House Judiciary Committee Democrats have announced they are probing the FBI over whether Director Kash Patel is willfully refusing to disclose information related to Jeffrey Epstein.

‘Who exactly are you protecting by refusing to release the Epstein files? In 2023, on Benny Johnson’s podcast, you were asked why the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was ‘protecting the world’s foremost predator’ by refusing to release the Epstein client list. Your answer: ‘Simple. Because of who’s on that list,” Democratic lawmakers, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote.

‘Now that you are the Director of the FBI, you know precisely who is implicated in the Epstein files, yet you refuse to release them. Who are you protecting and why?’

The letter pointed to several occasions where Patel called for transparency in Epstein’s case, including his statement soon after taking the role, ‘There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned — and anyone from the prior or current Bureau who undermines this will be swiftly pursued.’

‘Strangely, all these promises appear to have collapsed once you determined who was actually in the files,’ the Democrats wrote.

They also referenced a New York Times report that detailed hundreds of people pouring over thousands of documents related to Epstein.

‘This frantic review by nearly 1,000 agents of over 100,000 pages of investigative material apparently revealed no information worthy of disclosure to the American public— however, at least some information from the review was shared with President Trump. In May, Attorney General Bondi reportedly informed President Trump that his name indeed appeared repeatedly in the Epstein files,’ the letter said.

‘Obvious questions abound: why were so many agents tasked with reviewing documents that were never released? What specific instructions were they given during the review? What information did these agents uncover that led DOJ and FBI to reverse their promise to release the files, and how are these decisions related to the President?’

President Donald Trump himself denied being told that his name was in any files related to Epstein in late July.

‘No, I was never, never briefed. No,’ the president said at the time.

It was never reported in what context Trump’s name may have appeared, however. It’s known that the two were friendly before a falling out in the early 2000s, though Trump has never been implicated in any wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes.

Trump himself directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, and Attorney General Pam Bondi subsequently had her deputy interview Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in a Florida prison.

Trump has also called the furor surrounding Epstein a ‘hoax’ on multiple occasions.

The DOJ has since turned over thousands of documents related to Epstein to the House Oversight Committee.

Convicted sex offender Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting prosecution on federal sex trafficking charges and the GOP base has fractured over the administration’s handling of the case.

The divisions stem from a DOJ memo released in July that said, ‘This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.’

Democrats have since seized on the discord with newfound calls for transparency in Epstein’s case, which Republicans have panned as hypocrisy.

An FBI public information officer declined to comment on the letter when the bureau was reached by Fox News Digital.

The federal trial of Ryan Routh, the accused would-be assassin of President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club last year, is scheduled to begin Thursday. 

After several rounds of jury selection that began Monday, a panel of 12 jurors — along with four alternates — were seated Wednesday. The group includes six White women, four White men, one Black woman and one Black man. The alternates consist of two White women and two White men.

Opening arguments are scheduled for Thursday at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, where prosecutors are expected to move swiftly into presenting their case.

Roughly 180 people were summoned for jury duty in three waves of 60. Both prosecutors and Routh, who has declined public defense and has chosen to self-represent, questioned candidates to determine whether they could serve impartially.

Routh peppered prospective jurors with offbeat questions, asking about Ukraine, the war in Gaza and even what they would do if a turtle crossed the road while they were driving.

The most recent high-profile federal defendant to represent themselves was Dylann Storm Roof, the mass murderer responsible for the 2015 Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting. Roof briefly represented himself in the federal death penalty phase of his trial in 2016. He requested to proceed pro se and was allowed to do so for part of the proceedings before ultimately reverting to court-appointed counsel.

By the end of Tuesday, the court had already dismissed more than 70 of the initial 180 prospective jurors, many citing strong opinions about Trump, connections to law enforcement or concerns about impartiality in a highly politicized case. 

Routh has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer. Prosecutors say he was armed with an AK-style rifle when Secret Service agents stopped him near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach in September 2024. The attempt came just months after Trump was shot and narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.

The trial is expected to last two to four weeks with Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon at the helm of the trial.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report.

