Karine Jean-Pierre, more top Biden aides to appear in House cover-up probe

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is expected to sit down with House Oversight Committee investigators behind closed doors in September, Fox News Digital has learned.

A House Oversight Committee aide told Fox News Digital that she’s one of four high-profile former Biden officials who have scheduled interviews with the panel.

Also expected to appear in the coming weeks are Ian Sams, former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor in the White House Counsel’s Office; Andrew Bates, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Deputy Press Secretary; and Jeff Zients, former White House Chief of Staff, the aide said. 

Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is investigating allegations that Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back against those claims.

In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Biden affirmed he “made every decision” on his own.

Mamdani torched after video about where he gets his money surfaces

New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is facing heat online over a clip where he explains how he was able to take time off work because he knew his parents would financially support him. 

“I worked until January, and then I took time away from my job and one of the major reasons I could do that was because I knew that if I ran out of my savings my family would be able to support me,” Mamdani said in the clip of a Zoom call posted on X by a Washington Free Beacon reporter.

The clip received criticism on social media from those pointing to Mamdani’s socialist policies and suggesting the clip is evidence he is comfortable spending money that belongs to taxpayers due to a wealthy upbringing.

“The one thing my parents told me: if you aren’t working, and you don’t have money, we cannot and will not support you,” New York Post columnist Kirsten Fleming posted on X. “This guy is very comfortable with other people’s money.”

MAMDANI’S FAILURE TO WALK BACK THESE POSITIONS COULD CAUSE RECKONING IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY: ‘FIVE-ALARM WARNING’

“‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money,’ -Margaret Thatcher,” Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich posted on X. 

“Classic Socialism: Once I blow through my money, I’ll take yours,” former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright posted on X. 

“Him and every other American socialist in 2025,” digital strategist Greg Price posted on X. 

MAMDANI’S FATHER SITS ON COUNCIL OF ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP TIED TO TERROR, LEGITIMIZES ROLE OF SUICIDE BOMBERS

“He’s privileged,” Twitchy’s Amy Curtis posted on X. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign for comment. 

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Mamdani, who has faced criticism from his mayoral opponent, Mayor Eric Adams, for his “silver spoon” upbringing, rocketed onto the political scene last month when he was victorious in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.

Part of Mamdani’s success has been with working-class voters as he campaigns on various issues affecting working voters, including housing affordability and taxpayer-subsidized programs. 

Mamdani will square off against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Adams in the general election in November.

Former cop, ex-pro baseball player dies while saving swimmers caught in rip current

A decorated former police officer and ex-Baltimore Orioles minor league player tragically died while rescuing swimmers from a rip current off the coast of South Carolina.

Chase Childers, 38, is being called a hero after he drowned while trying to help several swimmers in distress near Pawleys Island in South Carolina on July 13. The former police officer was not the only one to go help the swimmers, but unlike the others, Childers did not return to shore. Emergency responders recovered Childers’ body approximately 90 minutes after the initial distress call was made.

NEW JERSEY COAST GUARD SWIMMER RESCUES NEARLY 200 PEOPLE IN DEADLY TEXAS FLASH FLOODS THAT KILLED 68

“We would like to provide additional information on Sunday’s incident. The victim, Chase Childers, and another person entered the water to help 4-5 individuals who were in distress. Sadly, Mr. Childers was caught in the rip current, as well. He died trying to save others,” Pawleys Island Police Department wrote in a statement on X.

The police department also noted that Midway Fire Rescue participated in the search, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, which was also on the scene.

BEACH ACCIDENT NEAR HILTON HEAD KILLS TWO, INJURES OTHERS

Pawleys Island Mayor Brian Henry posted about the incident on his Facebook page, saying that the town was “saddened” by the incident and offering prayers to the family. The mayor also thanked first responders “who worked tirelessly to recover the victim and bring comfort to the family.”

“We regret the recent drownings and town council will investigate all means available to mitigate the risk of future occurrences, including efforts to educate visitors on the dangers of rip currents,” Henry wrote. While he used the word “drownings,” there is no indication that anyone other than Childers died in the incident on July 13.

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A GoFundMe page set up in memory of Childers has surpassed its fundraising goal with more than $104,000 in donations. The page says the funds are meant to support Childers’ wife, Nataley, and their children as they “try to heal from the painful loss of Chase, who was tragically taken from this world far too soon and will always be remembered as a hero.”

During his time as an officer in Cobb County, Ga., Childers received a lifetime achievement award. The GoFundMe page notes that he earned the award for “saving several lives,” though it does not go into further detail.

Dems hit ‘flat out terrible’ historic low as base turns against party

Just 19% of voters questioned in a new national poll give Democrats in Congress a thumbs up on how they’re handling their duties, with 72% disapproving.

That’s an all-time low since Quinnipiac University first began asking congressional approval questions in their surveys 16 years ago.

