While the next legislative session in the state House hasn’t yet started, Democrats are already gearing up for it by picking the next slate of leaders.

At the same time, there is much hope that the state will expand Medicaid, but several hurdles remain.

Democrats have announced their pick for the next House speaker, state Rep. Carolyn Hugley.

Their pick is not only historic for Hugley, as she would be the first Black woman to preside over the chamber, but it marks a significant shift in the Peach State’s political playing field, as Democrats have officially won a majority of the state House for the first time in 20 years.

Dr. John Tures, chair of the political science program at LaGrange College, told the Daily Signal regarding Hugley, “She’s someone who works well with others regardless of the label. If you had to draw up qualifications for a new House Speaker, she’d pretty much fit the description.”

Hugley has represented Columbus in the state House since 1993, and she will take over the gavel from current House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican who represents Newington and has overseen the chamber since 2023.

The speaker holds a prominent position in the state and has influence over the whole legislative process, including choosing leaders for committees and deciding which bills get voted on.

Rep. Billy Mitchell, who represents Stone Mountain and was elected in 2002, is set to become the House’s second highest position as the Democrats’ choice for speaker pro tempore. Mitchell will follow Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones, a representative of Milton who did not run for reelection.

In addition, the chamber’s Democrats appointed new caucus leaders, such as Rep. Stacey Evans, who represents Atlanta, to be the new majority leader.

Rep. Sam Park, who represents Lawrenceville, will transition from minority whip to majority whip, and Rep. Bryce Berry, who represents Atlanta, will serve in his role as majority chief deputy whip.

Rep. Spencer Frye, an Athens representative, will serve as the Democratic caucus chair, replacing Rep. Tanya Miller, the attorney general-elect, and Rep. Imani Barnes, a Tucker representative, will serve in her role as Democratic caucus vice chair.

Rep. Anissa Jones, who represents Macon, will serve as the caucus secretary, and Rep. Robert Flournoy, who represents Hampton, will serve as treasurer.

The chamber’s Republicans are slated to appoint their leaders Monday. Senate Republicans, however, chose their leaders earlier in the week.

Senate Democrats are expected to appoint their leaders Monday.

What Hurdles Await for Medicaid Expansion?

While chatter has increased over the possibility of Medicaid expansion, a core part of Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms’ campaign, Ryan Loke, former health policy adviser to Gov. Brian Kemp, told a crowd of passionate Georgia health proponents that he is “fully confident that the General Assembly is going to expand Medicaid in the 2027 session,” the Georgia Recorder reported.

He said that he is confident about the expansion, regardless of who controls the state House and Senate.

Tures also commented on his hopes for bipartisan support of Medicaid expansion in the state, saying, “My hope is that Georgia can find a way to expand it to build on all of these positives, and perhaps get some Republicans on board.”

Despite Loke’s confidence in the expansion, he said the dynamics are different under President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” than they would be if it were not “in effect.”

H.R. 1 has roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts in the years to come, and he wanted to make sure the crowd knew that there was still more work to be done.

Jennifer Wagner, director of Medicaid eligibility and enrollment at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, commented on the state of Medicaid expansion for Peach State residents, telling the Georgia Recorder that if nothing changes at the federal level to “simplify eligibility,” Georgians who are eligible will “fall through [the] cracks.”

Her organization released a study using information from 2024, which found that 347,000 Georgians off of health insurance could be eligible under full Medicaid expansion, but the estimate has certain restrictions, excluding “those who would be culled by the work requirements,” as well as those who can’t get through the state’s “rickety, glitch-prone, understaffed Medicaid enrollment system.”

The only hope for Medicaid is to modify the work mandates and federal paperwork reporting requirements, which would require changes in law and “rules from Congress and the Trump administration.”

The question that remains, then, is what Medicaid expansion will look like in Georgia, given the Republican control of the Senate and the Democrat control of the House.

For states that do choose to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, there remains a large incentive: the federal government pays 90% of the associated cost.

However, there’s a downside to Medicaid expansion. Medicaid funding for hospitals and emergency rooms could dwindle if the state chooses to expand Medicaid.

The Georgia Hospital Association has remained neutral on Medicaid expansion, stating that there are advantages and disadvantages.

And according to the Georgia GOP’s playbook following the midterms, part of the strategy moving forward could look like negotiating “any wider coverage on Georgia terms: work requirements and private plans.”

