A Minnesota state Senate candidate revealed she found several vulnerabilities in a fraud prevention law signed by Gov. Tim Walz after testing it against the state’s previous fraud scandals to see whether it could have caught them sooner.

The measure in question, the Office of the Inspector General law, creates an independent statewide watchdog that oversees inspectors general, investigates alleged fraud across state programs, establishes fraud prevention standards, and improves coordination and data sharing.

However, Heidi Heino, the Republican candidate for Minnesota’s 36th Senate District, told Fox News Digital her test against the Feeding Our Future scheme and other past fraud cases found the law lacks extra safeguards when potential risks emerge.

"When I stress tested against Feeding Our Future and some of the other fraud schemes that we had in Minnesota, it would have found the fraud eventually, but it's way after the money was already gone and we would still be stuck trying to claw it back," Heino said.

MINNESOTA MAN CAPTURED IN SOMALIA AFTER ALLEGEDLY HELPING ORCHESTRATE $250M CHILD NUTRITION FRAUD SCHEME

The law was passed as Minnesota faces the fallout from massive fraud schemes involving childcare, autism, housing and disability services. Republicans have blamed leadership and oversight failures, while the Trump administration launched a federal anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance.

Working as a corporate leader whose day job involves underwriting, Heino said she used similar review and auditing practices to test where Minnesota’s fraud safeguards fell short.

"Business does a lot with a little," she said. "Government does the opposite. They do a little with a lot of resources."

Heino said she used a 2,800% increase in payments to Feeding Our Future from 2020 to 2021 in her test, a jump that should have automatically raised alarm bells and led to further review. The scheme alone allegedly stole $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

FRAUD EXPERT EXPOSES HOW HIDDEN NETWORKS DROVE MINNESOTA FRAUD, OTHER MAJOR SCAMS: 'CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE'

"You don't have to be a detective to see that there's some issue there and so to investigate that and check and see if those claims are legitimate, and if they were legitimate, have someone actually sign off on it," she said, adding that filling out extra paperwork may be frustrating but can help prevent fraud in the long run.

Heino also argued Feeding Our Future should not have been allowed to address complaints against itself.

"We had 30 complaints to the Minnesota Department of Education regarding the fraud and they are mostly overlooked or Feeding Our Future had to go correct itself and that was a huge gap there," she said.

She proposed immediately freezing payments, conducting a full review, and triggering an outside audit.

"The OIG has good bones, but it needs teeth," she said.

Without independent audits, Heino said Minnesota will not be able to uncover fraud-related gaps, saying the additional oversight would save more money than it costs.

GOP ACCUSES WALZ ALLIES OF BURYING $52M MEDICAID FRAUD REPORT BEFORE ELECTION

"We get a lot of pushback saying this is going to be expensive, but is it?" she said. "It will be less expensive to have an independent audit than it is going to be to have all the fraud and lose taxpayer dollars to fraudulent activities."

Those same issues apply to current state programs like Minnesota’s Paid Leave program, according to Heino.

"However, we need to rein it in and have more investigation before we start sending out the checks, especially with paid family leave," she said. "They pay out before they have the doctor's note certifying that this is actually true and they have verified it."

She acknowledged that the law is a "great first step" toward addressing the problem but said it does not go far enough to protect taxpayers and prevent future fraud.

As a mother, grandmother and taxpayer, Heino said she is fed up with how leaders in her home state have handled fraud, adding the problem has gotten so bad that Minnesota has become the "laughing stock of the nation" and people no longer want to say they are from the state anymore.

"We need to funnel those resources to the people that actually need them and keep people committing fraud from taking our money and running away with it, buying luxury condos or homes, and then funneling it out of the country," she said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz's office and the Minnesota Department of Education for comment.

"We have not slowed down, there is no sense in which the fraud has been stopped in Minnesota," Bill Glahn, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, told Fox News Digital in August, making the case that the fraud situation in the state has not been properly addressed.

