President Trump is continuing to ramp up pressure on the Federal Reserve, ordering one of the central bank's board members, Lisa Cook, to resign over alleged mortgage fraud - but she's refusing to leave.
A prosecutor in Trump's Justice Department, Ed Martin, is looking into the matter after it was flagged by a federal housing regulator.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, "Cook must resign now!"
The mortgage fraud concerns were shared by the director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The letter alleged that Cook "has falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statutes."
In particular, Pulte said Cook had falsified the “residence statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property.”
Cook, a Biden appointee on the seven-member Fed board, said she is taking the matter seriously, but she will not be pressured into stepping down based on an allegation. Her term ends in 2038.
“I learned from the media that FHFA Director William Pulte posted on social media that he was making a criminal referral based on a mortgage application from four years ago, before I joined the Federal Reserve. I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet," Cook said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump is looking at firing Cook for cause.
Critics of Trump have accused him of threatening the stability of the financial system by attempting to strip the central bank of its traditional independence, but Trump and his allies have accused the Fed of playing politics with monetary policy.
Trump has threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump has nicknamed "too late" over his failure to lower interest rates despite cooling inflation.
Trump has a rolling shortlist of candidates to replace Powell, who has said more time is needed to tell how Trump's tariffs will impact prices. On the other hand, recent signs of a slowing labor market could convince the Fed that a rate cut is needed to juice the economy.
In a letter to Powell, prosecutor Ed Martin urged him to fire Cook "before it is too late!"
"After all, no American thinks it is appropriate that she serve during this time with a cloud hanging over her," Martin wrote.
Supreme Court justice Amy Coney Barrett made brief, rare public remarks at an event this week, after another blockbuster term that generated significant commentary on her political leanings.
The Trump appointee spoke for just three minutes in front of an audience of judges at a Chicago hotel before making a "quick exit," Fox News reported.
For her comments Monday night at a judicial conference for the 7th Circuit, Barrett chose collegiality as her theme, echoing sentiments shared by her fellow justices in the past.
“It occurs to me that law is a profession that, unlike some others, operates continually through the strain of disagreement,” Barrett said. “Doctors cooperate and coordinate to deal with patients. Engineers work together to build the bridge."
“But litigants and their lawyers are pitted against one another on opposite sides of the ‘V,’” she continued.
Barrett used to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which covers courts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Since rising to the highest court, Barrett has garnered a reputation as a moderate, angering some in the MAGA movement who expected her to be a reliably conservative vote.
She has gone against Trump in high-profile cases dealing with immigration, foreign aid and Trump's own legal troubles, which went before the Supreme Court as he campaigned for the presidency last year.
Her stock on the right rebounded earlier this summer when she wrote a blockbuster opinion curtailing nationwide injunctions - a win for Trump, whose agenda has faced repeated obstruction from district courts.
In her majority opinion, Barrett chided her liberal colleague, Ketanji Brown Jackson, for embracing an "imperial Judiciary" with sloppy legal reasoning.
“‘[E]veryone, from the President on down, is bound by law,’” Barrett wrote, quoting Jackson. “That goes for judges too.”
Despite her own pointed criticism of Jackson, Barrett told her audience in Chicago that the adversarial nature of the legal profession is one of its strengths.
“I think there is an upside to all of the professional hours that lawyers spend in disagreement,” Barrett said. “We not only do it well … but we also know how to do it without letting it consume relationships."
“When I look around this room, when I think about the lawyers I know in the 7th Circuit, I’m grateful for the way that our bar conducts itself,” she added. “Because that is what enables the judicial system to work well.”
In an unprecedented shakeup, the FBI's current No.2 official, Dan Bongino, will soon share his job title with a co-deputy director.
Andrew Bailey, the staunchly pro-Trump attorney general of Missouri, announced he will step aside from his current position in September to join FBI leadership alongside Bongino.
“My life has been defined by a call to service, and I am once again answering that call, this time at the national level,” Bailey said in a statement.
The unusual arrangement comes after Bongino is said to have lost favor within the White House after a dramatic fight with attorney general Pam Bondi over the Epstein files.
Bongino's response to Bailey's hiring was terse: "Welcome," Bongino wrote on X, with some American flag emojis.
