Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accused Democrats of orchestrating a ‘cover-up’ of President Joe Biden’s signs of mental decline in a set of remarks to reporters on Wednesday.

The leader of the House of Representatives criticized left-wing lawmakers for their public pressure campaign regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s case, dismissing their calls for transparency as a hypocritical political ploy.

‘We will not be lectured on transparency by the same party that orchestrated one of the most shameless, dangerous political cover-ups in the history of the United States – and that was President Biden’s obvious mental decline,’ Johnson told reporters.

‘House Republicans stand for maximum transparency and truth. We always have, and we always will.’

It comes as the House Oversight Committee continues to investigate allegations that the former president’s top White House aides obscured signs of mental and physical decline in the octogenarian leader from the public and others in the administration.

Biden told The New York Times earlier this month that he was fully aware of every decision he made in a story regarding his use of autopen for clemency orders.

Johnson and other Republican lawmakers have dealt with a barrage of media scrutiny on Epstein’s case over the last two weeks. It’s a side effect of the fallout over a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) memo effectively declaring the matter closed.

Figures on the far-right have hammered Trump officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing them of going back on earlier vows of transparency.

At Trump’s direction, the DOJ is moving to have grand jury files related to Epstein’s case unsealed. Bondi is looking into whether imprisoned former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell will speak with federal authorities as well.

Democrats seized on the discord by forcing Republicans on a key panel – the House Rules Committee – to take multiple votes on whether to make files related to Epstein’s case public.

GOP lawmakers’ frustration at being put into a tough political situation forced House Republicans’ agenda to partially grind to a halt this week, forcing leaders to send the House into August recess a day earlier than initially planned.

Some Republicans are frustrated with the Trump administration’s handling of the issue, while others are angry at fellow GOP lawmakers joining Democrats in public calls for transparency.

Many, like Johnson, have accused Democrats of operating on a double-standard. 

‘The way Democrats have tried to weaponize this issue is absolutely shameless. And I just want to say this – Democrats said nothing and did nothing, absolutely nothing, about bringing transparency for the entire four years of the Biden presidency,’ the speaker said. But now, all of a sudden, they want the American people to believe that they actually care.’

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pointed Fox News Digital to his remarks on Epstein earlier this week, questioning what Republicans were ‘hiding.’

‘Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide during the Trump administration. Trump administration officials have said, prior to arriving in Washington in positions of prominence, including at the FBI and the Department of Justice, that they were going to release the Epstein files. Trump administration officials are now in a position to release the Epstein files,’ Jeffries said. 

‘Does any of that, in your view, have anything to do with President Joe Biden? Why do we think President Joe Biden or President Barack Obama’s names are being invoked?’

Fox News Digital also reached out to the office of former President Joe Biden for comment but did not immediately hear back.

A House panel Wednesday voted in favor of subpoenaing former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., offered a motion during a House Oversight Committee subcommittee hearing to call on Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., to subpoena people with possible links to Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former associate of late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

‘I have a motion to subpoena the following individuals to expand the full committees investigation into Miss Maxwell – and the list reads as follows: William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, James Brian Comey, Loretta Elizabeth Lynch, Eric Hampton Holder, Jr., Merrick Brian Garland, Robert Swan Mueller III, William Pelham Barr, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions the third, and Alberto Gonzales. That’s the full list, Mr. Chairman. And that’s the motion,’ Perry said.

The motion passed by voice vote, meaning there was not an individual roll call.

The subpoenas would actually need to be issued by Comer to be active.

A House Oversight Committee aide told Fox News Digital, ‘The subpoenas will be issued in the near future.’

It comes after Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., a member of the progressive ‘Squad,’ pushed for a vote on her own motion to subpoena any files related to Epstein.

That motion passed in an 8-to-2 vote, also directing Comer to issue that subpoena.

Republican lawmakers have dealt with a barrage of media scrutiny on Epstein’s case over the last two weeks. It’s a side effect of the fallout over a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) memo effectively declaring the matter closed.

Figures on the far-right have hammered Trump officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing them of going back on earlier vows of transparency.

At Trump’s direction, the DOJ is moving to have grand jury files related to Epstein’s case unsealed. Bondi is looking into whether imprisoned former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell will speak with federal authorities as well.

A House GOP-led motion directing Comer to subpoena Maxwell passed the House Oversight Committee unanimously on Tuesday, and Comer issued the subpoena the following day.

