An Indian national was federally indicted by a grand jury in Minnesota for knowingly making the false claim to be a U.S. citizen to vote in the 2024 general election, prompting pushback online and from an expert who spoke to Fox News Digital.

Mukeshkumar Somabhai Chaudhari, according to a DOJ press release earlier this month, falsely claimed U.S. citizenship by signing a voter signature certificate required under state law to vote in Minnesota and voting Nov. 5, 2024.

“The right to vote is a sacred privilege of American citizenship, and every lawful voter deserves an election system in which that right is protected,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the press release. 

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“The Department will hold accountable those who knowingly make false claims of citizenship in order to vote. The integrity of our elections depends on ensuring that only eligible citizens cast ballots and that every lawful vote is counted.”

Dhillon added in a post on X Tuesday that the Justice Department has “indicted or convicted 67 individuals for election related crimes.”

Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported that Chaudhari, 39, was facing state perjury and voting violation charges and that he denied he voted when first questioned by authorities but later claimed he “made a mistake” and admitted to voting while also telling investigators he is not a U.S. citizen.

Chaudhari, according to investigators, received a voter registration notice from the state of Minnesota in a move that was likely triggered in the system after he obtained his driver’s license. Chaudhari is said to have told authorities that he didn’t learn he should not have voted until his lawyer informed him during his green card process.

“Once again, DOJ is proving that if you look for election fraud, you find election fraud,” Chad Ennis, vice president of Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “The left loves to claim election fraud does not happen. But here we have yet another instance of a noncitizen illegally registering to vote.”

News of the federal indictment spread across social media as well, with some users pointing out that numerous elected Democrats in recent years have downplayed the existence of voter fraud.

“That thing that never happens,” Center for the American Experiment’s Bill Glahn posted on X.

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“Tim Walz’s Minnesota is a hotbed for fraud!” political commentator Eric Daugherty posted on X.

Glahn previously spoke to Fox News Digital about his concerns over the lack of safeguards in Minnesota’s voting system, including registered voters being able to “vouch” for up to eight other voters’ residency who want to sign up for same-day voter registration without an ID.

“Only U.S. Citizens are eligible to vote in Minnesota,” the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State told Fox News Digital earlier this year, adding that ineligible voting is “extremely rare.”

“When an individual completes a voter registration application, they attest that they meet all eligibility requirements, including that they are a U.S. citizen,” the office said. “Before casting a ballot, one must again swear to their eligibility before they are allowed to vote. 

“If a noncitizen attempts to vote in an election, they will be caught and held to account. Penalties for voting while ineligible may include deportation, a permanent bar on future citizenship, a fine of up to $10,000, and up to five years in prison.”

If convicted, Chaudhari faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each of the two counts he faces.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio has collected an unusually broad portfolio in President Donald Trump’s second administration — and one of his most powerful roles is now permanent.

Trump recently signed a commission formally making Rubio his national security adviser, a senior State Department official, White House official and senior administration official confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. 

The move makes permanent a role Rubio has held since May 2025, when Trump tapped him to replace Michael Waltz on an interim basis.

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Rubio will continue to manage the National Security Council process and serve as a direct line to the president on national security matters.

The former Florida senator has been a prominent figure in the Trump administration, holding multiple official posts while becoming the subject of online jokes about just how many jobs he could take on.

The move puts Rubio in rare company, being only the second person in U.S. history to simultaneously serve as secretary of state and national security adviser, after Henry Kissinger held both posts under President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.

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Kissinger became Nixon’s national security adviser in 1969, later being sworn in as the secretary of state in 1973. The roles gave him extraordinary influence during the conflict with the Soviet Union, the opening to China and diplomacy surrounding the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

Trump has previously tapped Rubio to serve as U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) acting administrator shortly after being sworn in at the State Department. He was also tapped to serve as acting archivist of the United States, a post he held from February to December 2025.

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Rubio has taken social media by storm, as critics and allies of the administration share viral memes showing doctored photos of Rubio sitting in the Oval Office wearing various outfits to fit a new job role he could pick up.