The Democratic Party has been in the political wilderness since November’s elections, when Republicans won back control of the White House and the Senate and defended their fragile House majority. And Republicans made gains among Black, Hispanic and younger voters, all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base.

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Since President Donald Trump’s return to power earlier this year, an increasingly energized base of Democrats is urging party leaders to take a stronger stand in pushing back against the president’s sweeping and controversial second-term agenda. Their anger is directed not only at Republicans, but at Democrats they feel aren’t vocal enough in their opposition to Trump.

And that’s fueled a plunge in the Democratic Party’s favorable ratings, which have hit historic lows in several surveys this year.

FOUR MONTHS INTO TRUMP’S SECOND TERM, DEMOCRATS REMAIN DEEPLY PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THEIR PARTY

The trend is reflected in the new Quinnipiac poll, which was conducted July 10-14.

Just 39% of Democrats approve of the way Democrats in Congress are handling their jobs, with 52% disapproving and 9% not offering an opinion.

“The approval numbers for Democrats can be characterized as flat out terrible,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said.

While the approval ratings for Republicans in Congress aren’t as “terrible” as the Democrats, they’re nothing to brag about.

Only a third of voters questioned in the poll said they approved of the way congressional Republicans were handling their duties, with 62% giving them a thumbs down.

But just over three-quarters of Republicans (77%) said they approved of the way GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill were handling their jobs, with just one in five disapproving.

Forty percent of respondents approved of how Trump is handling his job as president, with 54% disapproving.

Trump’s approval ratings were in positive territory during the first weeks of his second tour of duty in the White House. But the president’s poll numbers have been underwater in most, but not all, of the latest national surveys.

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Presidential and congressional approval ratings have long been closely watched barometers ahead of a midterm election.

Republicans will be defending their slim House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterms, and will also be facing traditional headwinds that hamper the party in power.

Reporter says he got PTSD from Trump assassination attempt because of crowd’s response

CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent Scott MacFarlane told podcaster Chuck Todd on Wednesday about how traumatized he was by Trump rallygoers blaming the media for the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in 2024.

Americans reeled in shock from the attempt on Trump’s life during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but MacFarlane said he had personal trauma from the crowd’s immediate rage in response.

“For those of us there, it was such a horror because you saw an emerging America,” MacFarlane told Todd on his podcast. “And it wasn’t the shooting, Chuck. This was – I got diagnosed with PTSD within 48 hours. I got put on trauma leave, not because, I think, of the shooting, but because you saw it in the eyes, the reaction of the people.”

 “They were coming for us,” he said in the clip flagged by The Daily Caller. “If [Trump] didn’t jump up with his fist, they were going to come kill us!”

TRUMP STANDS ‘STRONGER THAN EVER’ ONE YEAR AFTER SURVIVING PENNSYLVANIA ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, STAFFERS SAY

“I know,” Todd agreed.

Later in the discussion, MacFarlane added that, “Many of us on press row, as we talked about this on our text chains for weeks after, were quite confident we’d be dead if he didn’t get back up.”

While it wasn’t everyone in the crowd, MacFarlane claimed that dozens of people turned on them and said, “’You did this. This is your fault. You caused this. You killed him,’ and they were going to beat us with their hands. I mean, they were going to kill us. And respectfully, the Secret Service had bigger issues [than] protecting us. When he jumped up triumphantly, it saved us.”

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Nonetheless, he said, “I can’t eliminate from my mind’s eye the look in their faces. That’s what America is right now. It’s not rational. It’s an irrational thought to think the media shot somebody from the top of a building, but the lack of rationality is what connects January 6 to this.”

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“How do we pull out of this as a country is the defining question of our time,” he said.

Federal agency claims senator falsified bank documents in years-long scheme

Longtime President Donald Trump political foe Democrat California Sen. Adam Schiff was referred to the Department of Justice to face criminal prosecution over alleged mortgage fraud that reportedly stretches back years. 

Schiff, who was elected to the Senate in the 2024 election cycle following decades as a House lawmaker, is under scrutiny after the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice in May sounding the alarm that in “multiple instances,” Schiff allegedly “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property.”

FHFA is an independent federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. 

This week, Trump publicly lambasted Schiff over the alleged mortgage fraud, while Fannie Mae’s financial crimes investigations concluded Monday in a letter to the FHFA that Schiff allegedly engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” on five Fannie Mae loans, Fox News Digital previously reported this week. 

WATCH: ADAM SCHIFF SILENT AFTER TRUMP ACCUSED HIM OF MORTGAGE FRAUD

“I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist,” Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday. “And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.” 

“Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA. I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020.”

Potomac, Maryland, is a suburb of Washington, D.C., located just more than 10 miles away from the nation’s capital across the Maryland border. 

