House GOP ignored Capitol Police requests to review public Jan. 6 footage, lawyer says

House Republicans ignored the Capitol Police’s repeated requests to review and approve all Jan. 6 security footage they planned to release publicly, the force’s top lawyer asserted in a sworn affidavit filed Friday.

Only one of the more than 40 riot clips that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson aired earlier this month using access granted by the House GOP got previewed and approved beforehand, according to Capitol Police general counsel Thomas DiBiase. The rest, DiBiase said, “were never shown to me nor anyone else from the Capitol Police.”

In a six-page declaration filed as part of a Jan. 6 criminal case, DiBiase described the timeline by which Republicans obtained access to the 41,000 hours of footage captured by Capitol security cameras on Jan. 6. The filing itself is an uncomfortable moment for the Capitol Police — which, as a result of the case, has been forced to describe private interactions with members and staffers in open court.

The department is typically loath to appear at odds with House leaders in particular, since it relies on the majority party for its budget and are charged with protecting its members.

Last month Republicans started requesting the same footage that the Jan. 6 select committee had access to. Those requests came first from Tim Monahan — who doubles as a top aide to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and as a staff director for the House Administration Committee — and then from Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), the chair of that panel, which has jurisdiction over Capitol security.

Within days, DiBiase indicated, the Capitol Police installed three terminals in a House office building to grant access to the footage. And DiBiase said he also provided four hard drives he had received from the Democratic-led Jan. 6 panel after it completed its work.

“At no time was I nor anyone else from the Capitol Police informed that anyone other than personnel from [the House Administration Committee] would be reviewing the camera footage,” DiBiase indicated.

Later last month, media reports indicated that McCarthy had granted access to the footage to Carlson’s producers. DiBiase said he later learned that “personnel from the Tucker Carlson Show were allowed to view whatever footage they wanted while supervised by staff from [the House Administration Committee] but that no footage had been physically turned over to the show.”

A week later, Monahan requested a list of Capitol Police cameras that were deemed “sensitive” because they include details about evacuation routes or locations such as intelligence committee facilities.

“We worked with the Capitol Police ahead of time to identify any security-sensitive footage and made sure it wasn’t released," said Mark Bednar, a spokesperson for McCarthy. “In subsequent conversations, the USCP General Counsel confirmed that the department concluded there are no security concerns with what was released."

A GOP committee aide, asked about the statements in the affidavit, noted that the Republicans asked the Capitol Police for a list of security sensitive cameras “to ensure anything on the list requested by Tucker was approved by USCP, which we did.”

The aide added that Capitol Police “told us they had no concern with what was released,” but didn’t immediately respond to follow up questions about if that comment came before or after the footage aired on Fox, and if it applied to both the clip Capitol Police was able to review and those that they say they weren’t.

DiBiase emphasized that in “numerous conversations” over “several weeks,” he informed Monahan that the Capitol Police wanted “to review every footage clip, whether it was on the Sensitive List or not, if it was going to be made public.” The Jan. 6 select committee had gone through that process with the department “in all cases,” DiBiase said, as had federal prosecutors pursuing cases against hundreds of Capitol riot defendants.

“Of the numerous clips shown during the Tucker Carlson show on March 6 and 7, 2023, I was shown only one clip before it aired, and that clip was from the Sensitive List,” he continued. “Since that clip was substantially similar to a clip used in the Impeachment Trial and was publicly available, I approved the use of the clip. The other approximately 40 clips, which were not from the Sensitive List, were never shown to me nor anyone else from the Capitol Police.”

DiBiase left some key details about his interactions with the House Administration Committee unanswered. For example, he didn’t indicate whether anyone on the panel had agreed to his requests for a preview of the footage.

Notably, DiBiase indicated that the House managers of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 attack, who used about 15 Capitol security camera clips, did not preview them with the department before using them in the February 2021 proceedings. Those clips included “some from the Sensitive List.” The footnote caught the attention of Republicans who pointed to it on Friday, as an example of when Democrats had provided “zero consultation.”

