A Senate Republican wants the Justice Department to investigate, and potentially prosecute, former Special Counsel Jack Smith over whether he ‘unlawfully took political actions to influence the 2024 election’ against President Donald Trump.

Sen. Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused Smith of seeking to impact the 2024 election in his capacity as special counsel under the Biden-led Justice Department in a letter to the acting head of the Office of Special Counsel, Jamieson Greer, first obtained by Fox News Digital.  

‘As the Office of the Special Counsel is tasked with ensuring federal employees aren’t conducting partisan political activity under the guise of their federal employment, you’re well situated to determine whether Smith broke the law,’ the Arkansas Republican wrote.

‘Many of Smith’s legal actions seem to have no rationale except for an attempt to affect the 2024 election results – actions that would violate federal law,’ he continued.

Smith was tapped by former Attorney General Merrick Garland to probe allegations that Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election results, and later investigated the handling of classified documents that were uncovered during a raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound.

Cotton listed four instances during Smith’s tenure where he charged that the prosecutor sped up trial dates and published information ‘with no legitimate purpose.’

In one example, Cotton accused Smith of fast-tracking the trial date and jury selection for his case against Trump related to his August 2023 indictment that was part of his 2020 election investigation.

That indictment included four charges against the president, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

Cotton argued that, typically, defendants have more than two years to prepare for that kind of trial, and noted that the jury selection period was slated just two weeks before the Iowa Caucuses in 2024.

He also charged that Smith skirted the normal appellate process and ‘failed to articulate a legitimate reason’ the court should grant his request when Smith demanded a trial before the forthcoming election day, wanted an expedited review by the appeals court and then filed a petition with the Supreme Court to bypass the district court after Trump filed his defense with the District of Columbia District Court in December 2023.

Cotton accused Smith of violating the Justice Department’s ’60-day rule,’ that prevents prosecutorial steps from being taken that could influence an upcoming election. That charge stemmed from Smith’s move to file a brief following the Supreme Court’s decision regarding presidential immunity, which was granted on Sept. 26, 2024, a little over a month out from the election.

And that brief, Cotton noted, exceeded the normally allowed length four times over and included grand jury testimony ‘typically kept secret at this point in other proceedings.’

‘These actions were not standard, necessary, or justified – unless Smith’s real purpose was to influence the election,’ Cotton said. ‘In fact, throughout Special Counsel Smith’s tenure, he regularly used farfetched and aggressive legal theories to prosecute the Republican nominee for president. I would add that President Biden also called during the election for President Trump to be ‘locked up.’’

‘President Trump, of course, vanquished Joe Biden, Jack Smith, every Democrat who weaponized the law against him, but President Trump’s astounding victory doesn’t excuse Smith of responsibility for his unlawful election interference,’ he continued. ‘I therefore ask the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Jack Smith or any members of his team unlawfully acted for political purposes.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Smith but did not immediately hear back.

The Supreme Court revealed on Wednesday that Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal to her sex trafficking conviction will be among the many cases the high court reviews at a closed-door conference in September.

The Supreme Court posted a brief notice indicating it plans to examine a petition from Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and associate, on Sept. 29, marking the first time the justices will have her case before them. The public could learn whether the high court plans to review Maxwell’s case within days or weeks of that date.

If the Supreme Court were to deny Maxwell’s petition, she would have no appeal options left. If the high court were to grant it, that means it would review Maxwell’s arguments that she was improperly prosecuted.

Maxwell was convicted by a jury in New York in 2021 of five counts involving sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

She appealed her conviction, arguing it should be tossed out because a plea deal Epstein reached with the federal government in 2007 immunized her and statutes of limitations for her actions had lapsed.

Maxwell’s case has reentered the spotlight in recent weeks after the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI revealed that they had reviewed Epstein’s case files and found no further information that they could release to the public. The DOJ and FBI also said they uncovered no further evidence that would allow them to bring investigative action against figures who may have been associated with Epstein, a wealthy financier and registered sex offender who died in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial.

