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Italy temporarily restored border controls on travelers arriving from Spain Friday as the mass migrant crossing into Ceuta, Spain, escalated from a Spanish emergency into a wider test of Europe’s passport-free travel system.The move followed the entry of approximately 60,000 migrants from Morocco into Ceuta, Spain — a Spanish autonomous city on the North African coast. Spain’s Interior Ministry said 48,300 people had since voluntarily returned to Morocco, leaving fewer than 2,000 people in the territory, while the reported death toll among migrants attempting to reach the enclave rose to 57 people.The crisis is reverberating far beyond Spain because it challenges one of the European Union’s central promises: that member states can maintain open internal borders while jointly protecting the bloc’s external frontier.Schengen rests on a tradeoff: participating countries remove most controls between one another while jointly securing the zone’s external borders. Italy’s decision to restore checks, alongside calls for tougher restrictions from conservative leaders across Europe, has raised questions about whether migration pressures could lead governments to retreat from free movement and reclaim more national control.WHITE HOUSE BLASTS SPANISH GOVERNMENT AS THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS SURGE FROM MOROCCO, EMERGENCY REQUEST DENIEDPresident Donald Trump also seized on the images from Spain, warning during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, Maryland, Friday that a similar crisis could unfold in the United States if Republicans lose power.”I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place,” Trump said.”That same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected — except worse,” he said, blaming “weak law, bad management” and liberal migration policies.The breach also ignited a broader conservative backlash across Europe and the United States.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a post on X that Italy would impose targeted checks on non-European Union nationals arriving from Spain by air or sea for one month, while coordinating with France to strengthen controls along the Franco-Italian border.”This is an extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation,” Meloni wrote.She said the controls would remain in place only as long as necessary and would be designed to limit disruption to summer tourism.France was increasing checks along its border with Spain, Reuters reported Friday, while right-wing parties across Europe blamed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s migration policies for weakening Spain’s ability to secure an external European Union border.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned on X that the crisis would eventually affect Britain, while French politician Marine Le Pen called for tighter French border controls.Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon criticized Spain for lecturing Israel on security while struggling to control its own border.White House officials Steven Cheung and Anna Kelly also connected the images from Ceuta, Spain, to the Biden administration’s border policies and Trump’s longstanding warnings about mass migration.Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, told Fox News Digital that Ceuta, Spain, could become “a key turning point in the unraveling of the European Union.”EU ADMITS IT ‘DIDN’T HAVE CONTROL’ ON MIGRATION AS BLOC RUSHES CRACKDOWN AHEAD OF NEW RULES”I think we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the European Union,” he said while acknowledging that his view remains outside the European mainstream. “Once you unravel Schengen — which I think is inevitable — this breaks down the entire European project.”Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, broadened the criticism of Sánchez.”We told you Sánchez was a disaster,” Dubowitz wrote on X. “You dismissed the warnings because he vilified Israel, defended Hamas, attacked America, and cozied up to Chávez, Khamenei, and other anti-American dictators. Now that his migration policies are threatening Europe at home, you’ve suddenly woken up.”Ceuta is legally part of Spain despite being located on the North African coast, across the Strait of Gibraltar from mainland Spain. The approximately seven-square-mile territory shares a land border with Morocco and is one of two Spanish autonomous cities in Africa, along with Melilla.Ceuta, Spain, is not a protectorate or colony. Its residents are Spanish citizens, and Madrid considers it an integral part of Spain, although Morocco disputes Spanish sovereignty over both territories.The surge followed controversy over a Spanish Supreme Court ruling limiting authorities’ ability to summarily return migrants intercepted at sea, as well as a separate Sánchez government program granting legal status to undocumented migrants already living in Spain.The court ruled earlier in July that migrants intercepted while swimming or traveling by sea toward Ceuta or Melilla, Spain, could not be immediately returned under a special procedure written for people attempting to cross the territories’ fortified land borders. They must instead be processed through Spain’s ordinary immigration, asylum and removal system. The ruling did not grant them an automatic right to remain.TRUMP CRITICIZES SPAIN AMID IRAN, NATO RIFT AS PM SANCHEZ FACES QUESTIONS OVER POLITICAL MOTIVESSánchez blamed trafficking networks for spreading a false impression that migrants who reached