Lies, particularly spectacular ones, inevitably crumble over time when subject to scrutiny.

A case in point is Rep. Ilhan Omar. She is suspected of hatching a series of epic deceptions about her identity, lineage, birthdate, marriage, and citizenship status. An investigation by federal authorities culminated in a recent search of her home that was authorized by a judicial warrant.

On the same day, multiple other search warrants were executed in different locations, according to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen. DNA evidence was reportedly obtained. Her computer devices, document files, cell phones, and notebooks were seized. More than a dozen grand jury subpoenas were allegedly served on Omar’s family, including her sister.

ILHAN OMAR IS NOT THE MINNESOTA CONGRESSWOMAN’S 'REAL NAME': SOURCES

Omar has not been indicted. Yet. She denies all wrongdoing, asserting that she is a victim of a politically driven vendetta by the Trump administration. Let’s examine that.

The warrant on Omar’s home was approved by a Democratic judge in the District of Columbia, a venue with a long and conspicuous hostility toward Trump and anyone in his orbit.

It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the feds must have presented substantial incriminating evidence to justify the signed order, especially against a sitting member of Congress from the judge’s own party and just weeks before an important election.

Yes, the threshold of probable cause for a warrant is lower than the trial standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." But the judge’s decision was not nothing. He was persuaded by compelling evidence of criminality. Apparently, he spent hours examining the merits of the warrant application. Action was taken lest evidence be destroyed.

ILHAN OMAR'S TURBULENT WEEK EXPLAINED: THE DUELING PROBES THAT THREW THE SOMALI-BORN PROGRESSIVE INTO CHAOS

While the specifics of the investigation remain unclear, we are acquainted with the general parameters. They pose troubling questions.

Is Ilhan Omar the person she purports to be? Was her immigration to the U.S. secured through falsehoods? Was her citizenship obtained validly or through lies? Are the rumors true that Omar engaged in a sham marriage to her brother in a scheme to obtain immigration benefits for him?

FEDERAL AGENTS SEIZE PHONE OF REP ILHAN OMAR IN RAID TIED TO IMMIGRATION FRAUD PROBE

As always, the answers depend on the reliability of the evidence collected and the credibility of witnesses. With that caveat, here are the various criminal and civil charges that might ensue.

—If Omar lied about her birthdate on immigration or citizenship forms, that constitutes false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001) and criminal fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1425). The latter carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.

—If she willfully repeated the inaccurate birthdate on other official forms, that’s more false statements and criminal fraud.

—If she enlisted others to help her enter a false birthdate, that’s a conspiracy to commit fraud.

REP ILHAN OMAR'S IMMIGRATION HISTORY FACES NEW SCRUTINY AS FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS SUBPOENA RELATIVES

—If she worked with others to cover up the fraud, that’s an additional criminal conspiracy (18 U.S.C. §§ 371 or 1349), aiding and abetting (18 U.S.C. § 2), and obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. §§ 1505 and 1519).

—If Omar misrepresented that she was a minor when she obtained derivative citizenship from her father, the fraud nullifies her citizenship.

—If her father lied to obtain citizenship, the original fraud could invalidate her derivative citizenship.

—If her father never actually obtained citizenship, then Omar’s citizenship is likely invalid.

ILHAN OMAR DOUBLES DOWN ON ‘REAL NAME’ WHEN CONFRONTED AT MALL OF SOMALIA

—If Omar used a false identity on immigration forms and any other government forms such as passport applications, that is criminal identity fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1028) and false statements.

—If she knowingly married her sibling, it is illegal and considered a crime in all 50 states.

If any of the above scenarios can be proven by the government, Omar would not only be susceptible to criminal charges and other civil actions, but she could face denaturalization, removal proceedings, and eventual deportation.

Omar’s troubles are compounded by a separate criminal investigation into the sharp fluctuations in her finances. It was launched by the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. How exactly did the congresswoman and her current husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, go from almost no assets to as much as $30 million in a single year?

