FBI investigating attempts to impersonate White House chief of staff Susie Wiles
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(WASHINGTON) — The FBI is investigating mysterious texts and calls from someone reaching out to governors, members of Congress and others who has claimed to be White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, sources familiar with the matter said.
The calls and texts appear to use Wiles’ voice but are believed to be from an imposter who will on occasion ask for money, the sources said.
Wiles is seen as one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers and managed his 2024 presidential campaign, and she has access to many top officials in Republican circles. It is unclear who and how many people have received messages from the imposter.
“The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated,” a White House official said when asked about the matter.
“The FBI takes all threats against the President, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness; safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the President’s mission is a top priority,” FBI Director Kash Patel told ABC News in a statement.
Earlier this month, the House sergeant at arms sent a notice to members and staff about phishing emails and ways to protect themselves from scams, according to multiple sources who received the notice.
The FBI and White House did not indicate who could be behind the impersonation, and it is unclear how the person was able to access Wiles’ phone contacts.
The incident follows Trump’s campaign, led by Wiles, being the target of a phishing campaign by Iran last summer, during the 2024 election campaign season, and Iranians were able to access internal campaign materials.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending megabill could alter aspects of K-12 and higher education in the coming years, according to education advocates on both sides of the aisle.
After a monthslong process on Capitol Hill, the highly anticipated law will significantly reform the student loan process and broaden school choice options for families and the education community at large.
Here’s how the new law, which also brings massive cuts to government benefits such as Medicaid and increases funding for immigration enforcement, potentially changes education for millions of Americans.
Student loans
The megabill pushed through several House Republican policies aimed at reforming higher education — including with student loans.
The new law terminates all current student loan repayment plans for loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2026. They will be replaced with two separate plans: a standard repayment plan and a new income-based repayment plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan, according to the text of the megabill.
The Department of Education released a statement that said these new plans are currently impacted by legal challenges, urging borrowers on the Biden-era Income Driven Repayment plans to consider enrolling in an income-based repayment plan.
With this new process, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, a Republican, said he believes struggling borrowers will receive the assistance needed to repay loans without saddling taxpayers with that burden.
The new law also establishes loan limits for parent borrowers and terminates graduate and professional plus loans — designed to help graduate and professional students pay for school — for their degrees and certificates.
Earlier this year, Education Secretary Linda McMahon applauded the megabill for simplifying the “overly complex” repayment process and reducing borrowing amounts to “help curb rising tuition costs.”
The Student Borrower Protection Center, which focuses on eliminating the burden of student debt, denounced the provisions in the bill. Aissa Canchola Bañez, the center’s policy director, described it as a crushing blow to millions of Americans already struggling to cover college costs.
“This bill is a dangerous attack on students, working families and communities across the country,” she said, adding that it is “shredding the student loan safety net, weakening protections and pushing millions of students and families into the riskier and more expensive private student loan market.”
National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues warned the new policies in Trump’s megabill are leading to a “difficult moment for American families.”
Rodrigues fears a $65,000 lifetime limit on Parent PLUS loans — which provide money to parents for their children to attend college — could eliminate a pathway to “economic mobility.”
“It’s going to mean a lot of hardship for kids and for families across the country,” she said.
School choice
Conservatives are celebrating the law as it continues to deliver on a long-standing pledge from the Trump administration to give power to parents and reduce education bureaucracy in Washington through universal school choice — something McMahon has pushed to see expanded nationwide.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy’s Educational Choice for Children Act tax credit, a provision included within the megabill, provides a charitable donation incentive for individuals and businesses to fund scholarship awards for students to cover expenses related to K-12 public and private education starting in 2027.
Republican Rep. Adrian Smith, who co-sponsored the House legislation, told ABC News it removes the “politics” from school-funding formulas that haven’t served students’ best interests.
“Students deserve the opportunity to succeed in the setting which best meets their needs, and this investment will open new doors for millions of American families,” Smith said.
Tommy Schultz, CEO of the conservative American Federation for Children, noted the change is a monumental step toward every state achieving school choice.
“AFC will work to ensure that governors and state leaders listen to their constituents and bring educational freedom to every state in the nation, and to as many families as possible,” Schultz said in a statement to ABC News. “We will continue to fight to ensure that this tax credit scholarship is well-implemented and expanded as soon as possible.”
Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono is a staunch opponent of the president’s education policies and the Republican tax credit, saying it strips public schools of its resources and enriches wealthy families.
“What [the ECCA] does is it is yet another big tax break for rich people who can afford to contribute these kinds of funds — so mainly the people who will take advantage of this will be kids who are already going to private schools,” Hirono explained.