Ceuta, Spain, by sea would be allowed to stay.Critics also pointed to Spain’s mass regularization program. The government initially estimated that approximately 500,000 undocumented migrants would qualify for renewable residence and work permits if they had lived in Spain for at least five months before the end of 2025 and had no criminal record. Applications ultimately reached approximately 1 million, far exceeding the original estimate.”When you offer amnesty to over a million illegal migrants in Spain, this acts as a huge incentive for millions more to try to enter Spain illegally,” Gardiner said. “What we’ve seen in Ceuta over the last 24 hours is just the tip of the iceberg.”Gardiner said the footage appeared to show that roughly 99% of those crossing were “fighting-age males” and warned of a potentially “significant terror risk.””This is what happens when you introduce amnesty policies,” he added. “You literally open the floodgates on a biblical scale.”The Spanish government argues that the program applies only to migrants who were already in the country before the cutoff and is designed to bring workers into the formal economy rather than encourage new arrivals.Andrew Fox, senior associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital the crisis may have been deliberately triggered in response to regional geopolitics.”This is a crisis likely engineered by Morocco in response to Spain’s recent engagement with Algeria,” Fox said. “On a normal day, Spanish security can man gates and crossings, but they cannot control the Algerian side of the border. The fact that these people cannot simply be returned to Morocco en masse, however, shows that the international asylum and refugee system is fundamentally broken and open to widespread abuse. Without fixing that, there can be no border security in Europe.”Gardiner warned that the political fallout could threaten Schengen and the wider European project.Although the pressure on Ceuta, Spain, appeared to ease as thousands returned to Morocco, the breach had already spread beyond Spain — fueling a European fight over borders and entering the American political debate through Trump’s warning about a possible Democratic return to power.Morocco denied facilitating the mass crossing. Morocco’s ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, told the Associated Press that the events in Ceuta had unfolded against Rabat’s wishes.”We have always prioritized legal, orderly and safe migration for all,” Benyaich said. She did not address what triggered the sudden surge. Moroccan security forces later used water cannons and warning shots to prevent additional crossings, according to The Associated Press. 

Massachusetts is poised to dramatically expand access to abortions access up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in a mad dash by Democrat lawmakers to pass the measure before the legislative session ends Friday.The Prioritizing Patients’ Access to Care Act is on a fast track to clear the Massachusetts Legislature after passing the House 119-33 last week. It marks the latest effort by Democratic-led states to expand abortion protections after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision returned abortion policy to the states.Supporters say the New England state bill removes barriers to medically necessary care, while opponents contend it would make Massachusetts one of the nation’s least restrictive states for abortions later in pregnancy.MAMDANI AND HOCHUL ANNOUNCE CASH INFUSION FOR NEW YORK CITY ABORTION ACCESS HUB EXPANSIONIf enacted, the bill would remove current legal requirements limiting abortions after 24 weeks to four specific circumstances — protecting the patient’s life, physical health, mental health, or cases involving a lethal fetal anomaly or a grave fetal diagnosis.Instead, the bill would allow licensed physicians to decide whether an abortion after 24 weeks is appropriate based on their own medical judgment. It would also prevent third-party medical reviewers from overruling decisions made by a patient and their doctor.The proposal mirrors a law Maine enacted in 2023 that similarly allows late-term abortions based on a physician’s judgment.”The goal of passing this legislation is simple. Medical decisions should be made by a patient and their doctor,” bill sponsor Rep. Lindsay N. Sabadosa, D-Northampton, said in a statement. “Massachusetts has one of the best health care systems in the country, and patients should be able to rely on their providers to deliver medically appropriate care without restrictions that can fail to account for the complexity of individual medical circumstances.””By removing those barriers, we can ensure that no one has to leave Massachusetts to receive the care they need.”Supporters of the bill argue that existing statutory exceptions are too narrow to account for every serious pregnancy complication.NEW JERSEY DEMOCRATS ADVANCE BILL CRIMINALIZING INTERFERENCE WITH ABORTION, TRANSGENDER HEALTHCAREClaire Teylouni, interim co-executive director of Reproductive Equity Now, told the New York Times about a 2021 case in which a woman had to leave Massachusetts for an abortion after her fetus suffered a stroke at 33 weeks because providers did not believe the case fit within the state’s existing legal exceptions.”She was shocked that she had to leave Massachusetts to get this care,” Teylouni told The New York Times. “Providers say they want to be able to use their professional expertise to make decisions — that’s how we treat almost every other area of health care.”Opponents