When the information on her congressional disclosure became public and alarming questions arose, Omar revised the figures to reflect what could be a negative net worth. That’s quite the financial whiplash. She blamed it on an accounting mistake. Just a goof. But tens of millions of dollars is hardly a simple rounding error. In the annals of financial slip-ups, it’s a whopper. If you or I did that, government auditors would be knocking at the door.

COULD TRUMP REVOKE ILHAN OMAR'S CITIZENSHIP FOR ALLEGED BROTHER MARRIAGE? EX FEDERAL PROSECUTOR BREAKS IT DOWN

Omar continually dismisses the controversy as nothing more than politically motivated attacks. But that dubious deflection conveniently ignores that it was the Biden administration that initiated the investigation.

Of course, Omar enjoys the presumption of innocence should any charges arise. But there are unsettling aspects to the story she tells.

In a recent television interview on MS NOW, she was asked if she married her brother. Her reply was jaw-dropping, albeit revealing. "Not to my knowledge," she said.

Wait…she didn’t say "no"? Or "absolutely not?"

Think for a moment about her response. It is not an unqualified denial, but a bewildering equivocation that could mean, "If he is my brother, I don’t really know it." It’s called the ignorance defense. It creates the prospect that she may, indeed, have unknowingly married her brother.

HOMAN SAYS ILHAN OMAR COULD BE STRIPPED OF NATURALIZATION, DEPORTED IF IMMIGRATION FRAUD IS PROVEN

It appears that Omar was coached by a lawyer to avoid a direct false statement by waffling instead. But that will not protect her if it can be shown that she did have knowledge. It places her in legal jeopardy, as noted above.

Persistent rumors about a sham marriage for immigration benefits also connect to questions about the congresswoman’s identity. Fox News reported that Ilhan Omar is not her real name, according to two people familiar with the ongoing investigation, including a law enforcement source.

MIKE DAVIS: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MUST BE WRAPPING UP REP. ILHAN OMAR'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Her real name is identified in a new court filing by the U.S. attorney in D.C. It refers to her as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar." This indicates that the government believes that "Omar" has been living her life under an alias and that her real birth name has the same surname as her alleged brother-husband.

Perhaps there’s an explanation. Maybe Omar adopted the surname of her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, when she married him in 2009. That seems reasonable except that Omar’s late father also went by the name Nur Said Elmi, according to an examination of documents by the New York Post.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Establishing Omar’s true identity and whether she might have once married her brother probably explains why investigators were so interested in obtaining DNA. Genetic science is the closest thing we have to absolute certainty. It’s the ultimate eyewitness. It doesn’t lie.

There is a popular biological proverb that seems felicitous in the Ilhan Omar case: "You can hide your past, you can alter your name, but your DNA will always whisper the truth of who you are."

Who is Ilhan Omar? We may soon find out.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM GREGG JARRETT

A federal appeals court ordered California to respond by noon Saturday to the Trump administration's emergency request involving roughly 20,000 mail-in ballots sent to people the Justice Department suspects are noncitizens ahead of the midterm elections.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued the order late Friday after the DOJ filed an emergency request earlier in the day seeking a ruling by Saturday.

The Justice Department sought emergency relief from the appeals court after U.S. District Judge David Carter did not rule by a deadline previously requested by the department.

The DOJ is asking California election officials to set aside ballots associated with individuals on its list while their eligibility is reviewed, rather than allowing the ballots to be processed alongside other votes.

DOJ GIVES CALIFORNIA 48 HOURS TO REVIEW LIST OF POSSIBLE NONCITIZENS ON VOTER ROLLS

In its emergency filing, the DOJ emphasized the urgency of its request.

"This is an emergency," the filing, submitted by Attorney General Todd Blanche and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, stated.

"Every minute of processing that occurs without segregating the ballots of suspected non-eligible voters causes untraceable disenfranchisement and dilution of the votes of United States citizens," the filing continued.