Bednar also pointed to the impeachment trial footage and said House Republicans had taken more steps to protect security sensitive material than impeachment managers did.

Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said in a statement earlier this month that he has little control over the footage once it’s provided to lawmakers.

Manger himself fiercely criticized Carlson and Fox News’ handling of the footage, saying it minimized the violence and chaos of Jan. 6 and portrayed Capitol Police officers’ actions in a “misleading” and “offensive” light.

DiBiase’s statement came in the case of William Pope, a Jan. 6 defendant who is representing himself and has moved to publicly release a trove of Jan. 6 security footage. Several other Jan. 6 defendants have cited Carlson’s access to the trove of footage in their own pending matters and said they intend to seek access. But, DiBiase noted in the affidavit, while Administration staff had said last week that no footage had been shown to any defendant or defense counsel, the Capitol Police had received additional requests to review the footage.

McCarthy’s decision to release the footage sparked weeks of questions for House Republicans. It's also just the beginning of GOP lawmakers' work to relitigate the attack, with the Administration Committee currently reviewing the previous Jan. 6 select committee’s work and promising to investigate Capitol security decisions leading up to the day. Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are planning a trip to visit the individuals jailed in connection with Jan. 6.

McCarthy has defended his decision to give access to the footage to Carlson, who has falsely portrayed the attack as nonviolent. The speaker and House Administration Committee members have pledged to release the footage more widely.

“I think putting it out all to the American public, you can see the truth, see exactly what transpired that day and everybody can have the exact same” access, McCarthy recently told reporters. “My intention is to release it to everyone.”

Posted in Uncategorized

House GOP quietly preps take two of its border push

House Republicans' ambitious promises to overhaul border security fizzled as soon as they assumed the majority. They’re preparing for a second attempt anyway.

GOP lawmakers have reinitiated their hunt for border and immigration policy changes, hoping to bridge the divide between the conference’s gung-ho conservatives and more cautious centrists. Those competing sides already forced party leaders to torpedo plans for quick passage of legislation in the first weeks of the new Congress, turning a potential political advantage against Democrats into an early lesson about the pitfalls of their own slim majority.

They’ve kept the latest efforts out of the spotlight. Even so, senior members — including Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairs of the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, respectively — are quietly working on a slate of border-related bills, according to four GOP lawmakers and aides, that could be ready to begin moving as soon as the end of the month.

Republicans have pitched ideas like reviving the border wall and cracking down on asylum seekers, policies that stand no chance in the Senate but would let them claim a messaging victory — if they can manage to push them through the House.

Underscoring how quickly one of Republicans’ biggest election talking points turned into a sore spot for old tensions, even those at the center of the intra-party debate aren’t willing to publicly bet against another derailment ... at least, not yet.

“I can’t read minds. I can’t tell fortunes,” Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), who chairs Judiciary’s immigration subpanel, said in a brief interview about the chances House Republicans pass a bill if they can get it out of committee and to the floor.

The GOP’s struggle to unite on border and immigration bills isn’t new — it’s approaching a congressional cliché at this point, as both parties continuously struggle to come to any sort of agreement on comprehensive changes. But the lack of agreement sparked a bitter feud between two Texas members particularly and prompted questions from reporters over Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership.

And it could easily cut against a perennial GOP talking point that Democrats are weak on border security, which the party is sure to reuse in 2024.

Publicly, Republicans have tried to put that message at the heart of their still-nascent majority. They've taken a series of trips to the U.S.-Mexico border to highlight its manifold security challenges, lambasting the Biden administration as their Democratic colleagues boycott some of their field hearings.

The strategy has scored some wins. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz generated headlines Wednesday when asked by Green if DHS had operational control over the entire southern border, he responded: “No.”

Green followed up with a brief clip of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas telling House lawmakers that DHS did have operational control. Ortiz declined to say if he believed the secretary was lying — a charge conservatives have made as they’ve called for Mayorkas' impeachment.

