FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was outraged this week during a closed-door White House meeting about the Department of Justice’s review of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case files, according to multiple sources.

Bongino raised his voice during a discussion with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before storming out of the meeting, according to two sources close to DOJ leadership. Bongino also exchanged heated words with Attorney General Pam Bondi during the meeting, and the whole ordeal has led him to consider resigning from the FBI, another source said.

Another person with knowledge of the meeting disputed the characterization that Bongino yelled at Wiles or Bondi during the sitdown.

However, that person agreed that Bongino was ‘enraged.’ The source said the deputy director was angry about the Epstein memo rollout and what he viewed as Bondi’s ‘lack of transparency from the start.’ The memo, a joint product of the DOJ and FBI, said the two agencies had no further information to share with the public about Epstein’s case, a revelation that sparked fury among the MAGA base. The memo first appeared in Axios over the weekend, and then the DOJ and FBI published it Monday.

Asked about the claim that Bongino yelled at Wiles, a White House official said it was ‘100% false.’ Wiles is a veteran of Florida politics who led Trump’s campaign, and the president has described her as ‘universally admired.’

The fracture in DOJ and FBI leadership spilled into the public on Friday amid fallout from the memo.

The memo stated that the DOJ and FBI concluded their review of Epstein’s files and did not find any information that could lead to charges against anyone new.

Despite Bongino reportedly now breaking with leadership over the memo and weighing resignation, people familiar with the matter said as of Friday that FBI Director Kash Patel and Bondi remained in communication and that Patel is happy with his job.

A DOJ spokesman and an FBI spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Bongino, a former Secret Service agent with no prior FBI experience, hosted a popular podcast before Trump tapped him to serve in the No. 2 role at the bureau. On his show, Bongino repeatedly raised alarm over Epstein’s ‘client list,’ saying ‘there’s a reason they’re hiding it’ and that its release would ‘rock the political world.’

But in the memo released on Monday, the FBI and DOJ said they uncovered no such list.

Bongino, Bondi and Patel are all facing blowback over the Epstein files from a faction of their supporters, who say they reneged on repeated vows to open the curtain on details of Epstein’s case.

Epstein, a financier who was known to engage with wealthy, well-known figures, was indicted in 2019 over allegations he recruited dozens of women, including minors as young as 14, and had sexual relations with them or sexually abused them. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of conspiring to sexually abuse minors and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. She has an appeal pending.

The DOJ and FBI said in their memo that much of the nonpublic information related to Epstein’s case is under court-ordered seals or contains child pornography and private information about victims.

Before joining the bureau, Patel and Bongino both advanced theories that the government was hiding information about the case, including a supposed ‘list’ of unindicted sexual predators.

The DOJ and FBI’s memo poured cold water on that idea by noting that the agencies found ‘no incriminating ‘client list.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X that DOJ and FBI leadership, including Bongino, were in lockstep during the compilation and release of the memo. The idea that ‘there was any daylight’ between the FBI and DOJ was ‘patently false,’ Blanche said.

Bongino was not at work on Friday because he was so upset by the fallout from the Epstein memo, sources said. One said Bongino had not anticipated the backlash from his supporters.

Fox News’ David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

While the 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, has resulted in a host of changes to bolster the Secret Service’s security practices, the agency has its work cut out for it in an era of unprecedented threats against the president, according to former Secret Service agents. 

Trump faces a plethora of threats, ranging from violent extremists backed by proxy groups, to domestic actors inspired to incite violence amid heightened political rhetoric, according to experts.

‘No U.S. president has been under so much threat of violence,’ Bill Gage, who served as a Secret Service special agent during Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s administrations, told Fox News Digital Wednesday. ‘The threat on President Trump is the greatest that any president has ever faced.’

Twenty-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump from a rooftop during the rally — with one of the eight bullets shot grazing Trump’s ear. In addition to injuring two people, the gunman also shot and killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father and husband attending the rally. 

Months later, another man was apprehended and charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Both incidents are under investigation. 

