CIA reportedly offers buyouts to entire workforce to align with Trump agenda

The Central Intelligence Agency, in what officials reportedly claimed was an effort to bring the agency in line with Trump’s agenda, offered buyouts to its entire staff on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the agency is the first to tell its employees they can quit and get eight months of pay and benefits.

Last month, the Trump administration offered about 2 million federal employees buyouts to be paid through September, though the window to accept the offer closes on Thursday.

While the Trump administration made offers to some 2 million federal workers, some categories were exempt from taking advantage of the buyout, including federal workers with national security roles.

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CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly told the White House to extend the same offer to employees within the CIA, hoping it could pave the way for “a more aggressive” agency, an aide told the Wall Street Journal.

Fox News learned that even though the CIA was exempt, Ratcliffe personally decided he wanted the agency to participate.

On Thursday, he emailed the Office of Personnel Management and asked for a process that would enable the CIA to email its workforce and offer the same opportunity, while also retaining flexibility to work through the timing of employee departures in critical areas.

Ratcliffe also chose to offer the option of early retirement to long-tenured officers, while also halting on bringing on any officer offered a job late during the Biden administration to ensure their position aligns with the Trump administration’s priorities.

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“Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities,” a CIA spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission.”

The Office of Personnel Management, which operates as the federal government’s human resources department, notified roughly 2 million federal employees on Jan. 28 that they would be required to work out of their respective offices five days a week, or they could leave their roles through the equivalent of a buyout offer. The deadline to accept the offer is Feb. 6.

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Those who choose to take the offer will retain all pay and benefits and be exempt from in-person work until Sep. 30.

During Trump’s first week in office, he issued several directives to the federal workforce, including a requirement that remote employees must return to in-person work.

Meet the young team of engineers reportedly slashing government waste at DOGE

Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to slash government waste and streamline the federal bureaucracy include the hiring of several up-and-coming young software engineers tasked with “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” 

Six young men between the ages of 19 and 24 — Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger and Ethan Shaotran — have taken up various roles furthering the DOGE agenda, according to a report from Wired.

Bobba was part of the highly regarded Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program at UC Berkeley and has held internships at the Bridgewater Associates hedge fund, Meta and Palantir.

“Let me tell you something about Akash,” Grata AI CEO Charis Zhang posted on X about Bobba in recent days. “During a project at Berkeley, I accidentally deleted our entire codebase 2 days before the deadline. I panicked. Akash just stared at the screen, shrugged, and rewrote everything from scratch in one night — better than before. We submitted early and got first in the class. Many such stories. I trust him with everything I own.”

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Coristine, a recent high school graduate who studied mechanical engineering and physics at Northwestern, previously worked for Musk’s Neuralink project, Wired reported.

Bobba and Costine reportedly work directly under Anna Scales as “experts” at the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). 

Kliger is listed on LinkedIn as a special advisor to the director of OPM and attended UC Berkeley in 2020. Kliger has also worked at the AI company Databricks. Kliger’s substack contains a post, “The Curious Case of Matt Gaetz: How the Deep State Destroys Its Enemies,” as well as another titled “Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense: The Warrior Washington Fears.”

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Another post on the substack is headlined, “Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America.”

Killian is listed as a volunteer for DOGE who attended McGill University after graduating from high school in 2019. Wired reported that Killian previously worked as an engineer at a company called Jump Trading that deals with high-frequency financial trades and algorithms.

Shaotran was studying computer science at Harvard University last year and is the founder of Energize AI, an OpenAI-backed startup. Additionally, Shaotran participated in a “hackathon” sponsored by an Elon Musk company where he finished in second place. 

Farritor, who dropped out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has a working GSA email address, was previously an intern for SpaceX and is also a Thiel fellow. 

In 2023, at 21years old, Farritor became the first person to successfully decode text inside a 2,000-year-old Greek scroll using AI, according to the University of Nebraska website.

According to Wired, Bobba, Coristine, Farritor and Shaotran have working GSA emails along with A-suite level clearance that allows them to work on the top floor at GSA with access to all IT systems. 

Fox News Digital reached out to OPM and GSA for comment. 

Speaking to Fox News’ Peter Doocy in the Oval Office Tuesday, President Donald Trump praised the intelligence of some of the young hires working for DOGE.