Former CIA Director John Brennan’s son has reportedly been arrested and charged with a felony for the transportation of child pornography. Court filings and federal […]

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Boebert lost her race by a narrow margin

In past weeks, France has been rocked by protests by anarchist leftists who seek to tear the country apart and unassimilated Muslim agitators looking to loot and pillage a country they have no investment in. 

So now the French government is cracking down. 

Oh, not on the rioters (or “students,” as we’ve been told to believe). 

No, they’ve cracked down on those who’ve dared to question the country’s immigration system. And that attempt to criminalize criticism of Islam escalated this week. An author accused of “hate speech,” who has had the audacity to imagine a future his country is oh so close to, but its rulers refuse to admit, is now being dragged into court. 

“Controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq was placed under formal investigation on Tuesday on suspicion of complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred, or violence,” French news agency Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday. 

Here’s the line that got Houellebecq in trouble. 

“Most French people are not demanding that French Muslims assimilate,” he said in a 2022 interview with Front Populaire. “They just want them to stop raping, robbing and destroying things. Or, failing that, to leave our country.” 

One of the groups that drove the investigation is the Union of Mosques of France, which filed a complaint against Houellebecq and Front Populaire in 2023. This group is known to have close relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization founded in Egypt that aims to establish sharia law. Some of its chapters have been officially declared terrorist organizations by governments around the world. 

This makes me think about the work of French anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, who spoke at The Heritage Foundation event, The Forum, on Thursday. 

She argued in a recent Daily Signal piece that the Muslim Brotherhood has engaged in a “century-long project to ‘Islamify’ modern countries through gradual, lawful, multisector action.” 

Hastening that process by prosecuting a critic of Muslim influence in France through “hate speech” laws is a clear indication that they are getting their way. 

This really is a shameful attack on free speech, a sign of how truth and basic God-given rights will be absolutely squashed to sustain the brittle, postnational consensus of borderless, “secular,” multicultural, Western-in-name-only societies. 

What’s happening to Houellebecq is, in effect, the enforcement of a blasphemy law via a speech code created to enforce the dogmas of globalist multiculturalism. 

It’s illiberalism in the name of liberalism. 

No surprise, the other organization that drove the legal attack on Houellebecq is the leftist, “anti-racist” nongovernmental organization Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples. 

And here you can really see why the so-called red-green alliance between leftists and Muslims is becoming such a powerful, intrinsically bound political force. 

On one side you have those on the Left who demand limitless immigration, believe that some “oppressed” groups deserve special rights to make them “equal,” and think that free speech needs to be limited in the name of tolerance. 

On the other, you have Islamic groups that rely on limitless immigration (and the sweet benefits of Western economic prosperity combined with a generous welfare state), believe that their religion should be ascendant wherever it may be and insist that free speech must be limited to suppress any criticism of it. 

Both sides feed off each other. They both hold antipathy to the West, for premodern and postmodern reasons. They rely on the same aggressive laws to enforce their dogmas even if those dogmas seem worlds apart. 

Obviously, there is philosophical tension between these groups, but as a political movement, it is a potent combination likely to grow rather than diminish in strength. 

That they are using the legal system to squash a well-known, if controversial, writer should be a wake-up call. And for some, maybe it will be. 

There are some liberals who are rightly disturbed by what’s happening to Houellebecq. Thomas Chatterton Williams wrote in The Atlantic that the police investigation is a “horrible mistake” and warned that an “assault on free speech is unfolding in France.” He concluded that “France is creating conditions in which only outright extremists will dare say what many privately believe to be true.” 

That’s correct, but I think well-meaning liberals mostly concerned with preserving speech for the sake of speech are missing something here. 

The kind of multicultural societies that much of Europe is now experimenting with simply can’t sustain themselves as such without draconian speech policies. They now include unassimilated groups that on one end demand laws that curtail speech and on the other are quick to engage in violence if they don’t. 

The old model of nations built on equality of rights, the consent of the governed, and patriotic devotion to fellow citizens disintegrates if there is no common culture, set of values, or widely accepted moral foundation supporting it. 

So European regimes are forced to do what Muslim empires of old did to keep the peace back in the times when they tolerated more Christians and Jews. They created harmony by suppressing liberty. They established tiered societies, where one group, the Muslim one, had more rights than others. A legal hierarchy was established, thereby keeping minority religions and cultures in a state of inferiority, but relative safety. 