Political rhetoric from the left that paints Trump as a threat to democracy is dangerous and could provide fodder for political radicals to believe assassinating the president is the way to save the country — potentially leading to a similar assassination attempt seen in Pennsylvania, Gage said.

Other factors contributing to the heightened threat levels include policies related to immigration or funding cuts from the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that are unpopular with the left, as well as hostile proxy groups who are backed by actors like Iran who oppose Trump, Gage said. 

‘That increases the threat level on Trump,’ Gage said. ‘There’s probably dozens and dozens of threats every day, just sort of insider threats, or threats within our own borders that the Secret Service has to run down.’ 

Specifically, Gage pointed to comments from leaders like Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who delivered an address to the nation in June where he claimed ‘democracy is under assault,’ following the Trump administration’s decision to dispatch thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to respond to the immigration riots in the Golden State and place them under federal command, rather than state command. 

‘Right now there is someone out there reading Newsom’s quotes, someone who wishes President Trump harm,’ Gage said in an email in June to Fox News Digital. ‘It is up to the USSS to stop them. Hopefully those wishing the President harm will not slip through the cracks.’

A spokesperson for Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Trump isn’t the only subject that’s a potential target for politically motivated violence. 

Attacks against federal immigration officials are on the rise and a gunman opened fire against Border Patrol agents Monday at an annex in McAllen, Texas. Authorities have yet to identify a motive. 

However, lawmakers have not minced their words on Trump’s immigration agenda. In June, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., accused ICE of acting ‘like a terrorist force’ — comments she has since defended. 

Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., who oversees the House Homeland Security committee’s subcommittee on border security and enforcement, said in a Wednesday statement to Fox News Digital that ‘radical anti-law enforcement rhetoric’ has prompted the surge in violence against federal immigration officials.  

Meanwhile, threats continue to change, creating additional challenges for security forces like the Secret Service as they adapt. 

Although the Secret Service is taking action to enhance its security measures, the agency still faces ‘considerable vulnerabilities given the rising complexity and sophistication of the threats it faces,’ Tim Miller, who served as a Secret Service agent during Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton’s administrations, said in an email Wednesday to Fox News Digital.

‘The FBI has consistently warned about homegrown violent extremists, which remains a major concern,’ Miller said. 

While Miller characterized Butler as a ‘wake-up’ call for the Secret Service and said the incident is sharpening the agency’s ability to handle threats, there is still a lot of work that must be done, he said. 

‘The Secret Service is also still playing catch-up when it comes to adopting critical technology — especially in the areas of secure communications, drone surveillance, and real-time intelligence tools,’ Miller said. ‘These are not luxuries; they are vital to modern protective operations.’

A bipartisan House task force that investigated the attack found that the attempted assassination was ‘preventable,’ and determined various mistakes were not an isolated incident. 

At the top of the list of mistakes, the report identified that the Secret Service did not secure a ‘high-risk area’ next to the rally, the American Glass Research (AGR) grounds and building complex. Failure to secure this area ‘eventually allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement, climb on and traverse the roof of the AGR complex, and open fire.’ 

Other faults the task force found included handing over advance planning roles to inexperienced Secret Service personnel, along with various technology and communication breakdowns. 

‘Moreover, relevant threat information known by members of the intelligence community was not escalated to key personnel working the rally,’ the House task force said in its report. 

As a result, the agency has spearheaded a series of reforms. 

According to former Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe, immediate changes to the agency following Butler, Pennsylvania, included expanding the use of drones for surveillance purposes, and also incorporating greater counter-drone technology to mitigate kinetic attacks from other drones. 

The agency also overhauled its radio communications networks and interoperability of those networks with Secret Service personnel, and state and local law enforcement officers, Rowe told lawmakers on a bipartisan House task force investigating the assassination attempt in December 2024.  Updates to these radio communications are a significant change, according to Gage, who noted that he could carry up to five radios at a time because an integrated system didn’t exist.

Rowe also told lawmakers that the Secret Service was aiming to up its staffing in the next year, and had placed more special agents in Trump’s security detail. Some of the additional $231 million in funding that Congress approved for the Secret Service in a stopgap spending bill in September 2024 to hire 1,000 new agents and officers in 2025 would go toward these increased hiring plans, Rowe said. 