Despite the Ninth Circuit's order, a hearing before Judge Carter remains scheduled for Tuesday, according to Fox News' Matt Finn. It remains unclear whether the appeals court will rule before that hearing.

BLANCHE WON'T RULE OUT DOJ BLOCKING ELECTION CERTIFICATION IN 'DOOMSDAY' SCENARIO

Essayli previously told Fox News Digital that federal investigators have evidence showing the 20,000 individuals received mail-in ballots in October.

His office sued California last week seeking a court order to prevent ballots returned by those individuals from being counted.

"We're not asking California to take any drastic steps other than to sequester the ballots from the suspected noncitizens," Essayli said in an interview Wednesday. "We believe it's at a minimum of 20,000. That's the floor."

Essayli also clashed with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on social media this week over the state's safeguards against noncitizen voting.

Essayli accused California of allowing noncitizens onto its voter rolls because of what he described as inadequate citizenship verification procedures, while Newsom defended the integrity of the state's elections and maintained that California was following the law.

‘RAW MATERIAL FOR ELECTION FRAUD’: EXPERT FLAGS VOTER-ROLL PROBLEMS FAR BEYOND ONE STATE

California election officials have rejected the Justice Department's demands.

In court filings, they argued that county election offices lack both the authority and access to federal records needed to verify voters' citizenship status.

They also said separating ballots associated with people on the DOJ's list would be impossible in cases where the ballots have already been processed.

California officials say that once a mail-in ballot's signature has been verified, the ballot is separated from its identifying envelope and processed with other ballots.

According to court records, officials have already processed 331,000 ballots in Los Angeles County alone.

Friday's escalation comes after Essayli's office initially filed the suit Oct. 15, roughly two weeks after California began mailing ballots.

Fox News Digital's James Cirrone contributed to this report.

Virginia Democrats who previously defended investigations and allegations against Donald Trump are urging restraint now that federal prosecutors have charged one of their own.

The shift is evident across the party's top ranks following the indictment of Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas. Lieutenant Gov. Ghazala Hashmi, who rejected Republican claims that Trump was being selectively prosecuted after his 2023 classified-documents indictment, is now stressing Lucas' "constitutional presumption of innocence" and arguing Lucas "is fully entitled to legal due process." Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who said last year that Trump tried to "incite a riot" and "overturn an election," says the allegations against Lucas must be tested through a legal process "free from political interference or bias."

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., likewise joined Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine in declaring that "those charged with crime are innocent until proven guilty" and questioning the Justice Department's motivations — years after Scott said during Trump's first impeachment that "the facts are uncontested," called his conduct a "gross abuse of presidential power" and declared that "no one is above the law." Trump was later acquitted by the Senate.

POWERFUL DEM’S JABS AT TRUMP COME BACK TO HAUNT HER AFTER OFFICE RAIDED BY FBI: ‘AGED WELL’

Gov. Abigail Spanberger, meanwhile, is stressing Lucas' presumption of innocence after calling congressional defenses of Trump's handling of classified documents "deeply detrimental to our national security" days after his 2023 indictment in a case that was ultimately dismissed without a trial.

Lucas, who also chairs the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, was indicted alongside six others in what federal prosecutors allege was a years-long criminal enterprise involving marijuana distribution, money laundering, bribery and fraud. She has denied wrongdoing, and an indictment does not establish guilt. The investigation that ultimately produced the charges began during the Biden administration, according to multiple reports.

The contrasting rhetoric extends beyond individual officeholders. The Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) declared Trump had been "rightfully indicted" and that "no one is above the law" immediately after a Manhattan grand jury indicted him in March 2023 — more than a year before a jury heard the case. The party had also criticized Republican claims that federal law enforcement was being politically "weaponized" against Trump during the classified-documents investigation. Lucas currently serves as a DPVA vice chair.