FEDERAL HOUSING OFFICIAL SUBMITTED SCHIFF CRIMINAL REFERRAL TO DOJ OVER MORTGAGE DOCUMENTS

Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, which was underscored during Trump’s first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020 and when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia

Fox News Digital took a look back at the timeline of Schiff’s Maryland home, and when the public was first made aware in 2023 of allegations that Schiff claimed a more than 3,000-square-foot home in the suburbs of Washington as his primary residence, while taking a homeowner’s tax exemption on a small condo in his home state of California. 

TRUMP ACCUSES ‘SCAM ARTIST’ SCHIFF OF LYING ABOUT MARYLAND HOME TO COMMIT MORTGAGE FRAUD

Timeline:

• 2003: Then-Congressman Schiff and his wife purchase a home in Potomac, Maryland, for $870,000, and sign a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage agreement for $610,000 at a rate of 5.625% over a term of 30 years. The mortgage asserts the property was their primary and principal residence, according to the FHFA letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
• 2009: Schiff purchases Burbank, California, condominium, CNN later reported in 2023. Schiff was serving as a U.S. House lawmaker at the time, representing the state’s 29th District in Southern California outside of Los Angeles.
• 2009; 2011; 2012; 2013: Schiff reaffirms the Potomac, Maryland, home as their principal residence in mortgage refinancing those years, according to the FHFA letter to the DOJ.
• 2017: Schiff reportedly pays his California property taxes with a check showing his Maryland address, CNN reported in 2023.
• 2020: Schiff refinances his mortgage and lists his Maryland home as his secondary residence.
• June 2022: Schiff posts a photo of himself in front of his Maryland home wearing an “I voted” sticker on the day of Los Angeles’ Democratic primary for the mayoral race. He captioned the photo on X: “California! Los Angeles! Voters are voting!” Schiff’s spokesperson explained to CNN in 2023 that he voted by mail that year and was in Washington for votes.
• January 2023: Schiff announces Senate run after then-California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced she would not run for re-election.
• November 2023: CNN publishes first news article detailing that Schiff had claimed the Maryland home as a primary residence while also taking a homeowner’s tax exemption on the Burbank, California, condo. The outlet reported that real estate legal experts found Schiff was “likely not in any legal jeopardy” over the matter, but that the issue could hamper his election efforts with California voters.
• November 2023: Schiff’s Senate campaign responds to the mortgage claims, saying, “Adam’s primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat. As Adam has discussed openly many times over the years, including in his recent New York Times best-selling book, he and (his wife) made the difficult decision to move their family to the D.C. area to spend more time with his children while doing his job.” The campaign added that Schiff’s two properties were listed as primary residences “for loan purposes because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property.”
• 2024: Schiff wins Senate election and Trump wins presidential election.
• May 2025: FHFA Director William Pulte sends the criminal referral over Schiff’s mortgages and residence to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
• July 14, 2025: Pulte receives a memo from the Fannie Mae financial crimes investigations concluding that Schiff allegedly engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” on five Fannie Mae loans, Fox News Digital learned.
• July 15, 2025: Trump blasts Schiff on Truth Social over the mortgage claims, calling the senator a “scam artist.”
• July 15, 2025: Schiff responds to Trump’s message on X, saying, “This is just Donald Trump’s latest attempt at political retaliation against his perceived enemies. So it is not a surprise, only how weak this false allegation turns out to be. And much as Trump may hope, this smear will not distract from his Epstein files problem.”

LETITIA JAMES REAPS WHAT SHE SOWS AFTER LEVELING ‘LAUGHABLE’ CASE AT TRUMP: EXPERT

The investigation into Schiff’s mortgages and homes follows a similar mortgage investigation earlier in 2025 focused on New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is also a longtime political Trump foe. The FHFA sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice in April arguing the attorney general appeared to have falsified mortgage records to obtain more favorable loans.

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At the heart of that case is a Norfolk, Virginia, home James purchased in 2023, which she identified on mortgage documents and a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac form as a property that would serve as her primary residence, according to the FHFA letter from April. James is legally required to live in New York as a statewide elected official in the Empire State. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff’s office for additional comment on the matter, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Media figure fumes over comedian’s jokes aimed at female athletes during ESPYs

Sarah Spain, a sports media personality, took issue with Shane Gillis cracking jokes about female athletes during the ESPY Awards on Wednesday night.

Gillis’ jokes included a crack about Caitlin Clark working at a Waffle House when she retires from the WNBA to continue “fist-fighting Black women,” needling former U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe and tricking the crowd into believing his friend’s wife was a former WNBA player.

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“In a year of crazy growth for women’s sports choosing an ESPYs host who doesn’t even try to make clever jokes about women athletes (he at least *attempted* for the men) he goes with hacky ‘no one knows the WNBA’ bits, ‘Pinoe is a bad time’ & repeatedly insults Black women. COOL,” Spain wrote in a post on X.

