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Apple clinched a major win Monday after the U.S. government announced that the U.K. had agreed to drop its demand for the company to provide a “back door” granting officials access to users’ encrypted data.

The iPhone maker won’t be alone to rejoice in the outcome.

The development came after extensive talks between Britain and the U.S., which had raised national security concerns over the request.

At the root of the row was end-to-end encryption, a technology which secures communications between two devices in a way that means not even the company providing a chat service can view any messages.

The story of Apple’s U.K. privacy battle started earlier this year, when it was reported that the British government had demanded access to the company’s encrypted cloud service via a technical “back door.”

Such a back door has long been contested by Apple. In 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation tried to get Apple to create software that would enable it to unlock an iPhone it recovered from one of the shooters involved in the 2015 terror attack in San Bernardino, California.

Other companies have also had to fend off government attempts to undermine end-to-end encryption. For example, when Meta announced plans to encrypt all messages on its Facebook Messenger app, the move drew condemnation from the U.K. Home Office. Meta had already offered encryption on WhatsApp.

The Monday news could have broader implications for the debate around end-to-end encryption globally.

Governments and law enforcement agencies have long pushed for methods to break such encryption systems to assist with criminal investigations into terrorism and child sexual abuse.

However, tech companies have said that building an encryption back door would not only undermine user privacy, but also expose them to possible cyberattacks. Cybersecurity experts say that any back door built for a government would eventually be found and exploited by hackers.

U.S. national intelligence officials were also worried by the ramifications of Apple offering such a back door.

For Apple, the U.K.‘s concession over encryption could mean that the company can bring back its most secure service for users’ cloud data, Advanced Data Protection (ADP), which the company stopped offering to Brits in February.

It is not yet clear if Apple will reintroduce its ADP service to the U.K. market.

CNBC has reached out to Apple and the U.K. government for comment.

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Best Buy is launching a third-party marketplace, as it tries to bulk up the variety of merchandise it offers and reverse slower sales.

Starting on Tuesday, shoppers who go to Best Buy’s website and app will see products and brands that weren’t available there before, including more tech-related accessories like custom video game controllers and some nontech items including seasonal decor and sports collectibles.

The company’s online marketplace riffs off those of other retailers, such as Amazon and Walmart, by relying on third-party sellers to stock, sell and ship inventory and taking a cut of their sales in the form of a commission.

“Everything we do is really centered around the customer and their technology needs, and we do see customers actually doing a lot of consumer electronics transactions through marketplaces,” Chief Customer, Product and Fulfillment Officer Jason Bonfig said. “And as a result of that, we need to make adjustments to be where the customer’s at.”

He said Best Buy noticed gaps in its assortment that the new platform will help it fill. For instance, Bonfig said the company didn’t carry batteries for some older cameras or cases for older smartphones. And it didn’t offer some items that complement Best Buy purchases, such as furniture that goes around a big-screen TV or cookware to use with a new kitchen appliance.

Along with adding those items, the marketplace makes it possible for smaller vendors with innovative products to sell on Best Buy’s website when they’re not yet big enough to make or distribute the volume needed for its stores, he added.

Best Buy’s marketplace launches at a time when its business could use a boost. Its annual sales have declined over the past three years as the company contends with a sluggish housing market, selective consumer spending and a decline in device replacements after a spike in tech purchases during the Covid pandemic.

The company cut its sales outlook in May and said it expects full-year revenue to range from $41.1 billion to $41.9 billion. That would be similar to Best Buy’s annual revenue of $41.5 billion in the most recent fiscal year, but below the numbers it posted in the years leading up to and during the pandemic.

Best Buy will share its most recent earnings results and sales forecast on Aug. 28.

Tariffs have complicated the backdrop for Best Buy, too, since the higher duties have added costs for consumer electronics vendors and distracted them from other priorities like research and development that leads to new and innovative products, said Jonathan Matuszewski, a retail analyst at Jefferies. He said Best Buy tends to win sales instead of big-box or online competitors when there’s a leap forward in technology.