A DHS official, after Wednesday’s hearing, pointed to Mayorkas’ comments during a separate Senate hearing last year. He said then that based on the statutory definition of “operational control,” which Green showed during his hearing, “this country has never had operational control.” (Democrats, and even some Republicans, have defended Mayorkas arguing that the impeachment calls chalk up to policy disagreements.)

But as Republicans publicly keep their rhetorical fire aimed at the Biden administration, they still want to pursue legislative overhauls. A leadership aide, granted anonymity to describe the private discussions, told POLITICO that there are “ongoing talks with members … and leadership about what a border package would look like.”

And they appear to have learned a lesson from their first misstep when their attempts to quickly vote on a border bill in the first weeks of the term imploded. Instead of trying to go straight to the floor, Republicans are expected to first take their next slate of border-related bills through two committees — the Homeland Security and Judiciary panels.

Neither committee has formally scheduled votes as the negotiations continue behind the scenes. But Green is expected to roll out a border bill within weeks, aiming to hold a panel vote in April. Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said that his goal is to start moving legislation through Judiciary by the end of March — though some aides are privately betting that it will slip into April given Congress' typical pace.

“We’ve got a number of bills we’re gonna look at,” Jordan said in a brief interview. “We’re just trying to be ready.”

Jordan pointed to bills by GOP Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Tom Tiffany (Wis.) and Chip Roy (Texas) as options for a border security package that his committee is expected to soon consider. Roy’s bill, which critics even in his own party fear would bar asylum claims as currently known, fueled his party’s legislative heartburn earlier this year by sparking pushback from more centrist conference colleagues. That included Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who is now openly feuding with Roy over border and immigration policies.

Roy rejected his critics’ asylum interpretation but signaled he’s willing to give leadership space, at least for now. He's not currently asking them to move a border package to the floor, instead saying "the plan" was to take it through the Judiciary Committee. (The Homeland Security panel, where it was also sent, isn’t expected to vote on it.)

But even if the bill clears Jordan's panel, it's no guarantee it can withstand scrutiny of the wider conference. Even Republican members admit the committee is more conservatively slanted than the whole of the GOP House, and leadership can only afford to lose a few members in a floor vote if all Democrats oppose any legislation.

If committees are able to advance legislation, leadership will have to decide whether to move the bills to the floor separately or as one package. Some members have floated merging whatever comes out of the Judiciary and the Homeland Security panels into one bill, a risky move that could test Washington’s favorite deal-solving tactic of trying to give everyone buy-in by making a package too big to fail.

But the math, GOP aides privately acknowledge, could be tricky. More border security, at a 30,000-foot rhetorical level, generally unites Republicans — until you drill down into the details. Making hardline changes to asylum policies or Temporary Protected Status (TPS) could peel off votes that Republicans can’t afford to lose.

Meanwhile, Roy drew his own red line, warning he won’t support just throwing money at DHS: “We’re going to change the policies or we’re not going to move anything through here.”

Another GOP aide described the effort to unite the conference on border policy as trying to collect “frogs in a bucket.” In further evidence of the challenge, no decisions have been made about when bills would come to the floor, or if it would be one package or several separate votes, according to a leadership aide.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus as well as the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, predicted both panels will vote on border legislation within weeks, saying that he didn’t believe there was “friction” within the conference — at least when it came to timing.

But Bishop added that he would want leadership to put a bill on the floor, even if it might fail.

“I’m indifferent as to whether it will pass or not,” Bishop said. “I think we need to put the right bills on the floor.”

Posted in Uncategorized

Cuomo accuser files lawsuit against New York state, alleging responsibility for sexual harassment

A former aide who accused former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment in a federal lawsuit has filed another lawsuit against the Empire State.

Charlotte Bennett, a former New York state employee and the second woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, filed the complaint in a state court on Wednesday, alleging the state government is accountable for Cuomo's sexual harassment and for the actions of other aides who did not take action on the matter once it was reported.