“That’s good,” Trump said of the hires as young as 19. “They’re very smart, though, Peter. They’re like you. They’re very smart people.

“No, I haven’t seen them,” Trump said when asked if he had met the team. “They work, actually, out of the White House as smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers. We need smart people. We should use some of them in the control towers, where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient. That was one of the qualifications is you could be intellectually deficient.

“No. We need smart people. Some are young and some are not young. Some are not young at all. But they found great things. Look at the list of things. I’ll … maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll read off a list of 15 or 20 things that they found inside of the USAID. It has to be corrupt.”

Elon Musk has also publicly posted online about the qualifications he is looking for and the strength of his team. 

“If you’re a hardcore software engineer and want to build the everything app, please join us by sending your best work to code@x.com,” Musk posted on X in January. “We don’t care where you went to school or even whether you went to school or what “big name” company you worked at. Just show us your code.”

In another X post this week, Musk wrote, “Time to confess: Media reports saying that @DOGE has some of world’s best software engineers are in fact true.”

Wired cited sources who raised concerns about Musk’s team’s clearance, and Democrats in Congress have been railing against DOGE in recent days, arguing that DOGE has received improper access to various government systems. 

Musk has pushed back on the criticism from Democrats, including allegations about DOGE’s involvement in treasury payment oversight. 

“The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once,” Musk, the chair of DOGE, posted early Saturday morning to X. 

Musk also responded to Democratic critics, including those upset about his efforts to push reforms at USAID, saying the “hysterical reactions” demonstrate the importance of DOGE’s work.

“An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government,” a post on Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s X account states, echoing remarks the lawmaker made during a press conference. 

“DOGE is not a real government agency. DOGE has no authority to make spending decisions. DOGE has no authority to shut programs down or to ignore federal law. DOGE’s conduct cannot be allowed to stand. Congress must take action to restore the rule of law.”

Musk described the effort to slash government waste and bureaucracy as a one-time opportunity.

“Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that @DOGE is doing work that really matters,” he wrote in response to Schumer. 

“This is the one shot the American people have to defeat BUREAUcracy, rule of the bureaucrats, and restore DEMOcracy, rule of the people. We’re never going to get another chance like this. It’s now or never. Your support is crucial to the success of the revolution of the people.”

Since its creation last month, DOGE’s X account has provided updates on its work to cut government spending, including an announcement last week that it had cut more than $1 billion from federal spending through now-defunct diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and personnel. 

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“DOGE is fulfilling President Trump’s commitment to making government more accountable, efficient and, most importantly, restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars,” a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

“Those leading this mission with Elon Musk are doing so in full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities. The ongoing operations of DOGE may be seen as disruptive by those entrenched in the federal bureaucracy, who resist change. While change can be uncomfortable, it is necessary and aligns with the mandate supported by more than 77 million American voters.”

Senate confirms Pam Bondi as US attorney general in 54-46 vote

The Senate voted late Tuesday to confirm Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, voting 54-46 to install the longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general to head the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., bucked his party to make the vote bipartisan. He was the only Democrat to join Republicans in support of the nominee. 

Bondi’s confirmation comes as both the Justice Department and FBI have been under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress who have raised concerns over Trump’s recent decision to pardon or commute the sentences of 1,600 defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and to oust more than 15 inspectors general and special counsel investigators. 

FBI AGENTS GROUP TELLS CONGRESS TO TAKE URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT AGAINST POLITICIZATION 

To date, there are no known plans to conduct sweeping removals or take punitive action against the agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations.

But U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sparked fresh concerns last week after he directed the acting FBI director to identify all current and former bureau employees assigned to the Jan. 6 cases for internal review. 

The effort prompted FBI agents to file two separate lawsuits Tuesday seeking emergency injunctive relief in federal court, arguing in the lawsuits that any effort by the DOJ or FBI to review or discriminate against agents involved in the Jan. 6 probe would be both “unlawful and retaliatory” and a violation of civil service protections.

Bondi has repeatedly said she will not use her position to advance any political agenda, a refrain she returned to many times during her hours-long confirmation hearing. 

“Politics has to be taken out of this system,” Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month. 

 TRUMP AG NOMINEE PAM BONDI ADVANCES TO FINAL SENATE VOTE

Bondi’s nomination earned praise both from Republicans and some Democrats in the chamber for her composure and her ability to deftly navigate thorny and politically tricky topics and lines of questioning from some would-be detractors. 

