A longtime ally of former President Joe Biden is appearing before House investigators on Thursday, the eighth ex-White House aide to be summoned for Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe.

Michael Donilon served as senior advisor to the president for the entirety of Biden’s four-year term.

He’s sitting down with House Oversight Committee staff for a closed-door transcribed interview that could last several hours.

Donilon and his counsel arrived just after 10 a.m. on Thursday, largely avoiding reporters on his way into the room.

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

Donilon will likely be of key interest to investigators, considering his decades-long working relationship with the former president.

He first began working for Biden in 1981 as a strategist, pollster, and media advisor, according to a biography by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, where he was a Spring 2025 fellow.

Biden was serving as a senator from Delaware at the time.

He also served as chief strategist on Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns before Biden dropped his re-election bid in July 2024.

The loyal former aide accused the Democratic Party of melting down earlier this year after top left-wing leaders forced Biden out of the 2024 presidential race over his disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump.

‘Lots of people have terrible debates. Usually the party doesn’t lose its mind, but that’s what happened here. It melted down,’ he said at a Harvard event in February.

It comes after another close former aide, ex-counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, appeared before investigators for his own transcribed interview on Wednesday.

Like Ricchetti, Donilon is appearing on voluntary terms – the fifth ex-Biden aide to do so.

Three of the previous six Biden administration officials who appeared before the House Oversight Committee did so under subpoena. Ex-White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as former advisors Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all pleaded the Fifth Amendment during their compulsory sit-downs.

But the four voluntary transcribed interviews that have occurred so far have lasted more than five hours, as staff for both Democrats and Republicans take turns in rounds of questioning.

‘You were reportedly responsible for erecting a wall between the former president and senators ‘to shield Biden from bad information.’ Recently, during an event at Harvard University, you displayed your willingness to speak about the former president’s cognition but you reportedly ‘denounced claims that the president’s acuity and judgment declined,” Comer wrote in a June letter to Donilon asking him to appear.

‘The scope of your responsibilities—both official and otherwise—and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response.’

Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas resigned on Thursday following protests in the country’s capital over investigations into his alleged business dealings. 

‘Gintautas Paluckas called me this morning and informed me of his resignation,’ Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda told reporters, according to Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT). Nausėda also said Paluckas made the right choice and welcomed the decision.

Nausėda recently gave Paluckas two weeks to decide whether or not to stay in his position.

‘The president has asked the prime minister to either give a reasoned answer to the questions raised by the public in the next two weeks, or to consider seriously his further options as prime minister,’ presidential adviser Frederikas Jansonas told reporters on July 24, according to LRT.

The prime minister’s resignation also comes after a smaller party threatened to exit the country’s ruling coalition unless Paluckas stepped down from his position.

After media outlets began publishing investigations into Paluckas’ business and financial dealings, Lithuania’s anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies launched probes of their own, according to the Associated Press. One of the cases against him is more than a decade old. 

In 2012, Paluckas was convicted of mishandling the bidding process for rat extermination in Vilnius, where he was serving as the director of the city’s municipality administration, the Associated Press reported. However, it has been revealed that he did not pay a chunk of the nearly $20,000 fine.

A more recent scandal involved a €200,000 ($228,777) subsidized loan that Garnis, a company Paluckas co-founded, received after Paluckas was already serving as prime minister, according to LRT. The outlet added that Lithuania’s Chief Official Ethics Commission is investigating the loan. 

Garnis was also linked to a more recent scandal involving the prime minister in which Dankora — Paluckas’ sister-in-law’s company — received EU funding and used it to purchase goods from Garnis. However, according to LRT, public outcry pushed Dankora to return the funds.

Paluckas denies any wrongdoing and claims the criticism is part of a ‘coordinated attack’ by his political opponents, according to the Associated Press. 

The prime minister’s resignation puts Lithuania in a precarious position, as it comes just before Russia and Belarus hold joint military exercises. Paluckas’ whole cabinet is expected to resign as well, possibly leaving the Baltic country without a functioning government just weeks ahead of the Russian-Belarusian exercises, according to the Associated Press. However, this may not impact Lithuania’s foreign policy, as Nausėda, who represents the country on a global scale, has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine during its years-long war with Russia.