With the platform’s launch, Best Buy joins other retailers that have jumped on the trend of introducing or expanding third-party marketplaces. Lowe’s and Nordstrom started marketplaces last year. Ulta Beauty plans to launch its own later this year. And Target said it will expand its existing marketplace, Target Plus.

On Best Buy’s earnings call in May, CEO Corie Barry described the third-party marketplace as one of the company’s strategic priorities for the year. She said that new profit stream “is even more important in this environment” and will provide greater flexibility with the range of items and price points.

Plus, she said the marketplace supports the company’s growing advertising business. Sellers can buy ads for their products, including by paying for better placement in search results.

Marketplaces and the advertising opportunities that come with them tend drive higher profits for retailers, said Justin MacFarlane, a managing director for the global retail group of AlixPartners. Sellers buy, stock and ship products instead of the retailer, and take on both the expense of buying inventory and the risk that they may have to mark down unwanted items, he said.

Yet the business model comes with risks, too, he said. For instance, sellers may not have the same standards as a retailer and it could anger a retailer’s customers if they send products in torn boxes, with missing pieces or days later than expected. And he said retailers can flood their websites with so many different categories, brands and products that they overwhelm customers with choices that seem irrelevant to their company’s identity.

“You get addicted to the growth and more is more until it’s not,” he said.

At launch, Best Buy’s marketplace will have about 500 sellers, Bonfig said. He said the company vetted applicants and whittled them down to the ones who can provide a high-quality customer experience. The sellers must match Best Buy’s return policy, he added.

Customers can return purchases either directly to the seller or to Best Buy stores, he said.

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A ticket-reselling operation used a network of fake accounts to bypass Ticketmaster’s security protocols to grab hundreds of thousands of tickets to hugely popular tours for artists like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen and then re-sold them for millions, federal regulators said Monday.

The Federal Trade Commission alleges the operation used illicit software that masked IP addresses, as well as repurposed credit cards and SIM phone cards, as part of the scheme. It was run through various guises, like TotalTickets.com, TotallyTix and Front Rose Tix, but was run by three key individuals, the agency said.

In total, the group is accused of buying 321,286 tickets to 3,261 live performances from June 2022 to December 2023, in bunches of 15 or more tickets to each event at a total cost of approximately $46.7 million and then reselling them for $52.4 million, netting approximately $5.7 million.

Taylor Swift.Lewis Joly / AP file

That includes $1.2 million from reselling tickets in 2023 for Taylor Swift’s record-breaking “The Eras Tour.” In one instance, the suspects used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets for Swift’s March 2023 tour stop in Las Vegas, vastly exceeding Ticketmaster’s six-ticket limit, which they then sold for $120,000, the FTC alleges.

Another part of the alleged scheme involved using friends, family and paid strangers to open Ticketmaster accounts. The FTC says the defendants at one point printed up flyers in places like Baltimore claiming that participants could “make money doing verified van sign ups” in just “3 easy steps,” earning $5 for the account creation and $5 to $20 each time they received a Verified Fan presale code.

Ticketmaster came in for heavy criticism after fans complained of faulty technology and eye-watering prices for 2022 sales for Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen’s tours. The Verified Fan pre-sale for Swift’s tour crashed its site, which it blamed on “bot attacks” and bot fans who didn’t have invite codes. It was subsequently forced to postpone the sale date for the general public seeking tickets to Swift’s tour “due to demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory.”

In response, Swift alluded to broken “trust” with Ticketmaster, though she didn’t name it directly.

“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” she wrote in an Instagram message in 2022, adding: “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”

Springsteen said in a statement at the time that “ticket buying has gotten very confusing, not just for the fans, but for the artists also” but that most of his tickets are “totally affordable.”

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order focused on curbing exploitative ticket reselling practices that raise costs for fans.

On Monday, FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said Trump’s order made clear ‘that unscrupulous middlemen who harm fans and jack up prices through anticompetitive methods will hear from us.”

