An unlikely alliance in the House of Representatives is seeking to reform the U.S. criminal justice system.

The House is expected to consider a bill this week that would force the federal government to create a vast database of existing federal criminal laws and regulations, which its supporters hope will be a stepping stone to cutting down what they see as an exceedingly cumbersome bureaucratic web.

The bill is being led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, with support from Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Lucy McBath, D-Ga., and Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.

It’s not often that progressives can be seen teaming up with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, but concerns like government overreach have been known to bring together unusual coalitions within Congress.

‘This, for me, was driven by the fact that I think we have far too many federal crimes and that the American people often don’t know what they are,’ Roy told Fox News Digital. ‘There’s lots of different ways in which you can be criminally liable for something you don’t even know about, and that’s insane.’

The Texas Republican said crimes like assaults, stabbings and thefts were ‘basic, Ten Commandments–like laws’ that necessarily carried penalties — but he argued there were thousands more rules, including dictating regulatory violations, that posed issues for everyday Americans.

‘There are all sorts of regulatory things under the [Environmental Protection Agency] that frankly make criminals out of Americans by virtue of just how they engage.  It might be a farmer just using their land or range or whatever. And suddenly they are a criminal,’ he said.

‘I mean, there’s been people who have gone to jail for violations of, essentially, what was regulations — maybe those are all extensions off of some statute way back when, but when you have a generic statute on environmental protection that then turns into a thousand different codes that if you break, you’re somehow violating law, that’s a big problem.’

Biggs complained of the lack of accounting for regulatory offenses Americans are accused of in a statement earlier this year.

‘We have a duty to protect Americans’ right to liberty, and this begins with scaling down the massive overreach in federal criminal offenses,’ Biggs said.

McBath said the bill means, ‘Americans will no longer have to fear being excessively punished, and criminal justice professionals can better protect the public.’

In addition to creating the new database, the bill would also direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to report how many cases have been prosecuted under each offense over the last 15 years.

It could get a vote in the House as soon as Monday evening, though it’s possible consideration is pushed until later this week.

While bipartisan cooperation is rare in the current Congress, Roy has been known to reach across the aisle on key issues before. He and several other Republicans are working with Democrats on legislation to ban stock trading for Capitol Hill lawmakers.

President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday that he would release the results of an MRI he had done in October.

‘If they want to release it, it’s OK with me to release it,’ Trump said. ‘It’s perfect.’ 

‘If you want to have it released, I’ll release it,’ he told reporters as he traveled back to Washington, D.C., after spending the Thanksgiving weekend at Mar-a-Lago.

A reporter asked Trump what part of the body the MRI was focused on in the scan.

‘I have no idea,’ the president responded. ‘What part of the body? It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it. I got a perfect mark.’

The White House released a memo on Oct. 10 from Sean Barbabella, the White House physician, that said Trump underwent advanced imaging as part of a scheduled follow-up evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Barbabella said the evaluation was part of the president’s ongoing health maintenance plan and included laboratory testing and preventive health assessments.

‘Comprehensive laboratory studies performed in conjunction with the visit were exceptional, including stable metabolic, hematologic, and cardiac parameters,’ the memo read in part.

A reporter previously asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in early November at a White House press briefing about releasing the results of the MRI because it is a very specific procedure and not generally routine. 

‘As I said, I’ll check back for you,’ Leavitt responded.

President Donald Trump on Sunday defended Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over allegations he ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan drug boat, saying he believes Hegseth’s denial and would not have supported a follow-up attack if it happened.

The exchange came during a gaggle aboard Air Force One as reporters pressed Trump on claims that Hegseth authorized a second strike that allegedly killed two wounded men after an earlier attack on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel.

Trump repeatedly said Hegseth denied giving such an order. He added that he was aware of the allegation but stressed that Hegseth told him the claim was untrue and that he accepted that explanation without hesitation.

‘He said he did not say that, and I believe him 100%,’ Trump said.

Reporters asked Trump whether he would have approved a second strike if Hegseth had ordered one, prompting him to again distance himself from the allegation while stressing that he trusted his secretary of war.

Trump said he planned to seek additional information about the reported incident but reiterated that Hegseth assured him nothing improper happened.

‘No, I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second strike,’ Trump said.

Still, he praised the wider campaign targeting drug-smuggling boats, saying the strikes had sharply reduced the flow of narcotics into the U.S. by sea in recent months.

Trump argued the vessels posed a deadly threat and framed the operations as necessary to protect Americans, calling the missions lethal but justified.

‘You can see the boats,’ he said. ‘You can see the drugs in the boats and each boat is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans.’

Trump went to Hegseth’s defense after reports from outlets such as The Washington Post and CNN claimed the U.S. military ordered a second strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean on Sept. 2 after the earlier attack left two survivors.