She was widely expected to glide to confirmation after the hearing, and her nomination had earned the praise of more than 110 former senior Justice Department officials, including former attorneys general and dozens of Democratic and Republican state attorneys general, who praised her experience and work across party and state lines.

Those backers described Bondi in interviews and letters previewed exclusively by Fox News Digital as an experienced and motivated prosecutor whose record has proven to be more as a consensus builder than a bridge-burner.

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“It is all too rare for senior Justice Department officials — much less Attorneys General — to have such a wealth of experience in the day-to-day work of keeping our communities safe,” former Justice Department officials wrote in a letter urging her confirmation.

Bondi’s former colleagues in Florida also told Fox News Digital they expect her to bring the same playbook she used in Florida to Washington, this time, with an eye toward cracking down on drug trafficking, illicit fentanyl use and cartels responsible for smuggling drugs across the border.

Democrat Dave Aronberg, who challenged Bondi in her bid for Florida attorney general, told Fox News Digital in an interview he was stunned when Bondi called him after winning the race and asked him to be her drug czar.

He also praised Bondi for staring down political challenges before noting that when she took office in Florida, Bondi “received a lot of pushback” from members of the Republican Party” for certain actions, including appointing a Democrat to a top office. 

“But she stood up to them, and she did what she thought was right, regardless of political pressure,” Aaronberg told Fox News Digital on the eve of her confirmation vote. “So, that’s what gives me hope here, is that she’ll right the ship and refocus the Department of Justice on policy not politics.” 

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In floor remarks Monday evening, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley praised Bondi’s prosecutorial experience and her time as a public servant, noting that she made history as the first female attorney general in Florida. 

Bondi “fought against pill mills, eliminated the backlog of rape test kits and stood for law and order,” Grassley told lawmakers shortly before the Senate cloture vote, noting that Bondi “was easily re-elected to a second term” as state attorney general “because she did such a great job.”

Largest hedge fund founder on why US is on brink of economic ‘heart attack’

The United States is currently in a “death spiral” of debt that could lead to an economic “heart attack” if both parties do not work together to start cutting immediately, according to Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund.

During a recent conversation on “The All-In Podcast” with co-host David Friedberg, Dalio noted that a “death spiral” typically refers to when a company or government has too much debt and must borrow to service it. According to Dalio, investors are acutely aware of this, which is causing credit to get worse and interest rates to increase.

Dalio, the Chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, says this is the worst thing that can happen to a heavily indebted entity. He notes that the key question is whether the debt creates a large enough income to mitigate this issue.

“That’s like, I don’t know, eating vegetables or something. It’s a healthy process. And if not, credit begins to build up this debt, it begins to become like plaque in the arteries. And you can measure it just like you could measure it in the arteries, and you can see how it constricts that circulatory system,” Dalio told “All-In.”

SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

If interest and debt service continuously constrict a government’s money supply, Dalio claims this can lead to an “economic debt heart attack.”

A large amount of debt creates the need for somebody to buy it. Debt risks not only create the urgency for new supply to be offered, but holders may also sell those debt assets, leading to an overwhelming supply relative to demand, according to Dalio.

In the event that the debt service burden rises or there is a big supply-demand imbalance, the government’s central bank can print more money and buy it. If they do not, the price of the debt must rise to constrict borrowing, snowballing to the constriction of non-existent credit, in turn weakening the economy and causing bad economic conditions.

Dalio says the government can let that happen or print money and buy the debt to monetize it. However, this will cause inflation and lower the value of the debt.

“In either case, you don’t want to hold that debt because either there’s a debt service problem or there’s a depreciation,” he adds.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

Today, the U.S. has $36.4 trillion of federal government debt and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 29.1 trillion, giving a debt-to-GDP ratio of 125%. This ratio has climbed steadily since the pandemic began in 2020, when the federal government debt was $20 trillion, and GDP was just $21 trillion. Since the pandemic, federal government debt has risen by 80%, while GDP has climbed by 38%.

Despite recent efforts to cut interest rates again, markets have traded treasuries down, causing the long-term interest rates of U.S. debt to spike up to levels not felt since just before the 2008 global financial crisis. To keep the economy growing, the U.S. government is running a nearly $2 trillion annual deficit, nearly 7% of GDP, while paying over $1 trillion per year in interest alone on the existing outstanding debt.

