House Democrats accused President Donald Trump on Monday of attempting to use the Department of Justice to improperly pay himself for legal damages he has incurred over the past decade, and they demanded senior department officials recuse themselves from the matter.

In a public letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and senior official Stanley Woodward, House Judiciary Committee Democrats called the possible payout ‘a blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal’ millions of dollars from taxpayers.

Trump’s interest in the payout was first reported last week by the New York Times, which said Trump began seeking what amounted to $230 million through an administrative claims process that top DOJ officials would typically need to approve. Trump filed the claims in 2023 and 2024, before he took office, according to the report.

The committee Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., warned of repercussions for paying Trump and demanded a slate of nonpublic information about Trump’s reported requests, laying the groundwork for a possible future investigation if they were to take the majority and gain subpoena power in a year.

‘You could face civil liability, ethics investigations, professional discipline, and potential criminal liability for conspiracy to defraud the United States,’ the lawmakers wrote.

They have been among many Democrats, and some Republicans, to scrutinize the president for potentially accepting the lump sum from a department he now runs.

Trump recently addressed the report in the Oval Office, saying ‘it would be awfully strange’ to pay himself. Trump is reportedly seeking payments for damages incurred by the DOJ’s investigations into alleged Trump-Russia collusion and former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations.

‘In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you’re paying yourself in damages?’ Trump said. ‘But I was damaged very greatly. And any money that I would get, I would give to charity.’ 

House Democrats countered that Trump ‘does not get the right to take a bribe or kickback just by promising to give the proceeds to charity.’

They also demanded Blanche and Woodward, who worked on Trump’s legal defense team during his criminal prosecutions, recuse themselves from any decisions about compensating Trump.

Asked for comment, a spokesman for committee Republicans accused the Democrats of fixating too much on Trump.

‘Democrats should focus on opening the government and paying federal workers, many of whom live in Ranking Member Raskin’s district, rather than obsessing over President Trump who clearly did nothing wrong,’ committee spokesman Russell Dye said. ‘But sadly, their priority will always be attacking President Trump instead of paying the troops, air traffic controllers, and families who are hurting because of the Democrat shutdown.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked Republicans’ 13th attempt to reopen the government after having nearly a week to mull their options — and with a series of pressure-point deadlines rapidly closing in.

On the 28th day of the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., tried to advance the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) and was again foiled by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Democratic caucus.

Failure to reopen the government on Tuesday came as air traffic controllers missed their first payday. The military is set to miss its first full payday on Friday. Then there is the looming cliff for federal nutrition benefits on Saturday — the same day as open enrollment begins nationwide for Obamacare.

In the background, Republicans are considering a series of one-off bills to pay the troops, certain federal workers, air traffic controllers and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, but whether they make it to the floor remains to be seen.

Thune threw cold water on the prospect of the piecemeal ‘rifle shots’ coming to the floor. Republicans will discuss the bills during their closed-door lunch later Tuesday, which will be attended by Vice President JD Vance.

‘There’s not a high level of interest in doing carve-outs or so-called rifle shots,’ he said. ‘Most people recognize the way to get out of this mess is to open up the government.’

Still, lawmakers with bills that could pay portions of the federal workforce were hopeful their legislation would get a shot. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose bill would pay air traffic controllers, said, ‘I certainly hope so,’ when asked if it would get a vote.

And Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., whose bill to pay working federal workers and the troops was blocked last week, but could get a second wind this week.

He and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., are working at arm’s length — Johnson said they last spoke Friday — on a compromise version of the bill, but he wasn’t hopeful that it would see the light of day despite agreeing to concessions demanded by Democrats.

‘I want to make this permanent. Let’s stop, again, let’s take the ability to punish federal employees because of our dysfunction away forever. We’ll add furlough employees, and we’re not changing anything in terms of the president’s authority — that would be adjudicated in the court,’ Johnson said. ‘So the question is, will they take ‘yes’ for an answer?’

Schumer railed against Republicans ahead of the vote, and blamed President Donald Trump for being overseas this week as a reason that no forward progress was being made on reopening the government.

He also went after Thune for again bringing the same bill to the floor and reiterated that Democrats’ position, which is to get an ironclad deal to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies, hadn’t changed.

