This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

A top conservative watchdog is suing the federal health care bureaucracy alleging they are stonewalling results of a study started under the Obama administration looking into the effects of transgender therapy pharmaceuticals on youth.

Oversight Project president Mike Howell told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday interview that administering puberty blockers and other nascent drugs to teens is akin to ‘modern-day Tuskegee experiments’ and that the National Institutes of Health and the study’s proctor should not be allowed to keep their results secret.

In 2014, NIH awarded a grant to children’s hospitals that led to a study helmed by a Los Angeles pediatrician to discern the long-term effects of puberty blockers on pediatric transgender people, Howell explained, citing his organization’s lawsuit.

In 2024, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., wrote to the Biden-led NIH questioning why ‘principal investigator’ Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy was ‘withholding publication’ of the $9.7 million study’s findings.

‘In light of the NIH grantee’s unwillingness to release the research project’s findings, we ask that you provide documents and information to assist the Committee’s oversight of this matter,’ McClain wrote, citing her role as chair of a House Oversight subcommittee.

One year later, Howell’s group sought the files through a public request in July, and sued this week, claiming officials ignored them. 

Both McClain, in her letter, and Howell, in his interview, raised concerns over Olson-Kennedy’s remarks about critics potentially weaponizing results from the NIH-funded study.

‘NIH is responsible for overseeing its extramural research projects to ensure supported researchers practice transparency, exemplify scientific integrity, and are proper stewards of taxpayer funds,’ McClain wrote to the Biden NIH.

Howell said he wants the NIH, under the Trump administration, to make the results public, citing troubling hints from Olson-Kennedy in a New York Times article that quoted her saying about one-quarter of participants reported some type of depression.

‘In light of the recent spate of transgender ideology-inspired violent extremism and domestic terrorism, Including some of the shootings at schools and churches and most recently, Charlie Kirk, the Oversight Project and I want to know what the government knows about the psychological conditions of this new and coveted population of transgender children who are now growing into adults,’ Howell said.

‘It seems to me, in light of recent disclosures, including the America First Legal v. FDA [suit] that the government was well aware that these types of therapies, surgeries and cultural celebration and praising of this class of people was dangerous and led to increases in suicide rates, depression and other psychological conditions which all too often are manifesting in violent tendencies.’

In 2024, America First Legal – founded by Trump confidant Stephen Miller – sued for the release of any FDA records on off-label uses for puberty blockers and ‘cross-sex hormones.’

Howell said there is public interest in the study’s publication because it may ‘map out’ why or whether the government has been aware of the ‘massive, growing problem’ but declined to publicize for ‘politically-correct reasons.’

While NIH declined comment to Fox News Digital citing ongoing litigation, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been very critical of the types of drugs the Oversight Project is also concerned about.

Kennedy has called puberty blockers for minors ‘castration drugs,’ and suggested young people cannot be considered prescient enough to make such life-changing medical decisions.

‘Minors cannot drive, vote, join the army, get a tattoo, smoke, or drink, because we know that children do not fully understand the consequences of decisions with life-long ramifications,’ he wrote on social media.

‘The more I learn, the more troubled I have become about giving puberty blockers to youth,’ Kennedy said in May 2024.

As secretary, Kennedy urged doctors to reconsider child sex-change operations in a formal letter obtained by the Daily Caller in May.

‘HHS expects you promptly to make the necessary updates to your treatment protocols and training for care for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria to protect them from these harmful interventions,’ it read.

Neal Cornett, a lead attorney in the case, told Fox News Digital he would also like to see any internal NIH reports on the physiological effects of related drugs Lupron and Supprelin.

‘Imagine that you’re 14 years old – you take some kind of puberty blocker – you’re basically stunted, your bones aren’t growing, you have osteoporosis at the age of 15… that’s going to do a psychological number on you,’ Cornett said.

Howell said there is an absolute connection, if allegations bear out, between the Tuskegee Experiments of the mid-20th century on African Americans and studies testing out puberty blockers on 21st century children.