By contrast, Bondi issued a statement full of effusive praise for Bailey.
"I am thrilled to welcome Andrew Bailey as Co-Deputy Director of the FBI. He has served as a distinguished attorney general for Missouri and is a decorated war veteran, bringing expertise and dedication to service,” said U.S. Attorney General Bondi.
“His leadership and commitment to country will be a tremendous asset as we work together to advance President Trump’s mission. While we know this is undoubtedly a great loss for Missouri, it is a tremendous gain for America.”
This appears to be the first time that the FBI has ever had two deputy directors. The situation is certain to raise questions about whether Bongino is being pushed aside.
The former cop turned conservative media personality reportedly clashed with Bondi after the Justice Department released its controversial Epstein memo. Bongino even threatened to quit unless Trump fired Bondi - an ultimatum that angered Trump, but the president dismissed questions about the deputy director's future.
“Dan Bongino is a very good guy. I’ve known him a long time. I’ve done his show many, many times. And he sounded terrific, actually, no, I think he’s in good shape," Trump told reporters.
During his tenure as attorney general of Missouri, Bailey has become known as a fervent Trump backer and conservative culture warrior.
Bailey sued New York state over its politically motivated criminal prosecution of Trump last year, arguing the case interfered with Missourians' voting rights.
“Thrilled to welcome Andrew Bailey as our new FBI co-deputy director,” Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, wrote on social media. “As Missouri’s attorney general, he took on the swamp, fought weaponized government, and defended the Constitution. Now he is bringing that fight to DOJ.”
Bailey's last day as Missouri attorney general is September 8. The state's governor, Mike Kehoe, (R), will choose a temporary replacement until an election is held.
The Trump administration has moved to dismiss a case against the IRS centering on the Clinton Foundation, just the latest twist in a years-long legal saga.
As reported by Just the News, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says the two plaintiffs - who are fighting to receive a monetary award for whistleblowers - lack standing and the case should not move forward to a trial tentatively scheduled on December 1.
Retired federal agent John Moynihan and private fraud expert Larry Doyle have alleged for years that the Clinton Foundation engaged in pay-to-play politics with foreign donors.
"Not surprising that the IRS would seek to dismiss our case in this fashion simply because that is the same tactic the IRS deployed in our initial case ongoing now almost 6 years in US Tax Court and growing more serious everyday," Doyle told Just The News.
In 2018, Doyle and Moynihan appeared before Congress to share their findings, but they refused to hand over their 6,000-page evidence dump to the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee, causing a clash with then-chairman Mark Meadows.
An initial IRS review found that their allegations of wrongdoing were not credible, but a U.S. Tax Court judge found in 2020 that the IRS had "abused its discretion" when it rejected their whistleblower complaint and the judge allowed it to proceed.
In a motion last week, the IRS argued the case should be dismissed on procedural grounds.
"In this case, the Whistleblower Office denied petitioners’ claims because the petitioners’ claims were never considered in an IRS action. Here, the Whistleblower Office forwarded petitioners’ claims to a classifier,” the IRS motion said. “Following the classifiers’ preliminary review, the Classifier declined to forward petitioners’ claims to exam and recommended that it be forwarded to the CI [criminal investigation] division."
“The IRS did not proceed with any potential action when it investigated petitioners’ claims,” the IRS added.
The IRS' opposition may come as a surprise to many, especially as Trump's FBI continues to shed light on an effort by Obama officials to block investigations into the Clinton Foundation.
Newly declassified records shared by FBI director Kash Patel provide more detail on the cover-up, which involved high-level figures known to be anti-Trump, like former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
In February 2016, McCabe ordered that "no overt investigative steps" be taken concerning the Clinton Foundation without his approval, and then-deputy attorney general Sally Yates later instructed a prosecutor's office in Arkansas to "shut it down," according to an internal FBI work document.
The obstruction was previously noted by Former Special Counsel John Durham in his lengthy 2023 report, which delved into the FBI's disparate treatment of Trump and Hillary Clinton as they battled for the White House in 2016.
Even as the FBI and DOJ rushed to investigate Trump over illusory Russia ties, top officials "placed restrictions" on scrutinizing the Clinton Foundation "such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months," Durham found.
