Federal judges are, by and large, a cautious lot, not given to dramatic public pronouncements or calling attention to themselves. But now that the judiciary is under a sustained attack from the Trump administration and allies, some judges are speaking out.
During a Thursday webinar presented by the newly formed Speak Up for Justice, a nonpartisan group working to defend the judiciary, a couple of lower court judges were forthright about the threats they’ve faced after ruling against the Trump administration.
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell, an Obama appointee, revealed that, after blocking President Donald Trump’s catastrophic funding freeze, he received 6 credible death threats, along with more than 400 threatening voicemails.
He played one during the webinar, with the caller saying, “How dare you try to put charges on Donald J. Trump,” and, “I wish somebody would fucking assassinate your ass.”
Similarly, after U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour blocked Trump’s birthright citizenship ban, he was swatted as a result of someone anonymously telling the police that Coughenour killed his wife.
From the bench, Coughenour has been forthright about Trump’s actions.
“It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain,” he told Justice Department lawyers.
Yes, much of this stems from the Trump administration’s near-constant attacks on judges, often whipped up by Trump personally. There’s also the willingness of congressional Republicans to go along with it, including some of Trump’s more ardent supporters introducing bills calling for the impeachment of judges who rule against him.
But the Supreme Court, particularly Chief Justice John Roberts, is also at fault.
Rather than squarely addressing the fact that these threats overwhelmingly come from the right and are driven by the president, Roberts has instead offered vague, anodyne statements.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” he said in one statement.
Yes, that’s all Roberts had to say after Trump personally called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the Trump administration to return the planes of deportees heading to El Salvador—an order the administration defied.
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The Trump administration has now filed a misconduct complaint against Boasberg for private comments to his judicial colleagues, in which he expressed concern about the administration defying court orders.
The problem isn’t just that Roberts is wishy-washy about these threats, speaking about them without ever mentioning Trump by name or acknowledging that his actions are the foundation for the attacks. But he has also joined the other conservatives on the Supreme Court to give Trump whatever he wants, constantly overturning lower court rulings.
These days, separation of powers is indeed for suckers.
President Donald Trump targeted Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a Thursday night Truth Social post, urging Republicans to vote in the opposite of the way that she does.
"Republicans, when in doubt, vote the exact opposite of Senator Susan Collins. Generally speaking, you can’t go wrong. Thank you for your attention to this matter and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" the president declared in the post.
Fox News Digital reached out to Collins' office early on Friday morning to request a comment from the senator.
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Last month Collins voted against passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and against passage of a rescissions measure, both of which Trump ultimately signed.
Earlier this year she voted against confirming Pete Hegseth to serve as secretary of defense and against confirming Kash Patel to serve as FBI director.
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In February 2021, she voted to convict Trump after the House impeached him in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, but that Senate vote, which occurred after Trump had already departed from office, did not reach the threshold necessary for conviction.
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Collins has served in the Senate since 1997.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., blasted Republicans for confirming President Donald Trump’s former defense attorney Emil Bove as a federal judge Tuesday after the senator himself was referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution amid allegations of mortgage fraud.
The Senate voted to confirm Bove to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in a 50–49 vote Tuesday, amid a challenging confirmation process involving allegations from three whistleblowers who alleged Bove disregarded court orders surrounding Trump’s mass deportation agenda and misled lawmakers during his confirmation hearing.
"Republicans just voted to confirm Emil Bove. Despite whistleblowers confirming he urged them to ignore court orders," Schiff said in a Tuesday X post. "Despite it being clear he lied to the Judiciary Committee. And despite the danger he poses to the rule of law. The corruption of the bench continues."
No Democrats voted to back Bove. They were joined by Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Tuesday on the Senate floor he backed Bove and said that Bove had faced "unfair accusations and abuse."
After representing Trump in his criminal prosecutions, Bove joined Trump’s Justice Department to serve as the principal associate deputy attorney general.
Meanwhile, Schiff has come under scrutiny for his own alleged misconduct and was referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution stemming from a mortgage document controversy.