While Cuomo and the aides are not listed as defendants in the suit, Bennett targets the state with claims of sexual harassment and retaliation.

Last September, Bennett filed a lawsuit against Cuomo and members of his executive staff, including former chief of staff Jill DesRosiers; former secretary Melissa DeRosa; and special counsel Judith Mogul, saying she was retaliated against after complaining about Cuomo's alleged misconduct.

CUOMO ACCUSER CHARLOTTE BENNETT CALLS FOR CNN TO FIRE CHRIS CUOMO: ANYTHING LESS LACKS 'MORALS AND A BACKBONE'

In the September suit, Bennett said Cuomo "subjected her to sexualized comments about her appearance" and "assigned her humiliating and demeaning tasks." She also said Cuomo "subjected her to invasive and unwanted questions about her personal life, romantic and sexual relationships, and history as a survivor of sexual assault."

The former aide also alleged in the lawsuit that Cuomo said he was "lonely" in a comment to her and wanted a girlfriend who lived in Albany, allegedly adding that he would be willing to date someone over the age of 21. Bennett was 25 at the time of the alleged remark.

Bennett also alleges Cuomo made "sexual advances" toward her, and cited a June 25, 2020, incident. She said in the lawsuit that while Cuomo was discussing a proposal on police reform, he said that the way Bennett's mask moved in and out when she breathes reminded him of the monsters in the movie "Predator."

EX-AIDE TO ANDREW CUOMO SUES, ALLEGES FORMER GOV AND TOP AIDES CREATED 'SEXUALLY HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT'

Cuomo has denied the allegations, with a spokesperson for the former governor, Rita Glavin, telling Fox News Digital last year that Cuomo has always said that he "didn't harass anyone."

"The Governor has always said he didn’t harass anyone and with each day that goes by more and more information is uncovered showing how evidence favorable to the Governor was suppressed and crucial facts ignored or omitted that undermined witness credibility. What else will come out during the discovery process? We’ll see them in court," Glavin said at the time.

Bennett alleged in the September 2022 lawsuit that DesRosiers, Mogul and DeRosa all "aided and abetted" the sexual harassment, and said that Cuomo subjected her to a "sexually hostile work environment."

When Bennett reported Cuomo's alleged sexual harassment to DesRosiers, the lawsuit alleges that she was transferred to an "inferior position" on the Executive Chamber's health policy team.

The New York attorney general's office did not immediately respond to Fox News when asked about Bennett's lawsuit against the state.

New York AG Letitia James' office conducted a months-long investigation into Cuomo, concluding with an August 2021 report that said he sexually harassed at least 11 women from 2013 to 2020. Cuomo stepped down from office shortly after the report was made public to avoid what many saw as his likely impeachment.

Cuomo filed an ethics complaint against James last year, alleging she violated conduct rules and had an "intolerable personal and political conflict of interest" when she selected two investigators as part of the probe.

Fox News' Adam Sabes and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this article.

GOP lawmakers cringe over Trump’s effort to destroy DeSantis 

Senate Republicans are wincing over former President Trump's early barrage of attacks against his chief rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), fearing they’re seeing a preview of a brutal primary to come that could leave both candidates weakened heading into the general election.  

GOP lawmakers acknowledge DeSantis needs to show he can take a punch and aren’t shocked Trump would take hard shots at a rival as the campaign heats up.

But some are surprised the former president is unloading such a heavy barrage before DeSantis is even in the race, and they worry that getting into a yearlong mudslinging battle with Trump isn't good look for the party heading into 2024.   

“I winced in 2016 and I’m wincing now,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) when asked about Trump’s hardball tactics. “That’s just because that’s not my style. 

“I don’t think you’ll ever take the New York style out of Donald Trump. It’s too much to ask, he’s a fully-baked cake,” she said.  

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who won reelection in 2022 despite casting one of seven Republican votes to convict Trump of an impeachment charge in February 2021, signaled she’s not happy about the vitriol Trump is already unleashing in the primary.  

