Don’t let the Biden autopen scandal become just another lame hearing



Congressional hearings can serve the public — when followed by real action. They can expose wrongdoing, shape public opinion, and force accountability. But when the hearings end and nothing follows, they become a substitute for meaningful oversight — a way to check the box and collect headlines without doing meaningful work.

That’s the routine Americans have come to expect: dramatic sound bites, viral clips, and lawmakers patting themselves on the back for sending strongly worded letters. Unless Congress breaks that habit now, the autopen scandal risks becoming just another lost opportunity.

The Biden administration may have dodged the 25th Amendment, but Congress can’t dodge its duty.

Last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on the use of the autopen under President Joe Biden. The stakes couldn’t be higher. As Oversight Project board member Theo Wold put it in his testimony, the United States did not have a fully functioning president for the past four years. Biden’s longtime Senate colleagues know it — and should have testified as fact witnesses. Instead, all but two Senate Democrats — Dick Durbin of Illinois and Peter Welch of Vermont — boycotted the hearing. That includes Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), whose receipt of an autopenned pardon raises a glaring conflict of interest.

Senate Republicans showed up and asked the right questions. They grasped the core issue: Biden’s lack of capacity and his inability to direct subordinates. Unlike previous administrations, the Biden White House appears to have used the autopen not for convenience, but as a way to obscure who actually ran the government — skirting the 25th Amendment without invoking it.

The hearing raised serious constitutional concerns. What happens when top officials prefer an incapacitated president over triggering a process designed to protect the country? Several senators floated the idea of reforming the 25th Amendment. That’s a conversation worth having. But it means nothing without follow-through.

So what should happen now?

First, the Senate should demand every record related to the Biden administration’s use of the autopen. That includes documentation of who authorized its use and a log of every instance it was used. As Wold testified, these records exist — or their absence signals a much deeper problem. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) quickly pledged to pursue them.

Those materials fall under the Presidential Records Act and remain off-limits to the public. Trust me, we would have been in court months ago to procure their release if we could get them. Only Congress or the Trump administration can obtain them. If they stall, they’ll be complicit in the cover-up.

Second, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson must testify. Their book “Original Sin” relied on more than 200 sources. If they know something the public doesn’t, they have a moral — and potentially legal — obligation to come forward. The Senate invited them to the hearing. They declined. The next request should come in the form of a subpoena.

RELATED: Oversight Project over target: Dems seethe as facade of autopen presidency comes crashing down

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Third, Congress should use the same tools the January 6 select committee wielded with abandon. That includes subpoenas for documents, phone and bank records, and private communications from staffers and political operatives who helped prop up the “autopen administration.” If these individuals claim executive privilege, Trump should waive it — just as Biden did during the Jan. 6 probe.

Finally, the House had better follow through. Kentucky Republican Chairman James Comer’s promised interviews and depositions can’t be treated as political theater. They must become the backbone of a real investigation.

Accountability won’t happen unless the public demands it. Americans should track every step — or failure to act — and hold Congress to its promises. The country doesn’t need another performance. It needs answers.

The Biden administration may have dodged the 25th Amendment, but Congress can’t dodge its duty. The biggest scandal in modern American history demands more than six-minute cable news hits and clips for social media. It requires courage, subpoenas, and a willingness to pull every legal lever available.

The public has largely caught on to the ineffectiveness of “strongly worded letters” and now will have a perfect test case to judge whether Congress means business or if it’s the same old tired, do-nothing routine.

It’s time to get off X and into the trenches.

Headhunter federal prosecutors ruined my family to chase a fake win



Headline after headline has slammed President Donald Trump’s recent wave of pardons, claiming they prove America now operates under a two-tiered justice system. But the outrage is manufactured. These critics want you to forget that Trump was a target of the very system they now accuse him of controlling.

With these pardons, Trump isn’t abusing the justice system — he’s beginning to dismantle the weaponized bureaucracy within it. For years, a corrupt faction inside the Department of Justice has twisted its constitutional mandate to serve the personal and political agendas of activist attorneys and the operatives who influence them. Trump’s actions mark the start of holding that faction accountable.

Government lawyers and law enforcement officials have abused their power for personal ambition and gain. They don’t want the truth. They want trophies.

Don’t take Trump’s word for it. Or mine. Critics across the political spectrum have warned for decades about the potential for the weaponization of criminal law by overzealous prosecutors.

President Bill Clinton told the ladies of “The View” that former FBI Director James Comey used his power and “outside influence” to sway the outcome of the 2016 election.