The director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in May, outlining Schiff’s alleged misconduct over his homes in both Maryland and California.
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FHFA Director William Pulte wrote in the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital Monday, that Schiff "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003–2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property."
It’s unclear whether the Justice Department has launched any actions against Schiff yet, and the Justice Department declined to provide comment to Fox News Digital.
Schiff's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, Trump has railed against Schiff for years — and did so again in July, claiming he would love to see Schiff "brought to justice."
"I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist," Trump posted to Truth Social on July 15. "And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud."
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In response, Schiff said that Trump’s claims amounted to a "baseless attempt at political retribution."
"Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason," Schiff said in a July 15 X post. "So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution won’t stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot."
Fox News’ Ashley Oliver, Danielle Wallace and Peter Doocey contributed to this report.
Steve Ricchetti, a longtime Democratic operative and lobbyist, is sitting down with House Oversight Committee investigators Wednesday.
He’s known as a member of former President Joe Biden’s inner circle who reportedly played a key role in downplaying concerns, both public and private, about the ex-commander-in-chief’s mental fitness for office.
Ricchetti also reportedly helped craft Biden’s historic letter announcing the end of his 2024 re-election bid that July, according to the New York Times.
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But long before that, Ricchetti graduated from Miami University in Ohio and got a Juris Doctor from Virginia’s George Mason University.
His first major role in electoral politics came when Ricchetti served as executive director for the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, from 1990 to 1992.
Ricchetti then worked for former President Bill Clinton as a congressional liaison from 1993 to 1996 and then again as White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 1998 to 2001.
During that second stint, he played a critical role in wrangling House Democrats during the GOP’s impeachment proceedings against Clinton.
In between and in later years, Ricchetti enjoyed a lucrative career as a lobbyist, even founding the lobbying firm Ricchetti Inc. with his brother in 2001.
His work with Biden began in 2012 when Ricchetti was appointed to be counselor to the vice president during the Obama administration – one of several ex-lobbyists appointed to that White House, despite former President Barack Obama’s vow not to hire K Street operatives. He was soon elevated to be Biden’s chief of staff in late 2013.
Ricchetti also chaired Biden’s 2020 campaign before playing a critical role in his administration, where he acted as part of a small "Politburo" of close advisors who helped control the White House, Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN host Jake Tapper wrote in their book "Original Sin."
"In terms of who was running the White House, it’s a small group of people that have been around," Thompson told the PBS program "Washington Week" earlier this year.
Several members of Ricchetti’s family also notably had roles in the Biden administration; two of his sons and his daughter worked for the Treasury, State Department, and in the White House, respectively.
At the time, the White House argued they got the jobs on their merits rather than their father’s closeness to Biden.
Ricchetti also reportedly played a key role in dismissing concerns about Biden’s mental health.
Two weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump, the New York Times reported that Ricchetti got into a "shouting" argument with Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., after the latter called to express concerns about Biden’s political viability.
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U.K.-based outlet The Times reported that Ricchetti "sounded like a mob boss" in a conversation with actor George Clooney days before the Hollywood star and longtime Democratic donor penned an explosive op-ed calling for a new 2024 nominee in early July 2024.
And multiple outlets have reported that Ricchetti also denied any concerns about Biden’s mental acuity in an off-the-record conversation with an unnamed reporter at an unnamed outlet that almost ran a story shining a light on concerns about Biden’s mental health.
Ricchetti is the seventh ex-Biden aide to speak with investigators in House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe into whether White House officials covered up signs of Biden’s decline.
The Department of Justice is likely digging into Sen. Adam Schiff's mortgage paperwork trail stretching back to a Maryland home purchase from the early 2000s as it weighs whether it has an airtight case to potentially prosecute the longtime political foe of President Donald Trump, according to a Cornell Law School professor.
"The one thing they don't want to do is to bring a case that fails," William Jacobson told Fox Digital in a Zoom interview, referring to the DOJ potentially investigating Schiff's alleged mortgage fraud. Jacobson is a clinical professor and the Director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell.