“Why anyone feels it’s necessary as part of a campaign to be nasty and personal is beyond me. It doesn’t have to be. Talk about the issues,” she said.  

Trump has already settled on a nickname for the Florida governor: Ron DeSanctimonious.  

Some GOP lawmakers worry that Trump attacking DeSantis before the Florida governor has even officially entered the race will hurt the party heading into 2024. (Associated Press)

Last month he flagged a photo on his social media platform, Truth Social, that allegedly showed DeSantis posing with three young women while drinking an alcoholic beverage when he taught at boarding school 20 years ago.  

Trump claims that DeSantis cried in front of him while begging for his endorsement in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial primary, when he trailed his rival Adam Putman by double digits.

He said this week that he “probably” regrets endorsing DeSantis in the race.  

“He was dead as a dog; he was a dead politician. He would have been working, perhaps, for a law firm, or doing something else,” Trump told reporters who traveled with him to Iowa.  

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said on Wednesday that he wished Trump would focus on drawing contrasts with Democrats on the issues instead of tearing down fellow Republicans. 

“That’s his style. If you’re going to be in the arena, you should expect that,” he said of Trump’s personal attacks on DeSantis.  

“Yes, I would like to keep it focused on the issues. I think there’s plenty to talk about, lots of contrasts you can draw with Democrats. I’d rather [they] keep their fire focused on them instead of each other,” he said.  

DeSantis has tried to focus on fighting what he calls “woke activism” in Florida and getting his agenda through the state legislature, but Trump is already aiming the heavy artillery at the governor.  

A super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., on Wednesday filed a complaint against DeSantis with the Florida Commission on Ethics, accusing the governor and his allies of running a “shadow presidential campaign.”  

Trump’s campaign this month starting buying Facebook ads promoting a picture of DeSantis sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office captioned: “An Apprentice Leaning from the Master” and “Re-elect President Trump in 2024.”  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)

DeSantis has put an emphasis in recent months on fighting "woke activism," despite the attention that Trump's attacks on him have drawn. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Speaking at an event in Davenport, Iowa, Monday, Trump accused DeSantis of wanting to “decimate” Social Security and compared him to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (R), who voted twice to convict the former president on impeachment charges.  

He also accused DeSantis of being a Republican in name only and connected him to former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a Republican leader who for many Trump conservatives embodied the GOP establishment’s leeriness of Trump when he entered the White House in 2017.  

“You have to remember, Ron was a disciple of Paul Ryan, who is a RINO loser currently destroying FX, and would constantly vote against entitlements,” Trump said in Iowa. “And to be honest with you, Ron reminds me a lot of Mitt Romney.”  

Some Republicans worry relentless negativity on the campaign trail could wind up turning off swing voters, especially suburban women and college-educated voters. 

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) tacitly blamed Trump’s influence on the Republican Party’s brand for the disappointing performance of GOP Senate candidates in the 2022 midterm.  

“Here’s the problem, we underperformed among voters who did not like President Biden’s performance, among independents and among moderate Republicans, who looked at us and concluded [there was] too much chaos, too much negativity. And we turned off a lot of these centrist voters,” he told reporters in November.   

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a counselor to the Senate GOP leadership team, said negative politics tend to backfire in North Carolina, a swing state that Trump carried in 2016 and 2020.  

He said he “never used it” and “never found it productive” to wield the politics of personal destruction to win a race.  

Trump appears to want to create a divide between DeSantis and the working-class and rural voters who largely make up his base. (Getty)

“I think it turns off a lot of people that are part of gettable votes for the Republican nominee,” he said.  

He emphasized he wouldn’t presume to give Trump political advice, but he cautioned that “I don’t think in a purple state like North Carolina it’s the best posture, the best message for suburban voters — the voters that we saw move the other way or not vote in the last election cycle.” 

Trump’s political strategy appears to be to drive a wedge between DeSantis and working-class and rural conservatives who don’t have college degrees and make up the core of Trump’s base.  