And this is more or less the direction Houellebecq predicted for France in his book “Submission,” which originally put him on the Left’s naughty list. His novel painted a picture of France under a “moderate” Islamist regime that rose to power through the aid of socialists. 

Maybe that’s still a way off. Hopefully it will never happen. But considering what’s going on in the country now, and the political establishment’s response, does that reality sound far-fetched anymore? 

While France gets rocked by protests, driven by recent Muslim arrivals and leftist radicals, the political establishment decided to come down hard on a writer instead of dealing with the violent hooligans and people looking to incinerate the French cultural and historical heritage. 

Maybe they could escape the tyrannical spiral they are falling into by acknowledging the truth, or by at least accepting that something is going terribly wrong. Instead, I fear that they will keep doubling down until any claim to being a free “republic” will be nothing but a farce. 

With a Democrat set to take office as Texas comptroller in 2027, incoming comptroller Sarah Eckhardt has vowed to ensure Islamic schools and other religious schools are not blocked from receiving taxpayer-funded school vouchers.

During a Nov. 4 press conference, Eckhardt said she would ensure that Islamic schools and other religious schools could receive funding through the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program. 

“I am not a fan of this policy,” Eckhardt said. “However, it is a policy that has passed the Texas Legislature, and it is the law. So, as the comptroller, I will implement it, because it is the law.”

Eckhardt did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

What Are Texas Education Freedom Accounts?

The Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program was established through Senate Bill 2 in 2025. It allows eligible families to use state-funded education accounts to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, and other approved educational services.

The program is administered by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. For the 2026-27 school year, it provides $10,474 annually for students attending participating private schools, up to $30,000 for eligible students with disabilities, and up to $2,000 for homeschooled students.

Not every private school in Texas is eligible for funding through the program. Participating private schools must meet state accreditation requirements, have operated a campus for at least two years, and administer nationally norm-referenced assessments to participating students in grades three through 12.

Islamic schools are not categorically prohibited from the TEFA program. However, some Islamic schools in the state have faced scrutiny over their eligibility.

Islamic Schools Face Pressure Under School Choice Program

Several Islamic schools initially encountered delays in receiving approval from the Texas Comptroller’s Office. Some Islamic schools and Muslim parents subsequently filed lawsuits alleging religious discrimination earlier this year.

State officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott and the comptroller’s office, defended the delays, citing concerns of accreditation and compliance. Those concerns included questions about potential connections between certain Islamic schools and organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which Abbott designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Texas law in November 2025.

In March 2026, a federal judge intervened, ordering the state to allow the schools to apply to the program. Four Islamic schools were subsequently admitted: Excellence Academy in McKinney, Bayaan Academy, Brighter Horizons Academy in Garland, and Houston Quran Academy in Katy.

Eckhardt’s comments indicate that she intends to ensure Islamic schools are not categorically excluded from the program as additional schools seek approval.

However, the prospect of taxpayer-funded vouchers being used at Islamic schools has raised questions about the institutions receiving public funding and the educational materials they use.

Concerns Raised Over Islamic Schools

Amy Mek, founder and editor-in-chief of RAIR Foundation USA, has repeatedly warned residents and elected officials about Islamic schools in Texas. Mek wrote on X that “the school voucher program is being hijacked.”

One of the schools highlighted in the debate is Brighter Horizons Academy in Garland, which describes itself as “a model Islamic educational institution” with a mission to “develop practicing Muslim leaders.” 

According to a March 2026 report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Brighter Horizons Academy has received nearly $1 million from the Islamic Development Bank, a multilateral financial institution in which Iran “has a 7% voting share.”  

The report also alleged that members of the bank have “purportedly engaged in corruption, covered up money laundering operations, assisted Iran and its proxy Hezbollah to avoid U.S. sanctions, and supported Islamist terrorist organizations.”

A separate report by Sam Westrop at the Middle East Forum alleged that Brighter Horizons Academy was established and staffed by individuals with connections to Hamas-linked organizations.

The report identified Rasmi Almallah as the academy’s founder and stated that he previously served on the board of the Holy Land Foundation. Almallah was also listed by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case. 

Questions have also been raised about the curriculum used at the academy. 

The Middle East Forum reported that Brighter Horizons is a subsidiary of the Islamic Services Foundation (ISF), which it described as a leading islamist curriculum publisher that produces and distributes textbooks to private schools across the country.

