Politics

(WASHINGTON) — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued a criminal referral against former Special Counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday for allegedly making “willfully and intentionally false statements” when testifying before Congress last December.

“The Committee on the Judiciary writes to refer strong evidence that appears to show Jack Smith, former Special Counsel, knowingly made false statements during his December 17, 2025 deposition,” Jordan wrote in a letter sent to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

In the letter, Jordan questioned what Smith said under oath about obtaining phone records of 44 lawmakers who communicated with President Donald Trump and other members of the White House related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

“This information calls into question the completeness and accuracy of statements that Mr. Smith made under oath to the Committee regarding his team’s access to the content of Members’ text messages,” Jordan wrote.

Jordan stated that responses by Smith during congressional testimony “gave the impression that neither Mr. Smith nor his team had access to the content of members’ privileged text messages.”

“We now know this to be false,” Jordan wrote.

“His conduct can only be understood as an effort to thwart the Committee’s inquiry by intentionally making false statements and representations before Congress. We therefore believe that sufficient evidence exists for DOJ to examine whether Mr. Smith’s actions warrant a charge,” the letter added. 

Counsel for Smith responded to Jordan’s referral disputing that his statements in any way could be construed as perjury — arguing the effort “reflects a chilling eagerness to weaponize the justice system by attacking a career, nonpartisan public servant who faithfully and fearlessly performed his duties by following the facts and the law.”

Top Judiciary Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin slammed the GOP-led criminal referral — calling it “baseless” and “vindictive.”

“Jack Smith was clear and consistent in his testimony, and he told the truth. When asked if his subpoena for Members’ toll records sought the content of either Member’s phone calls or messages, he truthfully replied that they did not,” Raskin said in a statement.

Raskin said the referral “if ever brought before a judge, will get laughed out of court” and is “meant to harass Jack Smith.”

Criminal referrals are just recommendations and do not always lead to a prosecution.

This move by Jordan comes after Blanche said last week at his confirmation hearing that DOJ might investigate Smith over alleged perjury.

“Have you thought about investigating this guy for perjury?” GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, asked of Blanche after recounting testimony where Smith previously denied that toll records obtained from members of Congress did not include the contents of messages.

“We take testimony in front of this body very seriously, yes,” Blanche responded. 

During Smith’s investigation into Jan. 6, his office sought limited phone toll data from eight senators and a member of the House in the days surrounding the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

While such records would not involve the content of any phone calls or messages, multiple Republicans have incorrectly claimed that Smith had “tapped” their phones or “spied” on them.

Records released ahead of last week’s hearing indicated that contents of messages obtained by Smith’s teams related to messages handed over by the National Archives and Records Administration — not the toll records he referred to in his original answer. 

“I think he absolutely should be investigated,” Hawley said. “I hope that you will investigate Jack Smith for perjury and I hope that possibly you’ll prosecute him.”

“Yes, senator,” Blanche said. 

Trump has long called for Smith to be investigated.

In an interview with MS NOW earlier this month, Smith said the U.S. is facing an “attack on the rule of law that is different in kind and scope to anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will travel to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday to attend a dignified transfer of U.S. service members killed in the war in Iran.

“Heading to Dover Air Force Base to HONOR OUR HEROES!” Trump posted to his social media platform Wednesday morning.

Overnight, the Pentagon identified the third person believed to have been killed in action during Friday’s Iranian strike on a U.S. base in Jordan as Army Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York.

Two other American soldiers died in the Iranian attack on the U.S. base: Pfc. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler Feehan, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii.

A fourth soldier. Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, died Sunday following the controlled detonation of a downed Iranian attack drone at Erbil Air Base in Iraq, the Army said.

Since the U.S. war in Iran began in late February, at least 18 soldiers have been killed and roughly 500 wounded, according to the Department of Defense.

Fighting has intensified after a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran reached in mid-June broke down. There has now been 11 consecutive nights of strikes.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Ga, is calling for Democrats to investigate officials who he says have “manipulated their maps to silence the voices of Black voters,” as soon as they flip the House or Senate in the midterms.

In the plan, first reviewed by ABC News, Warnock said, “Here is what Democrats must do as soon as we regain power: investigate craven politicians, ban partisan gerrymandering, stop billionaires from buying our elections, expand our democracy and guarantee the right to vote for all Americans.”