Two-time Attorney General Bill Barr has warned that prosecutors often turn into “headhunters,” obsessed with taking down targets at any cost. That mindset, he said, leads the Justice Department away from its duty to administer justice fairly and according to clear, consistent legal standards.

Joe Biden himself allowed that his Justice Department “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” individuals — choosing targets based on improper criteria and engaging in “selective prosecution.” He was referring, of course, to the federal case against his son Hunter.

This problem goes far beyond politics. Law enforcement, once politicized, can be turned against anyone. Prosecutors armed with the full force of the federal government can destroy individuals, families, businesses, and entire communities.

As Barr put it, the mere act of launching an investigation can be devastating: “People facing federal investigations incur ruinous legal costs and often see their lives reduced to rubble before a charge is even filed.”

Once you understand how the game works, turning your political or corporate rivals into criminal targets becomes easy.

RELATED: Civil forfeiture turns lives upside down, ruins families — just like mine

LIgorko via iStock/Getty Images

In my family’s case, Amazon executives hired a former federal prosecutor to pressure his former colleagues at the Justice Department to go after my husband, a former Amazon employee. Their goal: bring federal charges over an obscure “process” crime — violating internal Amazon employment terms.

The Justice Department never filed charges. The investigation eventually closed. But for four excruciating years, prosecutors used civil forfeiture laws to seize every dollar in our bank accounts. FBI agents raided our home while our babies crawled on the floor in diapers. Prosecutors threatened our family members with criminal charges in a scheme to force my husband into pleading guilty to a lie.

We sold our house. We lost our jobs. We spent years in court just to “prove” what was always true: My husband had complied with his employment contract.

The Chrisley family knows this drill, too. After President Trump pardoned Todd Chrisley, his daughter, Savannah, revealed that law enforcement explicitly wrote that they needed a “big fish” — and the Chrisleys were the “biggest fish” in Atlanta. For many prosecutors, a high-profile conviction is just a stepping stone to a cushy law firm job and a seven-figure salary.

My family made it through. So did the Chrisleys. But plenty of Americans are still “in the hunt,” as prosecutors like to say.

Greg Lindberg is one of them. A self-made entrepreneur, Lindberg built a network of insurance companies that employed more than 7,000 people. His mistake? Supporting the wrong candidate for North Carolina insurance commissioner. After the election, the winning candidate got to work, with help from the FBI and Justice Department, setting a trap that would ensnare Lindberg in a manufactured bribery scheme.

Prosecutors took the Lindberg case to court on charges built on lies. As Barr warned, they became obsessed with “getting their guy.” Even after the Fourth Circuit vacated the bogus conviction, the U.S. attorney refused to back down. He threatened Lindberg with new charges and a staggering 540-month sentence, knowing Lindberg was financially drained and couldn’t afford to fight.

This wasn’t just a campaign to destroy one man. The fallout has devastated thousands of families across North Carolina. Lindberg’s insurance companies, once solvent, are now failing. People are out of work. Why? Because the same commissioner who targeted Lindberg handed control to a group of handpicked receivers — politically connected insiders with no accountability.

RELATED: Trump’s blanket pardons offer hope and healing

Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Those receivers didn’t just take over Lindberg’s insurance businesses. They seized more than 100 companies. They’ve collected tens of millions in fees while leaving policyholders in limbo and small businesses without payouts. The result? Lost jobs, ruined livelihoods, and a crisis that didn’t begin with Greg Lindberg — it began with the government.

Lindberg is still fighting to clear his name. So are others.

Decorated NYPD veteran and 9/11 hero Michael McMahon now faces prison on the bizarre charge that he spied for China — for $5,000. Trail runner Michael Sunseri could spend six months in jail for breaking a speed record in Grand Teton National Park, on a trail thousands have used before — except the government says it was “off-limits” in his case.

How is this justice?

Government lawyers and law enforcement officials have abused their power for personal ambition and gain. They don’t want the truth. They want trophies. And until that changes, President Trump should keep using his pardon power boldly, unapologetically, and often.

Because the real two-tiered justice system isn’t a myth. It’s the scoreboard — and it’s long past time to even it.

Patel's 'breakthrough' in COVID origins probe spells trouble for Fauci — especially if his pardon is voided



FBI Director Kash Patel revealed to the eponymous host of "The Joe Rogan Experience" in the episode published Friday that the bureau "just had a great breakthrough" regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a matter into which the FBI apparently has multiple ongoing investigations.

The FBI director noted that this "breakthrough" specifically has to do with Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases whom the White House has accused of helping cover up the likely lab origins of COVID-19 and whose name Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and congressional investigators recently batted around when discussing lies about gain-of-function research.