Some Senate Republicans privately speculate DeSantis will not be able to defeat Trump in next year’s primary unless he can make bigger inroads with rural, evangelical and working-class white voters without college degrees. Recent polls show Trump leading by large margins among this swath of the GOP primary electorate.  

GOP lawmakers say they expected a bruising race but some of them are marveling over how early the carpet bombing has started. 

“Whenever you’re going to have a hard-fought primary as opposed to something that has consensus, there’s going to be injury from the warfare,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “It looks like it’s getting started very early.” 

GOP bill would force Mayorkas to fly commercial until he comes up with a border plan

A handful of House Republicans are looking to ban Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and his staff from flying on federal executive aircraft or private jets until he presents a plan to Congress for securing the southwestern U.S. border.

The "Mayorkas Must Fly Coach Until We Secure the Border Act" would require Mayorkas to fly on commercial airlines, and reflects the growing frustration with the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis. A record 2.3 million migrant encounters were logged in fiscal year 2022, up from 1.7 million the year before.

A record-high 251,000 border encounters were seen in December, and while that number fell to about 150,000 in January, Republicans continue to argue that failing to control the border is putting migrant children at risk and allowing fentanyl and other dangerous drugs to enter the U.S. unchecked, along with millions of illegal immigrants.

OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE PROBES ‘NO-BID’ DHS CONTRACT TO LAW FIRM TO HANDLE MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT EFFORTS

"This bill simply recognizes what is already obvious to South Texans and millions of Americans: Secretary Mayorkas’ failure to secure the southern border has hurt the American people and resulted in a humanitarian crisis in communities like mine," said Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, the lead sponsor of the bill. "If he refuses to fulfill the most basic functions of his office, he should be stripped of the private flights he currently enjoys, courtesy of American taxpayers, until he does his job."

The legislation is a relatively minor punishment for Mayorkas compared to two other bills proposed by Republicans that would impeach him.

DHS TAPPED LEFT-LEANING FIRM FOR POTENTIAL MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT EFFORTS OVER SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS

One of those bills, from Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, says Mayorkas has violated his constitutional oath by failing to maintain operational control over the border, as more than 5.5 million illegal immigrants have crossed into the U.S. under his watch. That resolution, which has 41 cosponsors, says Mayorkas terminated contracts for the remaining construction of the border wall started by President Trump and accuses him of lying to Congress by testifying last year that the U.S. government has operational control of the border.

A second impeachment resolution, from Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., makes similar arguments and notes that Mayorkas has violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by releasing illegal immigrants into the U.S. instead of removing them. "The Secretary of Homeland Security does not have the option of simply releasing those aliens into the interior of the United States," reads that resolution, which has 31 GOP cosponsors.

MAYORKAS MAINTAINS ‘BORDER IS SECURE’ DESPITE RECORD CROSSINGS; FBI SEES ‘SIGNIFICANT CRIMINAL THREATS’

Biggs is a cosponsor of De La Cruz’s bill banning Mayorkas from private jets, along with Reps. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga.

Despite widespread frustration with the Biden administration’s border policies, House Republicans have yet to schedule a vote on any bill aimed at pressuring Mayorkas into doing more to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S.

Former GOP Rep. Steve Buyer convicted of insider trading

A former Indiana congressman and Persian Gulf War veteran was convicted Friday of insider trading charges after a two-week jury trial.

The verdict against Steve Buyer, a Republican lawyer who served in Congress from 1993 to 2011, was returned after a jury heard evidence about stock purchases he made after he became a consultant and lobbyist.

Buyer once chaired the House Veterans’ Affairs committee and served for a time as a House prosecutor during former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial.

GOP REP. STEVE BUYER TO RETIRE AMID ETHICS PROBE

The jury returned guilty verdicts on four securities fraud charges. Judge Richard M. Berman set sentencing for July 11.

Prosecutors said at trial that Buyer took information from clients and used it to make illegal stock trades.

His lawyers, though, argued that he was a stock market buff who did research that led to legal profitable trades. They said it was a coincidence that his clients purchased two companies that he had invested in.

