Hunter Biden reportedly sought assistance from the U.S. government for a lucrative energy project in Italy when President Biden was serving as vice president, highlighting allegations that he used his father’s political standing as leverage for his foreign business interests. 

The younger Biden wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016 seeking assistance for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where he was a board member, according to newly released records and interviews cited by the New York Times.

The response was lukewarm, as officials were somewhat hesitant to help with a request from the son of a sitting vice president on behalf of a foreign company. 

‘This is a Ukrainian company and, purely to protect ourselves, U.S.G. should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the D.O.C. Advocacy Center,’ an official wrote. 

The acronyms refer to the United States government and a Department of Commerce program that supports American companies that seek business with foreign governments.

‘I want to be careful about promising too much,’ wrote a Commerce Department official based in the U.S. Embassy in Rome who responded. 

Hunter Biden asked several people if they could arrange an introduction between Burisma and the president of the Tuscany region of Italy, where Burisma was pursuing a geothermal project, Abbe Lowell, Biden’s lawyer, said. 

He said no meeting had occurred.  

‘No meeting occurred, no project materialized, no request for anything in the U.S. was ever sought and only an introduction in Italy was requested,’ 

In a statement to the Times, Lowell said the outreach by Biden was a ‘proper request.’

President Biden wasn’t aware that his son reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Italy on behalf of Burisma when he was vice president, the White House said. 

Hunter Biden has not been charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires people to disclose when they lobby the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department and the White House. 

The State Department announced that it had approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel as the region continues to spiral towards a wider war in the Middle East.

The advance includes a myriad of weapons such as fighter jets and equipment worth nearly $19 billion, tank cartridges valued at $774 million, explosive mortar cartridges valued at over $60 million and army vehicles worth $583 million, the Pentagon said in a statement.

‘The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,’ the State Department said.

In a statement, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant thanked the U.S. for allowing Israel to maintain a ‘qualitative military edge in the region.’

‘Thank you to Secretary of Defense Austin and Secretary of State Blinken for advancing critical force buildup initiatives that assist Israel in developing and maintaining its qualitative military edge in the region,’ he posted on X. ‘This includes incorporating F-15IAs into the IAF fleet of fighter aircraft, and providing critical munition to ensure Israel’s capabilities and security.’

‘As we fight to defend Israel on 7 different fronts, your message of support and commitment to Israel’s security are clear,’ he said.

The impending sale comes as regional tension hurtles towards a breaking point. 

Regional sources told Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Monday that they are concerned Iran and its proxies could attack Israel within the next 24 hours in retaliation for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.

On Monday, the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah launched 30 rockets into northern Israel, although no casualties were reported, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). 

‘Following sirens that sounded a short while ago in northern Israel, approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon toward the area of Kabri, a number of which fell in open areas,’ an IDF spokesman said. 

The $20 billion in arms sales are not expected to be delivered to Israel soon, with the sales expected to secure the nation’s resources long-term.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden repeated a claim he had been fact-checked for in the past, telling an audience on Tuesday that he traveled 17,000 miles with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

‘I spent a lot of time with Xi Jinping,’ he said during his remarks at an event touting the Biden ‘Cancer Moonshot’ initiative in New Orleans, Louisiana.

‘I spent over 80 hours with him alone. Over 17,000 miles in China, anywhere in Tibet, near Tibet.’ 

He described telling the Chinese president that ‘possibility’ is the one word that can define America, tying his analogy to the Cancer Moonshot initiative. 

Biden’s claim that he has traveled more than 17,000 miles with Xi has previously been fact-checked and considered primarily inaccurate, however. 

He has made the claim many times over several years and was fact-checked by the Washington Post in 2021. ‘Try as we could, however, we still could not get the travel to add up to 17,000 miles,’ wrote the publication. 

Biden was given three pinocchios for his claim. 

According to the Post, this number of pinocchios means there is ‘significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.’ It is comparable to a rating of ‘mostly false.’

The White House did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital. 

Biden announced $150 million in ARPA-H awards to develop technologies that will allow surgeons to provide more successful tumor-removal surgeries for people facing cancer at the event in New Orleans.

After having dropped out of the 2024 presidential race last month and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him, Biden is now reportedly focusing on the causes that are most personal for him in his remaining months as president. 

Cancer research is of ‘immense importance’ to the president, an aide told CNN.

Rep. Thomas Massie is suggesting that Republicans could dismantle the Department of Education (DOE) if the GOP wins control of both Congress and the White House in November.

‘Would [former President Trump] follow through with it? Honestly, I think it depends on who controls Congress and who his Cabinet secretary is,’ the Kentucky Republican told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

The Kentucky Republican made the comments the day after Trump’s interview on X with owner Elon Musk in which Trump suggested doing the same.

‘What I’m going to do, one of the first acts – and this is where I need an Elon Musk; I need somebody that has a lot of strength and courage and smarts – I want to close up the Department of Education, move education back to the states,’ Trump said Monday night.

Massie introduced a bill late last year that would do just that, and it currently has more than 30 House GOP co-sponsors, including vocal Trump allies like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

While he has not had conversations with Trump or his campaign about the bill, Massie said it’s an issue he’s discussed with the Trump-aligned Republican lawmakers ‘all the time.’

It signals that the effort, long pushed by conservatives, could potentially materialize if Trump and Republicans take over the levers of power in Washington in November.

The DOE was established under former President Carter in 1979 when he split it from the Health and Human Services Department. It’s charged with regulating federal student aid funds and ensuring equal access to education, among other responsibilities.

It faced conservative backlash almost instantly, with former President Reagan threatening to dissolve it, though he was ultimately unsuccessful. 

‘Reagan promised that he would try to eliminate it, and he never did. And then [people] became comfortable with [the] Department of Education, and it started seeming like a radical notion just to do what Ronald Reagan said he would do, so I felt the need to reintroduce this bill,’ Massie said.

The Kentucky Republican, who has been at odds with Trump in the past, said he was ‘pleasantly surprised’ to hear him discuss it on Monday.

He argued that the funding that goes toward managing the DOE and its 14,000 Washington, D.C., employees ‘could be distributed to the school systems instead of burning … on extra red tape.’

Massie also said that other core facets of academic policy like student lunches and the Head Start program are run by the Department of Agriculture and HHS, respectively.

More than 160 Republicans voted for an amendment by Massie to dismantle the DOE in March 2023, though it ultimately failed.

But despite its foundations in the Reagan era, the push to dismantle the DOE has been used as a political cudgel by Democrats after its inclusion in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation-backed set of policies and recommendations for a new Republican administration.

Trump and his allies have distanced themselves from Project 2025, which Democrats have cast as a far-right and repressive vision for the country.

Massie similarly said he had no knowledge of Project 2025’s details, pointing out that he’s pushed to end the DOE before the initiative was formed.

‘I would just say, regardless of any other initiatives, this stands on its own. Organizations like the Heritage Foundation [and FreedomWorks] have been for getting rid of the Department of Education … since they were created, and Reagan was for it,’ Massie said. ‘So, I don’t think it’s a radical notion. I think what’s radical is having a federal school board. And I think education is better without it.’

Massie indicated he would support former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos – who has advocated for phasing out the department she ran – to head it again.

The Trump campaign did not comment directly on Massie’s bill but told Fox News Digital when asked, ‘As President Trump has repeatedly stated on the campaign trail, he is committed to cutting the Department of Education and returning important decisions about education back to parents, teachers and educators at the state level. The DOE has been failing America’s students for too long, and it’s time for serious change.’

When asked for comment, the DOE referred Fox News Digital to Vice President Harris’ campaign, which did not immediately return a request for comment.