But Democrats have nonetheless seized on the Republican discord with newfound calls of their own for transparency in Epstein’s case. 

Wednesday’s hearing by the Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on federal law enforcement was unrelated to Epstein — but it’s part of a pattern of Democratic lawmakers in the House using any opportunity to force Republicans into an uncomfortable political position on the issue.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., another member of the subcommittee, successfully got Lee’s amendment altered to also call for the release of Biden administration communications related to Epstein.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Clinton Foundation for comment but did not immediately hear back.

President Donald Trump declared that the United States will do ‘whatever it takes’ to win the global race to artificial intelligence dominance, during an address at a summit held in the nation’s capital Wednesday.

‘From this day forward, it’ll be a policy of the United States to do whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence,’ Trump said during his address shortly ahead of signing three new executive orders that are aimed at boosting the country’s artificial intelligence capabilities. 

Meanwhile, Trump also slammed the former Biden administration for ‘weaponizing’ and restricting AI innovation and advancements.

‘If you regulate [AI] too much, you kill the source of American genius and technological power,’ Trump said. ‘I believe that Joe Biden had a plan to lose the AI race. I think he wanted to lose it.’

Administration leaders, including White House Office of Science and Technology policy director Michael Kratsios and AI and crypto czar David Sacks, held a background call with the media Wednesday morning and outlined a three-pillar plan of action for artificial intelligence focused on American workers, free speech and protecting U.S.-built technologies. 

‘We want to center America’s workers, and make sure they benefit from AI,’ Sacks said on the call while describing the three pillars. 

‘The second is that we believe that AI systems should be free of ideological bias and not be designed to pursue socially engineered agendas,’ Sacks said. ‘And so we have a number of proposals there on how to make sure that AI remains truth-seeking and trustworthy. And then the third principle that cuts across the pillars is that we believe we have to prevent our advanced technologies from being misused or stolen by malicious actors. And we also have to monitor for emerging and unforeseen risks from AI.’

Ending red tape and restrictions on the technology is also a key component of the new AI initiative, administration officials said, noting it will usher in the next ‘industrial revolution.’

Trump ordered his administration in January to develop a plan of action for artificial intelligence in order to ‘solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.’ 

The presidential action ordered administration leaders to craft a plan ‘to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security’ within 180 days, which was Tuesday. 

Kratsios stressed on the Wednesday press call that by cutting federal red tape surrounding AI, American workers will benefit while the U.S. will avoid going down the same AI path as Europe, which is mired in tech regulations, Kratsios said on the call. ‘The action plan calls for freeing American AI innovation from unnecessary bureaucratic red tape, ensuring all Americans reap the benefits of AI technologies and leveraging AI to drive new scientific breakthroughs.’

‘On deregulation, we cannot afford to go down Europe’s innovation-killing regulatory path. Federal agencies will now review their rules on the books and repeal those that hinder AI development and deployment across industries, from financial services and agriculture to health and transportation.’ 

‘At the same time, we’re asking the private sector to recommend regulatory barriers that they face for the administration to consider removing,’ he added. ‘Instead of cultivating skepticism, our policy is to encourage and enable AI adoption across government and the private sector through regulatory sandboxes and sector-specific partnerships.’ 

Trump rescinded a Biden-era executive order hours after taking office in January that put restrictions on artificial intelligence technologies, including requiring tech companies to keep the federal government appraised of the most powerful technology they were building before the programs are made available to the public. 

Trump’s signature rescinded the Biden order, with a White House fact sheet at the time arguing the Biden executive order ‘hinders AI innovation and imposes onerous and unnecessary government control over the development of AI.’

‘American development of AI systems must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,’ the White House said. ‘With the right government policies, the United States can solidify its position as the leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.’ 

‘The order directs the development of an AI Action Plan to sustain and enhance America’s AI dominance, led by the Assistant to the President for Science & Technology, the White House AI & Crypto Czar, and the National Security Advisor,’ the White House said. 

The Trump administration has notched massive wins in the artificial intelligence race, which has pitted the U.S. against China to develop the most high-tech artificial intelligence systems, including Oracle and OpenAI announcing Tuesday the companies will further develop the Stargate project, which is an effort to launch large data centers in the U.S. The two companies’ most recent announcement promises an additional 4.5 gigawatts of Stargate data center capacity, a move expected to create more than 100,000 jobs across operations, construction, and indirect roles such as manufacturing and local services.