Patel noted that the FBI long sought the phones and devices Fauci used while he was serving in the first Trump administration during the pandemic, "and nobody had found it — till two days ago."

While the director cautioned Rogan and his audience from jumping "to the conclusion [that] everything's in there," he said the bureau will "look at it, we'll pull it — we'll rip it, as we say."

Patel intimated that where potentially incriminating material is concerned, "maybe it's deleted, maybe it's not, but at least we found it."

When asked about the potential significance of the discovery of such devices and what investigators should look for, molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University, a leading critic of Fauci's flirtations with gain-of-function research, told Blaze News, "Fauci violated federal policies on gain-of-function and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research, committed conspiracy to defraud and perjury, used federal funds to commit crimes, and caused and covered up the cause of a pandemic that killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion."

The World Health Organization claims that there have been cumulatively over 7 million reported COVID-19 deaths. However, the Economist's machine-learning model estimated that the total number of excess deaths globally is two to four times higher than the reported number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths, which could the put deaths far in excess of 20 million souls.

RELATED: Lab wars: Inside one Democrat's 20-year crusade to save the world from Anthony Fauci — Part 3: 2020-2024

Blaze Media

Ebright was among the prominent scientists who last year sought accountability over efforts to cure the origin narrative and demanded the retraction of "The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2," published by Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020 — a consequential paper that Fauci not only allegedly commissioned and approved but used on multiple occasions to push the zoonotic origin theory.

"If files relevant to Fauci's roles in causing COVID and covering up the cause of COVID are recoverable from Fauci's phones or devices, those files could be of value in documenting the cause and the cover-up and in prosecuting persons culpable for the cause and the cover-up," Ebright told Blaze News. "Examples of relevant files would include files documenting Fauci's correspondence with scientists whose research caused COVID, correspondence with scientists, science administrators, and other federal agency officials who helped Fauci cover up the cause of COVID, and correspondence documenting Fauci's use of non-government email accounts and phone lines for government business."

Blaze News reached out to the FBI for comment and clarification but did not receive a response before publication.

'Clearly he was being deceptive.'

Rogan asked Patel whether the pardons doled out in former President Joe Biden's name would spare Fauci from accountability over his misleading claim to Congress that "the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

There is, after all, a great deal of interest in Congress in holding Fauci accountable over his apparent lie to Congress in 2021 that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research.

For instance, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told Matt Kibbe, the host of BlazeTV's docuseries "The Coverup," that he had referred Fauci to the Department of Justice for prosecution three times over his statements.

"We've detailed his lies to Congress, which are a felony. I've sort of tragically and jokingly said, 'If he were a member of the Trump administration, he would have been arrested long ago.' Because I think we have two standards of justice," Paul told Kibbe. "He certainly seems to be protected."

"Clearly he was being deceptive," Rogan said to Patel. "Are they pardoned for that as well? 'Cause it was like this crazy blanket pardon from 2014 forward, which I didn't even know you could do."

On Jan. 20, Fauci received a "full and unconditional" pre-emptive pardon for possible federal crimes going back to Jan. 1, 2014 — around the time the Obama administration supposedly halted funding for dangerous gain-of-function research.

"So I'm the investigator. So that would be a decision for the Department of Justice," said Patel. "We'll work it up and we'll say, 'This is what we found,' and then legal minds will have to come in and chop on, 'Does this pardon apply or not?'"

While Fauci may presently enjoy an immunity shield from prosecution on account of his last-minute pardon, that pardon now faces a great deal of scrutiny.

RELATED: Who was president these last four years? We deserve an answer

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

President Donald Trump declared in March that the pardons were "VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT."

DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin announced last month that he is reviewing the questionable "autopen" pardons issued in the final days of the Biden White House, noting that they "need some scrutiny." The House Oversight Committee is also investigating autopen use in the Biden White House.

Even if Fauci's pardon holds up, information gleaned by the FBI from the alleged devices could possibly be used in legal actions taken at the state level.

In February, over 16 state attorneys general launched an investigation into Fauci's role in the COVID-19 pandemic response, "demanding accountability for alleged mismanagement, misleading statements, and suppression of scientific debate."

The state AGs underscored in their letter to Congress that the "pardon by former President Biden does not extend to preclude state-level investigations or legal proceedings."

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Who was president these last four years? We deserve an answer



The Biden years increasingly resemble a desperate effort to avoid invoking the 25th Amendment — no matter the cost.

That’s why the Oversight Project’s autopen investigation has captured the attention of the public, Congress, and, most importantly, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice.

President Trump didn’t hesitate: “THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!” he declared on Truth Social. He offered one caveat — the 2020 election still ranks first. I agree, even with my own involvement in uncovering the autopen scandal.