“Today’s action puts brokers on notice that the Trump-Vance FTC will police operations that unlawfully circumvent ticket sellers’ purchase limits, ensuring that consumers have an opportunity to buy tickets at fair prices,” he said in a statement.

Ticketmaster itself has remained under federal scrutiny for violating a prior agreement to curb what regulators said was anti-competitive behavior. In 2024, the Justice Department and FTC under President Joe Biden opened a lawsuit against Ticketmaster’s parent company, LiveNation, that accused it of monopolizing the live events industry.

It was not immediately clear whether that suit is still active. In July, the parent company of the alleged operation charged Monday by the FTC, Key Investment Group, sued the agency to block its pending investigation into its sales practices, saying that ticket purchases on its site did not use automated software, or bots, and did not violate the 2016 Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act.

Representatives for the FTC and Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. Ticketmaster is not accused of wrongdoing in the latest suit. It did not respond to a request for comment.

Strangely, in the latest complaint, the FTC includes a slide from an internal Ticketmaster presentation from 2018 that suggests the company was weighing the economic impact of imposing stricter purchasing caps that would curb bots but potentially hurt its finances. On a page labeled “evaluating potential actions” a data table is shown under the heading “serious negative economic impact if we move to 8 ticket limit across the board.”

It also includes an email from one of the defendants in which he “owns up” to having exceeded the ticket-purchase limit for a May 2024 Bad Bunny show in Miami and offers to have the orders canceled, to which a Ticketmaster rep simply responds that “as long as the purchases were made using different accounts and cards, it’s within the guidelines.”

Efforts to reach the three defendants — Taylor Kurth, Elan Rozmaryn and Yair Rozmaryn — named in the suit announced Monday were unsuccessful. In 2018, Kurth signed a deal, or consent decree, with regulators in the state of Washington that committed him to not use software designed to circumvent companies’ security policies.

The FTC is seeking unspecified damages and civil penalties against the defendants.

CORRECTION (Aug. 19, 2025, 11:41 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article incorrectly named a party suing the FTC and which investigation it was suing over. Key Investment Group, the parent of the alleged operation cited in the suit filed Monday by the FTC, sued the agency in July to halt an investigation into its practices. Ticketmaster and its parent, Live Nation, are not directly involved in that investigation or Key’s suit against the agency.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are bringing on Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as an additional deputy director of the bureau, Fox News Digital has learned.

Bailey will serve as a co-deputy director, alongside Deputy Director Dan Bongino, Fox News Digital has learned.

‘I am thrilled to welcome Andrew Bailey as Co-Deputy Director of the FBI,’ Bondi told Fox News Digital. ‘He has served as a distinguished state attorney general and is a decorated war veteran, bringing expertise and dedication to service. His leadership and commitment to country will be a tremendous asset as we work together to advance President Trump’s mission.’ 

‘The FBI, as the leading investigative body of the federal government under the Department of Justice, will always bring the greatest talent this country has to offer in order to accomplish the goals set forth when an overwhelming majority of American people elected President Donald J. Trump again,’ Patel told Fox News Digital, adding that Bailey will be an ‘integral part of this important mission’ and said he looks forward to ‘the continued fight to save America together.’

Bailey, as Missouri’s attorney general, launched an anti-human trafficking task force and addressed more than 1,100 reported incidents in Missouri. He also cleared the backlog of Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) kits to improve prosecution of sexual assault cases.

Bailey’s office also defended the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in civil litigation and has consistently advocated for law enforcement. Bailey was endorsed by the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police.

Bailey’s office also reported a 133% increase in trial court-level criminal prosecutions.

Bailey also has held public officials accountable during his time as attorney general. He demanded the resignation of a sheriff for financial mismanagement and misconduct, and, separately, announced a grand jury indictment against a St. Louis county executive for stealing and election law violations.

‘I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to serve as the Co-Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,’ Bailey told Fox News Digital. ‘I extend my deepest gratitude to President Trump, U.S. Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel for the privilege to join in their stated mission to Make America Safe Again.’ 

A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump ‘wants to see bad guys prosecuted, illegals deported, and corrupt politicians held accountable.’