NPR thought it had the scoop of the year when it reported this week that eight pieces of paper left on a hotel printer amounted to a security breach of the White House after the summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to The Hill, the outlet, which recently lost government funding thanks to an executive order signed by Trump, reported that detailed notes about the summit, including phone numbers of three U.S. government workers, were left behind.
The White House refuted the report and mocked the outlet for it. Relentlessly.
The president's team responded to the report by describing it as "hilarious," and pointed out that it's prime evidence as to why the outlet had lost public support, and why it's no longer taxpayer-funded.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly released a statement after NPR published the story.
"It’s hilarious that NPR is publishing a multi-page lunch menu and calling it a ‘security breach,'" she said.
Kelly added, "This type of self-proclaimed ‘investigative journalism’ is why no one takes them seriously and they are no longer taxpayer-funded thanks to President Trump."
The Hill reported:
NPR reported that the eight papers, which contained information about meetings and locations of the summit, along with phone numbers of three U.S. government workers, were found on a hotel printer before the Friday Trump-Putin meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage.
The outlet gave a detailed breakdown of each of the eight papers. Some of them included names of various officials, and others included an itinerary of how the meeting would go.
The Office of the Chief of Protocol, a part of the State Department, produced the papers. Its mission, according to the website, seeks to "advance the foreign policy goals of the United States by creating an environment for successful diplomacy. Our team extends the first hand that welcomes presidents, prime ministers, ruling monarchs, and other leaders to our country."
Users across social media weighed in on the report.
🇺🇸🇷🇺 Government Papers Left in Hotel Reveal Trump-Putin Summit Details
Sensitive State Department documents left in an Anchorage hotel printer exposed meeting rooms, staff contacts, a planned gift for Putin, and seating for a canceled luncheon, per NPR. pic.twitter.com/RL9IVJXGPT
— Conflict Dispatch (@ConflictDISP) August 16, 2025
"OMG! They're so 'sensitive' that the press can show everyone in the entire world the contents and now everyone can see this was another fake news story," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "With the release of these 'sensitive documents', he's put all Halibut and Filet Mignon at risk."
The group of Texas state Democratic lawmakers who fled their state to avoid a redistricting vote were criticized heavily by Republicans, but also received overwhelming positive support from high-ups in their party, like former President Barack Obama.
According to Breitbart, Obama met with the rogue group of Democrats and was described as "cheerleading" them for standing up against the GOP's efforts to redistrict the state, which would likely result in extra Republican seats.
ABC News was the first to report that Obama had met with the group of Dems on a Zoom call, though the location was "undisclosed" as the Dems claim they're under Republican surveillance.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had previously ordered the arrest of the group of Dem holdouts.
Texas state Rep. Gene Wu, chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, was quick to thank Obama for the pep talk and Zoom meeting in an X post.
"We are encouraged by your words and remain committed to fighting for democracy, in Texas & across the country," Wu said after thanking the former president.
Thank you President @BarackObama for joining @TexasHDC members via Zoom and standing with Texas Democrats today!
We are encouraged by your words and remain committed to fighting for democracy, in Texas & across the country. #txlege pic.twitter.com/Xf78oYBKmG
— Gene Wu (@GeneforTexas) August 14, 2025
Breitbart noted:
More than 50 Texas House Democrats fled the state on August 4 to deny a quorum needed to pass a Republican measure that would increase the number of GOP-favorable Congressional districts for representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Should the measure pass, it would likely strong benefit Republicans in the 2026 midterms, which is why Dems are throwing an absolute fit attempting to sabotage it.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder was also reportedly on the Zoom call. Holder heads the party's redistricting committee.
ABC News reported some of the contents of the converstion.
"We can’t let a systematic assault on democracy just happen and stand by and so because of your actions, because of your courage, what you’ve seen is California responding, other states looking at what they can do to offset this mid-decade gerrymandering," Obama reportedly said.
He added, "I want all of you to be returning feeling invigorated and know that you have helped to lead what is going to be a long struggle. It’s not going to be resolved right away, and it’s going to require, ultimately, the American people understanding the stakes and realizing that we cannot take our freedoms and our democracy for granted. You’ve helped set the tone for that, and I’m grateful for it."
