CIA director, Putin’s spy chief hold first phone call in more than 2 years: report
The directors of the Central Intelligence Agency and Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) spoke by phone for the first time in more than two years, reports say. CIA Director John Ratcliffe called his Russian counterpart Sergey Naryshkin on Tuesday and “discussed the issues of interaction of both intelligence agencies in areas of common interest and the settlement of crisis situations,” Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported, citing a statement from the SVR’s press office. It added that both Ratcliffe and Naryshkin agreed “on maintaining regular contact between the SVR and CIA directors with the aim of facilitating international stability and security and reducing confrontation in relationships between Moscow and Washington.” The CIA, when contacted Wednesday by Fox News Digital, declined to comment on the matter. Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence officer who specialized in Russian military doctrine, told Fox News Digital that the “Ratcliffe-Naryshkin meeting is supposed to be part of the revival of the CIA-SVR cooperation, which also has been tried before and abandoned.” TRUMP ENVOY WITKOFF HEADING TO RUSSIA FOR SECOND TIME LATER THIS WEEK, SOURCE SAYS “Although such cooperation could be valuable, for example, in the counter-terrorism arena, it always eventually fails because there’s a dramatic difference between how the Russians and Americans see the world,” she said. RUSSIA WAITING FOR US-UKRAINE CEASE-FIRE PROPOSAL DETAILS, KREMLIN SAYS “We are ostensibly in a period of another attempted reset with Russia. Every U.S. president attempted to reset U.S. relations with Moscow and every one of them has failed,” Koffler continued. “There’s such a fundamental difference between the ways that Moscow and Washington see the world and their role in it that eventually, the policies each pursues come into collision with one another. The way that Russia and the U.S. have defined their national interests have placed the two nations in direct confrontation with each other.” “The two are mutually irreconcilable. And this is clearly demonstrated in the war in Ukraine, which has been sacrificed and destroyed in the proxy battle between Moscow and Washington,” Koffler added. “It is possible that President Trump, who is a realist, will place Russia-U.S. relations on a transactional basis, without the ideological angle, as all the previous administrations, that always drove an edge between the two. It remains to be seen if he will succeed,” Koffler also said.
‘Get geared up’ because ‘ICE is coming,’ says leading House GOP member
Prominent House Republican Clay Higgins is telling local law enforcement agencies to “get geared up” to assist with ICE immigration operations because of “ongoing” enforcement actions throughout the country. While speaking during a House Federal Law Enforcement Oversight Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, Higgins, who represents Southern Louisiana and chairs the subcommittee, cautioned local law enforcement to “get your mind right” and train up to help with the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down the border and deport illegal immigrants. “ICE is coming,” he said. “You will very soon be given the opportunity to join a task force with ICE in your state and your community to remove criminal illegals.” “This is going to be an ongoing operation,” he said, adding that the subcommittee will also be involved in the effort, which he described as a “restoration of law and order in our country.” BLUE STATE SUING SHERIFF’S OFFICE FOR HELPING ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAW “In recent years we’ve seen the weaponization of our justice system, lawlessness in our cities and an open border that has allowed drugs and dangerous gangs into our country with deadly results,” he said. Higgins vowed that “throughout this Congress, we’ll tackle these issues and ensure that President Trump has all the tools and resources he needs to address rampant crime.” During the hearing, several experts testified that local “sanctuary” policies keeping law enforcement agencies from cooperating or assisting ICE and other federal authorities makes it very difficult to enforce immigration law and poses a danger to communities. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society and one of the experts testifying during the hearing, said that under the Biden administration, 14 million illegal immigrants entered the country. He said that “if only .5 percent” of these illegals are involved or tied to criminal organizations, “then we are facing a crime, terror contingent inside the United States that is the size of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps combined.” “If that’s not a national security emergency, I don’t know what is,” he commented. YOUNG FATHER KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HIGHLIGHTS ‘BETRAYAL’ OF SANCTUARY CITIES, SAYS REPUBLICAN Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, Florida, testified during the hearing that, in light of the criminal illegal threat in his community, his department is voluntarily participating in ICE’s 287(g) program, which authorizes local law enforcement to assist with certain immigration actions such as detainment and processing. Though his office participates in this program, he called for Congress to pass federal legislation to authorize all local jails to hold criminal illegals for ICE based solely on immigration detainers. “In other words, give the detainers force of law as opposed to simply making them an ask with no teeth,” he explained. “This is a big deal to fix, and it should be done as soon as possible because it would mean that criminal illegals, like the one I mentioned, will be deported directly from jail and not released back into the community to commit more crime.”