‘It’s a partisan bill and does nothing, most importantly, does nothing to solve the [Obamacare] crisis,’ Schumer said. ‘Just now, here on the floor, the Republican leaders seemed perplexed about what precisely it is that Democrats are pushing for. He knows damn well what Democrats want. It’s the very same thing that a vast majority of Americans want, including nearly 60% of MAGA voters. We want lower healthcare costs now.’

House Republicans held a lawmaker-only conference call on Tuesday that grew tense when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., confronted Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on his strategy to navigate the ongoing government shutdown.

Johnson has been holding weekly calls to keep GOP lawmakers updated on the shutdown while instructing them to remain in their home districts rather than in Washington.

It’s part of Johnson’s pressure strategy to force Senate Democrats into accepting the GOP’s federal funding plan.

However, Fox News Digital was told that Greene forcefully countered that Republicans’ House majority was ‘being wasted’ by staying in their districts.

She said House Republicans would be better served passing legislation in Washington and finding an ‘off ramp’ to COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year if a deal isn’t reached.

An extension of those subsidies has been Democrats’ main demand in exchange for agreeing to any funding deal.

‘You guys need to get out of Washington, D.C., and go back to your districts and talk to real people, because real people are pissed,’ Greene told House GOP leaders, Fox News Digital learned. ‘They expect us to do our legislative constitutional duty and not take marching orders from the political team at the White House.’

She turned her ire on President Donald Trump as well, pointing out she was one of his earliest fervent supporters but adding, ‘Even the president is losing support.’

Fox News Digital was told that Johnson defended Republicans’ legislative record so far as well as Trump’s popularity among the GOP base.

He also said he and other Republican leaders had been working tirelessly to end the shutdown, Fox News Digital was told.

‘He’s not sleeping. I’m not sleeping … because we are working around the clock,’ Johnson said.

Johnson then went further and criticized Greene for airing her concerns with the GOP’s direction on social media, asking her, ‘How does that help us, Marjorie?’

Several other House Republicans who spoke up defended Johnson’s handling of the shutdown, Fox News Digital was told.

Two notable exceptions were Reps. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., and Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, who Fox News Digital was told also raised concerns about keeping the House out.

The speaker has kept the House out of Washington since Sept. 19, when his chamber passed the GOP’s short-term funding bill to give lawmakers until Nov. 21 to reach a deal on government funding.

But Senate Democrats have since rejected that legislation 13 times.

Johnson argued on the call that Republicans were still busy at work despite not being in Washington, Fox News Digital was told.

And while Tuesday’s confrontation marks the first time Greene made her concerns known on the House GOP’s weekly shutdown calls, she has been vocal on social media about her frustration.

Greene even confirmed her side of the account on X while the call was ongoing.

‘I said I have no respect for the House not being in session passing our bills and the President’s executive orders. And I demanded to know from Speaker Johnson what the Republican plan for healthcare is to build the off-ramp off Obamacare and the [Affordable Care Act] tax credits to make health insurance affordable for Americans,’ Greene wrote.

‘Johnson said he’s got ideas and pages of policy ideas and committees of jurisdiction are working on it, but he refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call. Apparently I have to go into a [classified setting] to find out the Republican healthcare plan!!!’

Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson’s office and the White House for a response but did not immediately hear back.

Voters across the country will head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to cast votes in pivotal elections that many will interpret as critical bellwethers of where the country stands politically almost a year into President Donald Trump’s second term and a year before the midterm elections.

Here are the top elections that people from across the country are watching closely.

Virginia gubernatorial race

Virginia’s Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is squaring off against her Democratic opponent, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, in a race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The election comes with a handful of historic firsts, including Earle-Sears becoming the state’s first Black female nominee for governor in a race that ultimately will result in Virginia electing the first female governor, regardless of which party wins the general election.

While Spanberger has held the lead over Earle-Sears in a slew of surveys since the start of the year, polls tightened recently after explosive revelations in Virginia’s attorney general race rocked the campaign trail.

Attorney general candidate Jay Jones, a Democrat, has been in crisis mode since controversial three-year-old texts — where he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot. He said that if he was given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head. Spanberger, and other prominent Democrats, have refused to call for Jones to drop out, which Republicans have labeled an example of Democrats tacitly condoning political violence. 

