AP reported that the plane used to transport Pollard to Israel belongs to billionaire and top Republican Party and Donald Trump donor Sheldon Adelson, who was a vocal supporter for Pollard's release. Photographs taken on the plane showed Pollard and his wife in coronavirus face masks.

Several journalists and former intelligence officials criticized Pollard's warm welcome in Israel, calling him a traitor who was motivated by greed.

"I'll never understand this. Pollard was a traitor. You can believe that his sentence was harsh and that he served his time. But he is no hero. And it's embarrassing that he is treated like one," protested Politico senior national correspondent Bryan Bender.

"Just to be clear, Pollard an American was spying on behalf of Israel, an ally and recipient of tons of financial aid from America. And they are now celebrating this traitor. How Trumpian,"added former FBI agent Joe Navarro.

Pollard, who was born in Texas, worked as a civilian intelligence analyst at the Navy's Anti-Terrorist Alert Centre in Maryland but began working for Israel in 1984.

He sold sensitive documents to Israel. The exact contents have never been disclosed but on the FBI website it says "the quantity was significant".

At the time he was assisted by his wife Anne and the couple were arrested on 21 November 1985 outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.

Pollard pleaded guilty in 1986 to passing military secrets to Israel and was jailed for life.

Anne was also convicted and spent three years in jail. When she was paroled he divorced her, saying he did not expect her to wait decades for him. She later moved to Israel and he eventually married Esther, who had campaigned for his release.

In November 2015 Anne was interviewed by Israel's Channel 2 News and claimed they had been sold out by the Israelis.

Pollard was only one of a number of foreign agents who were arrested in 1985, which was dubbed by the FBI "the year of the spy."

Also arrested that year was John Walker, a US Navy communications specialist, who was jailed for life for spying for the Soviet Union. Walker died in prison in 2014.

CIA clerk Sharon Scranage was also convicted of passing on secrets to her boyfriend Michael Soussoudis, a cousin of Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings. Scranage was jailed for five years but Soussoudis was sentenced to 20 years, only to be swapped for eight Ghanaians who had spied for the CIA.

Also caught in 1985 were Ronald Pelton, a KGB spy within the National Security Agency, and Larry Wu-tai Chin, who committed suicide while awaiting trial on charges of spying for China. Pelton was jailed for life and, like Pollard, was released in November 2015.

Sen. Josh Hawley said on Wednesday that he will object during Congress's counting of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, becoming the first GOP senator to back the effort by House conservatives.

The decision by Hawley would ensure a debate and vote in the House and Senate on the Electoral College results.

"I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws," Hawley said in a statement.

"And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega-corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act," Hawley added.

In order to force a debate and a vote on their objection to a state's results they need a senator to also object — something they didn't have before Hawley's announcement on Wednesday.

It will be the third time Congress has had to debate an objection since 1887, according to the Congressional Research Service.

SNP pledges to vote AGAINST Brexit deal

Speaking on Wednesday, Ian Blackford, SNP leader in Westminster, said that Scotland would soon be heading back into the European Union, having seen the PM's "bad Brexit deal."

"It's the people of Scotland that are sovereign, and it's the people of Scotland that will determine to take them back into the European Union with independence," he stated during the five-hour debate on the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill in Parliament on Wednesday.

Throughout the lockdowns Scotland has proven that it, like every other country that took suspiciously coordinated and tyrannical actions against its people is far from independent.

The SNP MP had already been cautioned by the speaker of the house for repeatedly interrupting Boris Johnson during his opening speech.

Once again calling for another referendum on Scottish independence from the UK, the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber said that Scots had a very clear choice on their future.

"Which future will we choose? This broken Brexit Britain or the European Union? If this whole Brexit saga was truly about sovereignty then the Scottish people can't and won't be denied our sovereign right to that self-determination," he asserted.

The SNP have vowed to vote against Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, in a move which marks a total U-turn on the party's Brexit position but is unlikely to stall the bill, as Blackford's MPs do not have enough power in the UK Parliament to impact its passing.

Earlier in December, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said that "a deal, any deal, is better than a no deal."

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