Dalio expressed a sense of urgency in relation to mounting debt, wading into the potential benefits of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and how the need to cut costs will inevitably accentuate already entrenched political divisions.

Touting his personal solution, Dalio said the deficit, which is the equivalent of bonds selling, must be cut from 7.5 percent down to 3 percent of GDP.

DOGE ANNOUNCES MORE THAN $1B IN SAVINGS AFTER CANCELING 104 FEDERAL DEI CONTRACTS

“Different people have different views as to how to cut it. Forget it. I don’t really care,” Dalio said. “Just, you have to have a unified agreement. Everybody in Congress and the president and so on should pledge to do that. And then the question is how to do it. But they should know that number (equivalent to around 900 billion a year).”

Dalio worries that the timeline to close this gap may be too long. He says it’s not just a matter of DOGE but also less regulation and productivity changes, which could, in part, come from artificial intelligence (AI) or even revenue produced by tariffs and translate into profit.

When asked if America is better off with President Donald Trump versus former President Biden in the financial context, Dalio said, “Yes, I do believe we are.”

“In terms of profitability and the likelihood of cutting, I think the Republicans are probably more likely to make these moves than the Democrats. But you also have to take into consideration the impacts, the social impacts and the other impacts that are going to come from this. We’re at a civil war internally and we’re at an international war simultaneously. So, there are second-order effects. I think the main thing is to take those numbers and make them real at 3 percent,” he continued.

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But these cuts will be brutal, according to Dalio. He notes that “how the pie is divided” with respect to government budgeting is going to be very political and the “disruptive effects will be enormous.”

“We’re really all guessing on how disruptive those effects will be. It’s too much of a – but you’re absolutely right. Lots of jobs are going to be lost,” he said. “Lots of change is going to happen in terms of turbulence. And do we have a plan? How could we even agree on a plan of how to deal with that? I don’t think we’re in a time, it may be in the rest of our lifetimes, where that agreement is going to be easy.”

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The Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) released a new model in December that said it is “possible” that the U.S. government would exhaust the ability to pay its debts by June 16, 2025.

“The government is projected to run about a $2 trillion deficit next year. And so that means that the spending obligations that Congress and the government have incurred are a lot more than what we’re going to bring in tax revenues,” Matthew Dickerson, director of Budget Policy at EPIC, told Fox News Digital. “To be able to pay the things the government has promised to pay on time, you need to increase the debt limit.”

President Trump’s stunned reaction to Biden’s Hollywood cash grab

FCC probes Soros-backed station that broadcasted live locations of ICE agents

FIRST ON FOX — Federal Communication Commission chairman Brendan Carr has opened an investigation into a radio station backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros that broadcasted live locations of undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

A group backed Soros, a far-left kingmaker, purchased a stake in more than 200 Audacy radio stations across America last year. Among them was the San Francisco-based KCBS 740 AM, which has come under fire for revealing live locations of undercover ICE vehicles and agents that were conducting deportation operations in the San Jose area.

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has already sent a formal Letter of Inquiry to the radio station as part of the FCC investigation. The Enforcement Bureau proceeding is inquiring whether the radio station–which is licensed to operate by the FCC–is violating the terms of their FCC license, which requires that they operate in the “public interest.” The formal Enforcement Bureau Letter notes that the ICE agents were operating at the time in an area known for violent gang activity.  

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“I want to express my thanks and appreciation to DHS and ICE agents. These law enforcement professionals are honorably serving this country and carrying out vital missions. Their safety is paramount. The FCC will hold broadcasters accountable for complying with their public interest obligations,” Carr told Fox News Digital. 

Audacy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the January 26 edition of “KCBS Radio Weekend News,” it revealed specific information about undercover ICE agents who were “carrying out an operation on the east side of town.”

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“The Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network, which is a community defense projecting system for immigrant communities against deportation threats, first report the activity on its platforms,” the host told listeners. 

The “KCBS Radio Weekend News” host then revealed the specific make, color and model of several unmarked vehicles used in the operation. The station also revealed the exact locations of several ICE agents working in the area. 

President Trump selected Carr to serve as FCC chairman. He was previously the senior Republican member of the FCC, first nominated to the commission by Trump in 2017.