say the current law already includes broad exceptions and argue the bill would remove existing limits on abortions after 24 weeks.”The current law that exists in Massachusetts allows abortion up until 24 weeks, and it already has exceptions,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Communications Direct Kelsey Pritchard told Fox News Digital. “It has health and life exceptions for the mother, but it even has exceptions that allow for so-called fetal anomaly abortion, so if the baby has a life-limiting diagnosis, if the baby has a disability diagnosis, already in Massachusetts you can abort those babies seemingly at any point.”And so what this new bill would do is allow abortion throughout the second and third trimesters if you have an abortionist who has a medical degree who can sign off on that for you, so essentially they’re opening the door to elective abortion at any point in pregnancy,” Pritchard said.FIRST ON FOX: TRUMP DOJ REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH PRO-LIFE PROTESTER TARGETED BY BIDEN ADMINPritchard also criticized the legislative process, saying Democratic leaders moved quickly to pass the measure before lawmakers adjourn.”There’s really no justification for them to make their law this extreme,” she said. “It’s something that they’ve been doing in secret. They kind of tried to fly under the radar when they passed this bill in the House. And then they bypassed the full Senate committee process to fast-track this and get this done before their legislative session ends on July 31.”Republicans in the legislature also questioned both the substance of the bill and how quickly it advanced.Republican state Rep. Kelly Pease told WWLP that he was caught off guard by the proposal.”I think most of our caucus was. It’s like, where did this come from?” Pease said. “I don’t see how I’m going to be in favor of a bill that allows babies over six months to be terminated when they’re probably viable outside the womb, unless there’s extenuating circumstances, and this kind of just takes away some of the safeguards that were in place before.”Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey has made expanding abortion access one of the defining priorities of her administration.Since taking office in 2023, she has called Massachusetts a “beacon of reproductive freedom” for abortion access in the post-Dobbs era, having directed state agencies to shield abortion providers and patients from out-of-state legal action and ordered the state to stockpile mifepristone after a federal court challenged the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill. She has not publicly weighed in on this bill.Fox News Digital reached out to Healey for comment.

NBA player Terry Rozier is getting ready to prove his innocence in a tremendous gambling controversy, but prosecutors aren’t buying it.The guard is accused of purposely taking himself out of a game while playing for the Charlotte Hornets, so friends could cash in on bets on his “under” propositions.According to reports, attorney David Markus filed a motion to dismiss two charges against Rozier. In the motion, Markus wrote that a text sent by Rozier’s friend and co-defendant, Deniro Laster, showed that Rozier was unaware of any bets and did not agree to any sort of fix.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM”Dont tell chum bout the bet,” Laster allegedly wrote in the March 29 text, six days after Rozier played just nine minutes and left the game due to an apparent injury. Chum is Rozier’s nickname, the filing noted.The recipient responded, “Hell no,” the filing said.”This should end the case. One does not hide a bet from the person who supposedly sold it,” Markus said in the filing.However, federal prosecutors say they have evidence showing that the text did not relate to sports gambling.Rozier is alleged to have told Laster that he would take himself out of a game early, citing an injury so Laster could place wagers based on the information. Neither Hornets officials nor betting companies were made aware of Rozier’s plan, according to the indictment, and Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report.NBA WILL NOT TRAVEL TO THE MIDDLE EAST THIS PRESEASON DUE TO WAR: REPORTLaster then allegedly sold that information to other co-conspirators, and numerous people placed wagers totaling roughly $200,000 on Rozier’s “under” prop bets in both parlay and straight wagers. After Rozier played just nine minutes and never returned, the bets won. Rozier and Laster counted cash winnings at Rozier’s home in Charlotte roughly a week later, the indictment says.Prosecutors in April said they sought to file superseding charges of sports bribery and honest services wire fraud during a hearing. Prosecutors said they had evidence that Rozier solicited and received a bribe amid the alleged gambling scheme.Rozier was waived by the Miami Heat earlier this year.Nearly three dozen people were arrested last October in two separate cases, one regarding betting on NBA games based on insider knowledge, and another regarding a poker ring in which former guard and head coach Chauncey Billups allegedly participated in rigged games.Former NBA player and coach Damon Jones was named in both cases and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