A few other changes are in the pipeline, including possibly building a precise replica of the White House. Historically, agents have trained using Tyler Perry’s White House replica at his Atlanta film studio. 

Secret Service director Sean Curran said in an interview on Fox News’ ‘My View with Lara Trump’ in April that the agency is working with the White House to install such a building at the James J. Rowley Training Center, a 500-acre center in Laurel, Maryland. 

‘In order for our officers and agents to train up properly, they have to see what it’s like to be at the White House,’ Curran said. ‘It’s an important complex to know. There’s a lot of ins and outs, and something as simple as the local fire department showing up to help with a fire, and they need to know where they are going.’ 

Altogether, Congressional oversight bodies issued nearly 50 recommendations to the Secret Service following the assassination attempt, including ones related to better radio communications and planning for events. The agency reported Thursday that it has executed 21 of those recommendations, and is in the process of implementing 16 others. 

‘The reforms made over this last year are just the beginning, and the agency will continue to assess its operations, review recommendations and make additional changes as needed,’ the Secret Service said in a news release Thursday.

President Donald Trump on Saturday defended Attorney General Pam Bondi as doing a ‘fantastic job’ after she came under fire from some Trump supporters over the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. 

‘What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a fantastic job,’ Trump wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social on Saturday. ‘We’re on one team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.’ 

He continued to question why people were ‘giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.’  

‘LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT! The 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and they tried to do the same thing in 2024 — That’s what she is looking into as AG, and much more. One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.’

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Saturday that charges against a doctor accused of destroying COVID-19 vaccines and giving children fake shots at their parents’ request have been dropped. 

‘At my direction @TheJusticeDept has dismissed charges against Dr. Kirk Moore,’ Bondi wrote on X. ‘Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today.’ 

Moore, whose trial got underway Monday, was facing decades in prison for allegedly destroying more than $28,000 in COVID-19 vaccines and fraudulently completing and distributing hundreds of vaccination record cards. 

The Utah-based plastic surgeon was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2023. 

Prosecutors say Moore and his three co-defendants ran a scheme out of Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah Inc. to ‘defraud the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).’ 

On Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she was writing a letter to the Justice Department to urge it to drop charges against Moore. 

‘This man is a hero, not a criminal,’ she contended on X. ‘The charges were filed under Biden’s DOJ, not Trump.’

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also praised Moore on X in April, writing, ‘Dr. Moore deserves a medal for his courage and his commitment to healing!’

Greene thanked Bondi on Saturday. 

‘Thank you AG Pam Bondi for dropping the WRONGFUL charges against Dr. Kirk Moore!’ she wrote on X. ‘We can never again allow our government to turn tyrannical under our watch. Thankfully, as soon as I told Pam Bondi about Dr. Moore’s case she swiftly moved to drop the charges against him. This is a big win!’

Bondi wrote that getting the charges against Moore dropped would not have been possible without Greene, ‘who brought this case to my attention. She has been a warrior for Dr. Moore and for ending the weaponization of government.’

Bondi’s actions come as some supporters of President Trump are calling for her resignation after the Justice Department and FBI on Sunday released a joint review that ended theories about an alleged Jeffrey Epstein client list, concluding there was no such list detailing the names of the world’s elite who allegedly took part in Epstein’s history as a sexual predator.

The DOJ also concluded the disgraced financier committed suicide in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting further sex trafficking charges. 

Public outrage ensued after the release of a prison surveillance video that the administration used to prove that no one entered Epstein’s cell in the hours leading up to his death.

The 10-hour video, though, has one minute missing, which has fueled conspiracy theories that the administration is participating in a cover-up involving Epstein’s death.

‘President Trump is proud of Attorney General Bondi’s efforts to execute his Make America Safe Again agenda, restore the integrity of the Department of Justice, and bring justice to victims of crime. The continued fixation on sowing division in President Trump’s Cabinet is baseless and unfounded in reality,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt siad.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is also considering resigning over the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files after a heated argument with Bondi this week, a source told Fox News Digital this week.