Only time will tell if the Dems are able to sabotage the measure or if Republicans will come out on top.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has backed off a plan to replace the police chief in Washington, D.C., after city leaders went to a Joe Biden-appointed federal judge to block the effort.
The reversal came hours after Terry Cole, a 22-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was named "emergency police commissioner," escalating Trump's crime crackdown in the nation's capital.
A directive from Bondi said that Cole would take on the "powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police," and the Metropolitan Police Department was directed to "receive approval from Commissioner Cole."
The move was swiftly challenged by city leaders, who called it an illegal overreach under the Home Rule Act, which grants D.C. a degree of autonomy.
“By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law,” D.C. attorney general Brian Schwalb (D) said on social media Friday. “This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”
At a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, signaled she would rule in the city's favor unless the Justice Department curtailed the scope of the order.
“In the interim, Mr. Cole is not going to be able to direct police department individuals to do anything,” Reyes said. “He’s going to have to go through the mayor.”
After Friday's hearing, the Justice Department said it would designate Cole as the DOJ's liaison for "requesting services" from the police.
To fight crime, Trump has federalized D.C.'s Metropolitan Police, and 800 National Guard troops have been deployed to patrol the streets. Cole, the current DEA director, has echoed Trump's point that violent youths are being coddled.
“It is frustrating for law enforcement because they are encountering these same violent youth criminal offenders, numerous occasions, with handguns. But this is something we cannot turn a blind eye to,” he told Fox News in an interview Tuesday.
Democrats have vehemently insisted crime is in stark decline and that Trump is creating a pretext for an "authoritarian" push.
But even some Trump critics concede that D.C. has a real problem with crime - and the police department has been accused of fudging the numbers to make crime seem less severe than it is.
The current chief, Pamela Smith, joined the Metropolitan Police as a DEI officer before getting promoted to the top job.
Michelle Obama exposed her husband Barack's bizarre habit of keeping "trinkets" for good luck, adding to the intrigue that surrounds Washington D.C.'s strangest couple.
The Obamas have been dogged by divorce rumors ever since Michelle failed to appear at major events earlier this year, including Jimmy Carter's funeral and President Trump's inauguration.
Michelle has repeatedly poked fun at her husband's foibles, and in her most recent comments on that subject, she highlighted his superstitious streak.
"Over the course of his first campaign, people come and give them their lucky charms, you know, could be a little rabbit's foot, a little, Buddha or whatever it was," she said on her podcast IMO.
"You know, he has a drawer full of them [and] even to this day now he takes a few of them - every day - and puts them in his pocket," she added.
The former president showed off his stash of "trinkets" in a 2016 interview, which included a statute of a Hindu monkey god, a poker chip, a small Buddha, and a set of rosary beads from Pope Francis.
Obama's religious views have long been a source of speculation and controversy. The former president has claimed to be a faithful Christian but has never played the part very convincingly, especially after his infamous 2008 comments dismissing those who "cling" to religion.
His religion is not the only part of his personal life that people have questions about. Speculation has long swirled over Obama's marriage, with many contrasting his perceived effeminacy with his wife's aggressive, masculine personality.
To many, the Obamas' disinterest in one another is palpable, despite social media posts attesting to their devotion and a joint podcast appearance in which they dismissed the divorce rumors with a light touch.
"She took me back!" Barack said, adding sarcastically, "It was touch and go for awhile."
"When we aren't [together], folks think we're divorced," Michelle said.
Michelle has made no secret of the fact that she is focused mainly on herself as she launches a new podcasting career. She recently admitted to feeling "free" for the first time in her life.
“I mean, this stage in life for me, for me personally, is the first time that I’ve been completely free — where every choice that I make in my life is not about my husband, not about his career, not about what my kids need or where they’re going. It’s totally about me,” she said.
Danielle Spencer, the beloved 1970s child star, has died after a long battle with cancer. She was 60.
The Bronx native was best known for her role as Dee Thomas on the black sitcom What's Happening!, which aired on ABC from 1976 to 1979.
According to Spencer's publicist, Sandra Jones, the cause of death was stomach cancer and cardiac arrest.