‘We need all hands on deck to accomplish all of these important goals,’ the official said. ‘Andrew Bailey will serve as another set of credible, experienced hands to help Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Patel carry out the President’s mission.’

The FBI, under Patel’s leadership, already has seen 19,000 arrests nationwide — that’s double the arrests made in all of 2024.

Of those, 1,600 individuals have been arrested for violent crimes against children — including 270 arrests for human traffickers, according to the FBI. One thousand have been arrested from investigations of foreign terrorist organizations, and three of the ‘Top 10 Most Wanted’ have been arrested in 2025.

Patel’s FBI has rescued 4,000 child victims — a 33% increase from 2025; seized 1,500 kilos of fentanyl; and seized 6,300 kilos of methamphetamines.

A senior official told Fox News Digital that the murder rate is currently on track to be the lowest ever recorded in history. 

‘President Trump wants to see America quickly become the safest country in the world, and he has put together the best law and order focused team in the business to accomplish that goal,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital.

The addition of Bailey comes amid the expanding nature of Trump’s law and order agenda. As for the federal takeover of Washington, D.C., Bondi is in charge, and the FBI is playing a large role. 

Bondi, on Friday, announced there have been nearly 200 arrests ‘and counting’ in the nation’s capital, including those of murder suspects and illegal gun offenders, since the Trump administration federalized the city to tackle crime.

Among those arrested were two homicide suspects, 17 suspected drug traffickers, 39 suspected illegal gun offenders and two sexual predators, according to Bondi.

Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report. 

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I’m with President Trump: ‘There’s no deal until there’s a deal.’

And now that he has changed his stance and is openly siding with Vladimir Putin, despite vehement objections from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who visited the White House yesterday, a deal seems rather elusive.

Putin’s interest in peace is underscored by his continued bombardment of Ukraine, the country he illegally invaded, with the latest round killing 10 people. Which is to say the Kremlin dictator has no conceivable interest in peace, except on his maximalist terms.

Look, I’m rooting for Trump. If he can somehow square the circle of this brutal and bloody war, and bring things to an end, he will deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. And Hillary said she’d nominate him.

But the negative reviews of the Alaska sitdown has rankled Trump and prompted him to lash out at Fake News on Truth Social:

‘If we had the Summit elsewhere, the Democrat run and controlled media would have said what a terrible thing THAT was. These people are sick!’

Okay, he doesn’t like the press. Except we now know, thanks to his in-flight comments to Fox’s Bret Baier, that he enjoys the sparring, likening it to a golf game. The reporters are all trying to get him to make a mistake. If he makes no breaking news, he wins. If he does say something that’s breaking news, he didn’t put the ball in the hole and they’ve got him. 

I watched Sunday morning as Zelenskyy and top European officials said only Russia can end the war and that Ukraine would not be surrendering the Donbas region, home to more than 200,000 people.  

As Gen. Wesley Clark told me on ‘Media Buzz,’ once you get past the Donbas region, it’s a ‘straight shot’ to Kyiv, so the brave Ukrainians, who have held off the far bigger Russian war machine, would be defenseless. 

It’s mildly encouraging that media reports say Putin has accepted the need for security forces to protect Ukraine, meaning the Europeans – and the U.S. – would send troops for a peacekeeping unit.

When special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was in the room during the Putin session, was asked about Trump’s change of position, I thought he’d deny it, but he didn’t. That confirms the stories are true, and certainly complicates matters.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said over the weekend that Trump ‘said himself that a ceasefire was his absolute most important and highest priority. So, it was a joint demand, which isn’t happening now. We would have indeed hoped for a cease-fire first. The Russian side was obviously unwilling to do that.’

So what exactly is Putin giving up? Nothing, as far as I can see. Every day without a cease-fire is another day that the indicted war criminal gets to cement his battlefield gains.

And, under these circumstances, Trump expects Ukraine’s president to join in a trilateral meeting with him and Putin? 

Responding to Fox’s Peter Doocy, Trump said: ‘I think if everything works out well today, we’ll have a trilat and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that.’ 