President Donald Trump hammered back at former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s warnings about war with the United States, telling the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council to ‘watch his words.’ 

‘I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,’ Trump wrote on TRUTH Social at midnight Thursday. ‘We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!’

In response to Trump’s post, Medvedev referenced Russia’s ‘Dead Hand’ – the Cold War-era automated nuclear retaliation system developed by the Soviet Union. 

‘If a few words from a former Russian president provoke such a nervous reaction from the supposedly mighty President of the United States, then clearly Russia is in the right – and will continue on its chosen path,’ Medvedev wrote on Telegram. 

‘And as for all that talk about the ‘dead economies’ of India and Russia, or about ‘venturing into dangerous territory’ – well, maybe he should rewatch some of his favorite zombie movies,’ he added. ‘And also remember just how dangerous the supposedly mythical ‘Dead Hand’ system can be.’ 

In theory, the ‘Dead Hand,’ described by the West during the 1980s as a Russian doomsday device, is meant to guarantee a massive retaliatory nuclear strike even if Moscow’s leadership is destroyed or incapacitated. 

While in Scotland on Monday, Trump warned during public remarks that Russian President Vladimir Putin had 10 or 12 days to reach a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, shortening a previous 50-day deadline he issued earlier this month. If Russia does not, Trump promised more ‘sanctions, tariffs, and maybe secondary tariffs’ against Moscow and the purchasers of Russian goods and energy. He lamented that repeated talks with Putin have resulted in little progress toward peace. 

‘Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10,’ Medvedev complained in a post to X earlier this week. ‘He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!’ 

Trump on Wednesday announced a 25% tariff on imports from India – one of the biggest consumers of Russian oil, next to China – starting on Aug. 1. The president described India as a ‘friend,’ but slammed the South Asian country’s ‘strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary’ trade barriers. Trump vowed other unspecified ‘penalties’ against India for buying most of its military equipment from Russia and Russian energy ‘at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE.’ 

During an unrelated press conference, Trump noted that India and Russia are founding members of BRICSoriginally formed as a counterweight to Western institutions. 

BRICS is ‘basically a group of countries that are anti-the United States and India is a member of that, if you can believe it. It’s an attack on the dollar. And we’re not going to let anybody attack the dollar,’ Trump said. ‘We have a tremendous deficit.’

In recent days, Medvedev has also shredded the framework of the trade deal Trump reached with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during his recent trip to Scotland. 

Trump has repeatedly communicated that trade deals with other countries would be contingent on foreign policy alignment with the United States. 

For example, after Canada announced it was backing Palestinian statehood amid Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Trump wrote Thursday, ‘That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.’ 

Trump, meanwhile, on Thursday celebrated this reciprocal tariffs plan after telling reporters on Wednesday that they brought ‘billions’ of dollars into the U.S. economy. 

‘Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again,’ Trump wrote on social media. ‘They were successfully used against the USA for decades and, coupled with really dumb, pathetic, and crooked politicians, we’re having a devastating impact on the future, and even the survival, of our country. Now the tide has completely turned, and America has successfully countered this onslaught of Tariffs used against it.’

‘ONE YEAR AGO, AMERICA WAS A DEAD COUNTRY, NOW IT IS THE ‘HOTTEST’ COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!’ Trump added. 

A longtime ally of former President Joe Biden is appearing before House investigators on Thursday, the eighth ex-White House aide to be summoned for Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe.

Michael Donilon served as senior advisor to the president for the entirety of Biden’s four-year term.

He’s now expected to sit down with House Oversight Committee staff for a closed-door transcribed interview that could last several hours.

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

Donilon will likely be of key interest to investigators, considering his decades-long working relationship with the former president.

He first began working for Biden in 1981 as a strategist, pollster, and media advisor, according to a biography by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, where he was a Spring 2025 fellow.

Biden was serving as a senator from Delaware at the time.

He also served as chief strategist on Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns before Biden dropped his re-election bid in July 2024.

The loyal former aide accused the Democratic Party of melting down earlier this year after top left-wing leaders forced Biden out of the 2024 presidential race over his disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump.

‘Lots of people have terrible debates. Usually the party doesn’t lose its mind, but that’s what happened here. It melted down,’ he said at a Harvard event in February.