"This untimely death is really hard to process right now," Jones told ABC News. "She is a sweet and gentle soul and she is going to be missed very, very much."
In the late 70s, Spencer appeared in 65 episodes of What's Happening!, which follows three teenage boys growing up in the inner city of Los Angeles. Spencer played Dee, the sassy little sister of Raj Thomas (Ernest Thomas).
She was known for reciting the line "Ooh, I'm gonna tell Mama!", which fans would repeat to her years later. Spencer also appeared in 16 episodes of the show's sequel, What's Happening Now!!
When she was just 12 years old, Spencer survived a deadly car crash that killed her stepfather and manager, Tim Pelt, whom she would later credit with helping her start in show business.
Spencer was left in a coma with a broken leg, arm, and pelvis, and the tragedy continued to impact her health years later. She was diagnosed in 2004 with spinal stenosis, which nearly paralyzed her, and she underwent emergency brain surgery in 2018 to treat a bleeding hematoma.
On top of these health challenges, Spencer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, which led to a double mastectomy.
After her star turn as Dee Thomas, Spencer became a veterinarian, receiving her doctorate in veterinarian science at Tuskegee University. She appeared as a vet in the movie As Good As It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson.
Spencer continued to be recognized for her work on What's Happening!, receiving a special honor from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016.
"I seriously can't even digest it," Spencer said. "I mean, first of all, that the show is remembered from 40 years [ago], but then also to be featured in this museum along with other shows that have been trailblazers."
She is survived by her mother, Cheryl Pelt, and younger brother Jeremy, a jazz musician, who shared a touching tribute on Instagram.
"Many of you knew her as 'Dee,' but she was more than a child actress," he wrote. "She was a friend, an auntie to my three children who adored her, she was a daughter- and in many ways, my mother's best friend, she was a veterinarian, she was someone who always remained positive even during her darkest days fighting this disease," he continued. "And she was MY sister and protector."
The Supreme Court has been asked to reconsider its landmark ruling Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage nationwide more than a decade ago.
The long-shot request was made by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who gained notoriety after she was jailed for refusing marriage licenses in the aftermath of the court's ruling. She was sued by a gay couple and ordered to pay $100,00 in emotional damages, plus $260,000 for attorneys fees.
"If there ever was a case of exceptional importance," her lawyer Matthew Staver wrote, "the first individual in the Republic's history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it."
In her petition to the Supreme Court, Davis argues that Obergefell was based on a "legal fiction" and that it has eroded the First Amendment's protections of religious freedom.
"The damage done by Obergefell’s distortion of the Constitution is reason enough to overturn this opinion and reaffirm the rule of law and the proper role of this Court," the petition says.
The appeal quotes from the conservative justices, who warned at the time of the Obergefell ruling that the court had bypassed a democratic debate to overturn centuries of tradition on marriage and the family.
Chief Justice John Roberts called the decision an "act of will, not legal judgment" that proclaimed a new right with "no basis in the Constitution."
Justice Samuel Alito, who has continued to criticize the decision, said the post-Obergefell world would be one in which religious believers will "whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes."
"But if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools," he wrote.
Davis is urging the Supreme Court to send the issue back to the states, citing the Dobbs decision, which ended Roe v. Wade, as an example of the justices overturning an erroneous precedent. Legal analysts are skeptical that the request will go far, however.
An appeals court shut Davis down earlier this year, finding she is not protected by the First Amendment because she is "being held liable for state action."
Davis may get a friendlier hearing from the Supreme Court, which has moved to the right over the past decade. Some of the court's justices have expressed interest in revisiting the contentious gay marriage ruling, namely Alito and Clarence Thomas.
In her petition, Davis cites Thomas' concurrence in Dobbs, in which he urged the court to "reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell."
On the right, the defense of traditional marriage has long been relegated to the past, but some continue to view Obergefell as a mistake that led America down a path of moral confusion, setting the stage for the transgender movement that later swept the country.
While most Americans have come to regard the issue as settled, support for gay marriage has declined among Republicans, dropping from a high of 55% to 41% this year - and a handful of Republican states have publicly called on the Supreme Court to throw out its Obergefell ruling.