Republicans from the House Oversight Committee released a report outlining what they allege are conflicts of interest, financial mismanagement and oversight failures associated with a Biden-era green energy grant program that sent $20 billion to just 8 different nonprofits.

The money stems from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which budgeted roughly $27 billion to advance clean energy and ‘environmental justice’ under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). An undercover recording of a former Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) political appointee, who described disbursements made through GGRF as akin to tossing gold bars off the Titanic at the end of Biden’s term, was cited by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in February when he announced that the agency would be looking into the matter. Republicans are currently trying to claw back the funds, which they claim were rushed out the door at the end of the Biden administration with little oversight and steered toward Democratic allies. 

‘Today’s report from the House Oversight Committee exposes the Biden administration’s sweeping green energy scheme, designed to funnel tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to enrich Democratic allies and fund partisan, politically motivated projects,’ House Republican Oversight Chairman James Comer told Fox News Digital. ‘Americans deserve better than this green energy scam disguised as environmental justice, and Oversight Republicans will continue to hold the Biden administration accountable to ensure the EPA operates as intended and that taxpayer dollars are spent transparently, responsibly, and in the best interest of the American people.’

The EPA terminated most of these grants after the Trump administration took office, but the move was met with legal pushback from Democrats. However, last week, a federal appeals court judge struck down a lower court’s ruling that blocked the Trump administration’s move to freeze the funds, arguing the administration was acting in accordance with its role to provide ‘proper oversight’ of how funds are distributed.

The EPA has referred the matter to the agency’s inspector general. The Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are also running concurrent investigations, the EPA has indicated. However, up to this point, no criminal wrongdoing has been uncovered.   

Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., declined to comment on the matter. Additionally, several other top ranking Democrats, including the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., did not respond to requests for comment.

However, in an Aug. 11 letter to Zeldin signed by several ranking Democrats, including Clarke, they accused Zeldin of ‘lying’ about the Inflation Reduction Act funding. 

‘Time and again, you have boasted about the unlawful activities EPA is conducting under your leadership without any credible evidence to justify your actions,’ the letter stated.

While there may not be any criminal wrongdoing alleged thus far, the picture painted by the investigation by House Oversight Republicans shows the Biden administration ‘turned the Environmental Protection Agency into a vehicle for rewarding political allies, all while risking the stability of our energy infrastructure,’ according to Comer.

‘Today’s report from the House Oversight Committee exposes the Biden administration’s sweeping green energy scheme, designed to funnel tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to enrich Democratic allies and fund partisan, politically motivated projects,’ Comer added.

The report released by Oversight Republicans details how committee staff reviewed ‘tens of thousands’ of documents produced by the GGRF awardees in question. The documents also included EPA materials for reviewing and awarding the GGRF funds, among other records.

The report shows how the EPA judged the applicants using a scoring system that awarded points for different parts of the nonprofits’ proposals. For example, flawless ‘financial risk management’ awarded a total of 85 points, while flawless ‘legal and compliance risk management’ could provide an applicant up to 40 possible points. Meanwhile, the EPA weighted ‘equity and environmental justice’ the same way it did ‘financial statements’ and more than it weighted good ‘governance’ or ‘legal and compliance risk management,’ among other categories. 

‘By doing so, the EPA all but ensured that the grants would go to President Biden’s political allies. All awardees of the GGRF had ‘climate equity’ or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in place or committed to putting equivalent policies in place,’ the House Oversight report argues. ‘EPA criticized multiple applicants because their targeted reductions in emissions were too low. In other cases, the EPA staff complained that there was not enough ‘environmental justice’ expertise represented in leadership or on the boards of the nonprofits. The Biden EPA insisted on climate equity metrics over merit.’

After receiving their scores, the program provided a ‘reconciliation process’ for EPA staff to discuss their assessments and adjust their scores, according to the Oversight report. The ultimate decision was then passed to a single ‘selection official’ who made the final determination.

