A senior Justice Department official was demoted this week amid an ongoing investigation into his contacts with the opposition research firm responsible for the anti-Trump "dossier," the department confirmed to Fox News.

Until Wednesday morning, Bruce G. Ohr held two titles at DOJ: associate deputy attorney general, a post that placed him four doors down from his boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein; and director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), a program described by the department as "the centerpiece of the attorney general's drug strategy."

Ohr will retain his OCDETF title but has been stripped of his higher post and ousted from his office on the fourth floor of "Main Justice."

As one fake scandal fades, a real one emerges
Life is full of surprises. Like that time you were counting on a new bike for Christmas, and were totally certain your parents were going to come through, and then - lo and behold! - on Christmas morning there it was: a spanking brand-new Segway! The final evidence that, despite your best efforts, you'd always be a nerdy little dork. (And yes, a pocket calculator turned up in your stocking,)

That's just what happened to #TheResistance this holiday season. For months they've been salivating heavily in anticipation of the turning of Michael Flynn, the former National Security Advisor now charged with lying to the FBI. Flynn has admitted doing so on at least two occasions, both involving his answers to questions about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kisylak. During the transition - after Trump's election but before he took office - Flynn was talking to the Russians about two subjects: the possible blowback from the Obama administration's decision to impose more sanctions and close the Russian compound in Maryland, and the Russian position on the controversial UN resolution condemning Israel for building yet more "settlements" on Palestinian land.

North Korea wants to engage directly with the US to assure its security, Russia's foreign minister has revealed. Sergey Lavrov said he has briefed US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the developments and that Moscow is ready to "facilitate such talks."

"We know that, above all, North Korea wants to talk to the US about its own security assurances," he said in Vienna following his meeting with Tillerson. "Russia is ready to take part in facilitating such talks." Lavrov and Tillerson spoke on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting.

Lavrov reiterated that all parties involved in the Korean crisis should "break the vicious cycle of confrontation, reckless schemes and sanctions" and engage in meaningful dialogue instead. He also pointed to American military exercises near the Korean Peninsula and Washington's aggressive rhetoric, which he said only leads to a further escalation of tensions. This is "unacceptable," Lavrov made clear.

During Barack Obama's time in the White House, it was clear to many that he was far more concerned with protecting illegal immigrants inside the U.S. than he was with actually enforcing immigration laws.

Now that Donald Trump is in office, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials are free to actually do their jobs again, and they are opening up about just how bad things got under Obama's leadership.

U.S. immigration officials have revealed that they face a deportation backlog of 550,000 illegal immigrants who were given temporary amnesty by former President Obama or simply let off the hook by liberal judges.

The massive backlog is being tackled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but the sheer numbers - bigger than the populations of Atlanta or Sacramento -- is overwhelming the agency's enforcement and removal department.

This week as ICE and other immigration officials reviewed successes under President Trump, a reporter asked Matthew T. Albence, executive associate director for enforcement and removal operations, if he knew the number of outstanding deportation orders. The conversation went this way:

Yesterday, Trump made good on his promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Given that the whole world (minus Israel) is against him - along with international law - he moderated his decision slightly by delaying the decision to move the U.S. embassy there for six months. Predictably, his decision has been unanimously condemned by pretty much everyone not a raving Zionist - and that includes so-called allies of the U.S. (again minus Israel).

As Piers Morgan put it yesterday in the Daily Mail,

"Today, President Donald Trump has taken a million-ton barrel of oil and tipped it all over the Middle East."

Russian MPs made similar comments:

"Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and the plan to relocate the US embassy [in Israel] to this city is a continuation of a string of provocations in American foreign policy, which we are continuously witnessing in relation to Syria, Iran and North Korea, among others," said Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma Committee for International Relations, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday. The lawmaker also noted in his comments that Trump's move could potentially "explode the situation in the zone of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Head of the Upper House Committee for Information Policy, Senator Aleksey Pushkov, wrote on Twitter that the US president's decision was a global shock with potentially dire consequences. "The whole world except for Israel is in a state of shock because of Trump's decision. He has brought a new fuse to the old powder keg. I am confident that this is not the last shock," he said.

Dmitry Peskov gave the Kremlin's reaction:

"What is to be done? We have to continue to search for a diplomatic solution, though, the situation definitely became complicated." The Russian ambassador to Israel reaffirmed that Jerusalem's status will not be determined by some guy in the U.S., but rather as agreed upon in "direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations".

More than six years after the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar sowed the seeds that led to a brutal conflict in Syria that killed upwards of 400,000 Syrians and caused millions more to flee their homes - causing a massive immigration problem for Europe in the process - the Russian General Staff has declared that all of Syria has been liberated of ISIS fighters.

"All terrorist units of ISIS on Syrian soil have been destroyed, and the territory is liberated. Therefore, as of today, there is no territory controlled by ISIS in Syria," Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov reported Tuesday. Senior military officer Sergei Rudskoi provided more details, saying that, "There is not a single village or district in Syria under the control of ISIL. The territory of Syria has been completely liberated from fighters of this terrorist organisation."

US ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Nikki Haley, says sending American athletes to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games remains uncertain amid security fears on the Korean Peninsula.

"There's an open question," Haley said Wednesday, responding to a Fox News question whether it's a "done deal" that Team USA will take part in the upcoming Winter Games.

"I have not heard anything about that, but I do know in the talks that we have - whether it's Jerusalem or North Korea - it's about, how do we protect the US citizens in the area?" she said.

Her comments follows escalating tensions between the US and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear program and recent ballistic missile tests. Haley also outlined that US officials' ultimate goal is to "take every precaution" to make sure their athletes are safe and protected.

In a stunning close to his congressional career, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Thursday announced he will resign amid multiple allegations that he touched women inappropriately, becoming the second lawmaker to step aside over such accusations in the last week.

Franken said he will leave the Senate in the coming weeks. The announcement came one day after another accusation led a majority of Senate Democrats to call for his resignation.

Striking a defiant tone in a speech on the Senate floor, Franken defended his political legacy and made clear he was not admitting to the behavior described by his accusers.

Donald Trump made an unexpected move by calling on his partner, Saudi Arabia, to end the blockade on Yemen that has endangered millions and is placing the Arab country on the brink of starvation.

In a rare divergence from Saudi Arabia, U.S. President Donald Trump called on the kingdom to end its blockade on Yemen, citing human rights.

The blockade in Yemen that has accompanied the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen's war has restricted access to food and medical supplies.

According to reports, two out of three Yemenis face the risk of starvation while many more are suffering from cholera, rabies, bacterial infections, and other preventable diseases.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that "it's important" that President Bashar Assad is part of talks on the future of Syria. He added that Washington has asked Moscow to facilitate the Syrian government's involvement in the Geneva negotiations.

"We have said to the Russians it is important that the Syrian regime be at the table and be part of these negotiations and part of the discussion," Tillerson told reporters Wednesday. "It's important that as long as Bashar Assad is still the leader of that regime, that he be directly engaged in these discussions and negotiations," said Tillerson from NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Underlining the importance of the talks under the UN Security Council resolution, which seeks to pave way for a new constitution and elections in the war-torn country, the US official said all Syrians should "have an opportunity to voice their views on the future of Syria." "We have left it to the Russians to deliver them [Syrian government delegation] to the table" in Geneva, he added.