Americans knew something was wrong with Joe Biden. Whether they admitted it or not, nearly everyone sensed it. Some underestimated the severity. Others preferred denial, choosing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But beneath that uneasy consensus lay a deeper question: Who was actually running the country?

Our early disclosures from the still-ongoing autopen investigation began to answer that. When we revealed that President Biden wasn’t personally signing documents that require a sitting president’s signature, the public understood the implications immediately.

'Who was president the last four years?' isn’t just a political talking point. It’s a matter of constitutional legitimacy.

This wasn’t just about procedural shortcuts. It revealed a White House operating without a fully functional commander in chief.

The damage done during the Biden years goes far beyond bad policy. His presidency humiliated the United States on the world stage — not just as a geopolitical power, but as a constitutional republic.

We portray ourselves as the world’s most advanced democracy. We’ve even invaded other countries in the name of exporting that model. But what credibility do we have if we refuse to follow the most basic rule written into our own Constitution — namely, that we are governed by a single functioning individual known as the president?

Democrats warned that Donald Trump was an existential threat to democracy. In reality, the greater threat came from an incapacitated president being steered by unelected, unaccountable staffers behind the scenes.

After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Congress responded with common sense. Lawmakers recognized the need for a clear constitutional process to handle death or incapacity in the executive branch. This wasn’t theoretical — America had already seen four assassinated presidents in less than a century. The system had failed under Garfield, who lingered for months after being shot, and under Wilson, who suffered a debilitating stroke while in office.

The result was the 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967. It created a legal framework for what to do when a president dies, resigns, is removed, or becomes unable to perform the duties of the office. In the case of incapacity, the process requires the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to send Congress a written declaration stating that the president can no longer discharge the powers and duties of the office.

What the drafters likely didn’t imagine was that the vice president and Cabinet might choose to ignore that duty — out of cowardice, political calculation, or worse.

Why did Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden’s Cabinet spend four years sidestepping the exact constitutional process meant for this scenario? That question demands an answer.

Biden was so isolated that according to credible reports, even the secretary of the treasury couldn’t get access to him. How does a Cabinet secretary accept being blocked from seeing the president without sounding the alarm?

RELATED: The real scandal isn’t Joe Biden’s decline — it’s who hid it from you

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

The first step to answering those questions is to ask them.

As investigations by Ed Martin, the House, and the Senate ramp up, they must put Kamala Harris and Biden’s Cabinet under oath. Those people need to explain, clearly and publicly, why they refused to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Congress has not only the authority but the duty to demand those answers. Its oversight power reaches its peak when the subject directly informs legislative action. And no legislation ranks higher than a constitutional amendment. If the 25th Amendment failed to prevent a four-year constitutional charade, then it needs to be amended. The drafters can’t be blamed for failing to imagine a real-life “Weekend at Bernie’s.” Sometimes the Constitution needs a second draft.

“Who was president the last four years?” isn’t just a political talking point. It’s a matter of constitutional legitimacy. That question now echoes across the world. It exposes a critical vulnerability in our system — and it demands accountability.

The only path forward involves full transparency. Absent a last-minute confession from those responsible, only the Trump administration, backed by Congress, can deliver that reckoning.

When the federal government functions for years in open defiance of its founding charter, it doesn’t just cause scandal. It destroys trust. And that erosion of trust rests atop an already collapsing foundation — widespread doubts about election integrity, mass illegal immigration encouraged by the state to engineer political and demographic outcomes, and a legal system increasingly unmoored from equal protection, openly experimenting with race- and sex-based favoritism in the name of “equity.”

All of that adds up to a constitutional crisis. And unless we confront it head-on, the result won’t just be distrust. It will be disaster.

Going rogue? FBI agent gathered information from private citizens questioning Rep. Cory Mills’ record



A Florida-based FBI special agent interviewed three sources who contributed to recent Blaze News investigative stories on U.S. Rep. Cory L. Mills (Fla.), prying for details on what they know about Mills, collecting names of other people investigating Mills, and even asking one source to become a paid FBI informant.

Blaze News asked the FBI if the bureau had opened an investigation into Blaze News' story sources or was using law enforcement resources to learn the scope of planned news coverage. Blaze News has been probing the growing questions swirling around Mills, 44, a second-term Republican representing Florida’s 7th Congressional District.

The FBI told Blaze News it would investigate to determine whether this purported investigation is an official FBI case or if something else is going on.

“We are not aware of the conduct in question but will review the matter immediately,” an FBI spokesperson told Blaze News in a statement May 16. “As always, any unethical behavior will be addressed swiftly and appropriately.”