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT TRIAL: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGERS?

Authorities said Buyer made over $320,000 illegally for himself, relatives and a woman with whom he’d had an affair.

Buyer, 64, was an Army reservist with a solo law practice in Monticello, Indiana, when he was called for active duty during the 1990-91 Gulf War. He served as a legal adviser in a prisoner of war camp.

On returning home, he ran for Congress and unseated three-term Democrat Jim Jontz in 1992.

While in Washington, Buyer helped draw attention to Gulf War-related illnesses, and he worked on other issues relating to the military, veterans, prescription drugs and tobacco.

Oversight Dem linked to consultants managing group funneling millions into torpedoing Biden investigations

A Democratic congressman tasked with pushing back against Republican investigations into President Biden, his administration, and the president's son, Hunter Biden, has links to a major consultancy that manages a fund funneling millions to a group attempting to torpedo those very investigations, Fox News Digital has discovered.

Through his family foundation, Rep. Daniel Goldman, D.-N.Y, a member of the House Oversight Committee, has ties to Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that overlooks the largest dark money network in the country. Arabella Advisors manages the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has bankrolled the Congressional Integrity Project, a group of liberal operatives working behind the scenes with Democrats in attempts to smother the Biden investigations by Goldman's GOP colleagues on the Oversight Committee.

Goldman, a wealthy heir to the Levi Strauss jean company fortune, acted as the lead Democratic counsel for President Trump's first impeachment, making him a valuable asset for Democrats on the powerful Oversight Committee, where he'll serve as a main counterpunch to Republican investigators.

"Representative Goldman's deep-seated financial ties to a dark money network that is attempting to influence the Oversight Committee are extremely problematic," Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, told Fox News Digital. "How can Goldman be trusted to execute his duties ethically when he seems so fraught with conflicts himself?"

DEMOCRATIC REP. DAN GOLDMAN SAYS TRUMP, BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT SCANDALS ARE 'APPLES AND ORANGES'

Goldman's ties to Arabella Advisors lie with his family foundation, the Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation, which works to "promote equality" and reduce "barriers to opportunity across generations for our nation's most disadvantaged." According to tax forms, Goldman held several roles at the foundation, which he typically operated alongside a few other family members. In 2012, he became its secretary; in 2018, he also took over its treasurer responsibilities. 

The same year he became its treasurer, Goldman's family foundation moved its books into the care of Arabella Advisors. But even before the influential firm took over its books, the foundation had paid Arabella Advisors hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees dating back to 2013, its tax forms show. The foundation has also doled out more than $1.2 million to the New Venture Fund, an Arabella Advisors-managed dark money nonprofit incubator, for endeavors.

Goldman's 2022 financial disclosure shows that he had shifted his position to the sole family foundation board member reported on previous years' tax forms.

Arabella Advisors, meanwhile, manages the Sixteen Thirty Fund, another dark money nonprofit incubator that pushes hundreds of millions of dollars into left-wing causes and initiatives each year. In 2020 and 2021, the Sixteen Thirty Fund funneled $1.5 million into the Congressional Integrity Project, the Washington Examiner first reported, which was nearly all of the Congressional Integrity Project's cash during that time. 

The Sixteen Thirty Fund told the publication that they're "proud to support efforts to strengthen integrity and transparency in government" and that their grants to the Congressional Integrity Project "funded important research to ensure effective, ethical leadership in Washington."

ARABELLA ADVISORS: FIRM OVERLOOKING MOST POWERFUL LEFT-WING DARK MONEY NETWORK IN AMERICA EXPANDS OPERATIONS

Despite receiving the cash, the Congressional Integrity Project, launched in 2020, had gone dormant for some time. It resurfaced late last year following the midterm elections to begin preparing to push back against the Biden investigations, primarily by setting its sights on the Republicans conducting them.