While the process of launching and keeping a commercial airline operational is rife with submitting documentation, the air operator’s certificate (AOC) is the single most critical license without which an airline is automatically grounded.Some of the most common reasons for carriers to get their AOCs revoked or suspended is either a financial situation that puts the future sustainability of the airline in question or a failed safety audit.Some of the airlines that lost AOCs in 2026 include British charter carrier Pen-Avia, Estonia-based SmartLynx Airlines, Austrian airline Mali Air, and Ireland’s Westair Aviation.Izhavia loses AOC, cancels flights after getting groundedLaunched in 1992 to serve the remote Udmurtia region in Russia, Izhavia operated flights out of the city of Izhevsk almost exclusively to domestic destinations and larger hubs within the country. Since 2022, Russian airlines have been banned from entering the airspace of countries making up to European Union as well as many other nations as part of the sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.Amid both an absence of engines and spare parts due to Western sanctions and a customer base with low spending power and a dropped ability to travel to many international destinations, dozens of airlines based in Russia have either filed for or teetered very near bankruptcy since the start of the war.Related: Authorities shut down 17 travel and air cargo companies in crackdownThe latest reporting on Izhavia’s state shows that Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsiya revoked the carrier’s AOC this week after repeated safety violations and technical issues brought up by investigators in previous audits failed to be addressed. Without an active AOC, Izhavia is unable to run or market any flights to customers; this, in turn, means that  approximately 46,000 passengers who already booked tickets for travel in the coming months are now left with a canceled flight.

At least 30 Russian airlines were near bankruptcy at the start of 2026.Shutterstock

What else to know about the sad state of Russian aviation, multiple airline bankruptcies in 2026Operating a fleet of Yakovlev Yak-42 planes and one Sukhoi Superjet 100, Izhavia was one of the few regional airlines that had still been left operating in Russia. Since the start of the full-scale war and Russian aggression in Ukraine, the state of the country’s civil aviation remains in a lamentable state as lack of Western parts and lowered ability to ensure maintenance standards have dramatically increased the frequency of safety incidents and accidents.More Travel News:Airline to launch unusual new flight to Cayman Islands from the U.S.There is a very cool Irish version of swimming pigs in the BahamasUnexpected country is most luxurious travel destination for 2026Low-cost airline launches easier way to get to Sri LankaThese airlines filed for bankruptcy in 2026:Spirit Airlines: The largest airline shutdown of the year occurred when Spirit Airlines canceled all remaining flights on May 2. Although the airline had filed for Chapter 11 protection twice before, the skyrocketing price of jet fuel dealt the final blow.Magnicharters: While not yet fully shut down, the Mexican low-cost airline canceled all flights until May 2026 in a shutdown that left thousands stranded.Starflite Aviation: Houston-based Starflite Aviation had its AOC license revoked in March 2026, amid FAA claims that owners falsified pilot training records to bypass safety audits.AlpAvia: Slovenian charter airline AlpAvia also shut down in March 2026 over financial problems.H-Bird: Charter airline H-Bird was declared bankrupt by a Swedish judge after losing its operating license at the end of 2025.Related: Another airline in bankruptcy, will be dissolved

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the FBI has told a federal court that, at a rate of 500 pages a month, processing records from the “hidden room” at FBI Headquarters would take approximately 158 years. The room — now dubbed the “burn bag room” —  holds over 2 million pages of records, according to the FBI’s own filing. Then-Deputy Director Bongino said in May 2025 that some of the records were found stashed “in bags.” The figures came in a Joint Status Report filed July 30, 2026, in Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-04047)). 
In the filing, Judicial Watch asked the court to allow it to question the FBI, through a limited deposition, about its handling of the records — including who discovered the room and when, who had access to it, its security classification, how records ended up stored in file cabinets, safes, boxes, and burn bags, what the FBI has done to bring them under standard records management, and whether the records were ever searched in response to other FOIA requests. (The FBI reports that it has yet to access a safe believed to contain records.)  The agency also alleges that “it will take approximately 158 years to process at a rate of 500 pages a month.”
The FBI opposes the request for discovery. A status conference is scheduled before U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich on August 3, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Judicial Watch’s 2025 complaint sought all records in the room, which it described as “[a]ll documents referenced by Deputy Director Dan Bongino” concerning a room at FBI Headquarters, as well as internal FBI communications among officials in the offices of Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Bongino about the discovery of the documents, and any directives issued on how the records should be handled. The FBI currently says it has no records responsive to the Patel/Bongino communications and directives categories. The plaintiff is challenging the government’s search for these records as well. 