GOP moves to defund hospitals that perform sex-change procedures on minors
FIRST ON FOX: A new House GOP bill would block federal funding for hospitals that perform sex-change surgeries on minors. The legislation, led by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and backed by interest groups Do No Harm and Genspect, specifically targets funding that medical centers receive through a program aimed at fostering new children’s physicians. “We’re standing for basic medical ethics and recognizing those who have been silenced and betrayed by a system that put ideology ahead of genuine care,” Crenshaw told Fox News Digital. “Medicine should be grounded in truth and healing—not in false promises that cause lasting harm.” GENDER DYSPHORIA AND EATING DISORDERS HAVE SKYROCKETED SINCE PANDEMIC, REPORT REVEALS: ‘RIPPLE EFFECTS’ The bill would require re-authorization of the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education Payment Program through fiscal year (FY) 2030. The legislation includes a provision that “no payment may be made…to a children’s hospital for a fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 2026) if, at any point during the preceding fiscal year, such hospital furnished specific procedures…and drugs to an individual under 18 years of age.” Those specifics are defined as being “for the purpose of changing the body of such individual to no longer correspond to the individual’s sex.” Do No Harm Medical Director Dr. Kurt Miceli lauded the legislation to Fox News Digital. “The American taxpayer should not fund hospitals that perform unscientific sex-change procedures on minors. Representative Crenshaw’s bill is important to help protect our children by ensuring federally funded graduate medical education programs do not engage in these harmful practices,” he said. The bill is being introduced on what conservatives have dubbed “DeTrans Awareness Day.” Permissions for transgender medical care or procedures for minors have been a lightening rod in the ongoing culture war between the right and left. NEWSOM CALLS BIOLOGICAL MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS ‘DEEPLY UNFAIR’ IN PODCAST WITH CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST The issue of transgender minors’ participation in school sports has also seen heated debate, with some Democrats even speaking out against their party for obliterating dissent on the topic. Notably, California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said on his new podcast that allowing transgender men to play in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.” “I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness,” he said to conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
‘Hysteria’: White House shuts down concerns over USAID document purge
The White House dismissed concerns that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is instructing employees to destroy classified documents amid efforts by the Trump administration to shutter the agency. USAID’s acting Executive Secretary Erica Carr instructed employees to begin shredding and burning documents, according to a motion that government labor unions filed in a federal court Tuesday. But the documents remain available on computer systems – and the order comes as U.S. Customs and Border Protection is poised to move into the USAID building, according to White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. “This was sent to roughly three dozen employees,” Kelly said in a Tuesday night X post regarding Carr’s order. “The documents involved were old, mostly courtesy content (content from other agencies), and the originals still exist on classified computer systems. More fake news hysteria!” ‘FIRED ME ILLEGALLY’: EMOTIONAL EX-USAID EMPLOYEES LEAVE BUILDING WITH BELONGINGS AFTER MASS LAYOFFS Everyone involved in the process of eliminating the documents had a secret security clearance or higher, and were not among those placed on administrative leave, an administration official told Fox News Digital Wednesday. As a result, those involved were familiar with the content they were handling and were specifically appointed by the agency to review and conduct the purge, the official said. Thousands of employees at USAID were either fired or placed on administrative leave in February, following recommendations from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to implement cuts targeting wasteful spending. Carr issued an email to employees instructing them to “shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” ProPublica first reported Tuesday. The State Department, which oversees USAID, did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The American Foreign Service Association, a union representing those who serve in the U.S. Foreign Service and several other groups, filed a motion Tuesday in a Washington, D.C., federal court requesting a temporary restraining order blocking USAID from ordering employees to destroy documents. Specifically, the groups asserted in the filing that Carr’s order “suggests a rapid destruction of agency records on a large scale that could not plausibly involve a reasoned assessment of the records retention obligations for the relevant documents.” The American Foreign Service Association said it would monitor the situation and pressed officials at USAID to issue more guidance on the directive. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CUTTING 90% OF USAID FOREIGN AID CONTRACTS, DOCUMENTS SHOW “Federal law is clear: the preservation of government records is essential to transparency, accountability, and the integrity of the legal process,” the American Foreign Service Association said in a Tuesday statement. “The Federal Records Act of 1950 and its implementing regulations establish strict requirements for the retention of official records, particularly those that may be relevant to legal proceedings,” the statement said. “Furthermore, the unlawful destruction of federal records could carry serious legal consequences for anyone directed to act in violation of the law.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that the State Department had concluded a six-week review and would cancel more than 80% of USAID programs.