According to The Washington Post, the commander overseeing that operation told colleagues on a secure conference call that the survivors were legitimate targets because they could still contact other traffickers for help and ordered the second strike to comply with what he said was a directive from Hegseth that everyone must be killed.

‘As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,’ Hegseth wrote on X on Friday.

‘As we’ve said from the beginning and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes,’’ Hegseth continued. ‘The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.’

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

Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, will travel to Moscow on Monday, a U.S. official tells Fox News.

The trip comes as peace talks between Ukraine and Russia show signs of progress, with the White House pushing a peace plan to end the nearly four-year-long war.

On Sunday, Witkoff — a central figure in negotiating the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior advisor Jared Kushner in Florida to meet with Ukrainian negotiators. 

Rubio described the meeting as ‘very productive.’ In a statement, Rubio said that the end goal is ‘not just the end of the war.’

‘Obviously, that’s essential and fundamental. We want to see the end of the killing and the death and the suffering, and I’m sure the Ukrainian side, I know they do as well,’ Rubio said. 

‘They want peace. But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.’

Last week, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow could reject the White House’s peace deal framework if it does not uphold the ‘spirit and letter’ of what President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to at the Alaska summit in August.

He warned that if the terms of the ‘key understandings’ are ‘extinguished’ then the situation would become ‘fundamentally different.’

Despite Lavrov’s comments, Putin showed interest in Trump’s plans to end the war on Thursday, calling the drafted plans a starting point.

‘We need to sit down and discuss this seriously,’ Putin told reporters, according to The Associated Press.

Trump’s plan as ‘a set of issues put forward for discussion’ rather than a draft agreement.

‘Every word matters,’ Putin added.

Fox News Digital’s Sarah Tobianski, Kyle Schmidbauer and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

Tensions between NATO and Russia sharpened Monday after the alliance’s top military commander said member states are considering whether they must become ‘more aggressive’ in confronting Moscow’s hybrid threat campaign.

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chairman of NATO’s military committee, told the Financial Times the alliance is evaluating if it should be ‘proactive instead of reactive,’ including the possibility of ‘preemptive’ cyber or sabotage operations.

Dragone said such actions could still fall under defensive doctrine, saying, ‘It is further away from our normal way of thinking or behavior.’

Dragone pointed to the Baltic Sentry mission, launched this year to counter Russian-linked sabotage at sea, saying that ‘from the beginning of Baltic Sentry, nothing has happened. So this means that this deterrence is working.’

He added: ‘Being more aggressive compared with the aggressivity of our counterpart could be an option, but Dragone also admitted that NATO and its members had much more limits than our counterpart because of ethics, because of law, because of jurisdiction. It is an issue. I don’t want to say it’s a loser position, but it is a harder position than our counterpart’s.’

Moscow immediately pushed back. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Dragone’s comments ‘an extremely irresponsible step’ and accused NATO of signaling it is willing ‘to move toward escalation,’ according to Russian state media.

Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition and a former senior State Department and official at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital that, ‘Given Russia’s unilateral invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the idea that Russia is warning about NATO being irresponsible is laughable. Putin has been given numerous opportunities to end the war peacefully and has refused them all because of his own expansionist goals. NATO is simply reacting to his aggression.’

‘Regarding U.S. involvement,’ she explained, ‘Article 5 merely states that an attack on one is an attack on all. NATO adopting a more assertive position does not obligate the U.S. to do the same. We are only required to take ‘such action as [we] deem necessary’ – and that, only in the case of an attack on a NATO state.’

General Bruce Carlson, U.S. Air Force (ret.) and former director of the National Reconnaissance Office, told Fox News Digital, ‘Let’s not forget it’s Russia who is conducting preemptive military action in Europe with the sole intention of invading and occupying another sovereign nation’s territory by force.’ 

Carlson added, ‘Putin only understands one thing and that’s power. No one has strengthened NATO more than President Trump, and it is critical that we use every lever possible to push Russia to the negotiating table to achieve a lasting and sustainable peace deal that protects Ukraine’s sovereignty and defends U.S. national security interests.’

The warnings come amid a steady drumbeat of Russian-linked activity that NATO officials say falls under hybrid warfare. The alliance says it faces daily cyberattacks that can be traced to Moscow, alongside information operations, migration pressure, and repeated targeting of critical infrastructure.

A series of sabotage incidents in late 2024 triggered a major NATO review. Several undersea data cables and a key power link were damaged that November and December, including on Dec. 25. Prosecutors in Finland accused the crew of a Cook Islands–flagged tanker of dragging an anchor for more than 50 miles and severing infrastructure, though a Finnish court later dismissed the case, ruling national law did not apply.

More recently, roughly 20 drones crossed into NATO member Poland in September, prompting Warsaw to trigger Article 4 consultations. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the time it was ‘the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II,’ while Moscow denied targeting Polish territory.