In a Fox News interview on May 29, 2025, then-FBI Deputy Director Bongino disclosed the room’s existence, stating:
“There was a room [in FBI Headquarters], and we found stuff. A lot of stuff … hidden from us at least and not mentioned to us. And then found stuff in there. A lot is from the Comey era. We are working … right now to declassify. And just so you know, because I get the public—I totally understand people saying ‘well do it now.’ The process is: not all of the information is ours to declassify. Some is other intelligence agencies’…. We literally can’t do it. Once that gets done … and you read some of the stuff we found—that, by the way, was not processed through the normal procedure, digitizing and putting in FBI records. We found it in bags, hiding under Jim Comey’s FBI. You’re going to be stunned.”
Judicial Watch previously uncovered that the room is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) containing several safes—now identified as twenty file cabinets—holding between roughly 950,000 and 1,900,000 pages of records, split into two categories: “legacy files,” older records mostly tied to two closed historical investigations and more recent files tied to active investigations and prior Special Counsel records, reportedly including material connected to Special Counsel Jack Smith. 
“American citizens should be outraged the FBI just told a federal court judge that its stonewalling means it will take 158 years to release the 2 million weaponization and lawfare records in its secret ‘burn bag’ room,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people need to know today how the FBI was used as a political weapon against Donald Trump and other innocents.”
This is the latest in a series of Judicial Watch investigations targeting shady FBI weaponization and abuse of power.
In August 2019, Judicial Watch uncovered “302” report material from FBI interviews with Bruce Ohr, who was removed from his position as U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General in December 2017. 
In March 2019, Judicial Watch received heavily redacted records from the Justice Department that reveal that Ohr remained in regular contact with former British spy and Fusion GPS contractor Christopher Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI in November 2016 for revealing to the media his position as an FBI confidential informant.
In December 2018, Judicial Watch uncovered U.S. State Department documents showing classified information was researched and disseminated to multiple U.S. Senators by the Obama administration immediately prior to Trump’s inauguration. The documents reveal that among those receiving the classified documents were Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Sen. Robert Corker (R-TN). Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a FOIA lawsuit for records of the Obama State Department’s last-minute efforts to share classified information about Russia election interference issues with Cardin. 
In August 2018, Judicial Watch announced that in response to a its FOIA lawsuit, the Justice Department admitted in a court filing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page, a former Trump campaign part-time advisor who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants. 
Also in August, Judicial Watch forced the release of heavily redacted records about Christopher Steele, the former British spy, hired with Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee funds, who authored the infamous dossier targeting Trump during last year’s presidential campaign. The documents show that Steele was cut off as a “Confidential Human Source” (CHS) after he disclosed his relationship with the FBI to a third party. The documents also show at least 11 FBI payments to Steele in 2016 and document that he was admonished for unknown reasons in February 2016.
In July 2018, Judicial Watch released documents about FISA warrants targeting Carter Page, who had been a Trump campaign adviser. 
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The post Judicial Watch: FBI Says It Will Take 158 Years to Process “Hidden Room” Records appeared first on Judicial Watch.

Ceuta is a tiny Spanish territory of 85,000 people that spans about 8 square miles.

Researchers find cutting protein could slow aging for most adults who are not regularly exercising.

A military fighter jet crashed near Miramar Marine Corps Air Base in San Diego on Friday morning, officials said. The pilot ejected in time.

