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Trump to send Pelosi a letter 'daring' her to hold impeachment inquiry vote

The White House will send House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter on Friday "daring" her to hold a vote on Democrats' impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Fox News has confirmed. The letter will say the White House won't comply with the Democrats' investigation because Pelosi hasn't codified the probe with a formal vote on the House floor. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sent a similar letter to Pelosi on Thursday, taking issue with reports that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was limiting Republicans' ability to ask questions during Thursday’s testimony by former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who resigned last week. Pelosi shot back at McCarthy, saying that "existing rules of the House provide House committees with full authority to conduct investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction." Speaking to ABC's “Good Morning America” Thursday, Pelosi defended Schiff, who was criticized for reading a "parody" of President Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Congress, stating “He did not make it up." Click here for more on our top story.

Adam Schiff-Ukraine connection comes under scrutiny

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who has played a leading role in investigating the Trump-Ukraine scandal, is facing questions about his own connection to a Soviet-born businessman who has raised money for his campaign and whose company has received lucrative defense contracts from Ukraine's government. That man is Igor Pasternak, founder and CEO of Worldwide Aeros Corp., which makes blimps for military and commercial customers, including the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. In 2013, Pasternak hosted a fundraiser in Washington for Schiff, who later came to embrace a strong stance in support of the U.S. sending military aid to Ukraine during its conflict with Russia. Click here for more on this story.

Documents heighten scrutiny on Biden-Ukraine dealings, indicate Hunter Biden may have made ‘millions’

A batch of newly released documents, including court filings as well as notes from interviews conducted by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, raised more questions about how much money former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter made while serving on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm at the center of the controversy, with one estimate putting the figure in the "millions." Among the documents, as Fox News reported Wednesday, are notes from an interview Trump attorney Giuliani conducted with fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin earlier this year, in which he claimed he was told by former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt to back off an investigation involving that firm, Burisma Holdings, and its founder. According to interview notes, Shokin claimed Pyatt -- currently the ambassador to Greece -- told him to handle that investigation “with white gloves.” Shokin said his “investigations stopped out of fear of the United States.” Click here for more on this story.

In other developments in the formal Trump impeachment inquiry: Republican lawmakers who were present at ex-Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker’s closed-door marathon interview before three House committees on Thursday seemed confident it disproved any allegations of a "quid pro quo" in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, as sources told Fox News that Volker was worried about the reliability of the Ukrainian prosecutor informing Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Volker did not think Victor Shokin, the prosecutor investigating Ukrainian firm Burisma -- on which Hunter Biden held a board seat -- was reliable when he told Giuliani that he was told to back off of the investigation at then-Vice President Joe Biden's behest, which is why he worried what Giuliani might try to do with Shokin's claims, according to sources familiar with the testimony. Text messages obtained by Fox News showed Volker and other U.S. officials battling internally over whether Trump was engaged in a quid pro quo with Ukraine as he pressed the country to look into the Biden family, reportedly using $400 million in military aid as leverage during a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to induce him to have officials investigate the Bidens.

Chinese woman caught at Mar-a-Lago with malware was apparently asked to target Clintons: docs

A Chinese businesswoman who was convicted of trespassing at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this year had been urged by her handler to target other famous figures including the Clintons and billionaire businessman Warren Buffett, court documents say. Yujing Zhang, 33, who is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 22, was caught by Secret Service agents with troves of technology embedded with malware and thousands of dollars in cash after she claimed that she was at Trump's prestigious club to attend a “United Nations friendship event” that had apparently been canceled. Her bizarre behavior and backstory led to suspicions that she was a Chinese government spy, but she was not charged with espionage or related crimes.

Zhang apparently purchased a $20,000 travel package from Li Weitian, also known as Charles Lee, who advertised tickets on the Chinese social media site WeChat promising access to events across the U.S. to meet prominent political and business figures. Upon learning that the event at Mar-a-Lago had been canceled, Lee tried to convince Zhang to attend another event on Wall Street in New York City, text messages between the pair released by the South Florida court Thursday revealed. Bill and Hillary Clinton were scheduled to be there. Click here for more on this story.

Environmental protesters spray UK's Treasury building with fake blood, four arrested

British police arrested four members of the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion on Thursday after they used a fire hose to spray the U.K.’s Treasury building with hundreds of gallons of fake blood. The group said it carried out the protest because it wanted to raise awareness of the "inconsistency between the U.K. government's insistence that the U.K. is a world leader in tackling climate breakdown while pouring vast sums of money into fossil exploration and carbon-intensive projects,” according to Sky News. Organizers said they sprayed 1,800 liters of red liquid colored with food dye at the Treasury building, yet most of it appeared to have ended up on the street and sidewalk, Sky News reports. At another point, the protesters lost control of the decommissioned fire engine’s hose, it added. Click here for more on this story.

De Niro drops more F-bombs, this time in audio linked to harassment lawsuit

A former employee at Robert De Niro’s production company slammed "The Irishman" actor with a federal lawsuit Thursday, claiming he harassed her and discriminated against her for being a woman – then retaliated against her when she told him of her plans to take legal action, according to bombshell court papers. In one example, De Niro allegedly went ballistic on the woman, calling her a “spoiled brat” in an explicit voicemail when she did not answer his phone call, according to the suit. “How dare you f------ disrespect me?,” he said in the voicemail, in which he also told her: “You’re f------ history.” Last Sunday, De Niro startled CNN and its viewers when he used profanity during a live on-air interview.

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SOME PARTING WORDS

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., asserted on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Thursday that the Trump impeachment inquiry heralded by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is a "partisan adventure" rather than a legitimate congressional process.

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Fox News First is compiled by Fox News' Bryan Robinson. Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this edition. Thank you for joining us! Enjoy your Friday and weekend! We'll see you in your inbox first thing on Monday morning.