The report also claims that the disbursement review process was ‘full of contradictions.’ It says documents showed EPA officials had concerns about the groups receiving the funds related to overly optimistic projections for financial benefits or emissions reductions, lack of access to private capital, high uninsured cash balances, and lack of transparency. Simultaneously, in other documents, the EPA justified the GGRF recipients as entities ‘with track records, staff, risk management policies, and other programmatic capabilities,’ according to the House Oversight report.

One of the groups under scrutiny, Climate United Fund, was established for the purpose of utilizing the GGRF, according to the Oversight report. The report points to claims from EPA staff indicating the group is ‘a new-entity purpose built for the execution of our program plan and does not have a robust reporting history.’

Climate United, reported just $95,557 in assets for fiscal year 2023 but received $6.97 billion from the EPA, representing a 7,293,980% increase in reported assets since 2023, the Oversight report points out.

Other groups also saw similarly significant increases.

Power Forward Communities received $2 billion as part of the GGRF disbursements. The group, not established until after the Biden administration announced the GGRF application process, reported just $100 in assets in its first and only tax filing – meaning that following the $2 billion GGRF award, the entities’ assets increased 2,000,000,000%, according to the House Oversight report.

‘These tired allegations distract from the fact that EPA’s illegal funding freeze will drive up energy costs for hardworking Americans across the country. When household bills are skyrocketing, Congress should be focused on deploying cheap, clean energy technologies rather than resurfacing false claims,’ Brooke Durham, a spokesperson for Climate United told Fox News Digital when reached for comment. ‘Climate United welcomes the opportunity to explain our work and the benefits of the NCIF program to Congress, federal agencies, and to the public.’

The spokesperson also noted that while the Climate United coalition – which is made up of three separate organizations – is new, the organizations that make it up are not.

‘The organizations that make up Climate United have been investing in communities for over 30 years, and are experts in the capital markets who have collectively managed more than $30 billion in institutional and public funds,’ Durham said. She added that the group was proud to tout a 946.5 point evaluation score by the EPA out of a possible 1050 points, which Durham noted was among the highest of all the awardees.

Power Forward declined to comment. However, the group’s CEO, Tim Mayopolous told CBS News last month that the GGRF award process ‘was a highly structured, competitive process that the United States government went through.’

‘The organizations that are part of our coalition that actually do this work – they have been around collectively for nearly a century, and they have invested or disbursed over $100 billion of capital into communities all over America over those years,’ Mayopolous added. ‘We’re not inexperienced people.’    

Climate United, along with some of the other groups in question, are also under fire for allegedly inflating their executives’ salaries and travel benefits in proposed budgets. The CEO’s salary at Climate United was slated to be over $500,000, and at Power Forward $800,000, with an increase to over $900,00 in a year. One group produced a budget that paid its executive staff of seven employees a total of $24,862,419 over three years, according to the report.

Meanwhile, conflicts of interest, which Zeldin has described as ‘blatant,’ were also laid bare in the report. The director of the GGRF selected by the Biden White House was a former policy director at the group that wanted to pay their executive staffers close to a combined $25 million over three years, according to the report. The report says the director had to recuse himself from the award process because of the conflict.   

At Climate United, the group currently staffs a former Biden climate advisor who worked during the last two years of the former president’s term. Their board makeup while pursuing the GGRF award also had ties to the Obama administration. However, Durham contested the implication that there were conflicts of interest, telling Fox News Digital that no staff or board members at Climate United helped with the design of the program, or the selection of the award recipients.

Power Forward’s GGRF application process was also accused of being led by Democrat allies in the Republican Oversight report. Power Forward was founded by executives at nonprofit Rewiring America, co-founded by top Obama administration advisors, the report states. It also claims that Power Forward had planned on awarding Rewiring America with nearly $500,000,000.

‘The nonprofits receiving awards are littered with connections to Biden Administration staff and allies. The executives and board members at some of the GGRF’s awardees even helped write the policies that created the GGRF and are now benefitting from exorbitant salaries provided by taxpayers,’ the House Oversight report states. 

‘The GGRF was a huge step for the Left in realizing the Green New Deal. The program is a National Green Bank that will flood the economy with billions in taxpayer dollars to fund partisan projects regardless of whether they merit investment or not.’