New study from key swing state shatters popular narrative against Voter ID: ‘No evidence’
FIRST ON FOX: A study in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin runs contrary to the popular claim of many on the political left and concludes that voter ID laws have not suppressed the vote in the state. “The study finds no statistically significant negative impact of Wisconsin’s voter ID law on overall voter turnout,” the new study from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) concludes. “In fact, turnout has slightly increased since the law’s implementation, challenging claims that voter ID requirements lead to widespread disenfranchisement.” Critics have also railed against voter ID laws in recent years, claiming that it disenfranchises minority voters who, according to critics, have difficulty obtaining identification. The study states that it found “no evidence of a negative effect on turnout from the implementation of voter ID among non-white Wisconsinites.” ‘FULFILL THE MANDATE’: NEW ELECTION INTEGRITY REPORT CALLS FOR CRITICAL CHANGES TO GUARANTEE SECURE ELECTIONS The study compared turnout in Wisconsin over a 20-year period, starting with the 2004 presidential election and ending with the 2024 presidential election while including gubernatorial elections in the years between. WILL acknowledged that turnout can be “impacted by many factors beyond voter ID laws” but explained that it “included these key control variables to ensure we isolated the law’s true impact.” Wisconsin established voter ID laws in 2011 that have undergone several court challenges in the following years. Will Flanders, research director at WILL, told Fox News Digital that he hopes people takeaway from this study that the popular narratives about voter ID laws are not based in data. “When people make these claims that voter I.D. is this instrument of suppression, there’s really no evidence to back that up,” Flanders said. “People often say it’s especially hard for minorities and folks from low-income backgrounds. We specifically looked at the impact on areas with more minority voters, and we found that there’s no evidence, even in those areas, to support this case. There’s no impact on voter turnout in areas with high numbers of minority residents relative to other parts of the state as well. So no impact overall and no impact on those voters that are generally claimed to be most affected.” ‘HE CANNOT BUY AN ELECTION HERE IN WISCONSIN’: SANDERS SLAMS MUSK IN STATE TRUMP WON BY LESS THAN 1% Honest Elections Project Action Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital that the WILL report is consistent with “many” other studies that show voter ID laws “do not do what the Left claims.” “To the contrary, voter ID laws enhance public trust in elections, leading directly to higher voter turnout and greater trust in the democratic process. Liberal politicians are desperate to mislead the public, but the truth is that voter ID laws are overwhelmingly popular. That is why 36 states have them and voters in states as diverse as North Carolina and Nevada have voted for ballot measures to require voter ID.” On April 1, voters in Wisconsin will be asked if they want to enshrine Wisconsin’s voter ID law into the state Constitution. Polling shows that the majority of Americans support the idea of requiring identification to vote. The latest Gallup poll on the issue showed that more than 80% of voters support showing photo identification to vote as well as providing proof of citizenship. A 2024 Pew Research Poll also showed a bipartisan consensus that over 80% of Americans support voter ID measures. In Wisconsin, nearly 75% of residents polled by Marquette University Law School supported voter ID.