Warnock has not ruled out a run for the White House in 2028. That possibility comes as roughly a third of the Congressional Black Caucus risks losing its seats before 2028, with GOP-led Southern legislatures redrawing maps after the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

In Louisiana, where Black residents make up roughly one-third of the population, a federal court had found that a post-2020 congressional map with only one majority-Black district likely diluted Black voting power. The legislature responded by drawing a second majority-Black district as courts had required in similar circumstances.

Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the Supreme Court opinion, which said that states only violate the Voting Rights Act when “evidence supports a strong inference that the State intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.”

Republicans have argued that they are redrawing congressional maps to comply with the Supreme Court or to remedy unfairly-drawn districts, and that the districts that could be changed may still elect Black representatives to Congress.

Calling for officials who he says have engaged in gerrymandering to decimate minority voices is a position Warnock hasn’t called for until now, and he said in a phone interview with ABC News that the Callais decision was an “inflection point” for him to do so.

“A Democratic majority in either chamber must immediately investigate these officials, including through Congressional hearings, document requests, depositions, testimony, and, if necessary, subpoenas,” Warnock’s plan states. “We must analyze their statements, actions, and contributions to determine if there is any evidence that they broke any laws in their race to gerrymander and silence Black voices.”

Asked whether Democrats who’ve engaged in partisan gerrymandering — in California, for example — should face investigation, Warnock said that the state’s redistricting came in direct response to President Donald Trump pushing Texas to gerrymander five seats.

“There’s a significant difference between that and an open process in which Californians got to vote,” Warnock said. “This was not done in a smoky, dark room. They had a referendum. Again, if I had my druthers, there would be no gerrymandering.”

“There are only 22 districts out of 435 in this country in which a Democrat or a Republican could win the seat. I’m a Democrat. I think that’s a sad state of affairs,” Warnock added.

Warnock said that he’s been pushing his party to prioritize voting rights since he was first elected. In 2021, during negotiations over the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Warnock urged then-President Joe Biden in a phone call that legislative action on voting rights should be prioritized alongside the package.

Warnock said he tried to convince former Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to amend the filibuster so the party could pass voting rights legislation four years ago, arguing voting rights mattered more than a procedural rule.

“I said to my caucus then, as the newcomer, that I was afraid that if we don’t do something … we would cross a Rubicon in this country that we wouldn’t be able to get back,” Warnock said. “I said that then, and sadly, it didn’t get done.”

Looking ahead, Warnock said if Democrats flip even just one chamber, the party should break up pieces of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and “force everybody to vote on it.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department is investigating embattled Republican Florida Rep. Cory Mills, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

The investigation is in part about his finances, according to sources. Mills’ office did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

MS NOW first reported the investigation.

Further details about the investigation were not immediately clear.

Mills was elected to the House to represent Florida’s 7th District in 2022 and reelected in 2024. He serves on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees.

Last November, the House Ethics Committee voted to establish an investigative subcommittee to examine allegations that Mills violated campaign finance laws and engaged in sexual misconduct and dating violence.

Regarding allegations of sexual misconduct, Mills issued a statement last year, before the ethics committee probe was lauched, stating in part: “These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions,” and he accused a former Florida primary opponent of “weaponizing the legal system to launch a political attack against the man who beat him.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — The director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (MNAH) is scheduled to testify before two congressional House committees this week amid sharp criticism from the White House over the contents of the Washington, D.C. museum.

Anthea Hartig is set to face grilling by lawmakers on Tuesday morning in a House Subcommittee on Delivering Government Efficiency hearing titled “Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian’s Efforts to Reshape the Past,” according to a committee press release.

She is also expected to testify in a related hearing on Wednesday before the Committee on House Administration, a committee spokesperson confirmed to ABC News. ABC News has reached out to the Smithsonian for confirmation.

Hartig was named in a scathing White House Domestic Policy Council report released on July 4, accusing the MNAH and its leadership of engaging in “extreme political activism” and presenting “a radical view of American history.”

Asked about the report, a spokesperson for the Smithsonian told ABC News on July 5 that the institution remains committed to impartial learning.

“For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so,” the spokesperson said.