Photos have circulated of Rubio as Spirit Airlines pilot, a White House beekeeper or a Kentucky Derby jockey – even dressed as Dolly Parton after the country music star passed away earlier this year.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is not attending the United Nations General Assembly this week, an official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Meloni’s decision not to attend breaks with a roughly 15-year stretch in which an Italian prime minister took part in the U.N. General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, according to Associated Medias, although the 2020 gathering was held largely virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meloni said she will not attend the UNGA, citing a packed schedule after attending six summits in three and a half weeks and saying she had “several dossiers” to handle at home.

Meloni’s absence also means the two leaders will avoid another face-to-face encounter after recent international summits put their growing tensions on public display, despite a previously warm relationship.

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“We believe the United Nations the basic instrument for achieving peace everywhere. Indeed we want a stronger role United Nations, we are present at many initiatives and we have an Italian candidate at the helm of the FAO”, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said ahead of the summit, according to Italian outlet ANSA. “There is great attention from the Italian side.”

Their spat escalated in June after Trump said Meloni had “begged” him to take a photo at the G7, months after tensions first surfaced publicly when Meloni opposed U.S. military action against Iran and called Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV “unacceptable.”

The two leaders have long had a warmer relationship than Trump has shared with many other U.S. allies, with Meloni notably the only European leader to attend his 2025 presidential inauguration.

In July, Meloni and Trump feuded in the lead up to the NATO summit in Turkey after Trump posted “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED,” on Truth, alongside a photo of Meloni looking at him.

TRUMP-MELONI SPAT GROWS OVER CLAIM ITALIAN PM ‘BEGGED’ FOR PHOTO: ‘ASTONISHED’

“Trump’s statements against Meloni speak for themselves,” Tajani said in July while at a Sky TG24 event. “We are convinced that transatlantic relations go far beyond individual statements.”

The exchange followed a June interview with Italy’s La7 after the G7, when Trump mocked Meloni over what he claimed was her eagerness to take a photo with him.

“She wanted a picture with me so ​badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her,” Trump said at the time to La7 TV channel. “She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her.”

Meloni fired back: “I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence.”

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“There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg,” she added.

There have been looming tensions between the two leaders after Meloni distanced herself from the U.S. amid mounting domestic and political pressure over the widening Middle East conflict.

Trump also criticized Meloni for failing to assist the U.S. without letting U.S. forces use Italy’s landing strips and runways, calling it “a great logistical inconvenience.”

“She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!),” he wrote in June.

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Italy remains a key U.S. security hub in Europe, hosting nearly 13,000 active-duty American service members as of December 2025, according to Defense Manpower Data Center figures, with personnel based in Vicenza, Aviano, Naples and Sicily.

A senior administration official highlighted President Trump’s meetings with other heads of state and engagement with Gulf partners on Iran when asked by Fox News Digital about Meloni’s absence from the conference.

Tajani is expected to speak at the conference on Wednesday.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican Michigan U.S. Senate candidate backed by President Donald Trump, noted the financial strain Americans are facing, declared that the Iran war must “end quickly,” and called for a diesel export embargo until the conflict concludes in a social media video.

“Michigan families are struggling with the price of everyday life. Groceries cost too much. We have to bring prices down. The war with Iran needs to end, and end quickly. When it does, energy costs will plummet. But Michigan families can’t afford to wait for that to happen,” Rogers said in the video.

“I previously called for the suspension of the state and federal gas tax, 70 cents a gallon,” he said.

The state’s motor fuel tax, which applies to both gas and diesel, is 52.4 cents per gallon.

“Federal taxes include excise taxes of 18.3 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents per gallon on diesel fuel, and a Leaking Underground Storage Tank fee of 0.1 cents per gallon on both fuels,” according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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While Rogers does not appear to have called for a suspension of the federal diesel tax, he called for a diesel export embargo.