The foundation’s curriculum includes publications such as “I Love Islam,” “Learning Islam,” and “Living Islam,” several of which teach negative views of those not practicing Islam. 

For instance, “I Love Islam: Level 2” states: “Those who reject (truth), among the People of the Book and among the pagans, will be in the Hellfire, to stay there. They are the worst of creatures.” 

In the foundation’s textbook “Iman: The Heart of Life,” it interprets scripture about non-believers and stresses the importance of jihad. 

“These verses describe the attitude of believers when they spare no efforts for the sake of jihad, striving hard in God’s cause. When Muslims gave up jihad, did not abide by God’s will, started fighting among themselves and were submissive in the face of their enemies, God caused them to suffer greatly by allowing them to be dominated by those who do not fear Him or have any mercy for Islam,” it reads. 

Brighter Horizons Academy did not respond to a request for comment by publication. 

The Texas Comptroller’s Office has not announced application dates for the 2027-28 school year. Private schools currently apply to participate in the program on a rolling basis. 

Eckhardt will be sworn in as Texas comptroller on Jan. 19, 2027, and her term ends in January 2031. 

Editor’s note: This article addresses the alleged possession and distribution of sexually explicit images of children. The son of former CIA Director John Brennan was arrested Friday for alleged possession of child sexual abuse material, otherwise known as child pornography. The 40-year-old Kyle Brennan was arrested at his place of work in Virginia, and the […]

New FBI Records Reveal Crooks’ Venmo Account Suspended After Trump Assassination Attempt
Federal Judge Sets Hearing on Unsealing Ilhan Omar Search Warrant Records
Judicial Watch Probes Election Integrity Across the Nation
Most Secure Border in History, Record-Breaking Removal of Criminal Aliens

New FBI Records Reveal Crooks’ Venmo Account Suspended After Trump Assassination Attempt

We’re pulling more details of the Butler, PA, gunman out of the FBI.

We forced the release of 142 pages of new, heavily-redacted Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The records reveal that Venmo, a mobile payment service, suspended Crooks’ account for “unusual activity” the day after the assassination attempt, the FBI submitted a request for foreign dissemination of information about images found on Crooks’ electronic devices, and PayPal repeatedly addressed him as “Rod Swanson” in emails.

We filed our July 2025 FOIA lawsuit after the FBI failed to respond to a July 2024 request for records concerning Crooks and the assassination attempt (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-02216)). The Justice Department has indicated that the total volume of records in the Crooks investigative file is approximately 75,000 pages.

At their current release rate of approximately 500 pages per month, it will take over 12 years for us to receive the complete file. The FBI is abusing FOIA by hiding, redacting, and slow-walking documents on the Butler assassination attempt on President Trump. The FBI’s handling of this matter is a scandal.

A July 21, 2024, FBI electronic communication regarding a “Gmail Database Review” reveals that Venmo suspended Crooks’ account on July 14, 2024 – the day after the assassination attempt – citing “unusual activity” that might violate its user agreement. In an email to Crooks, Venmo stated that his account would remain suspended until the company heard back from him and requested a copy of his photo identification.

A separate July 22, 2024, FBI electronic communication details a “Gmail Database Review” revealing multiple financial solicitations addressed to Crooks as “Rod Swanson.” A June 2024 email from PayPal stated: “Confirmed – rod swanson! You’ve been invited to apply for the PayPal Cashback Mastercard,” addressing him directly as “rod.” Two similar Mastercard solicitations and one statement notification addressed to “rod swanson” are also included.

A July 22, 2024, FBI electronic communication details a “Foreign Dissemination Request” sent to international intelligence partners noting:

Numerous images of guns and various political and other key figures were found on Crooks’ device. There were multiple images of President Biden (POTUS) and FPOTUS, while other individuals were represented in only one to two images. A review of file paths associated with these images concluded the majority of the images appeared in cache and likely were web images, not photographs or video files.

We are currently working to identify additional details related to these images. If we identify additional content related to individuals known to be citizens of your country, our Service will provide those details via an additional memorandum.