Zelenskyy, who repeatedly praised Trump–he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice after getting kicked out of the White House following his meltdown back in February–reminded reporters that ‘we live under, each day, attacks. You know, that today have been a lot of attacks and a lot of wounded people. And the child was dead, small one, one year and half.

‘So we need to stop this war, to stop Russia. And we need to support American and European partners that will do our best, for this. So, and I think we show that we are strong people and we supported the idea of the united system of personnel, President Trump to stop this war, to make a diplomatic way of finishing this war. And we are ready for trilateral as presidents.’

Now that stunned me. He’s willing to sit down with Putin and Trump after insisting on a cease-fire first – which was also the president’s position until he flipped and abandoned it after the sitdown with the indicted war criminal?

So what was the mood afterward?

‘I’m optimistic that collectively we can reach an agreement that would deter any future aggression against Ukraine,’ Trump said. He added, ‘I have a feeling you and President Putin are going to work something out.’

Zelenskyy ‘praised the constructive specific meeting,’ adding: ‘There is a lot of people in prison. So we need them back and guarantees which will work for the years. We spoke about it and I showed president a lot of details on the battlefield, on the map.’ 

But will Putin, who views Zelenskyy as an illegitimate leader, attend?

All the chatter about the red carpet and other atmospherics is meaningless. Yes, Zelenskyy wore a suit, albeit a military-style one.

We should all be rooting for Trump. Even if he falls short, and the war drags on, it can only end with a negotiated settlement.

At one point, Trump broke away from the session and called Putin, rather than waiting till afterwards.

Trump posted that this was ‘a very good early step,’ and early may be the operative word. The war could certainly drag on. But it can’t end on the battlefield. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without Trump’s unique preference for leader-to-leader talks, even though he’s now openly siding with Vladimir Putin. Sometimes that produces results and sometimes it doesn’t, as with Kim Jong-un. But it’s given him – and us – a shot. 

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President Donald Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday, after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House, to begin coordinating next steps in the peace process aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. 

The president posted on his Truth Social platform Monday evening saying that he had called Putin at the conclusion of a day of meetings to begin ‘the arrangements for a meeting’ between the Russian president and his Ukrainian counterpart. Trump’s call to Putin mirrored his decision to call Zelenskyy following Friday’s Alaska summit with Putin. 

‘At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,’ Trump confirmed, following media reports hinting at the call.

The president added that after the meeting between the two warring presidents, there would be a trilateral meeting with the United States as well. 

‘After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself,’ the president continued. ‘Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.’

Yury Ushakov, a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Trump and Putin were on the phone for about 40 minutes and held a ‘candid and very constructive’ dialogue, according to CNN.

Putin ‘expressed support for direct negotiations between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine,’ Ushakov reportedly added.

Officials familiar with Monday’s talks also reportedly said Trump’s call to Putin came in-between talks with the European leaders present at the White House. Meanwhile, one of those leaders, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, reportedly said Putin agreed in the call with Trump to meet Zelenskyy in two weeks. 

Earlier in the day, Trump was caught in a hot-mic moment telling French President Emmanuel Macron that Putin wants to find a resolution to bring the war in Ukraine to an end for him.

‘I think [Putin] wants to make a deal,’ Trump whispered to Macron in the East Room as they were preparing for Monday’s talks. ‘I think he wants to make a deal for me, you understand that? As crazy as it sounds.’

Following Monday’s talks, Zelenskyy thanked Trump and all the other leaders present in D.C. for their work in trying to bring peace to his country, noting that the talks were ‘long and detailed.’  

‘Today, important negotiations took place in Washington. We discussed many issues with President Trump. It was a long and detailed conversation, including discussions about the situation on the battlefield and our steps to bring peace closer,’ Zelenskyy said in a post on X Monday night.

‘We appreciate the important signal from the United States regarding its readiness to support and be part of these guarantees. A lot of attention today was given to the return of our children, to the release of prisoners of war and civilians held by Russia. We agreed to work on this,’ Zelenskyy continued. ‘The U.S. President also supported a meeting at the level of leaders. Such a meeting is necessary to resolve sensitive issues.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on this but did not receive a response.