The race has drawn the attention of former President Barack Obama, who will head to Virginia Nov. 1 to headline a political rally for Spanberger in Norfolk after endorsing her in a pair of political ads earlier in October that took shots at Republicans. 

New Jersey gubernatorial race

Voters in New Jersey will also be voting for their next governor in a choice between Republican businessman Jack Ciattarelli and Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, both running to succeed the term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. 

Ciattarelli, who’s making his third straight run for Garden State governor and who nearly upset Murphy four years ago, fell short as plenty of Republican voters sat out the election.

In a state where registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans despite a GOP surge in registration this decade, four public opinion polls released over the past two weeks — from Fox News, Quinnipiac University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Rutgers-Eagleton — indicated Ciattarelli tightening the margins with Sherrill in the race to succeed the term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Other public and internal surveys suggest a margin-of-error contest.

Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who flew helicopters during her military service and who was first elected to Congress in 2018, has campaigned hard on linking Ciattarelli to Trump while Ciattarelli has linked Sherrill to the Biden administration’s policies and hammered her on questions swirling about her connection to a cheating scandal at the Naval Academy. 

Virginia and New Jersey are the only states that hold gubernatorial contests in the year after a presidential election. And the elections, which traditionally grab outsized national attention, are viewed this year as early verdicts on President Donald Trump’s unprecedented and relentless second-term agenda, as well as key barometers ahead of next year’s midterm showdowns for the U.S. House and Senate.

California redistricting

Early voting is now underway in California in a special election that will make a huge impact on next year’s battle for the U.S. House majority.

California voters are deciding whether to pass a ballot proposition this November which would dramatically alter the state’s congressional districts, putting the left-leaning state front-and-center in the high-stakes political fight over redistricting that pits President Donald Trump and the GOP against the Democrats.

California state lawmakers this summer approved a special proposition on the November ballot to obtain voter approval to temporarily sidetrack the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature. 

The effort in California, which could create five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts, aims to counter the passage in the reliable red state of Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats. Failure to approve what’s known as Proposition 50 would be a stinging setback for Democrats.

Proponents and opponents of Proposition 50 reported raising more than $215 million as of Oct. 2, with much of the money being dished out to pay for a deluge of ads on both sides.

One of the two main groups countering Newsom and the Democrats is labeling their effort ‘Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab.’

Also getting into the fight is former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the last Republican governor of California.

‘That’s what they want to do is take us backwards — this is why it is important for you to vote no on Prop 50,’ Schwarzenegger says in an ad against Proposition 50. ‘Democracy — we’ve got to protect it, and we’ve got to go and fight for it.’

New York City mayoral race

The nation’s largest city will be voting for its next mayor on Nov. 4 as socialist Zohran Mamdani holds a commanding lead in the polls against former Dem. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent after losing the primary to Mamdani, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. 

Mamdani has faced strong criticism for a variety of positions he adopted over the years as a member of New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, including calls to defund the police, seize the means of production, and abolish private property. 

Despite being labeled a communist by some and prominent Jewish leaders speaking out against his anti-Israel positions, Mamdani’s focus on ‘affordability’ in the city, with agenda items such as freezing rent rates, has appealed to younger voters and catapulted him to the top of the polls with a week to go before the election. 

Cuomo and Sliwa, who have both called on each other multiple times to drop out of the race to give voters a one-on-one match-up with Mamdani, have made the case that Mamdani’s inexperience and controversial views make him unqualified to lead New York City, a city of over 8 million people. 

Minneapolis mayoral race 

In Minnesota, a Mamdani-esque figure is running for mayor of Minneapolis: Omar Fateh, the son of immigrant parents from Somalia who five years ago became the first Somali-American elected to the Minnesota Senate.

Fateh has pledged, if elected mayor, to raise the city’s minimum wage, increase the supply of affordable housing, and combat what he calls police violence. Similar to Mamdani, Fateh calls for replacing some of the police department’s duties with community-led alternatives. He also wants to issue legal IDs to undocumented immigrants.