The spokesperson added, “Senior leadership was made aware of the situation.”

The rare public statement is notable, as the FBI does not usually comment on such cases.

Suspicious interviews

Special Agent Shay D. Talley-Bradley of the FBI’s Orlando Resident Agency conducted multiple interviews with the three Blaze News sources via telephone, two at an area Florida Starbucks, and one face-to-face interview at the home of a news source, Blaze News has learned.

Screenshot of City of Ocoee, Florida, website promoting an event with Talley-Bradley

Talley-Bradley initially told the sources that the FBI was conducting a stolen-valor investigation into Mills, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division who has been accused of lying about his background and falsely claiming to have been an elite Army Ranger.

Later, Talley-Bradley changed the story, saying the investigation now focused on Mills’ business dealings, multiple sources told Blaze News. Mills founded two companies active in overseas arms trading and owns a third that sells “less lethal” munitions for law enforcement and military applications.

Blaze News approached Talley-Bradley outside an event in Ocoee, Florida, and asked about Cory Mills and her alleged investigation. She repeatedly said she had "no idea" what we were "talking about."

Although several of the sources provided Talley-Bradley with contact information for at least five individuals with direct knowledge of Mills’ military service and his work for a State Department security contractor, they said Talley-Bradley never followed up or conducted interviews with four of those people.

'An agent found to be operating outside the scope of their assigned duties would be open to an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility.'

Talley-Bradley might have violated FBI protocols in the interviews by apparently not recording phone calls for the purpose of creating investigative documents known as Form 302s, not taking notes during the interviews, visiting a source’s home with no other agent present, often communicating via text, and telling sources not to send documents to her official FBI email.

The agent’s frequent queries and unusual behavior led two Blaze News sources to suspect that they were the real targets of the FBI probe. At one point in the Blaze News investigation, one of the sources, fearful of being targeted, asked to withdraw information he provided to Blaze News for a series of stories that began May 7.

Steve Friend, a former FBI special agent in the bureau’s Daytona Beach Resident Agency, said any investigation targeting a member of Congress would be a “Sensitive Investigative Matter,” requiring several layers of approval at the highest levels of the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice.

“This is a SIM. No way phone and email interviews would be done,” Friend told Blaze News. “They are allowed, but only in rare situations. In-person would be attempted. And never text messages.”

While it’s not unusual for FBI agents to conduct a more casual interview without recording or taking notes, several former FBI special agents told Blaze News, if the investigation involves a congressman, more stringent rules apply.

Frederick W. Humphries II, a retired former supervisory special agent of the FBI, told Blaze News, “An agent found to be operating outside the scope of their assigned duties would be open to an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility. Upon OPR review, recommendations can range from a formal letter of censure, to suspension without pay, to removal from the rolls of the FBI.”

Humphries said that in 2017, FBI agents were told to stop investigating stolen-valor complaints unless they involved allegations that stolen valor was used as a tool in fundraising fraud.

In 2013, 18 U.S. Code § 704 was amended to punish those who fraudulently hold themselves out as recipients of military decorations or medals “with the intent to obtain money, property or other tangible benefit.” The crime is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail.

Blaze News investigation

Mills has come under recent scrutiny for his claims about his military service, his employment as a security contractor in Iraq, his religious faith, and his year-long relationship with an Iranian-American activist while still married, among other issues.

The investigation started when BlazeTV host Jill Savage, also an active member of Blaze News’ investigative team, started looking into Mills’ record following reports of a domestic disturbance call by his girlfriend at his house in February 2025. This led to confirmation of Mills’ curious marriage certificate and reports of stolen valor.

RELATED: GOP Rep. Cory Mills explains why he was married by a radical Islamic cleric

Jill Savage discusses the origin of the Cory Mills story on "Blaze News: The Mandate."

Blaze News initially reported on Mills’ 2014 marriage to Rana Al Saadi that took place at the terror-tied Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, before they started an international arms business together.

In a 50-minute call with Blaze News, Mills said he has always been Christian and went forward with the marriage in a mosque to ensure that his wife would be safe visiting a dying relative in Iraq.

A follow-up article from Blaze News reported that five people have now claimed that Mills told them directly that he converted to Islam around the time of his marriage.

These former co-workers and fellow veterans accused Mills of stolen valor, saying Mills falsely claimed to be an Army Ranger medic and an experienced military sniper.

In March, Savage listened to a “Green Beret Chronicles” podcast on Mills featuring William Kern, a Houston-based former U.S. Marine counter-sniper who worked with Mills at DynCorp carrying out protective missions in Iraq, and Bobby Oller, a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper, squad leader, and master gunner who served in Afghanistan and as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After she reached out to them for Blaze News, she and the investigative team began to contact others.

