies and that no Republican voted for them. And no Republicans voted for any other subsidy. So any Republican trying to do a deal starting with that is starting at the wrong end. Start with healthcare freedom,’ Roy said.

Still, there are ways for Republicans in favor of extending the Obamacare enhanced subsidies to force a vote on doing so without support from their leaders.

One method is called a discharge petition, which would force consideration of a given piece of legislation if it got support from a majority of the House chamber.

But both Kiggans and Fitzpatrick appeared hesitant when asked about the possibility.

Fitzpatrick would not answer directly when asked about such a move. Kiggans, meanwhile, said, ‘This isn’t a direction that we’re trying to go with it.’

‘I think just today, Mike Johnson said we were going to do something with … so, hopefully, you know, we’ve been able to impress upon the leadership the urgency and that these things will be addressed next week,’ she said.