Fateh, like Mamdani, is a democratic socialist and a Muslim. And at age 35, he’s also a member of Generation Y.

Fateh’s most notable opponent in November is the current mayor, Jacob Frey, running for a third term.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

As President Donald Trump floats the idea of meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the question in Washington and Seoul is whether there could be any real substance left in a summit that once dominated global headlines.

For Trump, the answer may lie less in new breakthroughs and more in reviving an old diplomatic gamble: the belief that personal diplomacy can succeed where conventional statecraft has failed.

‘I got along great with Kim Jong Un. I liked him, he liked me,’ Trump told reporters on Monday — a reminder of his trademark tactic of flattering America’s adversaries, a style that infuriates critics. ‘I’d love to meet him.’

Trump’s approach to North Korea has always been defined by spectacle — the 2018 Singapore summit, the DMZ handshake and the failed Hanoi talks in 2019. While direct engagement briefly lowered tensions and paused North Korea’s nuclear tests, Pyongyang has since dramatically expanded its nuclear arsenal, tested more advanced solid-fuel missiles and aligned more closely with China and Russia.

It has also claimed to test new underwater nuclear-capable drones and satellite systems — and has declared that talks focused on nuclear disarmament are a nonstarter.

Trump has floated sanctions relief in exchange for denuclearization.

‘Well, we have sanctions,’ Trump said of possible discussion points. ‘That’s pretty big to start off with. I would say that’s about as big as you get.’

During a speech last month, Kim said he has a ‘good memory of Trump’ but would meet him only ‘if the U.S. drops its hollow obsession with denuclearization.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said U.S. policy toward North Korea remains focused on urging Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

‘Our North Korea policy remains the same. It’s the denuclearization of North Korea. It’s an objective that we have all been pursuing for decades,’ Rubio said.

Further compounding U.S. concerns is North Korea’s growing relationship with Russia. North Korea has provided Russia with troops for its war in Ukraine, and Western officials remain concerned about what Pyongyang is receiving in return from the nuclear-armed state. U.S. officials have warned that Russia may be sharing advanced satellite technology with North Korea.

The budding Moscow–Pyongyang relationship is a ‘national security challenge that needs to be addressed one way or the other,’ he added.

North Korea has so far not responded to Trump’s latest overture. On Friday, the president hinted at the difficulty of reaching Kim’s team.

‘I think they are sort of a nuclear power,’ he said. ‘They have a lot of nuclear weapons but not a lot of telephone service.’

Kim wants North Korea to be formally recognized as a nuclear power.

Absent a framework for a breakthrough in recent tensions, any summit risks a repeat of Hanoi: high drama, few deliverables.

Still, some see opportunity. Even a limited freeze on long-range missile tests or nuclear production could stabilize the peninsula — and Trump would remain the only Western leader who has Kim’s ear.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., questioned the validity of pardons granted by former President Joe Biden after the release of a high-profile report by the House Oversight Committee.

‘It sounds like a terrible novel or something, but this is reality,’ Johnson said in response to the House GOP’s allegations that Biden’s inner circle conspired to hide signs of mental decline in the former president.

‘And so the pardons, for example, he pardoned categories of violent criminals and turned them loose on the streets, and he didn’t even know who. He didn’t even know what the categories were, apparently, much less the individual people, that he pardoned.’

Johnson said the pardons were ‘invalid on their face.’

‘I mean, I used to be a constitutional litigator. I would love to take this case,’ he said.

The committee’s GOP majority released a 100-page report on Tuesday morning detailing findings from its months-long probe into Biden’s White House, specifically whether his inner circle covered up signs of mental decline in the ex-president, and if that alleged cover-up extended to executive actions signed via autopen without Biden’s full awareness.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., heaped doubt on whether Biden actually signed off on all of his executive actions when the autopen was used — in particular, the thousands of clemency orders he authorized during his term.

Comer said Biden’s autopen-authorized actions should be considered ‘void’ and called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review the matter.

Asked at his press conference about whether there was a legal avenue to nullify Biden’s executive actions signed by autopen, Johnson signaled that he saw such an opportunity as it related to Biden’s pardons specifically.

‘You can’t allow a president to check out and have unelected, unaccountable, faceless people making massive decisions for the country,’ Johnson said.