These former co-workers and fellow veterans accused Mills of stolen valor, saying Mills falsely claimed to be an Army Ranger medic and an experienced military sniper. They also said Mills’ nomination form for a Bronze Star medal contained false information. Mills wrongly claimed to have been “blown up” twice while working for security contractor DynCorp in the Middle East, multiple sources told Blaze News.

In his call with Blaze News, Mills denied the accusations of stolen valor. When asked why he thought these accusations were being made by others who were there, he said: “They’re entitled to have a different recollection. And some of them, obviously, I didn’t have a great relationship with, and I’m sure some are probably disgruntled.”

He also accused Blaze News of writing a hit piece and threatened legal action.

RELATED: Stolen valor? Veterans dispute Cory Mills’ record: 'He fooled a lot of us

Jill Savage and Peter Gietl discuss the Cory Mills ‘stolen valor’ story on "Blaze News: The Mandate."

Official Mills investigation?

Kern said he had become suspicious of Mills’ claims about his military record and security work. Kern contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in August 2024 to report what he believed were instances of stolen valor.

William Kern. Photo given to Blaze News

Kern said FDLE Inspector Richard Gibbs encouraged him to report the information to the FBI and the House Committee on Ethics, which opened an investigation on Mills during the 118th Congress that was extended into the current 119th Congress. The congressional probe is not related to the accusations of stolen valor.

A Florida law that will take effect July 1 prohibits candidates, elected public officers, appointed representatives, and public employees “from knowingly making certain fraudulent representations relating to military service.” A violation of that law will be a third-degree felony.

On Aug. 11, 2024, Kern called the FBI’s national intake hotline and left a message, asking for a call-back to report Mills as a case of stolen valor. Kern said he never got a reply.

That same day, Kern received an anonymous phone text from a spoofed Washington, D.C., number suggesting that he could be the target of an investigation for a visit he made to Cambodia.

“We are investigating links to you and others you worked with, some who are currently living abroad, to sex/human exploitation in many countries during your time working for a U.S. contractor,” the message read. “Cambodia and other information has been mentioned in messages.”

Screenshot obtained by Blaze News

Months later, Kern got a voicemail, a text, and an email from Talley-Bradley. He told Blaze News that the agent’s messages said she was contacting him about Mills. Kern said he assumed this was related to his August 2024 call to the FBI and his interaction with the FDLE agent.

During a 90-minute phone call in late November 2024, Talley-Bradley told Kern she was “referred” onto the case and asked what he knew about Mills, he told Blaze News. He said he gave her information about the doubts surrounding Mills’ military record and work as a security contractor for the State Department. The agent did not indicate that she was recording the interview, he said.

'If you are not an actual FBI agent, I will be submitting all of these text messages as evidence of a federal crime.'

Over the following months, Kern said, he had several text exchanges with Talley-Bradley. In late March, Kern had to make a business trip to Orlando and arranged a meeting with Talley-Bradley. Kern said he added a day on each end of his business trip in order to have a face-to-face meeting with Talley-Bradley.

He said after agreeing to meet, Talley-Bradley said she had to leave town. She offered to have him meet instead with someone she said was a Department of Defense investigator named Mike Scherach.

“I am going to hand off the interview to my co-case agent,” Talley-Bradley texted, according to screenshots provided to Blaze News by Kern. “His name is Mike Scherach, he is with Department of Defense … we have been working this case jointly. Please expect to hear from him in the coming days.”

Kern said he was never contacted by Scherach. Talley-Bradley told him the DOD investigator also had to leave town, Kern said, so there would be no face-to-face meeting.

Growing more suspicious about Talley-Bradley and the purported investigation, Kern asked the agent to confirm that she really works for the FBI.

“At this point I don’t know what else to do other than go to the FBI here in Houston to confirm your identity,” Kern wrote in a text. “If you are not an actual FBI agent, I will be submitting all of these text messages as evidence of a federal crime.”

Talley-Bradley replied with the phone number for the FBI’s Tampa division and suggested that he call and ask if she is an agent in the Orlando Resident Agency.

Kern said he began to suspect that Talley-Bradley was not investigating Mills at all, but perhaps that he himself was the target. He contacted the FBI to confirm that Talley-Bradley was actually an FBI special agent. A supervisory special agent did call Kern back, but Kern was unavailable at the time and did not return the call, he said.

“I knew this was all bulls**t on about May 8, when I learned Shay was not contacting the most important names we’d given her,” Kern said, “the prime sources on the stolen valor issue.”