Hartig’s testimony this week would mark the first time that a top leader at the Smithsonian gets grilled publicly by Congress after President Donald Trump targeted the institution in his March 27, 2025 executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

The executive order directed Vice President J.D. Vance, in consultation with the president’s advisers on domestic policy, “to remove improper ideology” from Smithsonian institutions, arguing that materials that cast America in a “negative light” have no place in federal cultural institutions.

The White House last year launched an investigation into the Smithsonian, which oversees 21 museums, galleries and the national zoo, and released the July 4 report targeting the American history museum as part of this probe.

The report accuses the museum of “anti-White activism,” “illegal alien activism,” and “transgender activism.” It also includes many photos of materials the White House has identified as problematic.

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, who has not addressed the report publicly, disputed its findings in an internal letter to staff that was obtained by ABC News.

Bunch wrote that Smithsonian leadership is “carefully” reviewing the report’s findings, but said that the report’s assessment is “not a fair characterization.

“While there will always be room for improvement, this report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History,” Bunch said in the letter. “At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story.”

“As public servants and the keepers of this institution, we are charged with helping a nation find understanding, hope, and clarity and as part of that duty, we are dedicated to excellence, reflection, and growth,” Bunch added.

The report was published by the White House Domestic Policy Council. Vince Haley, the group’s director, said in a statement to ABC News that “No American wants the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to be a system of ideological activism.”

“Unfortunately, the report demonstrates that is exactly what the Smithsonian’s flagship museum has become,” he said. “It is our hope and expectation that the Smithsonian will eventually rise once again to that noble obligation — to tell America’s story for our children, the world, and future generations of Americans,” he added.

ABC News’ Mariam Khan contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, confirmed in an interview with Fox News that aired Monday she will run for the seat for a full term, in addition to serving out the rest of Lindsey Graham’s unfinished one.

“I’ve been praying a lot, talking to my family. But with the love of my family, with the support of his staff — I know I’m a hard worker. I learned that from Lindsey. He cared about the people of this state. I’ve worked for almost 30 years for the people of this state,” she said in the interview.

“I feel like I can do it,” she continued. “I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes, absolutely.”

Asked by Fox News anchor Sean Hannity if she’s inclined to get into the race or if she’s made a final decision, Darline Graham said, “I’ve made a decision.”

“You’re in?” Hannity asked, to which she responded, “I’m in.” 

Darline Graham was appointed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to finish the final few months of her brother’s current term, which expires in January. She was sworn in last week at the Capitol.

The late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s spot on the November general election ballot for a full six-year term is being filled by a special Republican primary election set for August 11. Filing for candidates for the primary opens on Tuesday and closes on July 28. 

Republican Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry of South Carolina have already launched campaigns, as has businessman Mark Lynch, who ran against Lindsey Graham in the state’s regular June primary.

But on Friday, President Donald Trump endorsed Darline Graham, encouraging her to run for the seat and writing, “There would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey.”

Darline Graham served as a commissioner on the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and has worked in other state roles, including in roles where she worked with individuals with disabilities.

Darline Graham has spoken about how her brother took care of her after both of their parents passed away when they were young.

Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly on July 11 at the age of 71. Memorial services for the longtime Republican lawmaker will take place in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina next week.

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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats are pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for answers about his directive requiring the military to measure troops’ testosterone levels, seeking details on how the policy will be carried out amid concerns over how it will apply to women and whether it could inadvertently encourage service members to self-medicate with potentially dangerous supplements.

In a letter to Hegseth, Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Gary Peters of Michigan, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ruben Gallego of Arizona said the Pentagon has provided little explanation for the new requirement, raising questions about its scientific basis, cost and potential consequences.

“The Department has provided no evidence that this sweeping new policy will improve force readiness or health, nor has it explained the scientific basis, costs, or risks associated with implementing it across the force,” the senators wrote.

Last week, Hegseth directed the military to begin screening testosterone levels for all service members, including women, age 30 and older as part of their annual physical health assessments, expanding routine exams that have traditionally focused on baseline health measures such as vision, hearing and other standard medical screenings. Troops under 30 may opt into testing voluntarily, and any recommendation for testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT, would also be voluntary for all ages.

The policy has yet to be formally implemented, thus the specifics have not yet been figured out and it remains unclear when service members will begin undergoing testosterone screenings as part of their annual health assessments, though Hegseth directed a plan be ironed out by Aug. 15. 