A Biden spokesperson pushed back on the committee’s conclusions in a statement to Fox News Digital made Tuesday morning, however.

‘This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency. There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no wrongdoing. Congressional Republicans should stop focusing on political retribution and instead work to end the government shutdown,’ the spokesperson said.

In an interview with The New York Times in July, Biden affirmed he ‘made every decision’ on his own.

Senate Republicans offered a rare rebuke against President Donald Trump and his trade strategy on Tuesday, despite still remaining largely in lockstep amid the ongoing government shutdown.

A handful of Senate Republicans joined Senate Democrats to end Trump’s use of emergency powers to implement steep, 50% tariffs on Brazil. While the resolution, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., advanced from the upper chamber, it can’t be taken up in the House until early next year.

That’s because House Republicans recently passed a rule that would not allow the chamber to consider legislation dealing with Trump’s tariffs until January of next year.

Five Senate Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, joined all Senate Democrats to advance the resolution with a 52-48 vote.

Their defection from their GOP colleagues comes after Vice President JD Vance warned lawmakers not to vote against Trump’s usage of tariffs during Senate Republicans’ closed-door lunch earlier on Tuesday.

Vance argued after the lunch that tariffs give Trump leverage to craft new trade deals that benefit the country and urged Republicans not to break ranks against the president.

‘To vote against that is to strip that incredible leverage from the president of the United States. I think it’s a huge mistake and I know most of the people in there agree with me,’ he said.

Trump initially used emergency powers to enact stiffer tariffs on Brazil in July and argued ‘that the scope and gravity of the recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat’ to the U.S.

It’s not the first time the Senate has disapproved of Trump’s tariffs. Earlier this year, Republicans joined Democrats to rebuke Trump’s emergency declaration for 25% tariffs against Canada, and they tried and failed to reject his use of global tariffs. 

Kaine also has plans to bring two more resolutions, one to block tariffs on Canadian goods and the other on Trump’s global tariffs, later this week.

‘It makes no sense to impose tariffs on Brazil, and it’s just being done to back up the president’s friend,’ Kaine told reporters ahead of the vote.

Kaine was referring to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who at the time of Trump’s declaration, was being prosecuted for an attempted coup after an election loss in 2022. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September.

Paul argued that ’emergencies are like war, famine, tornado, not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency.’

‘Tariffs are an import tax, they are a tax, not a tax on China,’ Paul said. ‘It’s a tax on the people who buy stuff from China, which are mostly Americans. Taxes are supposed to originate in the House, so I will continue to vote to end the emergency.’

When asked why more Senate Republicans hadn’t joined him on his tariff position, Paul said, ‘Fear.’

President Donald Trump spoke to the press while en route to South Korea on Tuesday aboard Air Force One and made remarks about his authority to deploy U.S. military forces domestically — something that will likely draw legal and political concerns.

Trump was traveling to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During the media availability, Trump claimed he could deploy U.S. military forces into American cities if necessary, claiming that ‘the courts wouldn’t get involved.’

When speaking with reporters, he said he would consider using the military beyond the National Guard if the need arises.

‘I would do that if it was necessary,’ he said. ‘It hasn’t been necessary. We’re doing a great job without that.’

Trump also argued that, as president, he has the power to take such an action.

‘If I want to enact a certain act, I’m allowed to do it routinely,’ he said. ‘I’d be allowed to do whatever I want… You understand that the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved.’

He added, ‘I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I can send anybody I wanted, but I haven’t done that because we’re doing so well.’

Trump made it a point to use San Francisco as an example, describing how federal officials were ‘all set to go last Saturday’ to intervene in the city but held off after local leaders asked for a chance to handle it themselves.

‘We would have solved that problem in less than a month,’ he said, adding that federal intervention ‘would go a lot quicker and it’s much more effective.’

He also emphasized what he described as progress in other parts of the U.S.

‘Memphis is making tremendous progress,’ Trump said. ‘It’s down, I think, almost 70%, 60–70%. And within two or three weeks it would be down to almost no crime.’

The president is scheduled to meet with Xi on Wednesday to discuss fentanyl trafficking, trade policy and border security.