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President Donald Trump predicted Monday that European allies would bear the brunt of responsibility providing Ukraine certain security guarantees to prevent Russian aggression, but that the U.S. would also help them. 

Trump’s comments come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, along with other European leaders, visited Washington, D.C., to advance peace talks to end the war in Ukraine just days after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

‘President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine. And this is one of the key points that we need to consider,’ Trump said Monday during a meeting with European leaders at the White House. ‘And, we’re going to be considering that at the table. Also, like who will do what? Essentially, I’m optimistic that collectively we can reach an agreement that would deter any future aggression against Ukraine.’ 

‘I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden,’ Trump said. ‘We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure. We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact. That means the war zone, the war line center. Pretty obvious. Very sad, actually, to look at them and negotiating positions.’

Trump said Sunday that Ukraine could end the war immediately if it agreed to cede Crimea to Russia, and abandon its bid for NATO membership. Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff also said Sunday that Putin has agreed to allow the U.S. and other European allies to provide additional protection for Ukraine, similar to protections included in NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause.

Likewise, Trump said earlier Monday that he hadn’t ruled out the possibility that U.S. troops could be dispatched to Ukraine following a peace negotiation to deter Russian aggression to support other European allies bolstering security for Ukraine. Although he refrained from sharing specific details, Trump said that the U.S. is ‘going to help them out also. We’ll be involved.’ 

For his part, Zelenskyy said U.S. backing on security guarantees is critical to delivering stability to Ukraine. 

‘Security in Ukraine depends on the United States and on you and on those leaders who are with us in our hearts,’ Zelenskyy said Monday. 

‘We spoke about it and we will speak more about security guarantees,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘This is very important that the United States gives such strong signal and is ready for security guarantees.’ 

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe is aware that it will shoulder much of the weight of responsibility tied to various security guarantees — and acknowledged it is necessary in order to preserve each respective country’s safety. 

‘In order to have such a long-standing peace for Ukraine and for the whole continent, we do need the security guarantees,’ Macron said. ‘And the first one is clearly a credible Ukrainian army. For the years and decades to come. And the second one is our own commitments. All of us… You can be sure that the Europeans are very lucid about the fact that they have their fair share in the security guarantees for Ukraine, but their own security is clearly at stake in this situation.’

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Former Attorney General Bill Barr’s closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee wrapped after over four hours on Monday, and lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle had very different interpretations of how it went.

Reps. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., who represented committee Democrats during the staff-led sit-down, said they were left with ‘more questions now’ than before Barr’s deposition began.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., the lone Republican present, said Barr ‘shed a lot of light’ on the Epstein case and said he ‘answered all the questions’ presented to him.

Both sides only spoke with reporters partway through Barr’s testimony, which began at 10 a.m. Monday. Fox News Digital witnessed him leaving roughly 30 minutes before 3 p.m.

‘I think the Democratic side is doing most of the heavy lifting, and I don’t think we’re learning much from the questioning from the House Republicans,’ Subramanyam said. 

‘It doesn’t seem like this is something where they are truly caring about the victims and about trying to get to the bottom of what’s happening.’

Crockett said, ‘It seems like they are going through the motions, and they want people to believe that they are digging in. But at the end of the day, I don’t think that we’ve learned anything through the Republican questioning that you couldn’t find in one of the articles that most likely your outlets have printed.’

Comer told reporters later by contrast, ‘Our goal with this investigation is to be transparent.’

He even lauded Democrats for taking the matter ‘seriously,’ adding, ‘This is a bipartisan investigation, and hopefully, we’ll be able to get the answers the American people want and deserve.’

When asked about the Democratic lawmakers’ attacks on Republicans’ line of questioning, however, Comer accused them of playing politics with the situation.

‘It’s unfortunate the Democrats are trying to, it seems to me, politicize this. When you look at the basis of this, horrific crimes against young girls, and, of course, the Democrats’ goal is to try to dig up some type of dirt on President Trump,’ Comer said.