However, the administration faced intense blowback from MAGA supporters who felt Trump appointees, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, were reneging on promises to unveil revelatory information about Epstein’s case.

Trump, who was among the many prominent figures who once socialized with Epstein, said the topic was ‘sordid’ but ‘boring’ and dismissed questions about it. However, in the face of building pressure, the president demanded the DOJ take more action to release files.

The Supreme Court signaling that it will review Maxwell’s case comes at a delicate moment.

After Trump’s demands, the department asked the court to release a limited and redacted batch of documents from the grand juries’ indictments of Epstein and Maxwell. Then, DOJ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is serving her prison sentence, and questioned her for two days. 

Blanche’s motives for the meeting remain unclear.

Maxwell’s attorney, David Markus, told reporters after the meeting that it marked the ‘first opportunity she’s ever been given to answer questions about what happened.’  She answered questions about ‘maybe about a hundred different people, and she didn’t hold anything back,’ Markus said. He said they had not ‘yet’ approached Trump about clemency. The president recently said, when asked by a reporter about the matter, that he is ‘allowed’ to give Maxwell a pardon but that he had not considered it at this stage.

The House Oversight Committee has also moved to pull back the curtain on Epstein’s case by subpoenaing Maxwell to testify before the panel.

Maxwell’s attorney responded by saying she would need full immunity to testify and that she wanted to wait until after the Supreme Court responded to her petition.

Israel-supporting Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres revealed on Tuesday he no longer has a relationship with some of his family due to his support for Israel. 

‘I’ve lost friends, all of you have lost friends there,’ he told a room full of Jewish students at the Israel on Campus Coalition Summit on Tuesday. ‘I’m no longer on speaking terms with with certain members of my family.’

Torres’ deep support for Israel has put him at odds with progressives in his party — but the New York Democrat has only recently begun to express frustration with the Jerusalem government. 

‘No offense, but there are moments when I feel like the Israeli government has the worst PR operation that I’ve ever seen,’ he told a room full of Israel-supporting students at the Israel on Campus Coalition Summit, some of whom applauded the remark. 

‘If I have like a normal constituent who comes to me, is not anti-Israel, is not anti-Semitic, but expresses this concern about hunger in Gaza, I cannot tell her there’s no issue,’ he said. ‘I cannot deny it. I cannot downplay that.’

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reports that 60,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s offensive campaign in Gaza to eradicate Hamas, and 154 have died from lack of food. President Donald Trump this week acknowledged there’s ‘real starvation’ in Gaza due to food shortages.  

Torres said that while he doesn’t hold Israel responsible for that starvation, ‘I feel like we should be doing everything we can to ease the human suffering in Gaza.’

He claimed that Israel is held to a ‘double standard’ because ‘no other country has been and has been expected to deliver food to its adversaries.’ 

Aid has been trickling into Gaza through the Israel-partnered Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which, since operations began on May 27, the group says has delivered more than 97 million meals. 

That ‘definitely contradicts the narrative that there’s a deliberate policy of starvation,’ Torres said. 

However, Israeli forces guard distribution sites, and the United Nations — which opposes GHF — claims over 1,000 Palestinians have died seeking aid through the group. GHF, in turn, argues the U.N.’s aid distribution has been entirely ineffective: U.N. data shows that only 8% of U.N. aid has reached its destination without being looted in the last 10 weeks, according to a Reuters report.

Israel has said there is no widespread famine in Gaza, asserting photos are misleading or of isolated cases, but has started to pause fighting in large swathes of the strip for 10 hours a day to allow for a surge of aid by land and air. 

A ceasefire and hostage deal has so far evaded Israel and Hamas leadership. White House envoy Steve Witkoff is on his way to Israel for negotiations as of Wednesday, Axios reported. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., plans to force a vote on banning arms sales to Israel, a move that will prove to be a test for Senate Democrats whose position on the Jewish state has shifted in recent weeks.