“Not much of a choice,” she quipped.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also slammed the bill for promoting a “massive and unprecedented transfer of wealth from everyday people to billionaires.”
“It writes a permanent school voucher scheme into the tax code that would redirect billions of dollars each year to private schools — even as our public schools, which educate 90 percent of all students, remain woefully underfunded,” Weingarten said in a statement to ABC News.
Despite the public school debate, Sen. Cassidy and education advocates argue no child should be “trapped” in a failing school.
Dr. Eva Moskowitz is the CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, the highest-performing free public charter school network in New York City, and told ABC News that it’s time to move on from the public education “monopoly.”
“We have a solution right in front of us: high-performing charter schools and a scholarship program for the private school choice,” Moskowitz said. “This is the most concrete, pragmatic, thing we can do today to impact hundreds of thousands of children.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, extended its injunction that temporarily bars the Trump administration from removing Venezuelan immigrants from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act proclamation and remanded the case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to resolve the question of how much time should be afforded for detainees to contest their removals.
The majority said the government did not provide migrants targeted under the wartime authority with enough time or information to contest their cases.
“The detainees’ interests at stake are accordingly particularly weighty. Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster,” the majority wrote in the decision. “But it is not optimal for this Court, far removed from the circumstances on the ground, to determine in the first instance the precise process necessary to satisfy the Constitution in this case.”
The justices did not reach the question of the lawfulness of the removals under the Alien Enemies Act.
“We recognize the significance of the Government’s national security interests as well as the necessity that such interests be pursued in a manner consistent with the Constitution. In light of the foregoing, lower courts should address AEA cases expeditiously,” they wrote.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration asked the court to lift its injunction, arguing that the migrants it intended to deport under the act were dangerous.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — In a copy of “Original Sin, President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” obtained by ABC News, authors and journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson allege that former President Joe Biden hid information about the cancer diagnosis of his late son, Beau Biden, who was an elected official at the time.
Not only do the authors claim that this misled the public about Beau Biden’s mental fitness, they also say this demonstrates “the Bidens’ capacity for denial and the lengths they would go to avoid transparency about health issues.”
Released Tuesday, this new detail comes just days after Joe Biden’s aggressive prostate cancer was announced.
Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis was announced Sunday via statement from his office. According to the statement, he was seen by medical professionals “last week” for “a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” and “on Friday, he was diagnosed.”
“Original Sin” claims that Joe Biden and Beau Biden falsely touted Beau’s “clean bill of health,” intentionally choosing to say “nothing” despite being aware of his glioblastoma diagnosis and how advanced it was.
In the summer of 2013, Beau Biden collapsed during a family vacation and underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor.
“Beau’s tumor was definitely glioblastoma. Stage IV,” Biden later wrote about the postoperative findings, according to the book. The authors say Joe Biden’s other son Hunter Biden called it “a death sentence.”
Beau Biden’s neurologist told the public that doctors had removed a “small lesion” from his brain, but it was in fact a “tumor slightly larger than a golf ball,” Biden later revealed, according to the book.
The book also alleges that Beau remained in office as Delaware’s attorney general, a position he held from 2007 to 2015, despite displaying signs of deterioration such as speech difficulties and “secretly” undergoing treatments around the world where he checked in under an alias.
In a statement released Tuesday, a Biden spokesman said, “There is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover up or conspiracy. Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the President wasn’t otherwise engaged in the important matters of the Presidency,” a Biden spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News reacting to the publication of “Original Sin.”
“In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill,” the statement added.
The authors say Beau Biden’s wife Hallie publicly questioned this apparent cover-up, allegedly telling others that “she didn’t understand why they had to keep his illness a secret.”
ABC News is attempting to reach Hallie Biden for comment.
The book goes on to claim that Beau Biden’s death and the emotional toll it had on the then-vice president demonstrated the “first signs he was deteriorating” in 2015, citing a senior White House official that described Joe Biden’s brain as seeming to “dissolve like someone poured hot water” immediately after Beau’s death.
“Original Sin” has additional allegations against Biden and his mental fitness during his presidency, including details about his physical and mental impairments and alleged efforts to cover those impairments up.
In an appearance on ABC’s “The View” earlier this month, both Biden and former first lady Dr. Jill Biden pushed back against the slate of new books from reporters claiming that Biden was dealing with cognitive decline at the end of his presidency.
“They are wrong,” he said. “There’s nothing to sustain that.”
-ABC News Averi Harper, Oren Oppenheim and Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