EXCLUSIVE: The Senate investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe is widening, as Republican lawmakers question Verizon’s handling of subpoenas for senators’ phone records after the telecom giant failed to disclose one during an earlier congressional records search.As part of Operation Arctic Frost — the codename for the FBI’s Trump-election-interference probe with Smith placed at the helm — prosecutors subpoenaed Verizon and other phone carriers for toll records tied to members of Congress and other Republican figures. Several conservative entities were swept up in the probe, including the late Charlie Kirk.Verizon later acknowledged omitting Smith’s subpoena from its congressional record search.The dispute centers less on Verizon’s compliance with the subpoena than on what the company knew afterward, whether it should have notified Congress and why it failed to disclose the subpoena during an earlier records search.BIDEN SPECIAL COUNSEL’S ‘RUNAWAY TRAIN’ SCOOPED UP SENSITIVE LAWMAKER INFO: ‘ABUSE OF POWER’Smith’s investigation has faced increased scrutiny in recent months, and now Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa — whose records were among those obtained — and a slew of his colleagues want to know what Verizon knew, when it knew it and whether the company should have notified affected members of Congress after turning over their phone records to Smith’s team.”Jack Smith oversaw a sweeping and unprecedented investigation that swept-up records from hundreds of Republican entities, including the phone toll records and text messages from myself and dozens of my colleagues,” Grassley told Fox News Digital Friday.Toll records are essentially the metadata of a telephone call — and exclude the contents of the conversation. They often include the phone numbers involved, date, time, duration and often the operative cell-tower location.MAJOR PHONE CARRIERS REVEAL JACK SMITH’S SUBPOENAS FOR REPUBLICAN SENATORS’ RECORDS”Congress deserves to know the full picture of how Smith carried out Arctic Frost so it never happens again.””As part of our investigation, we need to fully understand what Verizon knew about Smith’s subpoenas, when they became aware members were impacted and why the company didn’t inform members like they were supposed to,” he said.In a Thursday letter to Verizon CEO Daniel Schulman, Grassley, Senate Investigations Subcommittee chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and more than a dozen senators said they remain concerned not only by the alleged “abuse of power by federal government actors… but also with Verizon’s disclosures of (m)embers’ phone records pursuant to a May 25, 2023, subpoena (and) its failure to disclose this information to affected Members.”JACK SMITH THRUST BACK INTO SPOTLIGHT AT BLANCHE HEARING OVER EXPOSED SENATORS’ MESSAGES’Of the signatories, Sens. Bill Hagerty IV and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Josh Hawley, R-Mo., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., also had their phone toll records or text messages swept up by Smith.Their inquiry noted he asked Verizon in October 2023 to identify Justice Department or other federal law enforcement requests involving Senate devices used by his staff dating back to 2016.The senator wrote that the subpoena was not disclosed in Verizon’s initial response, and Grassley said Congress did not learn of it until Verizon acknowledged in 2025 that “human error” had caused its omission.In its original October 2023 response to Grassley, Verizon wrote that it often limits retention of legal processes received to a period of four years, and attested it had no records to produce prior to October 2019.”This raises questions as to whether Verizon discovered legal process from DOJ for Senate devices and lines, including the May 2023 Arctic Frost subpoena, in its search from October 1, 2019, to October 27, 2023, for responsive records to Chairman Grassley’s request,” Grassley wrote in his new letter.Therefore, Grassley and 15 other senators are demanding Verizon brass explain when they first learned Smith’s subpoena sought phone records that included members of Congress and when they discovered it had provided “tolling data” connected to those members and transmitted it to Smith.Fox News Digital reached out to Verizon for comment.Grassley’s new letter suggests the October 2023 exchange may be the key to determining whether Verizon merely missed the subpoena or discovered it and failed to disclose it.”On what date were Daniel Schulman, Vandana Venkatesh, Hans Vestberg, and Craig Silliman first informed about the May 25, 2023, subpoena?” they asked of Verizon’s front office.The senators also asked that Verizon explain its “human error” revelation in more specificity and produce internal records from May 2023 to October 2025 that discuss whether the company believed it was obligated to notify the implicated members of Congress or the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (SAA).The “human error” explanation also left unanswered why Smith’s May 25, 2023, “Arctic Frost” subpoena was omitted from Verizon’s review of legal process involving SAA phone lines, even though the company acknowledged that two SAA numbers were included in the subpoena.In 2025, documents provided to Grassley revealed Verizon complied with Smith while AT&T resisted the requests.SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTERHowever, both subpoenas were accompanied by gag orders signed by Obama-appointed District of Columbia federal Judge James Boasberg, a frequent foil of President Donald Trump’s. Boasberg directed Verizon and AT&T not to disclose the subpoenas to lawmakers for a period of one year.The DOJ has issued subpoenas for lawmakers’ information in the past, but former inspector general Michael Horowitz cautioned against it except in limited circumstances in a report published in 2025, saying that doing so “risks chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch.”Grassley’s letter gives Verizon until Aug. 13 to explain when it knew senators’ records were involved, who inside the company was informed and why the May 2023 subpoena did not surface in its earlier response to Congress.Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans have branded Smith’s “Arctic Frost” as “worse than Watergate.”Fox News Digital reached out to counsel for Smith for comment.