Bongino has not been seen in his office since Wednesday, a source said, adding he has yet to make a final decision about his future. 

Fox News’ Amanda Macias, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report. 

FBI Director Kash Patel on Saturday squashed rumors of a rift inside the Trump administration’s law-and-order team, just hours before the president himself defended Attorney General Pam Bondi amid Jeffrey Epstein probe backlash.

The criticism came after the FBI and Department of Justice on Sunday released a memo shutting down theories about an alleged Epstein client list, finding a tell-all document exposing his associates did not exist. Fueling the fire was a one-minute gap in a surveillance video from Epstein’s cell, which was part of the evidence the DOJ released. The review found the disgraced financier died by suicide in jail in 2019.

Fox News reported Friday that Patel’s No. 2, Deputy Director Dan Bongino, was considering resigning if Bondi stayed on as head of the Department of Justice, which oversees the FBI. There were unconfirmed reports that Patel might step down as well, but he shot that down with a social media post Saturday, saying ‘conspiracy theories’ about a potential resignation over Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files ‘just aren’t true.’

‘The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been,’ Patel wrote. ‘It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States @realDonaldTrump — and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.’

Hours after Patel’s post, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to express unhappiness with his follower’s reaction.

Trump supporters posted videos to social media Saturday afternoon charring MAGA hats in protest.

‘What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB,’ Trump wrote. ‘We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.’ 

He went on to describe Epstein as a ‘guy who never dies’ and shifted blame to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA director John Brennan, and the Biden administration.

‘They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called ‘friends’ are playing right into their hands,’ Trump wrote. ‘Why didn’t these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files? If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didn’t they use it?’

The president claimed that one year ago, the country was ‘DEAD,’ but is now ‘the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. 

‘Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,’ Trump wrote.

Rumors about a change in leadership were triggered by Patel’s apparent X biography change, where his title as FBI Director was removed to only read, ‘Fmr Chief of Staff @DeptofDefense.’

Multiple sources told Fox News Digital Bongino and Bondi butted heads at a White House meeting Wednesday, with Bongino accusing Bondi of a ‘lack of transparency from the start’ in the Epstein files probe. 

The former Secret Service agent-turned FBI official allegedly raised his voice at Trump’s White House chief of staff before storming out, and has since been weighing resignation over the episode, insiders said. 

Bondi and Patel, however, have presented a united front. Sources close to Bondi claim she has ‘no intention of stepping down’ and the pair are in constant communication.

‘Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made,’ White House Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital, emphasizing that Trump’s law-and-order lineup is working ‘seamlessly and with unity.’

‘President Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims,’ Fields added. ‘This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.’

The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ David Spunt, Amanda Macias, Jake Gibson, Ashley Oliver and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.

The State Department will move to layoff nearly 2,000 employees on Friday as it begins its reorganization plan. 

An internal memo circulated Thursday evening by Michael Rigas, deputy secretary of management and resources, announced that domestic employees affected by the reduction in force (RIF) would be notified ‘over the coming days.’ 

Approximately 1,800 people will be affected, Fox News has learned. 

The RIF notices plus voluntary departures under the Trump administration amount to a 15% work force reduction. 

‘The departments, bureaus, offices and domestic operations have grown considerably over the last 25 years, and the resulting proliferation of bureaus and offices with unclear, overlapping or duplicative mandates have hobbled the department’s ability to rapidly respond to emerging threats and crises or to effectively advance America’s affirmative interests in the world,’ a senior State Department official said. 

The official added that there are ‘more than 700 domestic offices for 18,000 people.’ 

‘A lot of this, as we said, covers redundant offices and takes some of these cross-cutting functions and moves them to the regional bureaus and to our embassies overseas, to the people who are closest to where diplomacy is happening, to empower them with the resources and authorities they need to be able to carry out the President’s foreign policy.’

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce warned on Thursday the agency would move quickly after the Supreme Court stayed the lower court’s injunction blocking the administration from implementing widescale force reductions across federal agencies. 