It comes after another close former aide, ex-counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, appeared before investigators for his own transcribed interview on Wednesday.

Like Ricchetti, Donilon is appearing on voluntary terms – the fifth ex-Biden aide to do so.

Three of the previous six Biden administration officials who appeared before the House Oversight Committee did so under subpoena. Ex-White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as former advisors Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all pleaded the Fifth Amendment during their compulsory sit-downs.

But the four voluntary transcribed interviews that have occurred so far have lasted more than five hours, as staff for both Democrats and Republicans take turns in rounds of questioning.

‘You were reportedly responsible for erecting a wall between the former president and senators ‘to shield Biden from bad information.’ Recently, during an event at Harvard University, you displayed your willingness to speak about the former president’s cognition but you reportedly ‘denounced claims that the president’s acuity and judgment declined,” Comer wrote in a June letter to Donilon asking him to appear.

‘The scope of your responsibilities—both official and otherwise—and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response.’

Two U.S. judges in separate federal courts scrapped their rulings last week after lawyers alerted them to filings that contained inaccurate case details or seemingly ‘hallucinated’ quotes that misquoted cited cases — the latest in a string of errors that suggest the growing use of artificial intelligence in legal research and submissions.

In New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Julien Neals withdrew his denial of a motion to dismiss a securities fraud case after lawyers revealed the decision relied on filings with ‘pervasive and material inaccuracies.’

The filing pointed to ‘numerous instances’ of made-up quotes submitted by attorneys, as well as three separate instances when the outcome of lawsuits appeared to have been mistaken, prompting Neals to withdraw his decision.

In Mississippi, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate replaced his original July 20 temporary restraining order that paused enforcement of a state law blocking diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools after lawyers notified the judge of serious errors submitted by the attorney. 

They informed the court that the decision ‘relie[d] upon the purported declaration testimony of four individuals whose declarations do not appear in the record for this case.’ 

Wingate subsequently issued a new ruling, though lawyers for the state have asked his original order to be placed back on the docket. 

‘All parties are entitled to a complete and accurate record of all papers filed and orders entered in this action, for the benefit of the Fifth Circuit’s appellate review,’ the state attorney general said in a filing. 

A person familiar with Wingate’s temporary order in Mississippi confirmed to Fox News Digital that the erroneous filing submitted to the court had used AI, adding that they had ‘never seen anything like this’ in court before.

Neither the judges’ office nor the lawyers in question immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the retracted New Jersey order, first reported by Reuters. It was not immediately clear if AI was the reason for that erroneous court submission in that case.

However, the errors in both cases — which were quickly flagged by attorneys, and prompted the judges to take action to revise or redact their orders — come as the use of generative AI continues to skyrocket in almost every profession, especially among younger workers. 

In at least one of the cases, the errors bear similarities to AI-style inaccuracies, which include the use of ‘ghost’ or ‘hallucinated’ quotes being used in filings, citing incorrect or even nonexistent cases.

For bar-admitted attorneys, these erroneous court submissions are not taken lightly. Lawyers are responsible for the veracity of all information included in court filings, including if it includes AI-generated materials, according to guidance from the American Bar Association.

In May, a federal judge in California slapped law firms with $31,000 in sanctions for using AI in court filings, saying at the time that ‘no reasonably competent attorney should out-source research and writing to this technology — particularly without any attempt to verify the accuracy of that material.’

Last week, a federal judge in Alabama sanctioned three attorneys for submitting erroneous court filings that were later revealed to have been generated by ChatGPT.

Among other things, the filings in question included the use of the AI-generated quote ‘hallucinations,’ U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco said in her order, which also referred the lawyers in question to the state bar for further disciplinary proceedings.

‘Fabricating legal authority is serious misconduct that demands a serious sanction,’ she said in the filing.

New data from the Pew Research Center underscores the rise of AI tools among younger users. 

According to a June survey, roughly 34% of U.S. adults say they have used ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot — roughly double the percentage of users who said the same at the same point two years ago, in 2023. 

The share of employed adults who use ChatGPT for work has spiked by a whopping 20 percentage points since June 2023; and among adults under 30, adoption is even more widespread, with a 58% majority saying they have used the chatbot.