The founder and executive chairman of Govini, a software firm with deep Pentagon ties, has been arrested and charged with soliciting sexual contact with a preteen girl, according to the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office.

Eric Gillespie, 57, of Pittsburgh, allegedly tried to arrange a meeting with a young girl through an online chat platform often used by sex offenders, authorities said. An undercover agent posing as an adult intercepted Gillespie’s messages.

“Our Child Predator Section proactively uncovered this defendant who, under an online pseudonym, was lurking online to access children,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said. “During the investigation, Gillespie alluded to methods he accessed children, and other evidence was found regarding contact with children,” the office said in a statement.

Gillespie was denied bail, with a judge citing flight risk and public safety concerns. He faces four felony counts, including multiple charges of unlawful contact with a minor.

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A company spokesperson told Fox News Digital of the charges: “On November 10, 2025, the company was notified of felony charges against Eric Gillespie. As soon as we learned of these charges, we took immediate action to place Mr. Gillespie on administrative leave. The Company will fully cooperate with law enforcement in connection with their investigation.  We acknowledge the severity of these charges and as a Company will hold all our employees to the highest ethical standards. We stand steadfast in support of all victims of abuse of any kind.”

Govini develops artificial-intelligence software used by the Pentagon and other agencies to analyze large volumes of government and commercial data, including defense budgets, industrial-base capacity, supply chains, and acquisition programs.

The company has landed major federal contracts in recent years, including a five-year, $400 million Pentagon contract in 2019 and a 10-year agreement valued at $919 million announced in April 2025 with the Defense Department and General Services Administration to build a supply-chain risk platform.

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Earlier this month, Govini said it surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and secured a $150 million growth investment, according to a news release by the company.

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“I founded Govini to create an entirely new category of software built to transform how the U.S. government uses AI and data to make decisions,” Gillespie had said in that release.

The firm describes itself as “trusted by every department of the U.S. military” and says its flagship analytics platform supports defense acquisition, supply-chain and modernization work.

WASHINGTON — The House is scheduled to be back in session Wednesday with a vote expected in the evening on a spending package that, if approved and signed by President Trump, will end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The legislation, which the Senate passed Monday night, is expected to narrowly pass the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority. House Democrats are largely anticipated to oppose the deal, which does not include a core demand: an extension to Affordable Care Act healthcare tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he believes the deal is poised to pass by the end of the day.

“We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” Johnson told reporters in Washington. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless.”

House Democrats were scheduled to meet ahead of the floor vote to discuss their vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday night that there is a “strong expectation” that Democrats will be “strongly opposed” to the shutdown deal when it comes to final vote.

If the tax credits lapse, premiums will more than double on average for more than 20 million Americans who use the healthcare marketplace, according to independent analysts at the research firm KFF.

The spending bill, if approved, will fund the government through Jan. 30 and reinstate federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown. It will also guarantee back pay for federal employees who were furloughed or who were working without pay during the budget impasse.

Passage of the bill would mark a crucial moment on the 43rd day of the shutdown, which left thousands of federal workers without pay, millions of Americans uncertain on whether they would receive food assistance and travelers facing delays at airports across the country.

A vote is expected to begin after 4 p.m. EST — after Johnson swears in Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who was elected seven weeks ago. Once sworn in, Grijalva is set to become the final vote needed to force a floor vote on a petition demanding the Trump administration release files connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

The swearing-in ceremony will soon lay the groundwork for a House vote that Trump has long tried to avoid. It would come as the Epstein saga was reignited on Wednesday morning when Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released new emails in which the late sex trafficker said Trump “knew about the girls” that he was victimizing.

The emails are part of a trove of documents from Epstein’s estate released to the committee.

FIRST ON FOX: Federal Election Commission filings show that progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, spent nearly $75,000 on luxury hotels, transportation and security this year in cities across the U.S.

Crockett’s filings show luxury hotel and transportation expenses in Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, New York City, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, among other major cities despite representing Texas’ 30th Congressional District, which includes Dallas.

In total, Crockett’s filings show her campaign spending $25,748.87 since January on high-end hotels and limousine services.

The hotel expenses include $4,175.01 at the Ritz-Carlton and $2,304.79 at The Luxury Collection. Other hotel expenses include $5,326.52 to the West Hollywood Edition in Los Angeles, $1,173.92 to the Times Square Edition in New York City, over $2,000 to the Cosmopolitan and Aria resort in Las Vegas and $2,703.14 to the Edgartown Inn and $3,160.93 at The Coco, both in Martha’s Vineyard.

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Additionally, Crockett’s campaign paid Chicago-based limousine service Transportation 4 U $2,728.00 for travel, as well as $2,310.30 to DCA Car LLC, a premium car and limousine service, and $1,254.00 to Bay Area Limousine.

In its client gallery on Yelp, Transportation 4 U, which says it specializes in providing “top-tier limousine experiences tailored to your needs,” posted a picture of Crockett with the caption: “We were honored to provide transportation services for Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett during her visit to Chicago.” Crockett is pictured smiling and dressed casually in a red sweater.

In that same time frame, Crockett’s campaign also spent nearly $50,000 on security expenses despite repeatedly calling for defunding the police. In 2021, while Crockett was serving in the Texas House of Representatives, she said, “The Defund movement seeks to actually bring about healing and finally invest in our communities to make them safer, addressing the root causes of crime and by allowing the professionals to do their respective jobs. Defund is about finally being smart on crime. Defund is about lightening the load for our offices of all things they didn’t sign up for. Defund is about finally being fiscally responsible when it comes to policing in this state.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett for comment on the expenses but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

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Crockett, one of the most recognizable and outspoken members of the Democratic Party, has said she is “seriously weighing” a possible run for the U.S. Senate against Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Speaking with Politico in October, Crockett said, “I am seriously weighing it to the extent that I’m about to spend a lot of money to get data.”

Crockett said she has already had conversations with a possible campaign leader and that her decision on whether to run will depend on what the data is and who the Republican nominee will be.

Currently, Cornyn, who is running to serve a fifth term, is in a bitter primary battle against Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Houston-area Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Crockett has been embroiled in several controversies this year, perhaps most notably her attacking Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, “Governor Hot Wheels.”

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“Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there – come on now! And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot a– mess, honey,” Crockett said.

Crockett later said her statements were misinterpreted and that she was not mocking Abbott’s disability.

She said in a statement posted on X, “I wasn’t thinking about the governor’s condition—I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable.”

This statement surfaced as Crockett was already facing heavy criticism for other recent statements calling for Elon Musk to be “taken down” and for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to be “knocked over the head, like hard.”

In addition to that comment, Crockett recently came to the defense of Jay Jones, the Democratic Virginia Attorney General-elect who ignited a firestorm after his texts that privately fantasized about murdering a Republican lawmaker surfaced.

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“And I was very excited to see that he was able to pull off the win. Not that I know him – I’ve never met him, I’ve never talked to him – but because it seems like people did not get caught up in the distractions,” Crockett told host Roland Martin.

“Listen, there were still Democrats that were talking about it,” she continued. “And my deal was, say what you got to say, denounce what he did, but in this moment, do you trust this Republican attorney general to stand up when it is the state legislature that decides that they need to fight fire with fire and give us more seats out of Virginia to go to the U.S. House because they’re trying to balance out this power struggle that Trump is on?”