A Democratic House nominee in California, who has made affordability a key issue in his campaign and is backed by a top Bernie Sanders group, is worth up to tens of millions of dollars.Eric Jones, who is running in California’s 4th Congressional District, reported between $18 and $86 million in assets, according to campaign finance disclosures.Along with other holdings, Jones owns a $4.6 million Napa home, which includes a pool, with furnishings and artwork estimated at between $393,000 to $578,000, a Fox News Digital review found.His evaluation contrasts sharply with his populist campaign platform, where he has painted himself as a relatable figure who has also grappled with concerns about affordability.TOP DEM HOPEFUL FLIPS SCRIPT AFTER YEARS IN SOCIALIST ORBIT WITH PUZZLING CLAIM”The cost of living continues to rise,” Jones said in an April campaign video.”I’m running for Congress because I know what it feels like to do everything right and still struggle… I will never take a dollar from a corporate PAC, I will never take a dime from a lobbyist, and I will never trade a stock while I serve you in Congress.”Throughout his campaign, Jones has highlighted his family’s struggle with financial stability. He grew up in a military family and had a disabled father. According to Jones, the family also struggled to overcome medical debt, relying on Medicaid and food stamps.On his website, Jones has listed three main priorities: ending corruption, lowering the cost of living and resource sustainability in government. His stances have attracted endorsements from progressive groups like Indivisible and Our Revolution, organizations with ties to progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has repeatedly attacked millionaires and billionaires throughout his career despite being a millionaire himself.”A Congress of millionaires will legislate for their corporate investments. A Congress from the working class will legislate for the people,” Our Revolution posted on X in 2022.In a 2025 post, Our Revolution shared a graphic attacking the number of millionaires in Congress. Despite several posts against millionaires and the wealthy, the group gave him a glowing endorsement.”Our Revolution believes in leaders who fight for working people with integrity and courage,” the endorsement said. “Eric Jones is one of those leaders — and we’re proud to stand with him as he brings a people-powered movement to Congress in 2026.”Jones’ wealth came from his career in investing. Shortly after graduating from Yale, he joined Dragoneer Investment Group in San Francisco in 2013. The group is a venture capital group that invests in technology and high-growth companies like ByteDance and Alibaba, a pair of Chinese businesses with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party.By the age of 27 in 2017, Jones had become the group’s first non-founding partner. During his 12 years with the group, Dragoneer exploded in value, going from managing $180 million in assets to $24 billion.’SQUAD’ DEM DISMISSES FRAUD PROBE SPECULATION AFTER $29M NET-WORTH DROPJones listed an $8 million salary with the group from last year in his campaign financial disclosure.The extravagances of his roughly 3,000-square-foot home were featured by Architectural Digest in a June 9 home tour as part of a profile piece on his wife, who works for an architecture firm as a designer.Among his many assets, Jones’ furnishing collection includes a wall-hung ceramic sculpture worth up to $60,000, a “Polly chair” estimated at somewhere between $10,000 and $25,000 and a column coffee table worth $6,000. Now, as a candidate, Jones has campaigned against corporate influence in politics and a system that he argues is rigged in favor of larger corporations. He has identified that kind of structure as a key part of his plan to address affordability.”Rent, groceries, utilities, health care, childcare — everything costs more while giant corporations post record profits and pay little or nothing in taxes,” Jones states on his website.”That’s not an accident. It’s a system rigged to work for the people at the top.”DEM CIVIL WAR HITS PRIMARY DEBATE STAGE IN FIERY BATTLEGROUND SHOWDOWN: ‘WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?’When approached about his personal wealth, Jones said he doesn’t believe his personal wealth clashes with a message of affordability.”I grew up poor in rural America with a veteran father fighting medical debt and opioid addiction. I built businesses, created jobs and achieved the American Dream – I’m lucky that this country gave me that opportunity, and I’ll never forget where I came from. We should have leaders who’ve built something and know what medical debt feels like, not career politicians who’ve gotten rich serving Big Pharma and the insurance lobby. Every family in this district deserves that same shot at the American Dream, that’s why I’m running,” Jones said in a statement.Having placed in the top two candidates in the primary, Jones will face off against incumbent Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., in the state’s Nov. 3 general election.