Kern said he was also suspicious that “no local agent ever came out to interview me and do an official, recorded interview. Nothing seemed normal to me.”

Names given to Talley-Bradley as possible sources for her investigation included Max Woodside, Jesse Parks, Scott Kempkins, and Bobby Oller. All but Oller told Blaze News they never received communication from Talley-Bradley. The men were also news sources for Blaze News' series on Mills.

Oller said he started investigating Mills for possible stolen valor in April 2024.

Bobby Oller. Photo given to Blaze News

Oller, who knew Kern from working at DynCorp, said Kern told him the FBI would reach out to him about Mills’ alleged stolen valor. When Oller didn’t hear anything from the FBI, he emailed Talley-Bradley on April 18, 2025, to report what he knew. The agent suddenly didn’t seem interested in the topic of stolen valor, he said.

Oller spoke via phone with Talley-Bradley on May 1. When Oller dove into the stolen-valor details, he said Talley-Bradley stopped him. “Whoa, this is a lot. I can’t do all this right now,” Oller quoted her as saying. “Hold tight, and keep doing what you’re doing.”

Oller said Talley-Bradley then asked him about his background and whether he was some kind of investigator. “No, I’m a diesel mechanic,” Oller said he told her. She said she would call him back in a week or so. That never happened.

The interactions left Oller worried. “I now had the impression she was investigating me,” he told Blaze News.

Jade A. Murray, owner and operator of CoryMillsWatch.com, a website dedicated to investigating Mills, said Talley-Bradley showed up on her doorstep on Dec. 3, 2024, asking about Mills for a stolen-valor investigation. Talley-Bradley showed her badge and FBI credentials, Murray said. The two stood on the front porch and spoke for a few minutes, she said.

Jade Murray. Photo given to Blaze News

Murray, of Altamonte Springs, Florida, said she met with Talley-Bradley at a local Starbucks on Dec. 20, 2024, and again on April 11, 2025. During the second Starbucks meeting, Murray said, the agent asked about others who had provided information to her about Mills.

Talley-Bradley told her that because Mills had “plausible deniability” and there wasn’t enough “there there” on the stolen-valor claims, the FBI was dropping that investigative angle.

Now the agent said she wanted to talk about Mills’ business dealings, Murray said. The agent asked if Murray would become a paid undercover FBI informant to investigate “another lady.” Murray said she enthusiastically agreed but never learned the identity of the target.

“I was just happy something was being done,” Murray told Blaze News.

'I now had to assume that Cory Mills could have known that I was working this story.'

Murray said Talley-Bradley did not record any of their conversations or even take written notes. “She was just sipping her coffee,” Murray said. “It was very casual.”

Murray asked for the agent’s email address so she could send documents about Mills from her own stolen-valor investigations. Talley-Bradley told Murray she didn’t want to receive any documents via email and she should “let her know about any updates to the [Cory Mills] website.”

On March 31, Kern told Jill Savage — a BlazeTV anchor and part of the Blaze News team investigating Mills — that he would forward her contact information to Talley-Bradley. “I think the work and research you have done would be helpful to them [at the FBI],” Kern said. Savage told Kern she was willing to speak with Talley-Bradley, since “there are a lot of things that do not add up when it comes to Mills, so I was glad to hear someone was looking into this.”

Twelve days later, Talley-Bradley tried to recruit Murray as an undercover paid informant to help investigate “another lady,” according to Murray. The only other woman among the sources provided to Talley-Bradley was Savage.

“When I heard this, my first thought was that I now had to assume that Cory Mills could have known that I was working this story since March 31 when Kern told the agent about me,” Savage said. “Because when I heard how these interviews were being conducted, I thought something was not right — and there was a real possibility that it was an off-books investigation.”

Jill Savage begins work on the Cory Mills investigation.

When asked if she thought she could have been the “lady” Talley-Bradley had in mind, Savage said, “Yes, that could have referred to me. Because why would Agent Talley-Bradley need to change her approach? Why would she have to go through someone else? Was it because she knew she couldn’t directly approach a journalist?”

Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson said, “If an FBI agent is falsely presenting themselves to private citizens as if they are investigating a case for the FBI, when in fact they are not, that agent should lose their job. What makes this apparent investigation into our sources even worse is that it interfered with private citizens who are simply questioning the record of a member of Congress.”

“We need to know why this agent was gathering this information and for what purpose. We do not have enough evidence yet to answer these questions. If this was not an official FBI investigation, was she investigating a member of Congress on her own or was she actually gathering information on everyone researching him and trying to speak out about his record?”