The Stargate project includes a commitment from OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank and MGX to invest $500 billion in U.S.-based artificial intelligence infrastructure throughout the next four years.

Creating the data centers is key to the U.S. artificial intelligence race, according to admin officials who spoke on the background call Wednesday. Sacks explained that the administration wants to see U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure grow by leaps and bounds in order for the country to ‘lead in data centers and in the energy that powers those data centers.’ 

Earlier in July, Trump traveled to Pittsburgh for an artificial intelligence summit at Carnegie Mellon University while touting the $90 billion in private-sector investments intended to create the Keystone State into an energy and artificial intelligence hub for the country 

Trump also has signed other executive orders focused on artificial intelligence as it relates to increasing America’s energy grid capacity, and an April executive order aimed at preparing America’s next generation to employ artificial intelligence through educational programs. 

Kratsios said during the call Wednesday that the U.S. winning the artificial intelligence race is ‘non-negotiable,’ citing not only economic and geopolitical considerations. 

‘We’re not alone in recognizing the economic, geopolitical, and national security importance of AI, which is why winning the AI race is non-negotiable,’ he said. ‘The plan presents over 90 federal policy actions across three pillars. As David (Sacks) discussed, those are accelerating innovation, building American AI infrastructure, and leading international AI diplomacy and security. The action plan was crafted with overwhelming input from industry, academia and civil society, informed by over 10,000 responses to the White Houses request for information.’ 

The plan delivered to Trump could be executed in the next six months to a year, according to the background call.

The Trump administration has repeatedly rallied around how artificial intelligence will be crucial at catapulting America into the next ‘industrial revolution,’ which administration officials say will lead to job creation and a strong tech industry that can trounce other nations in the race. 

Vice President JD Vance has been one of the most vocal admin leaders touting the U.S. strength on artificial intelligence as it cut red tape surrounding the industry.

‘The Trump administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening screws on U.S. tech companies with international footprints,’ Vance said in a fiery February speech from Paris. ‘America cannot and will not accept that, and we think it’s a terrible mistake.’

‘At this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new industrial revolution… But it will never come to pass if over-regulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball,’ he said. ‘Nor will it occur if we allow AI to become dominated by massive players looking to use the tech to censor or control users’ thoughts.’

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., an outspoken opponent of antisemitism, said Wednesday that those who refuse to speak out against the heinous acts Hamas perpetrated in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 ‘have no business’ claiming to be humanitarians.

‘If you refuse to condemn Hamas for the murder, maiming, mutilation, rape, torture, and abduction of thousands of Jews and Israelis on October 7, then you have no business calling yourself a humanitarian,’ Torres wrote on X. 

‘A humanitarianism that devalues Jewish life is no humanitarianism at all, for it has been hollowed out by antisemitism,’ he added.

The congressman has been a strong voice of support for Israel.

‘The singular stumbling block to ending the war is the terrorist organization that barbarically began it: Hamas. Scapegoating Israel is so second nature to the international community that Hamas’ role in precipitating and perpetuating the war has been all but forgotten,’ Torres wrote on X earlier this month.

In another post on X this month he opined that ‘Antisemitism is the deadliest disease ever to afflict the human heart.’

In a post last month, he asserted, ‘If Israel is the sole country in the Middle East—indeed the world—for which you reserve the label ‘apartheid’—then your use of the term is probably propagandistic rather than principled and your purpose is not constructive criticism but the destructive delegitimation of Israel as a Jewish State.’

Torres has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since early 2021.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate newly declassified information about the Obama administration’s intelligence assessments about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Graham and Cornyn’s call for a special counsel, which Fox News Digital learned they are announcing Thursday morning, comes the day after the Department of Justice (DOJ) created a ‘strike force’ to investigate the evidence, which was declassified by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month.

Graham and Cornyn, both senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not address the strike force but indicated in a statement that special counsels, who are outside officials brought in to oversee politically sensitive cases, operate independently of the attorney general.

Fox News reached out to the DOJ for comment on the special counsel request.

‘As we have supported in the past, appointing an independent special counsel would do the country a tremendous service in this case,’ Graham and Cornyn said.