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is pushing against a pair of ads from a group linked to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that suggests she has enriched herself with stocks over her nearly three decades in Washington.

The Majority Forward PAC, a political action committee that is affiliated with the Schumer-linked Senate Majority PAC, launched a $700,000 ad campaign against Collins, who is eyeing a bid for a sixth term in the Senate, but has yet to officially launch her campaign.

The pair of ads, one a 30-second spot titled ‘Greed,’ the other a 15-second spot titled ‘This Life,’ target Collins for her opposition to a congressional stock trading ban by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. However, her office argued that through images of private jets and Collins in glamorous attire, the ads suggested that she has personally enriched herself through trades while working as a lawmaker.

The ads accuse Collins of ‘the worst kind of greed; using insider information to trade stocks.’

‘She’s opposing a bipartisan bill that would ban members of Congress from trading stocks,’ the narrator said. ‘Our representatives should be serving the people of Maine, not lining their own pockets.’

While Collins does not directly own any stocks, according to disclosure filings, her husband Tom Daffron does. However, a trade has not been made since last year, and her office argued that Daffron’s holdings are made by a third-party advisor.

‘Senator Collins has never bought, sold, or owned any shares of stock during her entire Senate tenure,’ her office told Fox News Digital. ‘Tom Daffron’s investment decisions are made exclusively by a third-party advisor without his consultation. No individual stocks have been bought or sold from his account in almost three years.’

Majority Forward spokesperson Lauren French fired back in a statement to Fox News Digital that the ads go after Collins ‘for her refusal to support a stock trading ban for members of Congress and their families — bipartisan legislation that 95 percent of Mainers support.’

‘Nowhere in the ad does it say Senator Collins regularly buys, sells, or owns stocks (though her husband does) — but if she is still confused, we’ll be happy to continue airing it throughout Maine so both she and her constituents can understand how her opposition to ending stock trading is enabling her colleagues to benefit from their positions of power,’ French said.

Senate Democrats are hoping that their prized candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, jumps into the race to take on Collins. However, Mills, who is term-limited, has not made an official announcement on her plans and the Democratic primary has fast become crowded.

Collins told the Bangor Daily News that she did not support Hawley’s bill last month, and instead argued that there should be more enforcement of already existing rules that bar members from insider trading.

The White House similarly panned the bill, which would has included a carve out for both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, and all Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Accountability Committee, except for Hawley, voted against the bill. Collins is not a member of that committee.

However, Trump has since warmed to the idea of a congressional stock trading ban, and lauded the push by Rep. Anna Paulina, R-Fla., as a ‘MASSIVE WIN’ on Truth Social. 

The pool of potential jurors is narrowing for the high-profile federal trial of Ryan Routh, who faces charges for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club in September 2024.

During the second day of jury selection in Fort Pierce, Florida, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon eliminated a woman who asserted, ‘I am MAGA’ as a potential juror for the trial. Cannon, a Trump appointee, claimed the statement exhibited ‘self-declared bias.’ 

Another woman was removed as a potential juror for claiming she ‘only follows God’s law’ on a questionnaire. 

However, Cannon refused to cut a potential juror who claimed that he ‘knows Trump personally.’ The potential juror claimed that he had breakfast with Trump and first lady Melania Trump 25 years ago when he was considered for a job at a golf course. However, Cannon said the potential juror would still be able to participate fairly in the trial – despite the interaction decades ago. 

Three groups of 60 potential jurors are undergoing the jury selection process, where prosecutors and Routh ask potential jurors questions to assess if they can fairly participate in the trial. The jury selection process got underway on Monday and is expected to conclude Wednesday. Routh is representing himself. 

Ultimately, the jury selection process will identify 12 jurors and four alternates for the trial.

During Monday’s session, Routh’s questions for potential jurors included their views on the war in Gaza, their position on the U.S. potentially acquiring Greenland as the president has floated, and how they would act if they were driving and spotted a turtle in the middle of the road.