‘When I first read [of the study] – I was reminded of Tuskegee Experiments on African Americans [where the uniformed U.S. Public Health Service] gave them drugs… to test out treatments there; horrific events,’ he said.

Fox News Digital also reached out to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, which was listed as the affiliate medical center for Olson-Kennedy. A number listed for Olson-Kennedy’s California practice was disconnected.

She told the Times in October 2024 she intended then to publish the data but blamed delays on funding cuts — a claim the NIH denied, the paper reported.

President Donald Trump renewed his criticism against former President Joe Biden and his administration over the use of an autopen to sign off on important orders — including pardons — during Biden’s tenure in the White House. 

Trump has railed against Biden’s use of the autopen for months, claiming thousands of pardons Biden signed were void and that the former president did not know what documents he was signing through the automated device. 

‘It was illegally used. He never gave the orders,’ Trump told reporters Thursday during a trip to the U.K. ‘He never told them what to do. And I guess the only one he signed, or one of the few he signed, was the pardon for his son.’

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

A White House official previously told Fox News Digital that Trump uses his hand signature for every legally operational or binding document. Even so, Trump has admitted that he uses an autopen for letters. 

Meanwhile, Biden’s chief of staff issued final approval for multiple high-profile preemptive pardons during Biden’s final days in office, the New York Times reported in July. 

Although Biden reportedly made the decision about the pardons in a meeting, Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients is the one who gave final approval for the use of the autopen — at least in the case of former chief medical advisor to the president, Anthony Fauci, and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, the Times reported. 

Even so, Biden told the Times that he made every clemency decision of his own accord. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s comments come as Zients is slated to appear before the House Oversight Committee Thursday for its probe into Biden’s mental acuity. Part of that investigation is also examining if the former president was fully cognizant of clemency orders and executive actions he signed using the autopen. 

Biden granted a total of 4,245 acts of clemency during his administration, 96% of which were granted during his final months in office between October 2024 and January 2025, according to the Pew Research Center. 

An autopen is a machine that physically holds a pen and follows programming to imitate a person’s signature.

Unlike a stamp or a digitized print of a signature, the autopen has the capability to hold various types of pens, from  a ballpoint to a permanent marker, according to descriptions of autopen machines for sale online. 

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused President Donald Trump of exploiting the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in order to go after critics.

Schumer’s charge came as Senate Democrats teed up legislation called the ‘No Political Enemies Act,’ which would prohibit Trump and his administration from weaponizing government agencies. It comes in the wake of late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s sidelining by ABC over comments he made related to Kirk.

The top Senate Democrat said freedom of speech is ‘one of the great hallmarks of our country’ but that the Trump administration ‘is trying to snuff it out.’

‘Those who break the law, of course, resort to any source of violence ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,’ Schumer said. ‘But using the tragic death of Charlie Kirk as an excuse to supercharge the political witch hunt against critics is abhorrent, obnoxious and as un-American as it gets.’

‘To attack civil society, whether it’s Jimmy Kimmel, civil society organizations or the Trump administration’s perceived political enemies, its crusade is unending,’ he continued. ‘And this is one of the saddest parts of all, because of congressional Republicans’ obeisance to Trump, it’s unchecked because they are scared to stand up to Trump.’

Democrats’ legislation would prevent the administration from using agencies like the Justice Department, FBI and the IRS from going after people for criticizing the government, according to a one-page description of the bill.

It would also hold officials accountable for using their office to go after critics, ensure courts quickly dismiss ‘abusive actions,’ and provide due process for U.S. nonprofits that the government tries to ‘label as criminal or terrorist organizations.’

Their legislative push also comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier this week that the administration would ‘go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.’

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., called her comments ‘bone chilling.’

‘The shooting of Charlie Kirk was a national tragedy,’ he said. ‘It should have been a line in the sand, an opportunity for President Trump to bring this country together to do whatever is necessary to stamp out political violence that’s targeted both Republicans and Democrats, political violence that emanates from both right-wing and left-wing radicalization.’