"Either it fails legally, or it fails in court. They don't want to lose that case if you're going against a major political opponent. And that's part of the calculation that will take place."
Jacobson talked about the ins and outs of the Democratic California senator's potential legal woes following the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency sending a letter to the DOJ this year claiming that Schiff falsified banking and property documents by listing two homes – on two separate coasts – as his primary residence out of an effort to allegedly get more favorable loans.
The DOJ has not yet said whether it would take up the case, but is likely digging into Schiff's paper trail as it weighs whether to move forward, Jacobson explained.
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"I would expect that the first thing the Department of Justice is going to do is to gather documents. There will be a paper trail here. There will be many things that are documentable, and not ‘he said, she said,’ as to where Adam Schiff was actually living," he said.
As investigators go through the documents, they will ask questions such as: What was his actual primary residence? What did he sign? Who was present when he signed? Did he have conversations with people about it?
The law professor, who founded the popular conservative legal blog Legal Insurrection, said that there will likely be a "significant paper trail" to go through due to the case stretching back more than 20 years and due to companies keeping tight records following the 2008 financial crash.
"Mortgage companies preserve all of these things because of the financial crisis and other things. They have to maintain these records. . . . And I would expect that that would be the first thing the Department of Justice would look at is the paper trail and the circumstantial evidence as to where Adam Schiff was, in fact, living," he continued, remarking that there are "no shrinking violets" at the Trump DOJ.
Schiff first fell under scrutiny this year in May, when the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice sounding the alarm that, in "multiple instances," Schiff allegedly "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property."
At the heart of the issue are two properties purchased by Schiff: a home purchased in 2003 in Potomac, Maryland, for $870,000 under a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage agreement for $610,000 at a rate of 5.625% over a term of 30 years, and a 2009 Burbank, Calif., condo. Schiff reaffirmed the Potomac property as his principal residence in mortgage refinancing paperwork in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013, according to the FHFA letter to the DOJ.
Over the same time frame, Schiff took a homeowner’s tax exemption on the Burbank condo while also claiming that home as his primary residence for a $7,000 reduction off of the 1% property tax, FHFA Director William Pulte wrote in the letter to the DOJ, citing media reports.
In 2023, the letter continued, a spokesperson for Schiff asserted that "Adam’s primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat."
FHFA is an independent federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System.
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In 2020, Schiff refinanced his mortgage, listing his Maryland home as his secondary residence.
Trump publicly slammed Schiff over his mortgages in July on Truth Social, accusing him of fraud and putting the issue back on the public's radar following 2023 news reports on Schiff's homes in Maryland and California.
"I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist," Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday. "And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud."
"Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA. I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020."
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Schiff has repeatedly denied and brushed off the accusations, including refusing to answer questions from Fox News Digital about his alleged mortgage fraud when confronted in the nation's capital on July 16.
"Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason. So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution won’t stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot," he posted to X in July following Trump's initial Truth Social attack on Schiff's mortgages.
"This is just Donald Trump’s latest attempt at political retaliation against his perceived enemies. So it is not a surprise, only how weak this false allegation turns out to be. And much as Trump may hope, this smear will not distract from his Epstein files problem," he added.
Schiff's primary residence discrepancies first hit the public's radar in 2023, when Schiff launched an ultimately successful campaign to serve in the Senate after decades in the U.S. House. CNN published the first news article detailing that Schiff had claimed the Maryland home as a primary residence while also taking a homeowner’s tax exemption on the Burbank condo.
The campaign said at the time that Schiff's two properties were listed as primary residences "for loan purposes because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property."
Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, which was underscored during Trump's first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020, and when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
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Days after Trump first posted about Schiff's mortgages in Maryland and California, the president's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents that reportedly show "overwhelming evidence" that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe after Trump's election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Schiff was an incredibly vocal lawmaker amid the Russian collusion claims, most notably when the House censured him in 2023 over his promotion that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Schiff served in the House representing California from 2001 to 2024, when he was sworn-in as a senator after his successful 2024 campaign to serve in the nation's upper chamber.