Will Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM disrupt political dynamics in West Bengal Elections 2026?
Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, which has been accused many times of supporting the BJP by splitting the Muslim votes, is eyeing the West Bengal Elections 2026 with clear intentions.
U.S. Rep. Keith Self cuts short committee hearing after colleague objects to him misgendering trans member
On social media, Self later wrote “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”
Pro-Hamas activist’s deportation not a ‘free speech’ matter and law is on Trump’s side: experts
Legal experts slammed a recent left-wing narrative that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest of a pro-Hamas activist who led protests on Columbia University’s campus is an attack on the First Amendment, telling Fox News Digital the case is rooted in national security concerns and that immigration laws support the Trump administration’s efforts to deport the agitator. “The State Department has pulled the first visa of a foreign student who engaged in pro-Hamas disruptions. That’s the right thing to do if we want to fix campus cultures,” Ilya Shapiro, the director of constitutional studies at the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank, wrote in an essay for the City Journal Friday. “And contrary to disingenuous critics, such a move poses no First Amendment problems.” “While the government can’t send foreigners to jail for saying things it doesn’t like, it can and should deny or pull visas for those who advocate for causes inimical to the United States,” he wrote. “There’s nothing objectional or controversial about removing those who harass, intimidate, vandalize, and otherwise interfere with an educational institution’s core mission. More, please.” Pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil was taken into ICE custody a day after Shapiro’s essay was published at his Columbia University-owned apartment in Manhattan. The Department of Homeland Security said he was a former Columbia graduate student who “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” TRUMP VOWS ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST MAHMOUD KHALIL WAS ‘FIRST ARREST OF MANY TO COME’ Khalil, who reportedly graduated with a master’s degree from Columbia in December 2024, helped lead the anti-Israel protest that plagued the campus in April 2024, including as a negotiator for radical agitators students on campus as they set up a tent encampment and took over an academic building, Hamilton Hall. He served as a leader of a group called Columbia United Apartheid Divest, which demanded that Columbia completely divest from Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas that began on Oct. 7, 2023. The divest group said its main goal was to “challenge the settler-colonial violence that Israel perpetrates with the support of the United States and its allies,” according to an op-ed published in the Columbia Spectator in November 2023. DHS additionally reported that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” President Donald Trump and his administration have railed against the protests on college campuses, which hit a fever pitch in 2024 before Trump was back in office. The 47th president signed an executive order in January putting pro-Hamas protesters in the U.S. on student visas on notice that they will be deported. “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” the president said in a Jan. 30 fact sheet on the executive order. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.” JUDGE BLOCKS ANTI-ISRAEL COLUMBIA AGITATOR MAHMOUD KHALIL FROM DEPORTATION AS POLITICIANS COME TO HIS DEFENSE Khalil was born in Syria in 1995, the New York Post reported, and has been in the U.S. on a green card. He is under investigation as a possible threat to U.S. national security, with investigators reportedly finding “antisemitic and hateful” posts on Khalil’s social media accounts, White House sources told Fox News Tuesday. DHS, the Department of Justice and the secretary of state are involved in the investigation, according to sources. Following Khalil’s detention, Democrats and other left-wing activists and groups slammed the arrest as an attack on the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and assembly. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s X account also called for Khalil to be freed, which was met by a response from the White House account quoting Trump that more arrests will soon follow. Julian Epstein, an attorney and former chief counsel to the Democratic House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital that “the arrests and deportation of pro-Hamas organizers seems not only legal but long overdue.” “The Immigration and Naturalization Act allows the denial or revocation of any visa holder who espouses or otherwise supports terrorist organizations,” he continued. “Further, 18 USC 245 makes it a criminal offense for any of these protesters to intimidate, harass or impede Jewish students from moving freely about campus and attending classes.” Epstein continued that deportation is a “mild step” and that the DOJ should consider criminal prosecutions of violent protesters. “The Columbia University protesters’ support for Hamas has been widely reported, as have their violent actions targeted at Jews,” he said. “Deportation is a mild step. The DOJ should be considering criminal prosecutions.” ICE AGENTS ARREST ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST WHO LED PROTESTS ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS FOR MONTHS Shapiro added in his essay that immigration law clearly outlines that an individual’s visa, which offers temporary entry to the U.S., or green card, which grants permanent residence to a non-American, can be revoked. “Indeed, it’s a basic application of U.S. immigration law, which says that people here on a visa (tourist, student, employment, or otherwise) who reveal themselves to be ineligible for that visa — ‘inadmissible,’ in the parlance of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) — can have their visa revoked,” Shapiro continued in the piece. In response to claims that the Trump administration was violating Khalil’s First Amendment rights, Shapiro responded on X that “green cards can be revoked. We have laws and must enforce them.” Khalil “having a green card only changes the extent of the process due — a hearing before an immigration judge rather than just an administrative order — not the substance of the law or the outcome,” Shapiro added in comment to Fox News Digital Tuesday. U.S. officials also have stressed that the detention of Khalil is a matter of national security, not free speech, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio determining that the activist’s presence in the U.S. holds “serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” according to a senior State Department official. NYC MAYOR