In response, Cannon labeled them ‘politically charged,’ and said that they were unnecessary for jury selection. 

‘None of the questions on your list have any bearing whatsoever. They were off base, sir, and have no relevance to jury selection,’ Cannon said.

According to prosecutors, Routh planned to kill Trump for weeks, and hid out in shrubbery on Sept. 15, 2024, when a Secret Service agent detected him pointing a rifle at Trump while the then-presidential candidate played golf. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, but abandoned his weapon and the scene after the Secret Service agents opened fire.

Routh was later apprehended by the Martin County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office on the I-95 interstate in a black Nissan Xterra. 

According to the Justice Department, he is charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Routh also faces state charges related to terrorism and attempted murder. 

Routh, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, was previously convicted of felonies in North Carolina in 2002 and 2010. 

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph, Jake Gibson, Heather Lacey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that left-wing policies such as cashless bail have sparked violent crime trends in cities nationwide, including Democrat-run cities located in Republican-run states. 

‘There is crime in all states, but the crime in these cities is all in cities that are run by Democrats. If you look at the list of the top 20 high-crime cities in the United States, every single one — with the exception of one in Louisiana — is run by a Democrat. And these Democrats have supported the same policies that I spoke about at the beginning of this briefing, like cashless bail,’ Leavitt said. 

The press secretary was responding to a question on whether the administration would also work with Republican governors to address cities rocked by crime, instead of focusing on Democrat-run jurisdictions in blue states. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened crime crackdowns in Chicago and Baltimore, which are located in Democratic states, while crime-riddled cities such as Memphis, which is located in Republican Tennessee, have not received the same level of attention for its crime trends.

Leavitt argued that current violent crime trends are due to left-wing justice policies that affect cities no matter if they are in a Republican or Democrat state, pointing to Jackson, Mississippi, and Birmingham, Alabama, as examples.  

‘If you look at a red state, Mississippi, but a Democrat-run city in that state — Jackson. In 2019, Jackson, Mississippi, eliminated cash bail for virtually all misdemeanor cases. And while Jackson is not formally a sanctuary city, the state of Mississippi formally banned sanctuary cities, and this city has acted as a de facto sanctuary city for criminals and illegal aliens since 2017,’ she said. 

‘Same thing: Birmingham, Alabama. A Democrat-run city in a red state in 2017, the Birmingham City Council unanimously passed a resolution, quote, committing to establish sanctuary policies. So, if you actually look at the facts from these Democrat-run cities, these are cities that are run by Democrats and by blue, by members of the Democrat Party. These are blue cities. And they have all supported these disastrous policies which allow repeated career criminals back onto the streets to further commit acts of violence.’

Trump’s presidential campaign included repeated vows to bring crime down across the U.S. following the nation’s bloody trends that began in 2020 amid the defund the police protests and riots that summer. On Aug. 11, he federalized Washington, D.C., under Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, part of his campaign vow, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital’s police force for 30 days. 

After homicides have dropped and more than 2,000 arrests, Trump has celebrated the D.C. crime crackdown as an example for other cities and has since repeatedly floated sending the National Guard into cities such as Chicago. Local leaders, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, have shunned such talk as unnecessary and a form of ‘authoritarianism.’

‘The president wants to work with anyone across this country who wants to end these horrible policies and to bring law and order to our streets. And I think that is proven by his tremendous cooperation with the mayor of Washington, D.C., and our nation’s capital. And just look at the results of that,’ Leavitt continued. 

Among the files made public by the House Oversight Committee is a document that stands out for its tone: a glossy 238-page scrapbook that offers a rare and unusually intimate glimpse of Jeffrey Epstein’s self-curated network. 

The infamous ‘birthday book,’ compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003, for Epstein’s 50th includes what appears to be notes from former President Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, as well as photographs that juxtapose girlfriends, animals, children’s drawings with financiers and politicians — a tableau that feels all the more unsettling today.

Maxwell wrote to Epstein at the beginning of the book that she wanted to ‘gather stories and old photographs to jog your memory about places, people and different events.’ She hoped he would ‘derive as much pleasure from looking through it’ as she did assembling it for him.