An FBI electronic communication titled “Intel review for Bill of sale found on Crooks’ laptop for DPMS Panther Arms sporting rifle” analyzes a bill of sale recovered from Crooks’ laptop. Crooks purchased:

Blue Force Gear Adjustable sling with extra picatinny rail OD adapter:
Allows you to control weapon movement and position flexibility.
AR Flip up sights:
Normally a scope is utilized as the primary method of aim, but if the scope fails you can utilize the flip up sight.
Accu-shot 3-12×44 adjustable scope:
This is a traditional hunting scope which is lightweight, compact, and adequate magnification range.
Vortex red-dot reticle:
The Vortex red-dot sight unlike some red dots with smaller aiming points has a larger dot to focus on your target.
Eleven 30 round P-mag magazines:
This is a polymer AR magazine produced by MagPul designed to augment/replace the standard stamped steel STANAG magazine. They are available to hold various quantities from 5 to 60 rounds.
1 magazine loader:
A device designed to load magazines at higher speeds and with less effort than loading rounds by hand.

An FBI electronic communication dated July 16, 2024, details a search for Crooks’ passport and foreign-travel information. A task force officer queried DHS systems but was unable to locate passport information or foreign travel for Crooks based on available identifying information.

The FBI heavily redacted an electronic communication concerning its analysis of Crooks’ laptop, withholding the entire substantive portion of the report.

In October 2026, FBI records included photos of the Pittsburgh area taken by Crooks using a drone, cell phone evidence that showed that Crooks received fundraising appeals for Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and an unusual chat thread between Crooks and an unidentified person.

In September 2026, heavily redacted FBI records revealed that Crooks purchased “a chest rig and ceramic plates,” exhibited increasingly unusual behavior, including talking to himself, pacing at night, staying awake for extended periods and exhibiting impulsivity issues.

In June 2026, heavily redacted records from the FBI that indicated that a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officer at the July 2024 presidential rally for Donald Trump in Butler, PA, recovered a “gray remote device” with an antenna from Crooks’ pocket after he was killed.

In May 2026, we received, in response to a Pennsylvania court order, an audio recording of a 911 call placed by the father of Crooks.

In April 2026, our federal FOIA lawsuit forced the release of the first FBI records about the Butler assassination attempt, revealing that law enforcement personnel broadcast radio warnings about an “unknown male acting suspiciously” prior to the shooting.

Also in April 2026, FBI records showed that Crooks was reportedly involved in an altercation with a group of people and making “hateful comments” directed at President Trump at the Butler, PA, rally.

In August 2024, we uncovered documents under a Pennsylvania open record request from the district attorney’s office in Butler County, PA, detailing the extensive preparation of local police for the rally at which former President Trump was shot. The preparation included sniper teams, counter assault teams and a quick response force.

In August 2024, in response to a Pennsylvania open records request, we obtained bodycam footage of the July 13 assassination events from the Butler Township Police Department.

Federal Judge Sets Hearing on Unsealing Ilhan Omar Search Warrant Records

A federal judge has ordered a November 17 hearing on our push to unseal records from the FBI search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home—including the warrant, affidavits, and evidence supporting the search.

Chief Judge James E. Boasberg set a hearing for next week on our and media requests to unseal the search warrant and other records on the October 12 search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) home (In re Application of Fourteen Press Organizations for Access to Sealed Search Warrant Records, No. 1:26-mc-00144 (D.D.C.)).

On November 12, 2026, Boasberg issued the following order, specifically directing the government:

The Court ORDERS that the parties shall appear for a hearing on November 17, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. on Petitioners’ Applications to Unseal. The Government shall be prepared to address why materials beyond the Affidavit itself cannot be unsealed.

We filed a motion on October 15, 2026, asking the court to unseal records related to the October 12 search of Omar’s home, including the warrant, its application, supporting affidavits and attachments, any return and inventory, the docket sheet, and related briefs, motions, orders, opinions, and transcripts. The request includes records concerning the scope of the search and the court’s decision to seal the materials.

We noted its interest in allegations concerning Omar predates the search. On July 23, 2019, we filed an ethics complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics requesting an investigation into allegations of perjury, immigration fraud, marriage fraud, state and federal tax fraud, and federal student loan fraud.

We argue that the public has a right to access the warrant records under both common law and the First Amendment. Its motion states:

[T]he public’s need for access is substantial. The government has searched an elected official’s home and has publicly acknowledged an ongoing criminal investigation, even to the point of commenting on its conduct. Representative Omar has disputed the government’s account and used the search and those comments to solicit campaign contributions. News reports based on unnamed sources have added accounts of the Court’s restrictions and the government’s requests. The public has a legitimate interest in understanding the factual basis for the warrant and the government’s exercise of its investigative authority….