TOP SPANBERGER ALLY TARGETED IN FBI CORRUPTION PROBE HAS LONG HISTORY OF CONTROVERSY

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., was the only Democrat contacted by Fox News Digital who responded to questions about the contrast between his past rhetoric about Trump and his current rhetoric about Lucas, rejecting the suggestion that his positions were inconsistent while accusing federal law enforcement of politically timing Lucas' arrest.

"It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, the American people deserve answers and accountability from everyone," Subramanyam told Fox News Digital.

Subramanyam called the charges against Lucas "serious," adding that "she should face justice if they are true," while alleging that "the DOJ and FBI timed this arrest for two weeks before the election for political reasons."

"Trump has a pattern of targeting political opponents and weaponizing the DOJ, and he has spent his second presidency covering up the Epstein files," Subramanyam said. "It took Congress forcing the administration's hand to even get a fraction of the full files released."

VIRGINIA DEMS SPLIT ON DOJ PROBE OF SOROS-BACKED DA ACCUSED OF GIVING 'SWEETHEART DEALS' TO ILLEGAL ALIENS

The federal investigation that produced Lucas' indictment, however, predates Trump's second administration. The Washington Post, CBS News and The Associated Press reported after federal searches in May, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation, that the probe began during the Biden administration.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche reiterated that the investigation began years ago and rejected allegations of political retaliation.

"We don't do political paybacks," Blanche said.

Federal prosecutors allege Lucas led a criminal enterprise involving relatives and associates that distributed marijuana and laundered proceeds while she used her political position to protect the operation and influence legislation that could financially benefit it. The indictment alleges Lucas and her co-defendants were involved in distributing at least 100 kilograms of marijuana, while FBI Director Kash Patel said the alleged scheme generated roughly $4.5 million.

Lucas has denied wrongdoing and accused the federal government of trying to silence her.

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

"Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the full weight of the federal government have been wielded against an 82-year-old great-grandmother," Lucas said after surrendering to authorities. "I grew up under Jim Crow. I've seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them."

"I will not be bullied," she added. "And I will not back down."

PROVO, Utah — A Utah Supreme Court battle stemming from Gabby Petito's 2021 murder could "pave the way" for Charlie Kirk's family to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit over alleged security failures surrounding his assassination at a Turning Point USA event last year, according to an attorney involved in the appeal.

"Right now, Kirk's claims, if filed, would likely be dismissed, like Gabby Petito's claims were dismissed on that basis," said Brian Stewart, an attorney for the family of Gabby Petito who is working on the appeal involving their own wrongful death claim in the Beehive State. "We would need the Utah Supreme Court to overturn Tiede to pave the way for Charlie Kirk's family to proceed."

Tiede refers to a 1996 Utah Supreme Court decision upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit over the 1990 murders of Kay Tiede and her mother Beth Potts, two Texas women killed by a pair of men on parole who attacked their family after walking away from a halfway house, Deseret News reported at the time.

KIRK FAMILY MAY HAVE PATH AROUND ARCHAIC LAW SHIELDING GOV'T IN POLICE CHIEF’S ALLEGED ‘GOT YOU COVERED’ TEXT

The decision upheld the constitutionality of the state's governmental immunity law as applied to wrongful death claims, which Stewart said are barred against governmental entities when the injury arises from a third-party assault or battery.

Central to the Petito appeal is the argument that Utah's Constitution prohibits lawmakers from limiting or eliminating the right to recover for wrongful death.

KIRK FAMILY HAS POWERFUL EVIDENCE — BUT UTAH LAW COULD DERAIL WRONGFUL DEATH CASE: EXPERTS

Her family's lawsuit against the Moab Police Department alleged that officers were negligent in their response to a traffic stop involving Brian Laundrie two weeks before he killed her. A judge dismissed the case on governmental immunity grounds.

In September, Kirk's family filed a notice of claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit. Their attorneys alleged that Utah Valley University, the state of Utah and key officials failed to properly secure the event even after acknowledging responsibility for rooftop security, leading to his wrongful death on Sept. 10, 2025.

CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION: TIMELINE OF UTAH CAMPUS SHOOTING, TYLER ROBINSON CHARGED

Among the claims in the filing, UVU Police Chief Jeffrey Long allegedly told Turning Point USA organizers "I got you covered" when they raised concerns about rooftop access around the campus courtyard.

FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X

GABBY PETITO'S MOTHER URGES PUBLIC 'RIPPLE EFFECT' TO HELP FIND THE MISSING 5 YEARS AFTER DAUGHTER'S MURDER

Prosecutors say a sniper perched on a rooftop on the other side of the courtyard shot and killed Kirk.

SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS

But that text message may not be enough to overcome Utah's expansive governmental immunity protections, Stewart said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE FOX TRUE CRIME HUB

"It's another act of negligence that contributed to Charlie's vulnerability and ultimate death, but it really wouldn't change the applicability of the statute," he said. "It's similar in the Petito case. The parents of Gabby might have brought her home, might have intervened, but they relied on the analysis of the police on the scene, who said, 'It's no big deal, we're not even gonna arrest anybody.'"

CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION: NEW UVU PRESIDENT SAYS IT WILL CONTINUE TO 'HOST THE FRAYS,' EMBRACE FREE SPEECH

That created the impression that things were taken care of, he said, likening it to Long's alleged assurance.

GOT A TIP?

The Petito family argues Tiede does not apply to its case and, if it does, should be overturned because the Utah Constitution says: "The right of action to recover damages for injuries resulting in death, shall never be abrogated."

LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST

Lawyers for Kirk's family have also laid the groundwork for a potential federal claim, Stewart said.

GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL

Kirk's accused assassin, 23-year-old Tyler Robinson, pleaded not guilty through his own attorneys at his arraignment on Sept. 1. He could face the death penalty if convicted of the top charge of aggravated murder.

He's due in court Friday afternoon for a scheduling hearing.

EXCLUSIVE: Twenty-three years after Duane "Dog" Chapman chased fugitive Max Factor heir Andrew Luster to Mexico and tackled him on a Puerto Vallarta street, the convicted serial rapist is a free man — despite an initial sentence of 124 years.

"I hope he's smart enough — and he's smart — to never do anything like that again," Chapman told Fox News Digital Wednesday, more than two decades after the capture that helped make him a household name.

MAX FACTOR HEIR'S FORMER LAWYER DETAILS JUDGE'S ERROR THAT WIPED OUT 124-YEAR RAPE SENTENCE

Chapman, his son Leland and several others went to Mexico after receiving a tip about Luster's whereabouts — months after he fled the U.S. in the middle of a California rape trial. They first identified him from the tipsters' photo, which showed a knee and a watch.

'AMERICA'S MOST WANTED' EX-COP FUGITIVE RETURNED AFTER 20 YEARS ON THE RUN TO FACE MURDER, CHILD SEX CHARGES

Chapman had been studying his face closely for weeks, but he also recognized the watch from a televised interview, he said. And he credits his son with first spotting Luster, who was speaking with a young woman in a bar on June 18, 2003.

PARENTS OF SLAIN PREGNANT MOM CHRISTA GILLEY DEMAND LEE GILLEY'S RETURN FROM ITALY FOR MURDER CASE

"When I saw him, you talk about an adrenaline rush went through my body," Chapman told Fox News Digital Wednesday. "Tim got down...he snuck up behind him, and then I pushed him. He fell over. We all jumped on him, and I screamed, 'You're under arrest by the United States of America.'"

EXCLUSIVE: FBI EXTRADITIONS SOAR AS PATEL RAMPS UP FOREIGN OUTREACH, VOWS 'NO SANCTUARY'

They pulled him into an SUV and drove off — only to be intercepted on the road outside town by Mexican authorities who arrested everyone amid the chaos.