A senior official said there are currently no plans for overseas closures of embassies and outposts. They added the State Department will work to preserve the dignity of affected workers. 

‘We’re going to work to preserve the dignity of federal workers,’ the official said. ‘We want to be sensitive to that process and make sure people have the resources they need … and make sure everyone is treated with dignity.’

A former White House physician is criticizing Kevin O’Connor after the ex-Biden administration doctor refused to answer questions by House Oversight Committee investigators earlier this week.

Dr. O’Connor, who served as White House physician to former President Joe Biden, sat down for a transcribed interview with committee staff and panel Chair James Comer, R-Ky., on Wednesday. The closed-door meeting lasted roughly 30 minutes, with O’Connor invoking the Fifth Amendment to all questions, save for his name.

His legal team said there were concerns the broad scope of Comer’s probe could force O’Connor into a position of risking doctor-patient confidentiality privileges. 

‘Well, you can’t do both,’ Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a former White House doctor himself, told Fox News Digital in an interview afterward.

‘I mean, the Fifth Amendment is designed to keep him from incriminating himself in some type of, you know, criminal or unethical behavior. He’d already addressed the issue of patient-doctor privacy, or confidentiality, with the committee.’

He pointed out that O’Connor’s lawyers had already raised issues with patient-doctor confidentiality in a letter to the committee trying to get the interview delayed, but Comer pressed forward.

‘They had already let him know that in this particular case, because he had been subpoenaed, and it was a legal process, he’d been subpoenaed to testify before Congress in this closed session, that the patient-doctor privilege no longer applied,’ Jackson said. ‘And President Trump had waived presidential privilege. So it left him with nothing. Nothing to stand on except for pleading the Fifth.’

Before being elected to Congress, Jackson served as White House physician to both former President Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump.

Comer told reporters on Wednesday that Jackson played a key role in crafting questions for O’Connor. 

‘We have a lot of questions that we’ve prepared for this. We’ve consulted closely with Ronny Jackson, my colleague, who was the White House physician in the first Trump administration. We’ve consulted with a lot of people in the medical community, so there’s going to be a lot of medical questions that are asked,’ he told reporters before the transcribed interview.

He is investigating accusations 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 on those claims.

‘The cover-up could not have happened without the assistance and the help of his personal physician, Kevin O’Connor,’ Jackson said. ‘I think that’s why he pled the Fifth, because he realized he was about to implicate himself as a key player in this cover-up.’

O’Connor’s lawyers have denied any implications of guilt.

Jackson said some of the questions he recommended to the committee would have surrounded any potential neurological concerns or cognitive tests while Biden was in office.

But many of those were left unasked, it appears, after O’Connor’s brief meeting with House investigators.

The doctor’s lawyers said O’Connor’s refusal to answer questions on Fifth Amendment grounds was not an admission of guilt, but rather a response to what they saw as an unprecedented investigatory scope that could have violated the bounds of patient-physician privilege.

‘This Committee has indicated to Dr. O’Connor and his attorneys that it does not intend to honor one of the most well-known privileges in our law – the physician patient privilege. Instead, the Committee has indicated that it will demand that Dr. O’Connor reveal, without any limitations, confidential information regarding his medical examinations, treatment, and care of President Biden,’ the attorney statement said.

‘Revealing confidential patient information would violate the most fundamental ethical duty of a physician, could result in revocation of Dr. O’Connor’s medical license, and would subject Dr. O’Connor to potential civil liability. Dr. O’Connor will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden.’

Fox News Digital reached out to O’Connor’s lawyers for further comment.

I wrote recently about the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has drawn the ire of colleagues in opinions for her rhetoric and extreme positions. Many have expressed alarm over her adherence to what has been described by one as an ‘imperial judiciary’ model of jurisprudence. Now, it appears that Jackson’s increasingly controversial opinions are serving a certain cathartic purpose for the far-left Biden appointee.

‘I just feel that I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people in my opinions how I feel about the issues, and that’s what I try to do,’ Jackson told ABC News.