Gabbard’s declassified intelligence shed new light on the Obama administration’s determination that Russia sought to help President Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Gabbard alleged Wednesday during a press briefing that Obama and his intelligence officials promoted a ‘contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true. It wasn’t.’

Graham, who previously served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led the Senate’s inquiry into the FBI’s investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion and released a tranche of documents in 2020 suggesting the bureau had a flimsy basis for opening its investigation into Trump.

‘With every piece of information that gets released, it becomes more evident that the entire Russia collusion hoax was created by the Obama administration to subvert the will of the American people,’ Graham and Cornyn said.

Their remarks follow Trump accusing former President Barack Obama of ‘treason’ this week and after the DOJ opened criminal investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey. 

Critics say Gabbard’s claims have been contradicted by past congressional reviews, some of which were led by Republicans. Obama, meanwhile, issued a statement in response to the wave of headlines suggesting he attempted to hurt Trump’s election chances.

‘Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,’ Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said. ‘But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.’

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Passing President Donald Trump’s agenda was a team effort between the Senate and House, but one Senate Republican was key in smoothing over differences between the two chambers.

‘There’s an inherent mistrust between senators and representatives,’ Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘There’s a deep, deep mistrust, and it’s like we’re playing shirts and skins with our own team.’

‘And trying to break down that barrier and let people know, ‘Hey, we’re all on the same team,’ is a little tougher than what people think,’ he continued.

House Republicans were dead set on crafting one, colossal package, while Senate Republicans preferred splitting the bill into two — even three — pieces. Then there were disagreements over the depth of spending cuts, changes to Medicaid and carveouts to boost the cap on the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT).

And while the House GOP worked to craft their version of the massive, $3.3 trillion tax cuts and spending package that eventually made its way to the Senate, Mullin was a crucial figure in bridging the roughly 100-yard gap between both sides of the Capitol.

But it’s a job he never really wanted.

Mullin, who has been in Washington for over a decade, got his start in the House before being elected to the Senate in 2021. He wanted to maintain ‘lifelong friendships’ with his House colleagues, but becoming the de facto liaison between the chambers was more a decision of practicality than one he truly desired.

‘The first couple of deputy whip meetings we had when [Senate Majority Leader John Thune] was whip was discussing what the House is going to do, and no one knew,’ Mullin said. ‘And I was like, ‘Man, it’s just down the hall, we can go walk and talk to them.’ So the first time I did that, I went to the [House GOP] conference and just talked.’

‘And then it just turned into me going to Thune and saying, ‘Hey, why don’t I just become a liaison between the two?’ So I didn’t, I never envisioned of doing that, other than just keeping a relationship, but it was a natural fit,’ he continued.

That role began when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who Mullin had a longstanding relationship with, led the House GOP, and has continued since House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., took the helm in 2023.

And it paid dividends during the six-month slog to draft and pass Trump’s budget reconciliation bill, which required full buy-in from congressional Republicans to do so given that no Democrats were involved in the process.

Markwayne said that before the bill even made it to the Senate in early June, he played a role in ensuring that House Republicans didn’t ‘dump a ton of stuff in there’ that would be nixed by Senate rules.

He effectively ping-ponged back and forth between the chambers, jetting from morning workouts to speak with lawmakers, meeting with House Republicans during their weekly conference confabs or holding smaller discussions with lawmakers, particularly blue state Republicans concerned about changes to SALT, to get everyone on roughly the same page.

Much of it broke down to explaining how the Senate’s Byrd rule, which governs reconciliation and allows either party to skirt the Senate filibuster to pass legislation, worked.

‘I mean, even though I spent 12 or 10 years in the House, I never understood the Byrd rule, but why would I? I didn’t have to deal with it,’ he said. ‘So really getting to understand that, and breaking down that barrier helped.’

The flow of information wasn’t just one way, however. His discussions with House Republicans helped him better inform his colleagues in the upper chamber of their priorities, and what could and couldn’t be touched as Senate Republicans began putting their fingerprints on the bill.

SALT was the main issue that he focused on, and one that most Senate Republicans didn’t care much for. Still, it was a make-or-break agreement to raise the caps, albeit temporarily, to $40,000 for single and joint filers for the next five years, that helped seal the deal for anxious blue state House Republicans.

‘Just keeping them informed through the process was very important,’ he said. ‘But at the same time, talking to the House, and when we’re negotiating over here, I’d be like, ‘No guys, that’s a killer,’’ he said. ‘We can’t do that if you, if you touch this, it’s dead over there for sure. Guaranteed, it’s dead.’