The Justice Department wants to hide from the public basic information about the search of Ilhan Omar’s home. At a minimum, the public should be able to see the search warrant they handed to Ilhan Omar!

We have a record of successfully seeking the release of sealed search-warrant materials in high-profile federal investigations.

In August 2022, we forced the release of a heavily redacted affidavit used to obtain the search warrant for the unprecedented FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago. The release followed a court order granting our request to unseal the records.

In August 2026, a federal court unsealed the key search warrant records behind the Biden FBI’s September 2022 seizure of Mike Lindell’s cell phone (In the Matter of the Search of a Person Located in the District of Minnesota (No. 22-mj-742 (TNL))). The records, unsealed at the request of Judicial Watch and Mike Lindell, show that the Biden FBI used private litigant Dominion Voting Systems’ then-pending $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Mike Lindell and others (a lawsuit that had been settled as to Lindell earlier this year) as well as other information from Dominion as part of its justification for seeking the warrant.

We have also moved to unseal warrant materials targeting Rudy Giuliani, Victoria Toensing, and Michael Caputo.

Judicial Watch Probes Election Integrity Across the Nation

Micah Morrison, our chief investigative reporter, examines in Investigative Bulletin the post-election scene and our activities in support of free and fair elections.

Judicial Watch closely monitored the mid-term elections. It’s a job we’ve been doing for more than thirty years, across Democrat and Republican administrations, as a national leader in investigating government corruption and election integrity. JW President Tom Fitton noted recently that we “keep doing what we’re doing, no matter who wins an election.” That includes probes of major election integrity scandals unfolding in real time in Alaska, Minnesota, and California.

In Alaska, the Senate race between Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola has been engulfed in controversy. In late October, The New York Times revealed that Democratic political operatives and Peltola aides were deeply involved in a scheme to drain votes from the incumbent Republican by placing another Dan Sullivan—Dan J. Sullivan—on the ranked choice ballot.

The Times reported that “not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit [Dan J. Sullivan] to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory…. It also involved the Peltola campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which directs the party’s campaign strategy in Senate races across the country. From Washington to Anchorage, those advisers participated in regular conversations about the effort.”

As of this writing, a victor has not been named in the Alaska Senate race. JW’s Tom Fitton called it “a scandal of epic proportions,” requiring “serious criminal investigations.” Probes have been launched by the Department of Justice, the House Oversight Committee, and the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

In Minnesota, a different kind of scandal is unfolding. On October 12, federal agents executed a search warrant at the Washington home of Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat representing a Minneapolis district. Federal authorities are investigating immigration fraud and have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas , the AP reported. Among the items seized were a cellphone, notebooks, computers, and a passport. Omar dismissed the search as an “attempt to target political enemies.”

The search of Omar’s home is shrouded in secrecy. Why the mystery? In a new court filing, Judicial Watch seeks disclosure of the warrant and related documents, including an inventory of seized assets and supporting affidavits.

Omar has not objected in court to releasing the records and has used news of the search in fundraising appeals. “Ilhan Omar is using this search to raise campaign cash, yet she hasn’t asked the courts to keep the records secret,” said JW’s Fitton. “Why is the government fighting to hide information about her alleged crimes?”

Judicial Watch has been investigating fraud allegations surrounding Omar for years. In 2019, we filed a House Ethics Committee complaint calling for a full investigation into allegations of potential involving perjury, immigration fraud, marriage fraud, state and federal tax fraud, and federal student loan fraud.

In California, Judicial Watch continues its historic efforts to compel the states to clean up dirty voter rolls, as mandated by the National Voter Registration Act. To date, JW has forced the removal of more than six million ineligible names from voter rolls nationwide, an election integrity endeavor unmatched in U.S. history.

In May, JW sued California for failing to maintain accurate voter rolls—a requirement of the NVRA. The law requires the removal of most inactive voter registrations after two general elections. The JW lawsuit charges that California failed to remove an astonishing 873,000 inactive voters from their registration rolls who have been inactive for more than two general elections. Sometimes a lot more than two general elections: tens of thousands of the registrations have been inactive for over ten years. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the American Independent Party of California and Don Wagner, an elected member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

In July, the Justice Department filed notice that it intended to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of Wagner and the Independent Party. Citing data from Judicial Watch’s original complaint, the Justice Department said in its Complaint in Intervention that California “does not comply with the NVRA’s requirement that the state conduct a general program of voter registration list maintenance that makes a reasonable effort to remove persons from the voter rolls who have become ineligible.”