Later in the book, a photo of the two canoodling appears with a caption that reads ‘the first date,’ marked with the year 1991.

Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 of sex trafficking and other offenses, and is serving a 20-year prison term. Prosecutors said she played a central role in Epstein’s scheme, luring underage girls into what began as massages and escalated into sexual abuse.

Now 63 and incarcerated since her 2020 arrest, Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in late August that she had no role in the sexual exploitation of minors. When asked about the ‘birthday book,’ she told Blanche that she could only remember some parts of it, adding that it had been years since she compiled it. 

Among the book’s entries is an apparent note from Bill Clinton, where the former Democratic president praises Epstein’s ‘childlike curiosity’ and his ‘drive to make a difference’ as well as the ‘[illegible] of friends.’

Dershowitz, a former Harvard University law professor who once represented Epstein during criminal investigations, used his birthday note to make a joke about influencing media coverage.

‘Dear Jeffrey, as a birthday gift to you, I managed to obtain an early version of the Vanity Unfair article. I talked them into changing the focus from you to Bill Clinton, as you will see from the enclosed excerpt. Happy birthday and best regards,’ the entry said.

Dershowitz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing as it relates to Epstein.

The birthday book also contained sentimental messages from family and friends. In one note, Epstein’s mother, Pauline Stolofsky Epstein, wrote that she’s been ‘very busy reminiscing since Ghislaine asked me to write about you.’ 

‘Jeff[,] you have been a good son since day one and we have been proud of you ever since,’ Epstein’s mother said.

‘I recall you refused to sleep [as a child] unless I read a story from Grandma’s Golden Book that she bought for 25c,’ she added. ‘At PTA meetings I begged your teachers to improve your handwriting.’

She also referenced Epstein’s life as a bachelor, as well as his prominent media shout-outs.

‘At age 27 Cosmopolitan magazine featured you as ‘Bachelor of the Month,” Pauline Epstein wrote. ‘Today you still hold that title.’

‘Jeff, I’m so sorry that Dad can’t share the nachus [pride] we have regarding your achievements,’ she added. ‘He would have been overjoyed reading the article about you in New York Magazine.’ 

The book features hundreds of photos from throughout Epstein’s life until age 50, including pictures of him as a child and a teenager.

Some of the earlier images included family pictures, formal school photos and pictures of him hanging out with friends as a teenager.

The book also had revealing images of Epstein shirtless, Epstein embracing women and what appears to be a censored photo of him and Maxwell laughing and embracing in a pool. Pictures of mating lions and zebras were also included in the book.

A picture of a woman in a bikini was also included with the caption, ‘Visiting you down in Palm Beach. Can’t get a second of privacy with you and a camera around ha ha!’

Upon the files’ release, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight Committee, accused Democrats of previously ‘cherry-picking’ the documents.

‘Oversight Committee Republicans are focused on running a thorough investigation to bring transparency and accountability for survivors of Epstein’s heinous crimes and the American people,’ Comer said.

The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission indicated that, after more than a decade of restrictions on whole milk in schools, the federal government is planning to drop them. 

The decision to drop the restrictions on whole milk sales in schools was announced as part of the MAHA commission’s Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy, a sweeping plan with over 120 initiatives released Tuesday. The initiatives cover a wide range of topics, from toxic food dyes, to nutrient requirements, to misleading health advertisements. Updated recommendations regarding fluoride and PFAS chemicals in water and a new definition for ‘ultra-processed food’ were among the planned initiatives as well.

‘The Trump administration is mobilizing every part of government to confront the childhood chronic disease epidemic,’ Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday. ‘This strategy represents the most sweeping reform agenda in modern history — realigning our food and health systems, driving education, and unleashing science to protect America’s children and families. We are ending the corporate capture of public health, restoring transparency, and putting gold-standard science — not special interests — at the center of every decision.’