For what it’s worth, the Clark joke didn’t appear to go over well with the crowd in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theatre.

COMEDIAN SHANE GILLIS CRACKS CAITLIN CLARK WAFFLE HOUSE JOKE AT ESPYS

Gillis had jokes about President Donald Trump, Aaron Rodgers, Jeffrey Epstein and O.J. Simpson as well throughout the night.

Even he couldn’t believe that Disney allowed him to say some of the things he was saying.

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“They let me do it, I don’t know,” Gillis said after tearing into Belichick and his relationship with Jordon Hudson. “This is Disney. They allowed that … Yeah, we should’ve taken that out. I had doubts going into that. That didn’t work all week.”

Former Epstein attorney reveals what he knows about sealed ‘client’ names

Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer says he believes the disgraced financier may have had help killing himself in prison, but he rejected claims that anyone other than Epstein was responsible.

“It is clear from the evidence that Epstein committed suicide,” attorney Alan Dershowitz wrote in a new Wall Street Journal op-ed. “What isn’t clear is whether he was assisted by jail personnel. That seems likely to me, based on the evidence of allegedly broken cameras, transfer of his cellmate and the absence of guards during relevant time periods.”

Epstein’s 2019 death in federal custody prompted a storm of conspiracy theories. Critics, including Epstein’s brother, have rejected the idea that he killed himself, citing an independent observation of his autopsy by Dr. Michael Baden and a range of other factors in the case, including a lack of security footage and a pending push for bail.

REPUBLICANS FIXATED ON EPSTEIN ARE GETTING ‘DUPED’ BY DEMOCRATS, TRUMP INSISTS

The FBI and Justice Department, in a joint memo released earlier this month, announced that a review of Epstein’s case files had been completed. Authorities said there was “no incriminating ‘client list,'” that no additional files connected to the investigation could be released and that his death was indeed a suicide, as previous federal investigations found.

In the op-ed, Dershowitz confirmed the government’s claim that Epstein didn’t create a “client list” but said accusers interviewed by the FBI named several alleged “clients” whose names have been redacted and sealed in court.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S BROTHER LAUGHS AT ‘STUPID’ FBI MEMO DEFENDING CONTROVERSIAL SUICIDE RULING: REPORT

“I know who they are,” Dershowitz wrote. “They don’t include any current officeholders. We don’t know whether the accusations are true. The courts have also sealed negative information about some of the accusers to protect them.”

While neither federal prosecutors nor private attorneys have the authority to release the names, he wrote that federal judges do have that power.

GHISLAINE MAXWELL’S FAMILY INSISTS SHE RECEIVED UNFAIR TRIAL IN JEFFREY EPSTEIN CASE

READ THE MEMO – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:

“The media can and should petition the courts for the release of all names and information, so the public can draw its own conclusions,” he added.

EPSTEIN VICTIMS NUMBERED OVER 1,000 – FAR MORE THAN PREVIOUSLY KNOWN, FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS SAY

The only confirmed conspirator is Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s 63-year-old former lover who is the lone person convicted in his sex trafficking. She is appealing while serving a 20-year federal prison sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee.

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City with most public corruption named in new report: ‘Many opportunities for graft’

A new think tank analysis finds that public corruption is a significant problem in the U.S., and is most prevalent in state and local governments that have larger bureaucracies and higher regulations.

The libertarian Cato Institute said it analyzed Department of Justice data on public corruption convictions in the nation’s 94 federal judicial districts and measured the annual average number of convictions per 100,000 population over the 2004–2023 period.

“The data show that some of the most corrupt places by this measure match their reputations,” the authors of the Cato analysis wrote.

Washington, D.C., topped the rankings with 469 total convictions during the nearly 20-year period and an annual conviction rate of 3.49, according to Cato’s report.

DEMOCRAT DA IN HOT SEAT AFTER RETAIL THEFT SURGES IN MAJOR AMERICAN CITIES

“It has a huge number of legislative and executive branch federal employees, and there are many opportunities for graft,” the report says.

Louisiana’s eastern district, which includes New Orleans, ranks at number four on Cato’s list with 430 total convictions during this period and an annual conviction rate of 1.29.

“New Orleans has long been infamous for state and local corruption,” the report says.

TARIFF CASE PITS CATO INSTITUTE AGAINST TRUMP OVER ‘UNLIMITED’ EXECUTIVE POWER UNDER EMERGENCY LAW

The Cato analysis found that New Hampshire had the lowest public corruption by this metric, with 13 convictions over the period and an annual conviction rate of .05. Cato called it “the freest state in the nation with one of the smallest governments.”

Cato said it appeared that “larger governments with more spending and regulations create more opportunities for bribery and embezzlement.” 

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The think tank, however, noted that some academic studies have suggested other reasons for corruption differences between states and cities, including varying cultures, education levels, and poverty rates.