Rubio pushes back against Mahmoud Khalil defenders: ‘Not about free speech’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the detention and possible deportation of former Columbia University protest organizer Mahmoud Khalil, as critics claim it goes against the First Amendment. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at Shannon Airport in Ireland, Rubio said that the issue is “not about free speech.” Rubio discussed the situation during a refueling stop en route to the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Canada after conducting negotiations on the Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia. A federal judge in Manhattan later Wednesday morning is expected to consider arguments from Khalil’s lawyers challenging the Trump administration’s revocation of his green card. “When you come to the United States as a visitor, which is what a visa is – which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitor’s visa – as a visitor, we can deny you that visa,” Rubio said. “When you tell us when you apply, ‘Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa. I am a big supporter of Hamas, a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages,’ if you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this and if you tell us when you apply for your visa, ‘and by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities, I intend to shut down your universities,’ if you told us all these things when you applied for your visa, we would deny your visa. I’d hope we would.” WHITE HOUSE: RUBIO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REVOKE GREEN CARD OR VISA OF ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST MAHMOUD KHALIL “If you actually end up doing that once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it, and if you end up having a green card, not citizenship, but a green card as a result of that visa while you’re here doing those activities, we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that. This is not about free speech,” Rubio said. “This is about people who do not have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a greed card by the way.” “So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason, but I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down, being complicit in what are clearly crimes, vandalization, complicit in shutting down institutions,” Rubio added. “There are kids at these schools that can’t go to class. You pay all this money to these high-priced schools that are supposed to be of great esteem, and you can’t even go to class. You’re afraid to go to class because there are lunatics running around with covers on their faces screaming terrifying things. If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out.” Federal immigration authorities arrested Khalil at his university-owned apartment in New York on Saturday, and he was transported to a detention center in Louisiana. A student organizer during last year’s anti-Israel protests, Khalil was born in Syria to Palestinian parents and was granted a student visa to enter the U.S. to attend Columbia in 2022. He has since obtained a green card and is married to an American citizen who is reportedly eight months pregnant. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York on Monday temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation as the case plays out. His attorneys argue that his constitutional rights of free speech and due process under the First and Fifth amendments were violated and filed a motion challenging the validity of Khalil’s detention. They are pushing for Khalil to be returned to New York, while Trump administration lawyers say they intend to file a motion to dismiss or transfer the case out of the Southern District of New York by Wednesday night. They say the Manhattan federal court is “an improper venue.” A federal judge in Manhattan later Wednesday morning is expected to consider arguments from Khalil’s lawyers challenging the Trump administration’s revocation of his green card. Sources tell Fox News that Khalil is being investigated as a potential national security threat. State Department officials say Khalil’s activities in the U.S. would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” SUPPORTERS OF DETAINED COLUMBIA STUDENT ARRESTED AFTER CLASH WITH NYPD AS TRUMP ADMIN SEEKS HIS DEPORTATION White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday the Immigration and Nationality Act gives Rubio the right to revoke a green card or visa from an individual considered “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America,” and that Khalil “took advantage” of the privilege of coming to the United States to study at one of America’s finest institutions “by siding with terrorists, Hamas terrorists, who have killed innocent men, women and children.” After riding in a Tesla with Elon Musk at the White House, Trump addressed his promise that Khalil’s detention would be the first of many related to antisemitic campus unrest. “I think we ought to get them all out of the country. They’re troublemakers. They’re agitators. They don’t love our country. We ought to get him the hell out,” Trump said Tuesday. “I heard his statements, too. There were plenty bad. And I think we ought to get him the hell out of the country … I watched him, I watched tapes, specifically, I watched tapes…> You can have him, okay? You can have him, and you can have the rest of them.”