Her colleagues have not entirely welcomed that sense of license. The histrionic and hyperbolic rhetoric has increased in Jackson’s opinions, which at times portray her colleagues as abandoning not just the Constitution but democracy itself.

Her dissent in the recent ruling on universal injunctions drew the rebuke of Justice Amy Coney Barrett over what was described as ‘a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush.’

‘We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,’ Barrett wrote. ‘We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.’

Jackson, however, clearly feels that opinions are a way for her to opine on issues of the day. 

She is not alone. Across the country, liberal judges have been adding their own commentary to decisions in order to condemn Trump, his supporters, and his policies.

I previously wrote about this pattern of extrajudicial commentary.

District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who previously presided over Trump’s election interference case, was criticized for failing to recuse herself from that case after she made highly controversial statements about Trump from the bench. Chutkan lashed out at ‘a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.’ That ‘one person’ was still under investigation at the time, and when Trump was charged, Chutkan refused to let the case go.

Later, Chutkan again added her own commentary when asked to dismiss a case due to Trump pardoning January 6 defendants. She acknowledged that she could not block the pardons, but proclaimed that the pardons could not change the ‘tragic truth’ and ‘cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.’

One of Chutkan’s colleagues, Judge Beryl Howell, also an Obama appointee, lashed out at Trump’s actions, writing, ‘[T]his Court cannot let stand the revisionist myth relayed in this presidential pronouncement.’

Then there is Judge Amit Mehta, another Obama appointee, who has been criticized for conflicted rulings in Trump cases and his bizarre (and ultimately abandoned) effort to banish January 6 defendants from the Capitol.

Last week, Mehta had a straightforward question of jurisdiction concerning a challenge to the denial of grants by the Trump administration. While correctly dismissing the challenge, Mehta decided to add his own commentary on Trump’s priorities and policies:

‘Defendants’ rescinding of these awards is shameful. It is likely to harm communities and individuals vulnerable to crime and violence. But displeasure and sympathy are not enough in a court of law.’

For Jackson, her opinions have at times left her isolated on the Court. Weeks ago, Jackson and Sotomayor were alone in dissent over the defiance of a district court judge of the Court’s decision on universal injunctions. To her credit, Justice Elena Kagan (who voted with Sotomayor and Jackson in dissent in the earlier case) voted with her conservative colleagues in rebuking Judge Brian Murphy in Boston.

Kagan joined in the reversal of Murphy’s conflicting order and wrote the new order ‘clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial.’

This week, Jackson lost even Sotomayor and stood alone in her dissent in support of an injunction over plans to downsize the government. Sotomayor observed that the Trump order only directed agencies to plan for such downsizing and said that the courts could hardly enjoin such policy preparations in the Executive Branch.

However, Jackson could and would. 

The controversial position of Jackson on the Court is not due to her liberal views. We have had many such liberal jurists. The difference is how Jackson views her role as a justice.

The danger is not confined to opinions. For years, justices have yielded to the temptations of public speaking before supportive groups. I have long been a critic of what I called the era of ‘celebrity justices,’ where members seem to maintain political constituencies at public events. 

Such speeches not only undermine the integrity of the Court by discussing matters that may come before it, but they can create a desire to maintain the adoration of supporters. The greatest danger is that justices will consciously or subconsciously pander to their bases with soundbites and inflammatory rhetoric.

Judicial advocacy from the bench has been a concern since the founding. Article III can have a corrosive impact on certain jurists who come to view themselves as anointed rather than appointed. Most judges and justices are acutely aware of that danger and struggle to confine their rulings to the merits of disputes, avoiding political questions or commentary.

The ‘opportunity to tell people how I feel’ can become a slippery slope where opinions become more like judicial op-eds. The Court is not a cable show. The price of the ticket to being ‘one of nine’ is that you should speak only through your opinions and only on the narrow legal matter before you. 

Opinions must remain ‘opportunities’ to do simple justice, not a supreme editorial.

Former White House aide Ashley Williams is the latest ex-Biden administration official to appear in the House Oversight Committee’s probe.

Oversight Committee Chair 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 on those claims.