He said Republican staff were ‘asking a lot of tough questions’ and accused Democrats of operating on a double standard.

‘I don’t ever remember the Democrats subpoenaing a former Democrat attorney general for anything,’ he said.

Comer accused Democrats of trying to create a ‘false narrative’ connecting Trump and Epstein, after Subramanyam floated the possibility of a ‘cover-up’ by Trump and his allies.

‘This is a serious investigation. This is a sincere investigation. I hope this will be a bipartisan investigation. I would encourage my Democrat colleagues not to politicize this,’ Comer said.

‘I think General Barr answered a lot of questions that probably burst their bubble with respect to, he had never communicated with President Trump on a potential Epstein list or anything else. And he had never seen anything that would implicate President Trump.’

Barr arrived on Capitol Hill nearly an hour before his scheduled deposition, only quipping that the ‘early bird gets the worm’ in response to a flurry of reporter questions.

He was similarly soft-spoken on his way out, even as Fox News Digital and others questioned what he told House investigators.

Barr only said ‘absolutely’ when asked if he had a good conversation Monday.

A source familiar with his deposition told Fox News Digital that Barr ‘made clear that President Trump never provided any views or instructions related to the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein or his death, and that he never saw any evidence suggesting President Trump committed a crime.’

‘He further stated that he believed the Biden Department of Justice would have released any incriminating evidence against President Trump if such evidence existed,’ said the source, who described Barr as ‘cooperative.’

Barr is the first of several people who were subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee after Republicans and Democrats voted to direct Comer to open the probe last month.

Several other former attorneys general, ex-FBI directors, and even former First Couple Bill and Hillary Clinton were also subpoenaed.

Fox News Digital reached out to Barr’s lawyer for comment but did not immediately hear back.

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Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, who identifies as a transgender woman, accused President Donald Trump of waging an attack against ‘American democracy.’

‘This president is taking notes from his favorite dictator. Let’s be clear: a president with popular policies wouldn’t need to illegally gerrymander districts, ban voting machines, or abolish vote-by-mail,’ a Monday night post on the lawmaker’s @Rep_McBride X account declared. ‘This is an all-out assault not just on free and fair elections—but on American democracy itself.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment early on Tuesday morning.

Trump, who has been aiming to help bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and multiple other European figures in Washington, D.C., on Monday after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

During an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Friday after meeting with Putin, Trump said of the foreign leader, ‘Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can’t have an honest… election with mail-in voting.’

Trump declared in a Truth Social post on Monday that he will ‘lead a movement to’ eliminate voting machines and mail-in balloting from U.S. elections.

‘WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT … by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections,’ he declared in part of the lengthy post.

‘ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS. I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS. THE MAIL-IN BALLOT HOAX, USING VOTING MACHINES THAT ARE A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, MUST END, NOW!!!’ the president exclaimed in another portion of the post.

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After meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, President Donald Trump touted that he had a ‘very good meeting’ with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders at the White House on Monday.

Trump, who has voiced he would like to put an end to mass bloodshed in Eastern Europe, called the multilateral meetings on Monday ‘a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.’

In a Truth Social post after the discussions, Trump wrote, ‘I had a very good meeting with distinguished guests,’ and that ‘everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.’

Here are the top five takeaways from the president’s ‘big day’ with European leaders.

1. Smiles all around

Monday’s summit marked a dramatic and noticeable shift from Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s now-infamous Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy in February.

During that meeting, the leaders were caught on camera getting into a heated argument over several topics, including Zelenskyy allegedly not being sufficiently grateful for U.S. support.

On Monday, all the tension seemed to have disappeared. Both Trump and Zelenskyy were all smiles throughout the day, and the Ukrainian leader received a warm welcome from Trump’s Cabinet, including Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Both Zelenskyy and European leaders appeared more at ease with Trump throughout the day and took an optimistic tone. After the meetings, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X, ‘We are here, as allies and friends, for peace in Ukraine and in Europe. This is an important moment, as we continue to work on strong security guarantees for Ukraine and a lasting and durable peace.’