The cost is also unknown and the Defense Department could require additional medical personnel to be hired for the screenings at routine annual exams.

The move comes as a broader focus on fitness has been core to Hegseth’s tenure — an unusual move for a role traditionally focused on large operations and the macro workings for the Pentagon — which includes regular videos from the Pentagon of Hegseth working out with troops. 

Hegseth has directed the services to adjust their fitness tests and reassess body-fat standards, including new measurement methods introduced earlier this month. The Army has also begun integrating gender-neutral fitness requirements for soldiers serving in ground combat roles.

Among the unresolved questions are whether service members could face administrative consequences if their testosterone levels fall below a threshold the Pentagon has yet to define and how the policy will apply to women.

“Coupled with the Department’s recent repeated efforts to redefine military culture around an exaggerated conception of masculinity, this initiative risks undermining years of work to ensure that women service members are evaluated and valued based solely on their ability to perform the mission,” the senators wrote.

Some welcomed the expanded access to testosterone screening and treatment, arguing that obtaining testosterone replacement therapy through Tricare, the military’s health insurance program, can be cumbersome. But others warned the policy could create unintended incentives for troops to use unregulated supplements or anabolic steroids to avoid being flagged for potential health issues, while raising concerns about embarrassment for those found to have low testosterone.

“I think this is a great idea on paper, but we need to be careful about how it’s implemented,” said one official who works in fitness coaching and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Low testosterone has long been a concern in some parts of the military, particularly within the special operations community, where prolonged stress, intense physical demands and inadequate caloric intake are believed to contribute to lower hormone levels, though there’s little detailed research on the subject. 

At the same time, testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT, has surged in popularity across podcasts, social media and the broader wellness industry, where it is often promoted as a way to boost energy, muscle mass and overall vitality. Medical experts caution, however, that clinically low testosterone is relatively uncommon.

Testosterone deficiency affects roughly 2% of men, according to the American Urological Association, and physicians have warned that the growing popularity of TRT has created the misleading impression that the condition is far more widespread than medical evidence suggests.

Moreover, factors such as insufficient sleep and poor nutrition can contribute to lower testosterone levels, studies show, two issues the military has long struggled to address.

Nutrition, in particular, has been a persistent challenge across the services, with troops often reporting inconsistent access to high-quality, protein-rich meals. Military dining facilities have faced criticism for menus heavy on fried foods and carbohydrates, sugar, limited portions and operating hours that do not always align with the schedules of service members working long or irregular shifts.

“It’s a readiness, retention, recruiting and long-term health issue,” Rob Evans, an Army veteran whose app Hots & Cots collects reviews from service members on housing and food on military bases, told ABC News about issues with nutrition on military facilities.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson appears all but certain to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for Senate in the party’s bid to unseat Republican incumbent Susan Collins this November.

Jackson’s campaign said Monday that “it is turning its full focus toward defeating Senator Susan Collins,” citing a “decisive advantage” during recent county-level caucuses.

Jackson, who comes from a logging family not far from the Quebec border, is a familiar face to Maine voters due to his history of activism and his lengthy background as a state lawmaker in Augusta.

His campaign’s statement also came after an eventful Sunday for Maine politics as four other Democrats dropped out of the running: Dan Kleban, Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah and Jordan Wood.

“We are suspending our campaign tonight. This is the conclusion of the caucuses and letting this process play out,” Wood, the former chief of staff to Katie Porter when she served as a congresswoman representing California, said in a selfie-style video posted to social media on Sunday evening.

“I’m so proud to endorse my friend Troy Jackson. I didn’t know Troy until over a year ago when I decided to run for office for the first time, but he has become a friend, someone I trust, someone that I know represents and will serve all people in Maine,” Wood added.

Shah and Kleban, like Wood, also endorsed Jackson. Bellows did not mention Jackson when suspending her Senate campaign.

Maine Democrats held county-level nomination meetings over the weekend in order to select delegates ahead of their party’s Senate nominating convention set for this coming Saturday, July 25.

While the Maine Democratic Party’s website lists that eight candidates remain in the race to replace Platner, including former primary candidate David Costello and activist Ashley Webb, delegates who expressed support for Jackson received overwhelming support at the nomination meetings and the candidates who withdrew Sunday were previously viewed as Jackson’s main rivals.