Sanders, an independent who routinely caucuses with Senate Democrats, announced he would force a vote on a pair of resolutions to block the $675 million sale of thousands of bombs and guidance kits for the bombs and to halt the sale of ‘tens of thousands’ of automatic rifles to Israel.

‘U.S. taxpayers have spent tens of billions of dollars in support of the racist, extremist Netanyahu government,’ Sanders said in a statement. ‘Enough is enough.’

It’s not the first time Sanders has pushed to block arms sales or military aid to the Jewish state. Since December 2023, just months after the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the lawmaker has either introduced or forced votes on resolutions five times, each intended to block military aid and billions of dollars in munitions and arms.

His latest attempt comes after photos revealed starving children in Gaza, which he squarely blamed on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘The time is long overdue for Congress to use the leverage we have — tens of billions in arms and military aid — to demand that Israel end these atrocities,’ he said.

The vote, expected late Thursday, comes as Senate Democrats have undergone a tonal shift on Israel since the events of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas executed a brutal attack on Israeli soil.

Sanders’ last attempt earlier this year that sought to block over $8 billion in arms sales, saw 15 Senate Democrats vote for it, while all Senate Republicans voted against it. Though the resolutions are likely to fail as his previous attempts have, more Democrats are expected to vote alongside him. 

Earlier this week, 40 Senate Democrats wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and called on the administration to push for ‘a large-scale expansion of humanitarian assistance and services throughout the Gaza Strip.’

Senate Republicans have largely blamed the reported conditions in Gaza on Hamas, with some calling for more food aid making its way into the Gaza Strip. President Donald Trump vowed that more food centers, administered by Israel, would be coming.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he shared Trump’s view and that there was a desire to ‘meet that need and alleviate that pain.’

‘But you got to understand, too, that when you got a terrorist group like Hamas operating in that region, they intercept and divert a lot of that food aid that’s going in there,’ he said. ‘That’s the challenge that the Israelis have. That’s the challenge that we have and other nations around the world.’ 

President Donald Trump and several key health advisors in his Cabinet held a formal event Wednesday at the White House unveiling new efforts to improve healthcare technology and partnerships with private-sector technology companies. 

The ‘Make Health Tech Great Again’ event laid out a new voluntary commitment from several major tech and tech-healthcare firms aimed at developing a better process for digital health record sharing, which Trump admin officials said would ultimately improve health outcomes for Americans. In addition to the commitment, the new health tech efforts will also include the development of personalized tools meant to help patients obtain greater control of their health information to make more informed decisions.

‘For decades, America’s healthcare networks have been overdue for a high-tech upgrade, and that’s what we’re doing. The existing systems are often slow, costly, and incompatible with one another,’ Trump said from the White House during the Wednesday afternoon event. ‘But with today’s announcement, we take a major step to bring health care into the digital age, something that, is absolutely vital. We’ve got to do it. Moving from clipboards and fax machines into a new era of convenience, profitability and speed and, frankly, better health for people.’

The event announcing the Trump administration’s plan to advance a ‘next-generation digital health ecosystem,’ was attended by representatives of companies, including Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, OpenAI, Anthropic, Epic, Oracle, Athena Health, and Noom, who will be participating in the voluntary pledge aimed at improving health record sharing. As part of the pledge, the companies will ‘voluntarily’ share information with each other, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also present at the Wednesday event. 

‘For decades, bureaucrats and entrenched interests buried health data and blocked patients from taking control of their health,’ Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement Wednesday ahead of the event. ‘That ends today. We’re tearing down digital walls, returning power to patients, and rebuilding a health system that serves the people. This is how we begin to Make America Healthy Again.’

The Trump administration is partnering with more than 60 companies to bolster how health information is shared electronically, including through the use of apps, and beef up the interoperability of health information networks, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). 