“Diesel fuels the trucks that bring groceries to this store. It fuels the tractors that grow our food. And when diesel costs more, it costs more to grow it, ship it, stock it, and ultimately, buy it. So until this war is over, I’m calling for a temporary embargo on American diesel exports,” he said.

Trump has endorsed Rogers, including in a video posted last week on social media.

“Mike Rogers has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next U.S. Senator from Michigan — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” the video’s caption read.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Tuesday.

The AAA national average price for diesel is at a record high of $6.5276 as of Sept. 22.

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Rogers is running against Democratic Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

Responding to Rogers’ video, El-Sayed targeted his Republican rival in a post on X, writing, “You’ve spent your entire campaign supporting the war in Iran. Liar, coward, fraud.”

Former Rep. Justin Amash, who finished the 2024 GOP Michigan U.S. Senate primary in a distant second place behind Rogers, wrote in a post on X, “When inveterate war hawk Mike Rogers suddenly declares, ‘The war in Iran needs to end—and end quickly,’ you know he’s losing—and losing badly.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Rogers’ campaign on Tuesday.

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While it was a close race, Rogers lost the 2024 U.S. Senate general election to then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin.

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A Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Arkansas is facing scrutiny for comments she recently made on a podcast suggesting that illegal alien workers are more valuable than their American counterparts.

“I want to talk about the fact that our immigration system is backlogged, bureaucratic and doesn’t actually help anybody, including American employers who want folks who want to follow the law,” Hallie Shoffner said on the “Free Arkansas Podcast” during an hour-long discussion about a wide spectrum of political issues.

Shoffner, a farmer, is running against Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. in the deep red state.

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She continued by saying she had a discussion with a fellow farmer, who she said was a Republican, about foreign labor.

“Labor is a huge issue, especially when you don’t have a large workforce,” she said. “And every farmer will tell you, ‘yeah, at one point we did, or still do, employ undocumented immigrants.'” And it’s absolutely ridiculous that these folks are being rounded up because they’re hardworking people. They’re some of the best people we know.”

“And honestly, we’d trade five Americans just for one of them because of how hard they work,” she said.

Shoffner then demanded a pathway for illegal aliens to work in the United States legally, claiming “when they’re good workers, we pay them well, they’re good workers, they spend money here [and] they have family here.”

Cotton’s campaign accused Shoffner of implying that she has hired illegal aliens.

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“Hallie Shoffner’s campaign isn’t denying that she employed illegal aliens,” campaign spokesman James Arnold told Fox News Digital. “They’re also standing by Hallie Shoffner’s claim that just one illegal immigrant is more valuable than five American citizens.”

“Every Democrat running for Congress needs to answer if they agree with Hallie Shoffner’s belief that illegal aliens are worth more than Americans,” Arnold said.

In a response to Fox News Digital, Shoffner’s campaign manager Anna-Lee Pittman said the candidate’s comments were taken out of context, and accused Cotton of being unwilling to have a conversation to help “fix the immigration system.”

Cotton, she said, “spends his days combing through video clips of Hallie Shoffner to find any possible inelegant phrase or line that he can chop up to misrepresent an hour-long conversation and present it with no context,” noting that “[i]n this response, Shoffner relayed a conversation she had with another farmer about challenges with labor.”

Shoffner once joined the chorus of left-wing calls to defund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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“I would vote to defund ICE as it exists right now,” Shoffner said in an event June. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created not that long ago, and it no longer serves the purpose it was originally created for.” 

“I would not spend one more dime on ICE, because — not just because of the human dignity issue — but also the fact that it is now the largest law enforcement agency in the country,” she said. “It has 10 times the budget of the organization that fights child sex trafficking.”

But in a Facebook post earlier this month, the red state Democratic candidate changed her tune.

“I don’t want to defund ICE, I want to reform it,” she said.

Immigration is a hotbed issue heading into the midterm elections, as it was two years ago during President Donald Trump’s campaign to occupy the White House for a second term.

The Trump administration has carried out immigration operations nationwide to arrest and deport illegal aliens, drawing blowback from Democrat politicians and activists.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.