21,000% spike in MA vape seizures throws cigarette ban into question, ex-ATF official says
After Massachusetts authorities released a report showing a sharp rise in flavored cigarette and vape seizures under a recent bipartisan statewide ban, a former ATF official and a network of law enforcement veterans specializing in contraband called into question why the ban remains. An annual multi-agency report from the Bay State’s Illegal Tobacco Task Force showed vape seizures up by more than 200,000 – largely due to large-scale seizures – since 2023, while smokeless tobacco and standard cigarette seizures were down. Calculations by the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network found that Massachusetts police seized 279,432 vape units in fiscal year 2024, up from about 1,300 the year prior. Former New York City Sheriff Edgar Domenech, who is also a former ATF official who focused on tobacco and related contraband, told Fox News Digital the findings showed the illegal vape market is “exploding,” and that when the Bay State became the first to outlaw flavored tobacco, it was a clarion call for cartels and smugglers to say, “[we’re] open for business.” MIGRANT CRISIS ROILS BOSTON AREA AS SCHOOL STANDS FIRM ON RESIDENCY POLICY “A 21,000 percent increase in smuggling proves once and for all that the Massachusetts flavor ban experiment has been an embarrassing catastrophe,” said Domenech, who had been appointed to his Big Apple post by then-Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg and now works with Georgetown University. “They are spending so much time seizing so much product they literally can’t find a place to store the contraband,” he said. While the rule of law is important, sometimes new laws themselves may need revisiting, he suggested. Without the ability to levy taxes on what is now an illegal product that remains ubiquitous elsewhere in New England, bordering states like New Hampshire – less than an hour from Boston – seek to reap the tax benefits of Massachusetts’ ban as customers go a little out of their way to buy their products, he said. Prohibiting adult products like vapes “never works,” Domenech added. “It moves sales out of the stores and into the streets.” RAMASWAMY MOCKS MASS GOVERNOR’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT STANCE AFTER FLIP: ‘NOW ACCEPTABLE TO COMPLAIN’ In January, Boston police in the Drug Control Unit arrested a 58-year-old Dorchester man as part of a raid that netted 50 grams of crack and 700 packages of “illegally possessed unstamped menthol cigarettes.” The man, Parrish Jones, was charged with trafficking cigarettes. Separately, a Hopkinton man was arrested in June for allegedly failing to pay nearly $500,000 in excise taxes after he allegedly sought out-of-state distributors in order to market vape-type products, according to FOX Boston. The ban itself went into effect in December 2019, as the Massachusetts Public Health Council enacted new sales restrictions on vapes and flavored tobacco. The panel was able to do so after then-Gov. Charles Baker – a Republican – signed a bill from the Democratic legislature “modernizing tobacco control.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP More recently, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office filed a complaint against a vape company in 2024 for allegedly ignoring the flavored tobacco ban. The office previously sued several other companies as well, according to a statement. In November, several Massachusetts lawmakers announced plans to file legislation this year to phase out all tobacco and nicotine sales in the state, beginning with those Bay Staters who are currently underage to begin with. Sen. Jason Lewis, D-Middlesex, Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian, D-Melrose, and Rep. Tommy Vitolo, D-Brookline, are collaborating on the bill, according to NBC Boston. Fox News Digital reached out to the AG’s office for further response but did not hear back by press time.