Schiff served as the ranking member of the House intelligence committee from 2015 to 2019, before becoming the committee's chair from 2019 to 2023. In that role, he was kept up to date on classified materials surrounding the Russian collusion claims.
Trump also recently invoked Gabbard's alleged revelations while attacking Schiff over his mortgages in another Truth Social post.
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Trump went on to ominously warn during a White House event last week that Schiff has "a lot of other things far worse than" his mortgage inquiry.
"He defrauded banks and insurance companies and the federal government, but it's, very simple. It's mortgage loan fraud ... But he has a lot of other things far worse than that. So no Adam Schiff, they have him 100% on mortgage fraud," Trump said last Tuesday from the White House while hosting a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Jacobson said that Democrats have boxed themselves out of attempting to claim that Trump is targeting a political foe over the mortgage criminal referral because the party had spent the last decade launching "lawfare" at Trump.
"One of the ironies here that I think everybody understands, is that Democrats launched a lawfare campaign against Donald Trump. And it didn't just start once he took office this year. It's been going on for a decade," he said.
"They have used every tool available to try to destroy him, including through criminal prosecutions, including through federal investigations. . . . They've really tried to get him. And for them now to say, 'oh, just because we did that to you for 10 years doesn't give you the right to do it to us.' Legally, that's sound. I mean, you have to prove your case in court. But politically, I don't think that's going to fly. Democrats screaming that Donald Trump is weaponizing prosecutors against them is not going to really impress a lot of people."
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Jacobson speculated that there will likely be more woes for Schiff in the coming days, but that potential legal cases hinge on prosecutors.
"We don't know where this is going ahead, of course, but it does appear that Adam Schiff is in the sights of Donald Trump. No surprise about that, because Donald Trump has been in the sights of Adam Schiff for a decade. So, I fully expect that there will be more here. The question is going to be really though, once it moves into the realm of prosecution, what are the prosecutors going to do?"
The Department of Justice declined comment when approached about potentially investigating and taking up the Schiff case. Schiff's office did not respond to Fox Digital's request for comment.
Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace and Peter Doocy contributed to this report.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a slew of documents this month, revealing that Obama administration officials "manufactured" intelligence to push the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
Here’s a look at the newly declassified records:
Documents revealed that in the months leading up to the November 2016 election, the intelligence community consistently assessed that Russia was "probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means."
One instance was on Dec. 7, 2016, weeks after the election. Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s talking points stated, "Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome."
Fox News Digital obtained a declassified copy of the Presidential Daily Brief, which was prepared by the Department of Homeland Security, with reporting from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, State Department and open sources, for Obama, dated Dec. 8, 2016.
"We assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure," the Presidential Daily Brief stated. "Russian Government-affiliated actors most likely compromised an Illinois voter registration database and unsuccessfully attempted the same in other states."
But the brief stated that it was "highly unlikely" the effort "would have resulted in altering any state’s official vote result."
"Criminal activity also failed to reach the scale and sophistication necessary to change election outcomes," it stated.
The brief noted that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessed that any Russian activities "probably were intended to cause psychological effects, such as undermining the credibility of the election process and candidates."
The brief stated that cyber criminals "tried to steal data and to interrupt election processes by targeting election infrastructure, but these actions did not achieve a notable disruptive effect."
Fox News Digital obtained declassified, but redacted, communications from the FBI in the Presidential Daily Brief, stating that it "should not go forward until the FBI" had shared its "concerns."
Those communications revealed that the FBI drafted a "dissent" to the original Presidential Daily Brief.
The communications revealed that the brief was expected to be published Dec. 9, 2016, the following day, but later communications revealed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "based on some new guidance," decided to "push back publication" of the Presidential Daily Brief.
"It will not run tomorrow and is not likely to run until next week," wrote the deputy director of the Presidential Daily Brief at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose name is redacted.
The following day, Dec. 9, 2016, a meeting convened in the White House Situation Room, with the subject line starting: "Summary of Conclusions for PC Meeting on a Sensitive Topic (REDACTED.)"