‘But Trump and his lieutenants are choosing a different path,’ he continued. ‘They are choosing to exploit this tragedy, to weaponize the federal government to destroy Donald Trump’s political opposition.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Justice Department for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s been ‘let down’ by his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

‘The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President Putin,’ Trump said during a joint press conference in London with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer. ‘But he’s let me down. He’s really let me down. Was going to be Russia and Ukraine. But we’ll see how that turns out.’

Months of U.S.-led peace negotiations — including an Alaska summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — have not led to breakthroughs in ending the war in Ukraine. 

‘War is a different thing,’ Trump said. ‘Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought. You thought you’re going to have an easy time or a hard time, and it turns out to be the reverse.’

Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) next week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. Putin will not be in attendance — Russia will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. 

Trump said of Putin: ‘He’s killing many people, and he’s losing more people that he’s, you know, than he’s killing. I mean, frankly, the Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers, but, yeah, he’s let me down. I don’t like to see — it’s death.’

The president then mused that the war ‘doesn’t affect the United States.’

To Starmer, he said, ‘Of course, you are a lot closer to the scene than we are. We have a whole ocean separating us. But I will say this. It’s millions of people have died in that war. Millions of souls. And they’re not American soldiers, mostly soldiers. As you know, the soldiers are being killed at levels nobody’s seen since the Second World War, but they’re being, they’re being killed. And I feel I have an obligation to get it settled for that reason.’

Meanwhile, Ukraine expects $3.5 billion in U.S. weapons to soon funnel in to fund its war effort, Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

‘We will definitely have Patriot and HIMARS missiles,’ he said during a press conference on Wednesday.

‘We have received more than $2 billion from our partners specifically for the PURL program. We will get additional funds in October. I think we will reach about $3.5–3.6 billion,’ the president added. That funding came from Ukraine’s allies in Europe.

The U.S. approved the first new weapons packages for Ukraine this week. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby signed off on two $500 million packages under the PURL program, Reuters first reported. 

‘The Department of War has facilitated this first sale of weapons in line with President Trump’s America First priorities and efforts to bring this brutal war, which was brought on by Joe Biden’s incompetence, to an end,’ a senior administration official told Fox News Digital, confirming the sale. 

The Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, was created to streamline Ukraine’s access to advanced weapons by pooling allied contributions into U.S.-managed procurement. Instead of sending cash directly to Kyiv, partners commit funds that Washington uses to acquire systems from American defense firms.

Germany, Poland, the UK, and other NATO members are believed to be leading contributors, though the exact breakdown hasn’t been made public.

Trump’s decision to rely on NATO allies’ money rather than seek additional congressional appropriations marks a sharp shift in U.S. policy, allowing him to sustain Ukraine’s arsenal while deflecting criticism from lawmakers wary of more taxpayer-funded aid.

In July the Pentagon halted weapons shipments to Ukraine, which had been approved under the Biden administration, citing strains on the U.S.’s own munitions stockpiles. Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a review of U.S. stockpiles after years of depletion for the war in Ukraine, as well as operations against the Houthis in the Middle East and assistance to Israel for its war in Gaza.

The renewed weapons flow also underscores strains on the U.S. defense industrial base. The Pentagon is racing to double monthly artillery shell output, but leaders admit replenishment will take years amid competing demands from Ukraine, Israel, and operations in the Middle East.

 Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George has warned that using multimillion-dollar interceptors against cheap drones is unsustainable, urging industry to innovate toward lower-cost defenses. The imbalance between high-end U.S. systems and Russia’s mass use of inexpensive drones and artillery is now one of the war’s defining strategic challenges.

The Army’s goal is to double the monthly output of 150mm rounds by leveraging advanced automation.

Gen. George said the service branch is also looking at new ways companies can produce munitions ‘that get us back to the cost curve,’ meaning cost-equivalent or cheaper than the incoming weapons they are shooting down. ‘What we don’t want to do is shoot $3 million missiles at $50,000 drones or $10,000 drones.’

Turning Point USA announced Thursday it ‘unanimously elected Erika Kirk as the new CEO and Chair of the Board’ following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

‘May God Bless Erika, the Kirk family, and the entire team at Turning Point USA,’ the organization said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check for updates.