The move to bring back whole milk to schools is something Kennedy has been considering since day one, according to Nina Teicholz, a nutrition expert who was privy to discussions among Kennedy’s staff before he was confirmed by the Senate to lead the nation’s public health response. While removing the restrictions is a significant move, there are still additional steps that will need to be taken before whole milk becomes widely accepted again, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

One of those additional steps is rewriting the national dietary guidelines, which directly influence school meal nutrition standards. The new MAHA children’s health strategy indicates that the Trump administration will update the 2025–2030 guidelines, while also reforming the manner in which future dietary guidelines can be updated. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would also initiate changes to school nutrition standards through its rulemaking process to permit whole milk in schools. 

Meanwhile, legislation is another avenue that could be used to streamline the process for bringing back whole milk in schools, the CRS notes, which would then compel the USDA to revise its regulations governing the National School Lunch Program. In the current Congress, a bill to bring back both whole milk and 2% milk has been approved in the House and is awaiting full approval in the Senate before it can be sent to the president’s desk.

Another notable part of the new MAHA children’s health strategy entails an initiative to ramp up enforcement of prescription drug advertising laws. The strategy said this includes the dissemination of ‘risk information and quality of life through misleading and deceptive advertising on social media and digital platforms.’ The report notes that the new enforcement will target direct-to-consumer telehealth companies and social media influencers, among others.

In April, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from the nation’s food supply. The MAHA strategy indicated this effort will remain ongoing as the FDA continues to pass policies that will either limit, or altogether prohibit, the use of petroleum-based food dyes in all food products approved in the United States.

Other initiatives include providing a government-wide definition for ‘ultra-processed foods’ to support future policy activity, efforts to require better transparency in food labeling, new recommendations regarding fluoride and PFAS chemicals in water, updates to the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) standards, changes to nutrition requirements for infant formula, and efforts to increase breastfeeding rates to ensure a safe supply of donor milk.

‘For too long, health care has used a reactive approach to chronic diseases,’FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said. ‘I am pleased to support the findings of the MAHA commission and to promote a more proactive approach, tackling root causes undermining the health and happiness of American children.’

Tuesday’s children’s health strategy from the MAHA Commission follows an earlier assessment on children’s health released in May. After that report was released, farmers expressed concern over what the reforms could mean for their livelihoods. However, following Tuesday’s latest strategy report, at least one of those groups is applauding the Trump administration for taking steps to protect farmers. 

‘It’s clear that farmers’ voices were finally heard, but our work to defend their access to safe and proven crop protection tools is far from over,’ said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Executive Director of the Modern Ag Alliance. ‘The Commission avoided some of the most damaging potential outcomes for American agriculture, but it still advanced some misconceptions about these essential farming inputs and the gold-standard science and regulatory processes that stand behind them.’

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called to ‘open the courtroom doors’ so parents can sue Meta, accusing founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg of misleading Congress after whistleblowers detailed child safety failures on the company’s virtual reality (VR) platforms.

Two former Meta researchers told a Senate panel Tuesday that the company buried child harm evidence in VR, killed age-verification studies and let AI chatbots flirt with kids, prompting a bipartisan push to pass measures protecting minors online.

‘The claims at the heart of this hearing are nonsense; they’re based on selectively leaked internal documents that were picked specifically to craft a false narrative,’ a Meta spokesperson said. 

‘The truth is there was never any blanket prohibition on conducting research with young people and, since the start of 2022, Meta approved nearly 180 Reality Labs-related studies on issues including youth safety and well-being.’

Testifying before the Senate were Cayce Savage and Jason Sattizahn, both former Meta researchers.

Sattizahn alleged Meta routinely prioritized engagement and profit over safety — especially for kids — and manipulated or erased research showing harm.

He said despite attempts to curb data collection, the studies researchers could run still showed the company’s products endangered users.

Germany once banned Meta’s VR sales over data treatment concerns; after sales resumed in 2022, Sattizahn was sent to conduct research there.

He said he understood Meta was trying to show its VR headsets were safe for Germans.

But when research uncovered that underage children using Meta VR in Germany were subjected to demands for sex acts, nude photos and other acts children should never be exposed to, Sattizahn alleged Meta demanded all evidence be erased.