Williams is the third member of Biden’s White House inner circle to show up, though she said nothing to reporters on her way into the room late Friday morning nor during a brief lunch break in the afternoon.

She’s a longtime Biden ally whose time with the Democrat goes back to assisting then-second lady Jill Biden during the Obama administration, according to a 2019 profile of Biden staffers.

Williams later worked for both Biden’s 2020 campaign and presidential transition team. She served as his trip director before being hired to the White House as deputy director of Oval Office Operations and a special assistant to the president.

Williams ended her White House tenure as deputy assistant to the president, senior advisor to the president, and director of Strategic Outreach, according to her LinkedIn page.

Notably, the social media page also says Williams still works for the ex-leader as senior advisor in the Office of Former President Joe Biden.

Williams is a graduate of Georgetown University, and received a doctorate of Law from the University of Pennsylvania. She also got a Master’s degree in political management from George Washington University.

She was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee last year in Republicans’ investigation into Biden’s cognitive health, but GOP investigators say the White House blocked her from giving any information.

‘The Biden White House obstructed the Committee’s investigation and refused to make the aides available for depositions or interviews,’ the committee said in a press release this year.

Williams’ Friday appearance was not forced under subpoena, however. She appeared voluntarily for her closed-door transcribed interview.

The Trump White House waived executive privilege for Williams along with several other former Biden aides last month.

Progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, made a second surprise appearance at the House Oversight Committee’s closed-door discussions with former Biden administration aides this week, once again criticizing President Donald Trump on the way out.

Crockett surprised reporters when she arrived roughly 15 minutes after House investigators’ transcribed interview with former White House advisor Ashley Williams began, declining to speak on the way in.

The Texas Democrat emerged just over 30 minutes later, saying little about what went on inside but telling reporters she still had ‘absolutely’ no concerns about Biden’s mental fitness while in office.

She said it was important to ‘be there physically’ for Biden allies being interviewed in the GOP probe – even going as far as suggesting the Trump administration created a threatening environment for members of Congress and its own political opponents.

‘It is important…in my mind, to be there for these witnesses. Unfortunately, we know what happens when this regime gets going. We know about the threats that come upon them, that come upon us as members of Congress,’ Crockett said.

‘I think it is important to stand there in solidarity and to at least be there physically so that they don’t feel like they’re alone as they are enduring egregious attacks consistently from this administration.’

Crockett was the only lawmaker seen going in or out of Williams’ meeting with investigators on Friday. The transcribed interview was expected to be staff-led, and lawmakers were not required to attend.

‘Right now, the Republicans continue to act as if this is a main priority. Yet none of them are showing up,’ she said.

‘I do think that it is important that I show up because if they are going to make allegations about the former commander-in-chief, egregious allegations they continue to wage. I want to make sure that I’m in the room to correct the record, because a lot of times they like to mischaracterize things.’

When asked by Fox News Digital if the interview was still ongoing as she exited, however, Crockett answered, ‘It’s still going. I’m leaving early. I’ve got to get to another thing.’

A source familiar with the ongoing proceeding told Fox News Digital that Crockett came in during Republican investigators’ round of questioning and so was unable to make inquiries herself. Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett for a response.

Williams was the former Director of Strategic Outreach under the Biden administration. She did not speak to reporters on the way into her transcribed interview.

Crockett initially caught reporters and potentially even staff off guard when she arrived for the closed-door deposition of Biden’s former White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., was there as well, as is the norm for sworn depositions.

Williams, unlike O’Connor, is not on Capitol Hill under subpoena.

During her Wednesday appearance, Crockett declared she never had any concerns about Biden’s mental state while he was president, though she did raise similar claims about Trump.

White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital in response to Crockett questioning Trump’s mental acuity: ‘The Democrats’ rising star has done more to cement the party’s demise than the President she breathlessly supported, the decrepit and feeble Joe Biden. Jasmine continues to prove she’d be better suited as a reality TV star on VH1 than an elected official on Capitol Hill.’

Comer is investigating accusations 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 on those claims.