The apps aim to address issues including diabetes and obesity management, and provide beneficiaries with AI assistants to walk through symptoms, provide care options, and assist with scheduling appointments. Other functions that the technology aims to solve are providing digital check-ins to streamline services and cut down on paper intake forms. 

‘It gives [patients] a sense of responsibility and allows them to measure the interventions if they change their diet, if they change their exercise, it can show you how many steps you took today, it can tell you if your glucose is spiking, and all of that information will now be available to American citizens,’ Kennedy said Wednesday. 

The White House event is a follow-up to the request for information notice that the CMS posted in May requesting information from stakeholders on ways to beef up health technology interoperability. 

Other technological advances on the health front include plans for CMS to launch an app library on Medicare.gov to best direct beneficiaries to the right digital health tools, according to CMS. 

‘The average Americans are tired. They’re tired of waiting for a doctor’s appointment. They’re tired of waiting for the surprise of what your hospital bill is going to offer. That’s being addressed,’ CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz added Wednesday. 

‘They’re tired of waiting for access to their medical records. You own your medical records, they’re yours. Why you can’t have access to them is a stunning reality in modern-day America,’ Oz continued. ‘They’re also tired of waiting for Washington to take action. And this president early on emphatically stated that wasn’t going to happen anymore. And today we made that vision into a reality.’

A member of former President Joe Biden’s inner circle sat with House Oversight Committee investigators for a marathon closed-door interview that lasted more than eight hours on Wednesday.

Steve Ricchetti, who served as counselor to the president for all four years of Biden’s term, was described as ‘combative and defensive’ during his voluntary meeting, a source familiar with the sitdown told Fox News Digital.

The source described Ricchetti as defiant in the face of doubts about Biden’s mental acuity, though he ‘admitted that they all knew President Biden’s age was an issue and were dealing with it as a political matter,’ they said.

‘Mr. Ricchetti stated that he believed President Biden had the ability to be president and that he was performing the capacity of president every day. He believes that Joe Biden is capable to being president today, and that he could have won in 2024,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

Ricchetti, a longtime Democratic operative and lobbyist, first began working for Biden in March 2012 when he was appointed counselor to the vice president under former President Barack Obama. He was elevated to be Biden’s chief of staff in December 2013.

He touted his closeness to Biden over the last 13 years, the source said, and described having personal relationships with former first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden as well.

Ricchetti’s own children were also close to the White House during Biden’s tenure – at least three of them had jobs in the Democratic administration at some point.

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

Ricchetti is the seventh ex-Biden aide to come in, but just the fourth to appear on voluntary terms. Former White House doctor Kevin O’Connor and former White House aides Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal all pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions.

Ricchetti told investigators that he was not involved in O’Connor’s physical evaluation letters for Biden, ‘but he did have conversations with senior staff on how to communicate and present President Biden’s physical evaluation letters,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

He also defended Biden’s frequent gaffes, describing them as ‘common mistakes’ that anyone could make, the source said.

‘He said the frequency of these mistakes have not increased since Joe Biden was vice president,’ the source said.

The majority of questioning during the eight-hour session came from Republicans – the source said Democrats frequently attempted to change the topic to discuss President Donald Trump.

Ricchetti said nothing to reporters when leaving the meeting on Wednesday evening.

No lawmakers were present for the sitdown, as is usually the case with such transcribed interviews.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ricchetti’s attorney for comment but did not hear back by press time.

If you haven’t heard the name Sydney Sweeney before, odds are you definitely know her name now if you consume any news at all. American Eagle featured the actress in their new ad campaign that kicked off last week, and liberal women lost their ever loving minds. 

What triggered their spiral this time? Sydney has ‘good genes’ and she’s wearing ‘jeans.’

Outrageous, I know.

This good genes/jeans word play game, well it’s a whole lot of Nazi propaganda with some racism thrown in and linked to eugenics. 

If you’re not a White liberal woman, I’ll try to simplify. In liberal math, good genes + jeans = Nazi. 