‘My research still revealed emotional and psychological damage, particularly to women who were sexually solicited, molested or worse,’ he testified. ‘In response, Meta demanded I change my research in the future to not gather this data on emotional and psychological harm.’

Savage testified she led youth safety research in VR and likewise said Meta prioritized engagement over child safety.

She said the company employed suppression tactics, including editing reports, demanding deletions and threatening jobs.

Hawley asked Savage why it was important for Meta to have children under 13 using VR. She told him kids drive household adoption of gaming devices, which means more money for Meta.

‘So, this is about profits at the end of the day,’ Hawley told Savage while seeking clarification on whether Meta will do anything for a profit, including exposing children to vile sexual abuse.

‘When I was doing research to identify the harms that children were facing in VR, which I had to be sneaky about because legal wouldn’t actually let me do it, I identified that Roblox, the app on in VR, was being used by coordinated pedophile rings,’ Savage said. ‘They set up strip clubs, and they paid children to strip.’

She added that Robux could be converted into real money.

Savage said she flagged the issue to Meta, saying under no circumstances should Meta host the Roblox app on the headset.

‘You can now download it in their app store,’ she said.

Later, under questioning, Savage told the panel she estimates any child in a social VR space will come in contact with, or be directly exposed to, something inappropriate.

‘She said every single child who goes into the platform will 100% be exposed to child sex abuse material. Every single one,’ Hawley told Fox News Digital Tuesday evening. ‘I just come back to the fact that we have got to protect our children. 

‘It can’t be that if you go online as a kid, you are 100% likely to be sexually abused, and that’s what the witnesses said today. If you are online, if you’re on their virtual reality program platform rather, you are going to get sexually abused. That was their testimony.’

Hawley called out Zuckerberg for testifying on Jan. 31, 2024, that Meta does not allow people under the age of 13 on the service.

During his testimony last year, the CEO said anyone under the age of 13 will be removed from the service, and, in response to another question, Zuckerberg said Meta does not want users under the age of 13.

Hawley said Zuckerberg misled Americans with that testimony, pointing to whistleblowers who said under-13 users are rampant on the platform.

‘I don’t see how you can square what he told us under oath last year with what these whistleblowers said today,’ Hawley told Fox News Digital. ‘But that’s true of a lot of his statements. I mean, he said over and over, whether it’s the safety protocols Facebook has put into place, that’s not true. 

‘Whether it’s regarding their work in China, he said, ‘Oh, we don’t do work in China.’ That is not true. He said, ‘We don’t have any contacts with the Chinese government.’ That’s not true. So, I mean, we’re really piling up a long list here.’

Hawley said he has called for Zuckerberg to testify again under oath, though he’s heard Meta isn’t interested.

Ultimately, Hawley said, it was time to ‘open the courtroom doors’ so victims and families can sue Meta for failing to protect children.

‘It is abundantly clear to me that it is time to allow parents and victims to sue this company,’ he said. ‘They have got to be able to get into court and to get in front of a jury and hold this company accountable, and that begins with Mark Zuckerberg. There has to be accountability. We have to open the courtroom doors and allow victims to have their day in court.’

Earlier this year, Hawley said he advanced legislation through the Judiciary Committee that would allow victims of child sex abuse online to sue Facebook or any Big Tech company where harm happens.

‘I don’t think we’re going to see real change at these companies until this becomes law and parents and victims can get into court and hold these people accountable,’ he said. ‘The bottom line is we’ve got to protect our kids. I mean, they’re making money by stealing the innocence of our children.’

Meta told Fox News Digital the company is training its artificial intelligence bots to not respond to teenagers on self-harm, suicide, disorder eating and potentially inappropriate romantic conversations, regardless of content. The company is also working to limit teen access to a select group of AI characters, ‘for now.’

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., closed the meeting by inviting anyone from Meta to testify or challenge what was said.

‘I think that they see there is truly bipartisan anger, not only with Meta, but with these other social media platforms and virtual reality platforms and chatbots that are intentionally, knowingly harming our children,’ she said. ‘This has got to stop. Enough is enough.’