“Judicial Watch’s federal lawsuit confirms California has a dirty voting rolls crisis,” says JW’s Fitton. “Dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections. California and its counties must take immediate steps to clean the over 870,000 dirty names on the voting lists.”

The national numbers on dirty voter rolls are staggering. A sampling from Judicial Watch: California earlier settled a JW lawsuit against Los Angeles County resulting in the removal of more than 1.2 million names from voter rolls. In Oregon, a JW settlement ensured that 800,000 ineligible voter names are slated for review and removal from voter registration lists. Colorado  removed 372,000 ineligible voter names thanks to a Judicial Watch lawsuit and settlement. In Kentucky, state election board officials reported that “roughly 735,000 ineligible voter registrations” have been removed from voter rolls, as part of a 2018 consent decree settling a Judicial Watch lawsuit. The list goes on. For a full accounting, check out JW’s interactive Election Integrity Map.

The midterms are over. At Judicial Watch, the fight for election integrity and against government corruption continues. There’s plenty of work to do.

Most Secure Border in History, Record-Breaking Removal of Criminal Aliens

Our communities and families are much safer under President Trump’s border crackdown, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.

In a remarkable turnaround, the United States has the most secure border ever and in less than two years a multitude of terror threats have been eliminated with the arrest of more than 2,288 known or suspected terrorists (KST) and the removal of thousands more KSTs. Additionally, nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens have been deported during the second Trump administration and another million arrested, according to the latest government figures. The promising stats show that the tide is finally turning on the Biden administration’s catastrophic open border policies that allowed a record-breaking 7.6 million illegal immigrants into the U.S., including hundreds of thousands with serious criminal records and more than 1.7 million from countries that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determined pose a national security threat to the country.

Besides quickly securing the once-porous 1,954-mile border we share with Mexico, the Trump administration has made 12,018 gang-related arrests, including 1,965 members of the famously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 1,553 members of the equally deadly Tren de Aragua (TdA). The State Department has designated both gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) explaining that MS-13 actively recruits, organizes, and spreads violence in several countries and has conducted numerous violent attacks, including assassination and the gang uses public displays of violence to intimidate civilian populations. TdA, which originated in Venezuela and has spread its criminal enterprise throughout the U.S., is a brutal criminal group that conducts kidnappings, extorts businesses, bribes public officials, authorizes its members to attack and kill American law enforcement. The gang also assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure. The State Department took the action last year because terrorist designations expose and isolate entities and individuals, denying them access to the U.S. financial system and the resources they need to conduct attacks.

The broad immigration crackdown indicates that the rule of law is being restored and, despite local sanctuary governments’ refusal to cooperate, communities across the country are much safer. “Less than two years after President Trump returned to office, he has fulfilled his signature promise to secure our border, arrest and deport illegal aliens, and Make America Safe Again,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, adding that more than 3 million migrants have left the U.S. during Trump’s second White House term. “We have had 17 consecutive months with ZERO illegal aliens released into our country,” the DHS secretary revealed. It marks the first time in American history that no illegal immigrants are released at the border during an entire fiscal year, due in part to the end of Biden’s catch-and-release. The Trump administration has also consistently used detention and removal tools eliminated under Biden and sent a clear message that illegal entry into the United States will not be rewarded or tolerated as it was under Biden’s joke of a Border Czar, Kamala Harris.

The numbers show that the tactic has worked, with total apprehensions in fiscal year 2026, which ended September 30, 60% lower (98,708) than the Biden administration’s single highest month alone (249,740). Additionally, nationwide encounters in fiscal year 2026 were the lowest (379,243) in the history of Customs and Border Protection (CPB), the frontline DHS agency with 69,000 employees responsible for safeguarding the nation’s borders. Under Biden the encounters were seven times higher at 2.7 million per year. Drug seizures have also improved tremendously with recent CBP stats showing nearly a million pounds seized in 2026, a 63% increase from the 600,000-pound annual average of the last four years under Biden. DHS wants to stress that the illegal aliens who have been deported are not just hard-working poor people in search of a better life. Many are violent gang members, rapists, kidnappers, murderers, and drug traffickers. They have been classified “Worst of the Worst” and DHS provides the public with their criminal record and mug shots on an extensive database that grows daily.