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Murder suspect attacked by victim’s family in wild courtroom brawl

Two men have been arrested after video shows chaos inside a New Mexico courtroom after they stormed the gallery and started a brawl with a murder suspect.

The brawl happened on Friday morning at a district court hearing in Albuquerque when the uncle of the victim, Carlos Lucero, rushed at suspect Alexander Ortiz, with another man, identified as Pete Ysasi, as he stood before a judge, KRQE reported. 

The video shows Lucero busting into the gallery and punching Ortiz, before Ysasi joins in.

Other family members and officers were also seen rushing in to try and diffuse the altercation, which only escalated from there. 

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A corrections officer was also punched when he tried to break up the fight, the video shows. 

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office told KRQE that while they were detaining Lucero, he told deputies that he went after Ortiz because, “he killed my niece like a coward,” and “it was worth every moment.”

Both men are now facing charges of assault, as well as battery on a peace officer.

The district court told KRQE that this highlights the importance of courtroom security. 

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“This is just one more incident that we continue to deal with. These are the types of things that we see regularly,” said Katina Watson, CEO, Second Judicial District Court.

Watson also praised the officer for his quick actions in response to the brawl.

“I really want to give recognition to the MDC officer who was caught in the middle of this, and he did everything he could to ensure the safety of everyone,” Watson added.

MAILMAN MURDER SUSPECT WITH HISTORY OF VIOLENCE INDICTED IN BRAZEN LUNCH BREAK ATTACK

Ortiz is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Alianna Farfan, at an Albuquerque apartment complex on Jan. 11, 2024.

Detectives previously told KRQE that the two had an abusive relationship and that Ortiz was upset with Farfan on the day of the shooting. Police said Ortiz was in her bedroom the night of the shooting and that witnesses heard a gunshot and then saw him fleeing through a window.

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Ortiz was also considered a suspect in another deadly shooting days after Farfan’s murder, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. 

KRQE reported he was charged with murder in Farfan’s death and is now charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder resulting in death, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and tampering with evidence in 35-year-old Nicole Maldonado’s death., who was killed outside a food market on Jan. 17, 2024. 

A-lister skewered online for promoting new movie amid ‘It Ends With Us’ legal drama

Amid her nasty legal battle with Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively is catching heat for promoting her upcoming film with Anna Kendrick. 

On Tuesday, the 37-year-old actress who sued her “It Ends With Us” co-star for sexual harassment, retaliation and emotional distress in December was tagged in a social media post promoting her new project, “Another Simple Favor,” that prompted fans to share a mix of reactions. 

“Has no one told her she’s canceled,” one user commented on the Prime Video Instagram post, which also tagged Lively, Kendrick, director Paul Feig, Amazon MGM Studios and the film’s official Instagram page. 

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“Weird timing to promote this movie,” another wrote. 

“I’ll never watch anything with Blake Lively ever again,” one fan chimed in. 

“Girl we are not supporting you anymore PACK IT UP,” another person wrote.

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While some criticized Lively, others came to the star’s defense. 

“Team Blake,” one fan wrote. 

“Was never really into this series but I’ll be watching to support Blake,” another wrote. 

Representatives for Lively did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

The new film promotion comes over a month after Lively detailed allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional distress, negligence and more against Baldoni and film producer Jamey Heath in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights department and later in federal court in December. 

In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of civil extortion and defamation. 

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Since then, the public feud has only escalated. 

Baldoni’s team released unedited footage from the set of “It Ends With Us” that it claims refutes Lively’s previous accusations of sexual harassment. 

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After the release, Lively’s legal team demanded a gag order be issued against Baldoni’s lawyer. 

On Jan. 23, Baldoni’s lawyers filed a response, calling Lively’s gag order attempt an “intimidation tactic” and “tactical gamesmanship.”

WATCH: JUSTIN BALDONI RELEASES UNEDITED ‘IT ENDS WITH US’ FOOTAGE FEATURING BLAKE LIVELY

Baldoni and Lively’s legal teams were in federal court Monday, where the judge ordered that they follow the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, which limit speaking to the press.

Neither party will be permitted to make statements to the press that have a “substantial likelihood” of prejudicing a jury. However, the legal teams will be allowed to defend their client in the media against publicity not created by either side. 

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