Luster claimed he'd been kidnapped, Chapman said, so he handed the lead investigator what Chapman called a "bible" of information on the case.

NEWSOM-BACKED LAW LETS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILD RAPIST SEEK EARLY RELEASE AGAIN AS DA URGES 'STOP THE MADNESS'

Luster, the great-grandson of makeup mogul Max Factor, vanished during a recess in his trial and was convicted in absentia on 86 counts involving the drugging and raping of three women between 1996 and 2000 at his home in Mussel Shoals, California.

One of the victims, who asked not to be named out of concerns for her safety, said she's still struggling to comprehend Luster's release even though she knew it was coming.

SENATOR TIM SHEEHY: SOFT-ON-CRIME JUDGES NEED CONSEQUENCES. THE JAIL ACT DELIVERS

"It’s very unsettling knowing that he is not behind bars, not in a closed facility," she told Fox News Digital Wednesday. "He is out in the public, in a community that just — it just doesn’t feel very good at all."

She said she has concerns for her own safety, her family, Luster's other victims and even investigators after a notebook containing a "payback list" was recovered from his Mexican hotel room — with their names on it.

CAPTURED 'AMERICA'S MOST WANTED' FUGITIVE RONALD FISCHER ABANDONS ALIAS AFTER 20 YEARS ON THE RUN

She said she dated Luster for five or six months without knowing she'd been drugged and raped the night they met — something detectives discovered years later, after they recovered video tapes from the home.

"It was me, comatose on his bed, wearing the clothes that I was wearing the first night I met him," she said. "That’s how I knew when it happened, because I had just bought that outfit, and I was wearing it the night that I met him. So that’s how I figured out when it happened to me, which was absolutely horrifying."

AMERICAN WHO FLED US AFTER ALLEGEDLY KILLING PREGNANT WIFE COULD RETURN WITHIN DAYS WITH MURDER CHARGE DROPPED

Police found more than 100 videos, she said. Not all of them involved criminal activity, but those that did were "mortifying," she said, as Luster spoke to the camera like he were playing with "a toy."

"They’re pretty brutal," she added, "The things that he did to us while we were completely unconscious were things that, I mean had we been able to feel anything, it would have been awful. He narrated the video and talked to the camera throughout and thoroughly enjoyed the whole entire thing."

He initially received consecutive sentences totaling 124 years — later reduced to 50, and he was released earlier this month after over two decades behind bars.

Prosecutors had opposed early release in 2024 and again in 2025. However, he was able to earn substantial early release credits under California's controversial Proposition 57 criminal justice reforms, and his prison term came to an end on Oct. 11.

"I did not know that [Prop 57] meant that it was gonna make Andrew Luster’s crimes be deemed nonviolent," Doe No. 3 told Fox News Digital. "That’s just so baffling. I just feel like if anybody could watch these tapes of what he did to me and all of these other women, just to look at that and try to put the word nonviolent on it, that word could not come out of your mouth. It just would be impossible."

FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X

Chapman said he never received the bounty for Luster and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money for the operation and ensuing legal fallout.

Mexican law did not allow bounty hunters to apprehend fugitives. Chapman said he was arrested alongside his son Leland, longtime friend and associate Tim Chapman, who is not a blood relative, and members of a camera crew.

"He told me, 'I’m going to get him for you,' and he did," Doe said of Chapman. So to help him get out after he put Luster back behind bars, she kicked off a legal fundraiser that she said attracted donations from around the country.

SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS

A judge in Mexico later dismissed the case.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE FOX TRUE CRIME HUB

The incident happened shortly before Chapman rose to fame with A&E's reality series, "Dog the Bounty Hunter."

Chapman is returning to the screen with a new YouTube series launching Saturday — "Dog the Bounty Hunter...Everyone Deserves a Second Chance."

GOT A TIP?

As part of the series, he plans to help bail out certain inmates with a history of good behavior and positive reports — but not for people facing serious felonies or sex abuse charges, he said.

LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST

"We'll call out the ones that deserve a second chance, right, and you can't be perfect OK, so if they run, yeehaw," he said. "I don't wish they would, but if they do, then I'm going to catch them."

GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL

He said he's got at least another five to seven years of bounty hunting left in him.

Fox News' Greg Wehner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Take President Donald Trump’s threat on the MOAB seriously. The U.S. Air Force’s GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," could figure prominently in any new airstrike plans targeting Iran.

"The mother of all bombs is not nuclear," Trump said. "This is just an extremely large bomb. It’s like a tiny nuclear bomb, but the mother of all bombs is one big bomb, but it’s not nuclear."

"I wouldn’t use nuclear. We don’t have to," Trump said.

FRESH ACTIVITY EMERGES AT IRAN’S DEEPLY BURIED NUCLEAR SITE AS TRUMP WARNS IRAN NOT TO ‘GET CUTE’

He’s right. The U.S. has a range of precision weapons that can knock out any suspicious target in Iran, including the construction activity at Pickaxe mountain. Admiral Bradley Cooper, Commander, United States Central Command, has detailed knowledge of high-value Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps sites that could be MOAB targets.

President Trump has said he won’t strike Iran prior to the mid-terms, but clearly he is looking at Central Command’s strike briefing charts in great detail. And he wants Iran to know it.

Here are four reasons the MOAB is a formidable threat.

Trump ordered the first use of a MOAB in Afghanistan in April 2017

The MOAB was dropped on April 13, 2017, on a cave complex in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. "There was no surprise," then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis said of the MOAB. "The battle was going on, and we were going to use what was necessary to break ISIS," he added. Mattis said he wasn’t going to waste time "digging into tunnels to count bodies"; CNN reported 94 ISIS fighters killed.

Too big for U.S. bombers

While America’s B-2, B-52 and B-1 bombers can easily carry the weight of the 21,000-lb. MOAB, the problem is the shape. The MOAB used in 2017 was too big to fit on the standard racks and rotary launchers in the bomber weapons bays. For the Afghanistan mission, the MOAB was loaded on a special cradle and slid out of the back ramp of an MC-130 while in flight. Don’t worry about the MC-130s. Yes, the basic C-130 is a cargo plane, but the Special Operations versions like the MC-130 are adapted for clandestine missions. This is also where air dominance over Iran comes in handy. The initial weeks of Operation Epic Fury knocked out Iran’s Russian-built integrated air defenses. Subsequent strikes by CENTCOM have prevented Iran from reconstituting their air defenses. MC-130s on a MOAB mission might also get help with electronic warfare and other attack suppression from the Space Force, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy carrier-based aircraft like the EA-18G, F-35C and E-2D.

MOAB is a precision weapon

The clue is the official designation of GBU-43 which stands for Guided Bomb Unit. Small drogue parachutes stabilize the MOAB upon release and then the satellite-guidance kit guides the bomb to the designated point of impact. MOAB is actually an air burst; earlier, smaller heavy air blast weapons were used in World War II and in Vietnam under the name "daisy-cutter." The theory behind an air burst is to maximize blast effect without muffling by the ground.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Built for the Iraq war

The MOAB was built in great haste by the Air Force Research Lab just prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. At the time, reports suggested Iraq might have built large underground bunkers for dictator Saddam Hussein’s loyal troops. Saddam Hussein back in 1991 had famously taunted the U.S.-led Coalition about engaging in "the mother of all battles," which, of course, turned out to be the airpower-led victory of Operation Desert Storm.

Trump’s decision to bring up the MOAB is all about keeping military pressure on the IRGC as the U.S. naval blockade squeezes their oil revenue. The MOAB would be an intimidation weapon for knocking out military targets. IRGC commanders would face major losses. And it’s also a reminder that the U.S. can carry out any military strike deemed necessary, to prevent Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon and stop their terrorism.