Tens of thousands of these criminal aliens have been rounded up in federal operations throughout the nation, mostly in cities and counties that offer them sanctuary. In a recent example, more than 1,300 illegal immigrants with serious criminal records were apprehended by federal authorities in two suburbs surrounding the nation’s capital. Among them were murderers, rapists, kidnappers, arsonists, drug traffickers, and members of criminal street gangs such as TdA, MS-13 and 18th Street.

Until next week,

 

The post Butler Assassination Attempt Update appeared first on Judicial Watch.

Pope Leo XIV made an emotional arrival on Friday to Chiclayo, the northern region of Peru where he long served as bishop.

The post Pope Leo XIV Addresses Half a Million People in His Old Hometown Diocese in Peru appeared first on Breitbart.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents have arrested five sex offenders in California as part of a "290 violation sweep," Breitbart News has learned.

The post Exclusive – Feds Arrest 5 Sex Offenders in California ‘Violation Sweep’ appeared first on Breitbart.

The son of former Obama Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan has been arrested on child pornography charges. Kyle Owen Brennan, 40, made an initial appearance in federal court on Friday following his arrest on a charge of transportation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The post Former Obama CIA Chief John Brennan’s Son Arrested on Child Porn Charges appeared first on Breitbart.

‘It’s unacceptable that America’s homeless veterans, disabled, elderly, and victims of domestic violence languish on waitlists’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was a shoo-in for speaker of the House after Democrats claimed the majority for the 120th Congress. While he doesn’t face competition yet, the newly elected progressive candidates may try to tap their pick instead.  

An online petition has accumulated nearly 1.2 million signatures urging House Democrats to pick a new speaker of the House.  

“Democrats deserve a choice. Hold a competitive election for Speaker,” the petition reads, referring to Jeffries as the Democratic Party establishment.  

Started by Nicole Whitted, a left-wing social media creator and Change.org ambassador, it was promoted by movie star and Democratic Socialists of America supporter Mark Ruffalo on Bluesky.  

However, no one has officially stepped forward to challenge Jeffries.

“This is not a foregone conclusion. There is still time for other Democratic members of the House to step forward and seek the nomination for Speaker, someone whose priorities more closely reflect the voters who hope to elect the Democratic majority,” the petition continues.  

The party is set to elect its nominee Wednesday in a closed-door meeting, and the winner will need a simple majority of House Democrats. However, the speaker will not be elected until January, giving another candidate substantial time to build support and run against the party’s nominee on the floor. That vote will require a simple majority of members present and voting.  

“We are calling on every member of the incoming 120th Congress to vote against Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker in January 2027 and choose a different candidate. To Democratic members of The House of Representatives: If you believe you can better represent the priorities of the Democratic voters, now is the time to put your name forward,” the petition concludes.  

One progressive member, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., has gained the support of over 100,000 people to run for the top role, and she seems to be making a case for herself to run as well.  

Another petition, titled “Make Ayanna Pressley the Speaker of the House,” has gathered over 100,000 signatures. The Coalition for Speaker Ayanna Pressley started the petition on Change.org and describes itself as “progressive activists from across the country dedicated to electing” the lawmaker to lead them.  

It is unclear whether the group is officially associated with the congresswoman; however, there is a link to donate to two incoming progressive freshmen in the House, Angela Gonzales-Torres of California and Don Leonard of Ohio.

“We believe that as Speaker of the House, Ayanna Pressley would bring her innovative spirit and unwavering resolve to tackle the pressing challenges facing our nation,” the petition reads.  

“Her ability to foster meaningful conversations and build bridges across the political aisle makes her uniquely qualified for this pivotal role. In a divided Congress, her role as a fair and balanced leader will be crucial in driving bipartisanship legislation that addresses the needs of all Americans.”  

This week, Pressley asked her supporters to sign on and endorse “Ayanna’s Agenda,” what the Democratic majority would fight for if it were up to her. Her list included advancing Medicare for All, national abortion protections, stopping data centers, and abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.  

A real shake-up is still possible, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saw Thursday night when Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced he was challenging him for Senate majority leader.  

“We’re going to continue to talk to every single member of the House Democratic caucus, both current members and incoming members, about what we all can do together for the American people,” Jeffries told reporters Thursday.  

“We’re going to work hard to secure the 218 votes that are necessary. It’s in the hands of the caucus right now. We’ll have a conversation as a caucus next Wednesday when the leadership elections begin,” Jeffries said.