Jackson’s campaign said that 481 of 500 county delegates support his candidacy. A total of 601 delegates will participate in the July 25 convention, with the additional 101 delegates being members of the Maine Democratic State Committee.

Just over six weeks ago, Jackson stood in front of a crowd in a Bar Harbor theater to ask Mainers to support his own bid for governor (a race he lost) and to vote for Platner in the Democratic Senate primary.

But after Platner was accused earlier this month of sexual assault by a former girlfriend, an allegation he’s denied, Jackson joined calls for him to exit the race. Platner formally withdrew his candidacy on July 10.

Now, in nearly a week, Maine voters should know for certain whether Jackson will officially be the Democrats’ pick to try to flip the high-profile Senate seat.

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(WASHINGTON) — The new Air Force One will be “maxed out” with security features, undergoing an upgrade that’s expected to put the Qatari-gifted jet out of commission for about a month, President Donald Trump said on Sunday. 

“Well, it has, it has a lot, and you know it has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out,” the president said of the newly retrofitted jet. “So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out.”

The jet had faced security concerns in the weeks since its first operational flight on July 1, when Trump flew on it to North Dakota. The plane, a Boeing 747-8 that was gifted from Qatar, later carried Trump to the NATO summit in Turkey this month.  

As Trump prepared to depart the summit, the Secret Service urged the president to take the older Air Force One jet as a precaution, due in part for the differences in security capabilities, ABC News learned at the time.

The New York Times reported that the new jet did not have the same anti-missile capabilities as the previous model. Trump’s comment on Sunday followed a reporter’s question about those claims, which ABC News has not independently confirmed.

“Mr. President, this plane does not have antimissile defense systems on it,” the reporter asked. “Why are you flying on it?”

Trump in response said the plane would be “maxed out,” a process that he expected would “take about a month.” The president did not detail exactly when the upgrades were expected to begin.

The Qatari royal family’s donation of the luxury jet valued at approximately $400 million, an unprecedented foreign gift, raised questions from some lawmakers and ethics experts. Ahead of his first flight, Trump gave credit to the Qatari government.

“Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary,” he said on July 1. “They spent top dollar.”

“I said to Boeing, ‘What’s the best one?’ They said this is the best plane ever built, and you’re going to have the privilege of flying it, and I have a privilege also of flying it,” Trump said that day.

The U.S. Air Force said it had been modifying the jet Texas since September to meet the security, communications and other needs to transport the president.

The Air Force last year originally estimated it would cost less than $400 million to retrofit the gift, though it’s unclear how much exactly has been spent so far. Many of the details of the retrofitting on the new plane are considered classified.

The gifted plane is expected to be used as the new Air Force One until shortly before Trump leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement have told ABC News.

ABC News’ Emily Chang, Sarah Kolinovsky and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance announced on Sunday that second lady Usha Vance gave birth to the couple’s fourth child, a son named Alec Neel Vance.

Vance said both Usha and the baby “are happy and healthy” and thanked the medical teams at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the White House Medical Unit.

“We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning. Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” the vice president wrote on X.

JD and Usha Vance share three other young children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.

The couple announced they were expecting their fourth child in January, writing on social media, “Our family is growing!” They met while studying at Yale Law School and got married in 2014.

The vice president often speaks about his family and marriage, and has been a leading voice in the Trump administration’s efforts to encourage the public to have more children.

“I want more babies in the United States of America. I want more happy children in our country, and I want — and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them,” Vance said in one of the first speeches of his vice presidential term at the March for Life event in Washington last year.

“And it is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are here at the March for Life,” he added at the time.

In June, Usha Vance sat down with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis for a wide-ranging interview. The second lady shared her thoughts about her husband’s political future and the biggest surprise she learned about President Donald Trump.

When asked whether she would like to see JD Vance as president one day, Usha Vance said, “I am not a particularly politically ambitious person; I would like to see him happy. I would like to see him making contributions that matter and whatever form that takes is a form that I’ll be supportive of,” she said.

The second lady said that the biggest surprise to her, as she’s gotten to know President Trump, has been his sense of humor and his gentleness toward children.

“He has a really good sense of humor and has a sort of gentleness towards his children, towards other people’s families and children,” she said. “It shows a lot of caring about what they’re going through and what is happening in their lives.”

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