Cory Mills was asked questions about and for comment on this story, but he did not reply.

Jill Savage, Matthew Peterson, and Peter Gietl contributed to this story.

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HS kid punches teacher in face — and teacher fights back, video apparently shows. 3 students charged with battery over brawl.



A video has surfaced apparently showing a Georgia high school student punching a teacher in the face, and the angry teacher fighting back — after which a brawl ensues.

WXIA-TV reported that the DeKalb County School District is addressing the video that was recorded Tuesday at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, which is in Lithonia — about 20 minutes southeast of Atlanta.

The teacher in question is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, the station noted.

What took place prior to the on-camera violence isn't clear, but the video begins with a male wearing a dark hoodie running up to a man wearing a jacket and tie by a classroom door — presumably the teacher — and punching him in the face. As you might expect, onlookers in the hallway let out an approving holler in unison.

A security guard who's right next to the teacher puts the attacker in a bear hug and attempts to move him away, but the angry teacher hits his attacker with a punch of his own, which the crowd doesn't like one bit.

With that, two other males — one wearing a gray hoodie and the other wearing a white hoodie — go after the teacher and knock him to the floor. By this point, the frenzied students are behaving as if they're watching a UFC match.

The teacher gets up again, and there's a little bit of pushing and shoving, but that's where the 45-second clip ends. You can view it here.

What does the school district have to say?

The district said in a statement that several students reportedly initiated the physical fight with the teacher, WXIA reported, adding that three students are charged with battery and disrupting public school.

The teacher in question is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, the station noted.

"The DeKalb County School District is firmly committed to maintaining learning environments free from violent behavior and will not tolerate physical altercations in our schools," a spokesperson for the school district told WXIA.

You can view a video report here regarding the incident.

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Prominent high school girls' basketball coach — an 81-year-old male — fired after yanking star player's ponytail



A prominent New York state high school girls' basketball coach has been fired after he was caught on a now-viral video yanking a star player's ponytail following a state championship game loss Friday night.

You can view a WRGB-TV video report here about the incident. It includes a clip of Northville High School coach Jim Zullo, 81, approaching senior Hailey Monroe from behind and pulling her ponytail as players lined up for an awards ceremony after a 43-37 loss to LaFargeville High School, the Daily Gazette reported.

The other storyline amid the scandalous incident centers on Monroe’s teammate Ahmya Tompkins, who is seen on the video getting between Zullo and Monroe and appearing to tell Zullo 'no.'

The paper — citing sources familiar with the situation — also said Monroe's family on Sunday filed a formal complaint against Zullo, who is a state Basketball Hall of Fame member and has coached since 1970.

Zullo on Friday night alleged to a WTEN-TV sports director that Monroe directed an expletive toward him, the Daily Gazette said, but the coach was apologetic soon after.

“I deeply regret my behavior following the loss to LaFargeville Friday night in the Class D state championship game. I want to offer my sincerest apologies to Hailey and her family, our team, the good folks at Northville Central Schools and our community. As a coach, under no circumstance is it acceptable to put my hands on a player, and I am truly sorry. I wish I could have those moments back," Zullo said in a statement, the paper reported.

The Daily Gazette said neither the Rensselaer County District Attorney's office nor public safety of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy — where the game was played — have formally announced charges against Zullo. The paper added neither agency immediately responded to a request for comment.

Monroe's family declined comment Sunday regarding the situation, the Daily Gazette reported.

However, Northville Central Schools Superintendent Sarah Chauncey quickly responded to the incident following Friday night’s game after the clip of Zullo's ponytail pull circulated on social media, the paper said. Chauncey didn't specifically name Zullo but condemned the coach’s actions in a community letter and said he no longer would serve as a coach for the district, the Daily Gazette added.

Teammate to the rescue

The other storyline amid the scandalous incident centers on Monroe’s teammate Ahmya Tompkins, who is seen on the video getting between Zullo and Monroe and appearing to tell Zullo "no."

In addition, when a furious Zullo begins getting in Tompkins' face and pointing a finger at her, Tompkins doesn't back down and points right back at him.

Another twist is that Zullo is Tompkins' great uncle, the Daily Gazette said.

Zullo's high school coaching career included a Class A state title in 1987 with the Shenendehowa boys' team, the paper noted, adding that his career record is 573-249. His two seasons with Northville were the only ones of his career leading a girls’ team, the Daily Gazette added.

The paper said Monroe moved to Northville from Baltimore during her eighth-grade year, played on the high school varsity team for four seasons, finished her career with 1,982 points — the scoring record for both the boys’ and girls’ programs, the paper said.

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