The meeting included top officials in the National Security Council, Clapper, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, among others, to discuss Russia.
The declassified meeting record, obtained by Fox News Digital, revealed that principals "agreed to recommend sanctioning of certain members of the Russian military intelligence and foreign intelligence chains of command responsible for cyber operations as a response to cyber activity that attempted to influence or interfere with U.S. elections, if such activity meets the requirements" from an executive order that demanded the blocking of property belonging to people engaged in cyber activities.
After the meeting, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Clapper’s executive assistant emailed intelligence community leaders tasking them to create a new intelligence community assessment "per the president’s request" that detailed the "tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election."
"ODNI will lead this effort with participation from CIA, FBI, NSA, and DHS," the record states.
Later, Obama officials "leaked false statements to media outlets" claiming that "Russia has attempted through cyber means to interfere in, if not actively influence, the outcome of an election."
By Jan. 6, 2017, a new Intelligence Community Assessment was released that, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, "directly contradicted the IC assessments that were made throughout the previous six months."
Intelligence officials told Fox News Digital that the ICA was "politicized" because it "suppressed intelligence from before and after the election showing Russia lacked intent and capability to hack the 2016 election."
Officials also said it deceived the American public "by claiming the IC made no assessment on the ‘impact’ of Russian activities," when the intelligence community "did, in fact, assess for impact."
"The unpublished December PDB stated clearly that Russia ‘did not impact’ the election through cyber hacks on the election," an official told Fox News Digital.
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The official also said the ICA had assessed that "Russia was responsible for leaking data from the DNC and DCCC," while "failing to mention that FBI and NSA previously expressed low confidence in this attribution."
Officials said the intelligence was "politicized" and then "used as the basis for countless smears seeking to delegitimize President Trump’s victory, the years-long Mueller investigation, two Congressional impeachments, high level officials being investigated, arrested, and thrown in jail, heightened US-Russia tensions, and more."
A report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2020 said the intelligence community did not have any direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but, at the "unusual" direction of then-President Barack Obama, published "potentially biased" or "implausible" intelligence suggesting otherwise.
The report, based on an investigation launched by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was dated Sept. 18, 2020. At the time of the publication of the report, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chairman of the committee.
The report has never before been released to the public and instead has remained highly classified within the intelligence community.
Fox News Digital obtained the "fully-sourced limited-access investigation report that was drafted and stored in a limited-access vault at CIA Headquarters." The report includes some redactions.
The committee focused on the creation of the Intelligence Community Assessment of 2017, in which then-CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the inclusion of the now-discredited anti-Trump dossier despite knowing it was based largely on "internet rumor," as Fox News Digital previously reported.
According to the report, the ICA was a "high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter."
"Production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly DCIA," the report states. "The draft was not properly coordinated within CIA or the IC, ensuring it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions."
The committee found that the five CIA analysts and drafter "rushed" the ICA’s production "in order to publish two weeks before President-elect Trump was sworn-in."
"Hurried coordination and limited access to the draft reduced opportunities for the IC to discover misquoting of sources and other tradecraft concerns," the report states.
The report states that Brennan "ordered the post-election publication of 15 reports containing previously collected but unpublished intelligence, three of which were substandard — containing information that was unclear, of uncertain origin, potentially biased, or implausible — and those became foundational sources for the ICA judgements that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton."
"The ICA misrepresented these reports as reliable, without mentioning their significant underlying flaws," the committee found.
"One scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin ‘aspired’ to help Trump win," the report states, adding that the ICA "ignored or selectively quoted reliable intelligence reports that challenged — and in some cases undermined — judgments that Putin sought to elect Trump."
The report also states that the ICA "failed to consider plausible alternative explanations of Putin’s intentions indicated by reliable intelligence and observed Russian actions."
The committee also found that two senior CIA officers warned Brennan that "we don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected."
Despite those warnings, the Obama administration moved to publish the ICA.
The ICA "did not cite any report where Putin directly indicated helping Trump win was the objective."