Over time, his approach to the role has changed, an evolution he said was largely influenced by Thune.

A self-described ‘bull in a China cabinet,’ Mullin said that for a time his negotiating style was arguing with lawmakers to convince them ‘why you’re wrong.’ But that style softened after watching Thune, he said, and saw him talking less and listening more.

‘I took his lead off of it to let people talk,’ he said. ‘Sometimes you’re going to find out that they’re actually upset about something that had nothing to do with the bill, but they’re taking that, and they’re holding the bill hostage to be able to let this one point be heard.’

‘I don’t think it was a good indication that we were butting heads. Everybody was very passionate about this. I mean, they’ve been working for a long time. We looked at it as maybe a once in a generation opportunity for us to be able to get this done,’ he continued. ‘We wanted to get it right, but everybody wanted to have their fingerprint on it and at the end of the day, we knew we [had] to bring it to the floor.’

House Republicans are calling for more scrutiny on the roughly 1,500 commutation orders signed by President Joe Biden toward the end of his term after revelations that an autopen was used for a significant number of them.

‘Americans deserve accountability of their leaders. If an autopen was used to pardon hundreds of people, thousands of people, including the president’s son, who made that decision? Was it Joe Biden? Or was it some staffer that used an autopen?’ Ways & Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a brief interview with Fox News Digital.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that autopen signatures were used on clemency orders in the last few months of Biden’s White House tenure.

Biden told the outlet he made ‘every decision,’ and the report details a meticulous process from Biden making his decision to that decision being recorded by aides and passed through a chain of email communication – suggesting the then-president had final signoff.

But the report notes, ‘The Times has not seen the full extent of the emails, so it is impossible to capture the totality of information they contain or what else they might show about Mr. Biden’s involvement in the pardon and clemency decisions.’

Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Ind., suggested pardon decisions carried out in the late hours of the day should be looked at in particular.

‘I think we need to highly scrutinize the use of autopen signatures that were initiated at 10.45 p.m., well beyond the president’s normal day of cognitive activity, need to be brought into question,’ Messmer said.

The report noted one instance where the final word on a particular set of clemency orders was sent just after 10:30 p.m.

The Times had reported in July 2024, before he dropped out of the presidential race, that Biden said he would stop scheduling events after 8 p.m. due to the need for sleep.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, argued lawmakers need more information on who was in control of those signatures for public trust.

‘What people want is accountability. They want to know that what was done in the name of our president who was elected, that he actually bears responsibility for that,’ Gill said.

Another lawmaker suggested courts should even look at nullification.

‘Maybe some of the pardons and things like that can be rolled back,’ Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., said. ‘We’ll leave it to the courts to figure that out.’

Rep. Andrew Cylde, R-Ga., went a step further: ‘That has to be corrected. It has to be investigated. And those people, really, in my opinion, should be prosecuted for stepping outside the bounds of the Constitution.’

The House Oversight Committee, led by Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is already investigating the Biden administration’s use of autopen and whether former top White House aides concealed evidence of the then-president’s mental decline.

Ex-White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain is the latest person expected to appear before House investigators, with a voluntary transcribed interview scheduled for Thursday morning.

Democratic allies of Biden have blasted the probe as a political spectacle rather than an honest fact-finding mission.

But all the Republican lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital argued to at least some extent that Americans want accountability, though some suggested it would be beneficial to focus efforts on the future.

‘I have to balance my thoughts on this. I think that, you know, it’s good to know what happened, to keep it from happening…but on the other hand, I really want to be focused on the future,’ said Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont. ‘But I will tell you, the speculation – although I obviously don’t know 100% what’s true or not – I think the speculation is very probable, just seeing who Biden was at the end of his tenure and knowing that that didn’t happen overnight.’

Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, vice chair of the House GOP Conference, told Fox News Digital, ‘As far as the previous administration, what’s done is done, but it’s also good to highlight to the American people, okay, you were in some cases lied to.’

Notably, autopen is a standard and legal practice that’s been used by officials in many past cases, including by President Donald Trump. House investigators are looking into whether Biden really made the final sign-off himself on key decisions, however.

The office of former president Joe Biden was contacted for comment.