I know, that wasn’t on our flashcards growing up. 

The next time you compliment a friend on her looks, resist the urge to mention good genes. Sally down the street will think you’re calling her a Nazi, when really you just want to know what face cream she’s using.

If the good genes/jeans word play were a clue on ‘Jeopardy!’ liberals would answer: ‘I’ll take Sydney Sweeney is a Nazi for $1,000, with a side of eugenics and white supremacy.’ 

Let’s ask the politically incorrect elephant in the room question — If you’re putting a large chunk of money behind an ad to sell jeans targeted at Gen Z, are you going to put someone with good genes or bad genes in front of the camera?

To quote ‘The Godfather’ — ‘It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.’ 

It also doesn’t surprise me that the perpetually outraged liberal and mostly women who have piled on over this campaign seem to ignore one more fact. According to Fox News, ‘100 percent of net proceeds from Sweeney’s ‘Sydney Jean’ – which is embroidered with a butterfly to represent domestic violence awareness – will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit that provides free and confidential text-based mental health support and crisis intervention.’ That sure doesn’t sound like Nazis and eugenics to me.

This week, ‘Good Morning America’ (GMA) didn’t miss the chance to showcase just how unserious they are by jumping on the jean — or gene — meltdown.

Maybe GMA gambled on their viewers not having that first cup of coffee yet, so they wouldn’t notice their fuzzy Nazi math. Is it any wonder that Americans’ trust in the media is at its lowest in more than five decades, according to a Gallup poll?

Going back to the vault, circa 1980, Brooke Shields did a Calvin Klein jeans ad with the same American Eagle/Sydney Sweeney ad vibe. ‘Genes’ and ‘jeans’ were used interchangeably, as well as phrases like ‘natural selection’ and ‘survival of the fittest.’

GMA was around back then, but I don’t recall co-host Joan Lunden doing a Nazi propaganda segment calling out Brooke Shields or Calvin Klein. Then again, that was when history was still being taught in school. 

Ironically, the eugenics trigger is the greatest self-own for White liberal elites, whose holy grail is abortion on demand — anytime, any place, any reason. Legalized abortion has long been one of the most effective ways to reduce populations who are deemed less than.

The White liberal class is largely all in. 

In 2018, then-Pope Francis said, ‘I have heard that it’s fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let’s send it away, I say this with pain. In the last century, the whole world was scandalized about what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today we do the same, but now with white gloves.’

If you’re a woman who’s ever been pregnant, or if you’re the dad supporting the woman, you know doctors highly encourage having screenings for chromosomal disorders such as Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18. They don’t do this because they can cure these chromosomal disorders in utero. They push these tests so you can eliminate the ‘less than perfect problem.’ 

If only these same liberal women were as upset about the fate of unborn babies as they are about jeans. 

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the fact that American Eagle has ‘American’ in its name makes it obvious they’re Nazis. Thankfully, self-appointed experts have the freedom to warn us all from a non-American platform like X.

This week is one of those times I’m grateful to be spending the end of the summer in the South, where sanity tends to rule the day. If I were home — where I’m outnumbered by the White liberal outrage class by about 50-1 — I’m quite confident that between their pique rage hours of Starbucks and Chardonnay, I’d be on the receiving end of the Sydney Sweeney faux fury. 

These people need a time-out — away from all cameras and keyboards … preferably with a history book.

Never underestimate the left’s ability to overplay their hand. They are screamers, but when they scream, conservatives are the ones who quietly act. Think Bud Light.

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey likes to say the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so it’s no surprise that American Eagle’s stock is up more than 15% since the campaign’s rollout last week. 

I’ll be among those contributing to the rise of American Eagle’s stock when I take my girls back to school shopping. Spending my money somewhere that has the left spiraling over an imaginary offense — sign me up. 

Sydney Sweeney may have good genes, but the screamers may be the ad American Eagle never knew it needed. 

It’s back to school season, and the silent actors are shopping loudly.