The ICA, according to the report, excluded "significant intelligence" and "ignored or selectively quoted" reliable intelligence in an effort to push the Russia narrative.
The report also includes intelligence from a longtime Putin confidant who explained to investigators that "Putin told him he did not care who won the election," and that Putin "had often outlined the weaknesses of both major candidates."
The report also states that the ICA omitted context showing that the claim that Putin preferred Trump was "implausible —if not ridiculous."
The committee also found that the ICA suppressed intelligence that showed that Russia was actually planning for a Hillary Clinton victory because "they knew where (she) stood" and believed Russia "could work with her."
The committee also noted that the ICA "did not address why Putin chose not to leak more discrediting material on Clinton, even as polls tightened in the final weeks of the election."
The committee also found that the ICA suppressed intelligence showing that Putin was "not only demonstrating a clear lack of concern for Trump’s election fate," but also indicated "that he preferred to see Secretary Clinton elected, knowing she would be a more vulnerable President."
One section of the declassified House Intelligence Committee report states that the material in Putin’s possession included Russian intelligence on Democratic National Committee information allegedly showing that senior Democratic leaders found Clinton’s health to be "extraordinarily alarming."
"As of September 2016, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service had DNC information that President Obama and Party leaders found the state of Secretary Clinton’s health to be ‘extraordinarily alarming,’ and felt it could have ‘serious negative impact’ on her election prospects," the report states. "Her health information was being kept in ‘strictest secrecy’ and even close advisors were not being fully informed."
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service also allegedly had DNC communications that showed that "Clinton was suffering from ‘intensified psycho-emotional problems, including uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression, and cheerfulness.'"
"Clinton was placed on a daily regimen of ‘heavy tranquilizers’ and while afraid of losing, she remained ‘obsessed with a thirst for power,’" the report states.
The Russians also allegedly had information that Clinton "suffered from ‘Type 2 diabetes, Ischemic heart disease, deep vein thrombosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.’"
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The Russians also allegedly possessed a "campaign email discussing a plan approved by Secretary Clinton to link Putin and Russian hackers to candidate Trump in order to ‘distract the American public’ from the Clinton email server scandal."
Gabbard, during the White House press briefing Wednesday, said there were "high-level DNC emails that detailed evidence of Hillary's, quote, psycho-emotional problems, uncontrolled fits of anger, aggression and cheerfulness, and that then-Secretary Clinton was allegedly on a daily regimen of heavy tranquilizers."
A tranquilizer is a drug used to reduce mental disturbance, such as anxiety and tension. Tranquilizers are typically prescribed to individuals suffering from anxiety, sleep disturbances and related conditions affecting their mental and physical health.
A Clinton aide dismissed the claims as "ridiculous."
Neither Clinton nor Obama responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
Progressive Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, is once again renewing his call to impeach President Donald Trump, vowing to drop new articles of impeachment soon. He likened his crusade against Trump to the biblical David versus Goliath and anti-Trump activists as "one million Davids."
"This is what's important, President Trump is a Goliath. He has military might. He has persons who are loyal to him in the military and the judiciary and in the Congress. But for every Goliath, there is a David," said Green, adding, "But in this case, we have nearly one million Davids, one million Davids willing to take on and challenge the president for his unconstitutional behavior. And I say to you that this number is growing."
In June, the House of Representatives voted along bipartisan lines to quash Green’s bid to impeach Trump. Lawmakers agreed to table the measure in a 344–79 vote. A vote to table is a procedural mechanism allowing House members to vote against consideration of a bill without having to vote on the bill itself.
A majority of House Democrats joined Republican lawmakers to kill Green's resolution, a sign of how politically caustic the effort appears to be. Just 79 Democrats voted to proceed with the impeachment vote, while 128 voted to halt it in its tracks.
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Despite this, Green said he was undeterred, telling reporters on Wednesday "we’re not going to make this a one-off" and "there's also a set of articles that I have not presented that I will be presenting. This is not the last time."
Asked whether he believes pursuing impeachment is productive given the Republican House majority, Green answered, "it is always a good time to impeach."