The Justice Department has formed a ‘strike force’ to assess the evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard relating to former President Barack Obama and his top national security and intelligence officials’ alleged involvement in the origins of the Trump–Russia collusion narrative.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), Wednesday evening, announced the formation of the ‘strike force,’ to investigate potential next legal steps which may stem from Gabbard’s recent declassification of records suggesting that Obama administration officials ‘manufactured’ intelligence to form the narrative that then-candidate Donald Trump was colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital that the DOJ takes the alleged weaponization of the intelligence community with ‘the utmost seriousness.’

A source familiar with the strike force told Fox News Digital that everything is being reviewed and that no serious lead is off the table.

The source told Fox News Digital that the National Security Division of the Justice Department will ‘likely be involved in the investigation.’ 

‘The Department of Justice is proud to work with my friend Director Gabbard and we are grateful for her partnership in delivering accountability for the American people,’ Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

‘We will investigate these troubling disclosures fully and leave no stone unturned to deliver justice,’ she said.

The strike force consists of teams made up of investigators and prosecutors that focus on ‘the worst offenders engaged in fraudulent activities, including, chiefly, health care fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, money laundering offenses, false statements offenses,’ and more, according to the DOJ.

The formation of the strike force comes after a slew of developments related to the origins of the Trump–Russia investigation.

Earlier in July, CIA Director John Ratcliffe sent a criminal referral for former CIA Director John Brennan to the FBI.

The referral came after Ratcliffe declassified a ‘lessons learned’ review of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The 2017 ICA alleged Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election to help then-candidate Trump. But the review found that the process of the ICA’s creation was rushed with ‘procedural anomalies,’ and that officials diverted from intelligence standards. 

It also determined that the ‘decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.’ 

The dossier — an anti-Trump document filled with unverified and wholly inaccurate claims that was commissioned by Fusion GPS and paid for by Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC — has been widely discredited. The review marks the first time career CIA officials have acknowledged politicization of the process by which the ICA was written, particularly by Obama-era political appointees. 

Records declassified as part of that review further revealed that Brennan did, in fact, push for the dossier to be included in the 2017 ICA.

FBI Director Kash Patel received the criminal referral and opened an investigation into Brennan.

Patel also opened a criminal investigation into former FBI Director James Comey.

The full scope of the criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey is unclear, but two sources described the FBI’s view of the duo’s interactions as a ‘conspiracy,’ which could open up a wide range of potential prosecutorial options. 

The FBI and CIA declined to comment.

Neither Brennan nor Comey immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Days later, Gabbard declassified documents revealing ‘overwhelming evidence’ that demonstrated how, after Trump won the 2016 election against Clinton, then-President Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe.

Gabbard said the documents revealed that Obama administration officials ‘manufactured and politicized intelligence’ to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, despite information from the intelligence community stating otherwise.

The new documents name Obama, top officials in his National Security Council, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-CIA Director Brennan, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, among others.

Gabbard, on Monday, sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department related to those findings. DOJ officials did not share further details on whom the criminal referral was for.

And on Wednesday, Gabbard declassified documents that showed that the intelligence community did not have any direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but, at the ‘unusual’ direction of Obama, published ‘potentially biased’ or ‘implausible’ intelligence suggesting otherwise.

That information came from a report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence back in 2020.

The report, which was based on an investigation launched by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was dated Sept. 18, 2020. At the time of the publication of the report, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chairman of the committee.

The report has never before been released to the public, and instead, has remained highly classified within the intelligence community.

Meanwhile, Fox News Digital, in 2020, exclusively obtained the declassified transcripts of Obama-era national security officials’ closed-door testimonies before the House Intelligence Committee, in which those officials testified that they had no ’empirical evidence’ of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, but continued to publicly push the ‘narrative’ of collusion.

The House Intelligence Committee, in 2017, conducted depositions of top Obama intelligence officials, including Clapper, Rice and Lynch, among others.

The officials’ responses in the transcripts of those interviews align with the results of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation — which found no evidence of criminal coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, while not reaching a determination on obstruction of justice.

The transcripts, from 2017 and 2018, revealed top Obama officials were questioned by House Intelligence Committee lawmakers and investigators about whether they had or had seen evidence of such collusion, coordination or conspiracy — the issue that drove the FBI’s initial case and later the special counsel probe.

‘I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election,’ Clapper testified in 2017. ‘That’s not to say that there weren’t concerns about the evidence we were seeing, anecdotal evidence…. But I do not recall any instance where I had direct evidence.’