2. Wardrobe upgrade

Another marked shift from February was Zelenskyy breaking from his trademark jumpsuit attire to wear a suit, something he even joked with the press about while sitting in the Oval Office with Trump.

Zelenskyy, who has been criticized for wearing casual attire to meetings with world leaders, wore all-black attire, including a button-down shirt and jacket. 

‘First of all… President Zelenskyy, you look fabulous in that suit,’ a reporter told Zelenskyy after he sat down with Trump in the Oval Office. 

‘You look good,’ the reporter said before Trump added, ‘I said the same thing.’ 

At another point during the Zelenskyy-Trump bilateral press meeting, the Ukrainian president ribbed a reporter for wearing the same suit he had in February.

‘You’re in the same suit. You see, I changed, you’re not,’ Zelenskyy quipped as both he and Trump burst into laughter.

3. Ceasefire not needed

On a more substantive note, Trump doubled down on his position that a ceasefire is ‘not needed’ to broker a permanent peace between Ukraine and Russia. He cited his recent successes in negotiating peace agreements between other countries across the globe.

‘I don’t think you need ceasefire. You know, if you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war,’ Trump said during his press conference with Zelenskyy.

‘I didn’t do any ceasefires,’ he went on, adding, ‘And I know that it might be good to have, but I can also understand strategically why, you know, one country or the other wouldn’t want it.’ 

In a rare tense moment during the day, Trump clashed with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the need for a ceasefire.

Speaking with Trump and other leaders gathered around a large conference table in the White House, Merz said, ‘To be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire at the latest from the next meeting on,’ adding, ‘I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire. So, let’s work on that.’

He urged the leaders, ‘Let’s try to put pressure on Russia, because the credibility of this effort, these efforts we are undertaking today are depending on, at least, a ceasefire from the beginning of the serious negotiations from the next step on. So, I would like to emphasize this aspect and would like to see a ceasefire from the next meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting wherever it takes place.’

In response, Trump shot back that he is determined ‘to go directly to a peace agreement’ without a ceasefire, saying, ‘Well, we’re going to let the president [Zelenskyy] go over and talk to the president [Putin], and we’ll see how that works out.’

4. United European front

In addition to Zelenskyy, seven major European leaders were present at the White House on Monday, a rare occurrence signaling a united European front and something Trump called an ‘honor’ for the U.S.

This follows Zelenskyy doubling down on Sunday that Ukraine will not agree to cede Crimea or any of its territory to Russia as part of a peace deal.  

‘Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia at the trilateral [talks with] Ukraine, United States, Russia,’ Zelenskyy said.

Trump said that though the U.S. would be involved with providing Ukraine with security guarantees after the war’s end, he said going forward, Europe must take much of that ‘burden.’

‘I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden,’ Trump said. ‘We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure. We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact. That means the war zone, the war line center. Pretty obvious. Very sad, actually, to look at them and negotiating positions.’

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe is aware that it will shoulder much of the weight of responsibility tied to various security guarantees — and acknowledged it is necessary in order to preserve each respective country’s safety. 

‘In order to have such a long-standing peace for Ukraine and for the whole continent, we do need the security guarantees,’ Macron said. ‘And the first one is clearly a credible Ukrainian army. For the years and decades to come. And the second one is our own commitments. All of us… You can be sure that the Europeans are very lucid about the fact that they have their fair share in the security guarantees for Ukraine, but their own security is clearly at stake in this situation.’

5. Putin on the line

Trump shared that he called Putin after the meetings and that there is already movement on the next step, that is, scheduling a meeting between Zelenskyy and the Russian president. After that meeting, Trump said there would then be a trilateral meeting between Zelenskyy, Putin and himself.

‘At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy. After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself,’ wrote Trump.

In another post, Trump called the summit ‘a big day at the White House.’

‘We have never had so many European Leaders here at one time. A great honor for America!!!’ he wrote. ‘Lets see what the results will be???’ 

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy, Emma Colton and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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