"I think focusing on impeachment is productive whenever there's a breach of the Constitution," he said. "The timing is not associated with when you have a majority in the House, it's not associated with when it feels good, it is always good to impeach when a president violates the Constitution. It really is that simple."
Besides being known for repeatedly attempting to impeach Trump, the Texas Democrat is also known for infamously disrupting the president’s joint address to Congress in March by shouting and waving his cane at him.
Green was removed from the House floor after repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president's speech, a move that the Democrat called "invidious discrimination."
House lawmakers voted to censure Green over the disruption. Ten Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the measure. Green himself voted "present," along with first-term Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala.
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, the office of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., referred to his comments on the censure on X, formerly Twitter, this week.
Johnson posted, "Rep. Al Green’s shameful and egregious behavior during President Trump’s Joint Address disgraced the institution of Congress and the constituents he serves. Despite my repeated warnings, he refused to cease his antics and I was forced to remove him from the chamber. He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort."
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is throwing cold water on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's assertion about the Obama administration's role in pushing the Trump-Russia collusion narrative during the 2016 presidential election.
Gabbard has declassified documents, including a House Intelligence Committee memo, alleging that former President Barack Obama and his national security team "manufactured an Intelligence Community Assessment they knew was false."
"I think what Gabbard and her staff are doing is dishonest and misstated, and I'll leave it at that," Schiff told Fox News Digital on Capitol Hill.
But White House Spokesman Davis Ingle was quick to fire back in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Pencil neck, watermelon head Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff was one of the chief propagandists behind the Russia collusion hoax," he said. "He’s now trying to desperately cover his tracks as this entire lie is being exposed to the world."
Schiff was elected to the Senate last year but served in the House while Congress investigated whether Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
NEW RUSSIAGATE EVIDENCE 'DIRECTLY POINT TO' OBAMA, DOJ WILL DECIDE 'CRIMINAL IMPLICATIONS': GABBARD
And as a ranking member and then chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff was directly involved in the congressional investigation and became a leading Democratic voice accusing Trump's 2016 presidential campaign of colluding with Russia.
"Should Obama and his team be held responsible in some way for pushing the Russia collusion narrative that was proven false to take down Trump?" Fox News Digital asked Schiff.
"Well, if you read the well-reported intelligence community report, you know they documented Russia's efforts to help denigrate Hillary Clinton, which gave a boost to the Trump campaign," Schiff responded.
Schiff was referring to an Intelligence Community Assessment report from 2017 that asserted that Russia's goals were to undermine faith in the U.S. democratic process and to "denigrate" former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin "developed a clear preference" for Trump.
Gabbard's office alleged in a press release outlining the unearthed documents that Putin did not favor a candidate in 2016. It also said, "There is irrefutable evidence detailing how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an Intelligence Community Assessment that they knew was false."
When asked if he should apologize, Schiff told Fox News Digital, "It's been proven accurate."
And as he walked away, Schiff seemed to nod in agreement and say, "Yes," when asked if everything he had said about the Russia collusion was accurate.
The Justice Department, however, has formed a "strike force" to assess the evidence publicized by Gabbard into the Obama administration's role in the Trump–Russia collusion narrative.
Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, as the president often evoked Schiff's nickname on the presidential campaign trail in 2024 while Trump weaved through a range of topics, including what he has come to refer to as the "Russia, Russia, Russia hoax."
"Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff is in BIG TROUBLE!" Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday. "He falsified Loan Documents. He once said my son would go to prison on a SCAM that Schiff, along with other Crooked Dems, illegally ‘manufactured’ in order to stage an actual coup."
"My son did nothing wrong, knew nothing about the fictional story," he added. "It was an American Tragedy! Now Shifty should pay the price of prison for a real crime, not one made up by the corrupt accusers!"
The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice in May alleging that Schiff has "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property."
"Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason," Schiff said after Trump first accused Schiff of mortgage fraud. "So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution won’t stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot."
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman, Emma Colton, Danielle Wallace, and Peter Doocy contributed to this report.