Lynch also said she did ‘not recall that being briefed up to me.’

‘I can’t say that it existed or not,’ Lynch said, referring to evidence of collusion, conspiracy or coordination.

But Clapper and Lynch, and then Vice President Joe Biden, were present in the Oval Office July 28, 2016, when Brennan briefed Obama and Comey on intelligence he’d received from one of Clinton’s campaign foreign policy advisors ‘to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.’ 

‘We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from (REDACTED),’ read Brennan’s handwritten notes, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in October 2020. ‘CITE (summarizing) alleged approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.’

Meanwhile, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, according to the transcript of her interview to the House Intelligence Committee, was asked whether she had or saw any evidence of collusion or conspiracy.

Power replied: ‘I am not in possession of anything — I am not in possession and didn’t read or absorb information that came from out of the intelligence community.’

When asked again, she said: ‘I am not.’

Rice was asked the same question.

‘To the best of my recollection, there wasn’t anything smoking, but there were some things that gave me pause,’ she said, according to her transcribed interview, in response to whether she had any evidence of conspiracy. ‘I don’t recall intelligence that I would consider evidence to that effect that I saw… conspiracy prior to my departure.’

When asked whether she had any evidence of ‘coordination,’ Rice replied: ‘I don’t recall any intelligence or evidence to that effect.’

Meanwhile, former FBI Deputy Director McCabe was not asked that specific question but rather questions about the accuracy and legitimacy of the unverified anti-Trump dossier compiled by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

McCabe was asked during his interview in 2017 what was the most ‘damning or important piece of evidence in the dossier that’ he ‘now knows is true.’

McCabe replied: ‘We have not been able to prove the accuracy of all the information.’

‘You don’t know if it’s true or not?’ a House investigator asked, to which McCabe replied: ‘That’s correct.’

After Trump’s 2016 victory and during the presidential transition period, Comey briefed Trump on the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier, containing salacious allegations of purported coordination between Trump and the Russian government. Brennan was present for that briefing, which took place at Trump Tower in New York City in January 2017.

The dossier was authored by Steele. It was funded by Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the law firm Perkins Coie.

But Brennan and Comey knew of intelligence suggesting Clinton, during the campaign, was stirring up a plan to tie Trump to Russia, documents claim. It is unclear whether the intelligence community, at the time, knew that the dossier was paid for by Clinton and the DNC.

The Obama-era officials have been mum on the new revelations, but a spokesman for Obama on Tuesday made a rare public statement.

‘Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,’ Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. ‘But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.’ 

‘These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,’ Obama’s spokesman continued. ‘Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.’

He added: ‘These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.’ 

A senior former Biden administration official arrived on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with House investigators on Thursday.

Ronald Klain served as former President Joe Biden’s chief of staff in the first half of his term, from the beginning of his term in January 2021 until early February 2023.

He did not answer shouted questions from reporters before disappearing for his voluntary transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee.

Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the then-president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

‘I think he’ll be forthcoming. I mean, he’s at the top of the organizational chart for the Biden administration,’ Comer told reporters on his way into the closed-door deposition. ‘I think everyone in America is wondering whether or not Joe Biden was mentally fit to be President of the United States, especially during the last six months of his administration.’

Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., were also seen entering the room for the interview, which is expected to be staff-led.

Biden maintained he ‘made every decision’ in a recent interview with The New York Times.

Klain is the sixth ex-White House official to appear as part of Comer’s probe, and the third to appear on voluntary terms.

Former White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as senior advisors Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all appeared under subpoena.

Each also pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions.

Ex-staff secretary Neera Tanden and longtime Biden advisor Ashley Williams both appeared for voluntary transcribed interviews, like Klain.

Both of their interviews lasted over four hours, though House GOP investigators appear to have gleaned little new information.

Before serving as Biden’s chief of staff, Klain worked in the same capacity when the Delaware Democrat was vice president during the Obama administration.

He also served as a top advisor on Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.

Most critical to investigators, perhaps, is the prominent role Klain reportedly played in preparing Biden for his disastrous June 2024 debate against now-President Donald Trump.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a member of the Oversight Committee, shared some of the information he hoped would be gleaned from Klain’s sitdown.

‘Did you ever see a question of cognitive ability in the president? Were you aware that he was not making these decisions? Was he being led?’ Burlison asked.

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.