Michael Donilon, a longtime aide to former President Joe Biden, is sitting down with House investigators in Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s autopen probe on Wednesday.

Donilon is one of Biden’s most enduring confidantes, with a working relationship that began in 1981 when the former president was a U.S. senator from Delaware.

He’s also no stranger to Washington, D.C., having earned both his Bachelor’s Degree and Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.

Donilon later worked on both Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns as a chief strategist and is one of the key people to have gone on the offensive against his fellow Democrats after they cast Biden out following his disastrous June 2024 debate against now-President Donald Trump.

‘Now, lots of people have terrible debates,’ Donilon said during a Harvard University event. ‘Lots of people have terrible debates. Usually the party doesn’t lose its mind, but that’s what happened here. It melted down.’

It earned him rebukes from fellow left-wingers, including ex-Obama advisor and CNN political commentator David Axelrod, who called Donilon’s comments ‘delusional’ on X.

And while his work for Biden made him a national-level figure, Donilon spent years working on other notable Democratic campaigns. 

He played a role in the electoral successes of both former President Bill Clinton in 1992 and ex-Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder in 1989, among others.

But it’s the four-year period during which Donilon served as senior advisor to the Biden White House, and then his stint on Biden’s short-lived 2024 campaign, that’s captured the attention of the House Oversight Committee.

He was dubbed a member of Biden’s ‘Politburo’ by Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN host Jake Tapper in their book ‘Original Sin’ – described as a small group of insiders who reportedly helped run the White House while covering signs of Biden’s decline from others.

‘The president valued Mike Donilon’s advice so much that aides would later joke that if he wanted, he could get Biden to start a war,’ the authors wrote.

Donilon was also paid $4 million to work on Biden’s re-election bid, according to the book.

The Wall Street Journal reported in Dec. 2024 that Donilon was also a key intermediary between Biden and his pollsters during that short-lived campaign.

And he was with Biden until the very end of his administration, reportedly as one of the aides in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, joining the then-president when he drafted the explosive letter that ended his campaign.

Since that ended, Donilon took up a role as a Spring 2025 Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.

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. 

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.’

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. 

Changes to the confirmation process are on the table as frustrations among Senate Republicans continue to fester while Senate Democrats continue their blockade of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Republicans have spent much of the week working deep into the night to confirm nomination after nomination, but Democrats have yet to relent and allow for any speeding up of the process.

That reality, and a request from Trump to consider canceling the fast-approaching August recess to ram through more of his nominees, has the Senate GOP mulling changes to the rules, like shortening the debate time on nominees or bundling together some picks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., charged that Democrats’ blockade of Trump’s nominations was ‘Trump derangement syndrome on steroids.’

‘If we’re going to do something, we’re going to look at how we would make a modification to our rules to ensure that we can’t have the kind of delay and obstruction and blocking that the Democrats are currently using,’ Thune said.

Changing the rules, however, could open the door for Democrats to take advantage of the modifications and set a new precedent for the confirmation process.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Fox News Digital that Senate Democrats were just playing by the same rules that Republicans operated under when they had the majority.

‘I think that’s the only way to — a do unto others situation,’ he said. ‘And I warn them: things that sound so appealing now to make a quick change in the rules, they may soon have to live with.’

However, Senate Republicans did play ball, for the most part, with their counterparts when former President Joe Biden was in the White House. This time four years ago, Biden had 49 civilian nominees confirmed by a voice vote, a much faster and simpler process that didn’t require a full vote on the Senate floor.

And during Trump’s first term, he had five civilian nominees confirmed by voice vote. While the Senate has now confirmed over 100 of the president’s nominees, more and more of his picks — over 160 and counting — are being added to the Senate’s calendar, and Republicans are hoping that Democrats agree to a deal to move a package of nominees through the Senate.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., believed his colleagues were inclined to make changes to the rules in the face of continued Democratic resistance.

‘I think it is a big mistake where we are now,’ he said. ‘Push is going to come to shove. If there is no negotiation and no settlement before that, I believe that the rules will change.’

Some Republicans, like Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., are not too concerned about changing the precedent in the Senate, given that over the last several years the nomination process has deteriorated into a partisan stand-off.

‘I’m happy to change the precedent to allow any president, Republican or Democrat, to be able to staff his administration,’ Johnson told Fox News Digital. ‘I think the confirmation system is completely out of control. I can’t imagine our Founding Fathers really thought the Senate ought to be able to advise consent on hundreds and hundreds of positions. It’s ridiculous.’

Meanwhile, Trump targeted Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for not doing away with ‘blue slips,’ a longtime Senate practice that effectively gives senators the ability to veto district court and U.S. attorney nominees in their home states.

Grassley said that he was ‘offended’ by Trump’s attack, but didn’t appear to budge on the blue slip issue. However, Grassley did ignore blue slips in 2017 to hold hearings for a pair of the president’s judicial nominees during his first term.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital that he didn’t know why Republicans wouldn’t want to have normal scrutiny and debate over their nominees.

‘Trump says jump and Senate Republicans ask how high, which is really sad for an institution with such a great sense of tradition and self-respect,’ he said.

President Donald Trump remains open to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in hopes of achieving denuclearization, the White House said, even as Pyongyang warned against any pressure to abandon its nuclear arsenal.

‘President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula and achieved the first-ever leader-level agreement on denuclearization,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital. 

‘The President retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully de-nuclearized North Korea.’

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, said in remarks carried by state media that relations between Trump and her brother are ‘not bad.’ However, she warned that any attempt to pressure North Korea to denuclearize would be viewed as ‘nothing but a mockery.’

She also claimed the country’s nuclear arsenal has significantly expanded since the two leaders last met — despite their pledge to pursue denuclearization — and stated that no future summit would be possible if it centered on nuclear disarmament.

‘If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK–U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,’ Kim Yo Jong said, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Trump held three unprecedented summits with the North Korean leader — whom he once nicknamed ‘Little Rocket Man’ — during his first term: in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019, and at the Korean Demilitarized Zone later that year, where he became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot on North Korean soil.

At the 2018 summit, Trump and Kim signed a joint statement pledging to ‘work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’ and committed to establishing new U.S.–North Korea relations.

However, talks broke down in subsequent meetings. North Korea did not give up its nuclear weapons, and the United States did not lift sanctions. Kim reportedly sought to dismantle only parts of the regime’s arsenal in exchange for full sanctions relief — a proposal Trump rejected.

By 2020, the talks had completely stalled, and North Korea resumed weapons testing.

In a statement Monday commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, Trump reflected on his meetings with Kim, saying, ‘I was proud to become the first sitting President to cross this Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.’

He also reaffirmed the U.S. alliance with South Korea, adding: ‘Although the evils of communism still persist in Asia, American and South Korean forces remain united in an ironclad alliance to this day.’

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.