Politico reported last November that the group remobilized by launching a multi-million dollar hub to counter Republican investigative efforts, including rapid response teams, researchers, pollsters, and a media campaign to put Republicans "squarely on the defense," Kyle Herrig, a Congressional Integrity Project founder, told the publication. 

Herrig said his group would act as the party's "leading war room" to dent Republican investigators. A person familiar with its plans said they had briefed Democratic leadership on the group's operations last year, and they've since reportedly held calls with top party lawmakers.

House Oversight Republicans will zero in on various issues, ranging from the border crisis to the Biden family's domestic and international business dealings.

Goldman's office did not respond to a Fox News Digital inquiry on his ties to Arabella Advisors and if the Congressional Integrity Project had ever briefed him or anyone on his staff. His family foundation and the Congressional Integrity Project also did not respond to requests for comment.

LIBERAL DARK MONEY GROUP FORMS TO PUSH BACK AGAINST ANTI-CRT EFFORTS IN SCHOOLS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Arabella Advisors overlooks America's largest liberal dark money network and recently expanded its operations by acquiring the New York-based Kiwi Partners, which provides nonprofit accounting and consulting services.

The expansion happened as the nexus continued its operations as the pinnacle dark money network, further showing how Democrats have exploited anonymous donations while publicly railing against their political influence.

The five Arabella Advisors-managed funds - the Sixteen Thirty, New Venture, Hopewell, Windward, and North funds - experience massive cash flows that include billions of dollars raised and poured into progressive causes and initiatives across the country. None of the funds disclose their contributors, but some of the most prominent Democratic donors have passed cash to them, their own tax forms have shown. 

"As we've stated repeatedly, Arabella Advisors is a business dedicated to making philanthropic work more efficient, effective, and equitable," an Arabella spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital. "Our nonprofit clients hire us to provide HR, legal, payroll and other administrative services—and, like all service providers, we work for our clients, not the other way around. They make their own decisions on strategy, fundraising, and programmatic goals."

Groups tied to the network also work behind the scenes on Biden initiatives. For example, Governing for Impact, a group fiscally sponsored by the New Venture Fund and bankrolled by a George Soros nonprofit, has worked with Biden's administration to shape policy, Fox News Digital previously reported

Arabella Advisors did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment on this story.

McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions for GOP’s future

Senate Republicans found themselves shaken and disoriented Thursday after finding out their leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was in the hospital after tripping at a private event, raising questions about his health and future leadership of the GOP conference.  

McConnell, who in January became the longest serving party leader in Senate history, has led the Senate GOP conference since 2005 and has helped guide his colleagues through some of the biggest moments in recent history — the 2008 financial collapse, the near default of the U.S. government in 2011, the fiscal cliff of 2012, the two impeachment trials of former President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

McConnell fell after attending a private dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington and was taken to the hospital by an ambulance and is being treated for a concussion. 

The 81-year-old Kentucky senator’s sudden absence came only a day after he helped Republicans achieve a big political victory by stampeding Democrats into voting to block a District of Columbia crime bill. And it left some GOP senators feeling unsettled and worried about the future.

“I am a huge fan of Mitch McConnell. I think he has the ability to lead a very diverse group of individuals in a way that is masterful,” said one GOP senator who requested anonymity to discuss the impact of McConnell’s injury on the Senate GOP conference.  

“I think, who would be our next leader and what kind of leader would that person be?” the senator added. “Yeah, I do worry about that.”  

“He’s always thinking ahead in terms of initiatives. He’s thinking about how the players on his team can fit. He’s got a knack for that that I don’t think you find in many others,” the lawmaker said.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), former Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (Texas) and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (Wyo.) are viewed as McConnell’s three most likely successors. 

But there hasn’t been any serious discussion of a future Senate GOP leadership race among Republican senators themselves because McConnell has a secure grip on the job and hasn’t dropped any hint about planning to retire.

He easily defeated former National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) by a lopsided vote of 37 to 10 when Scott tried to capitalize on Republican disappointment over the 2022 midterm election by challenging McConnell for the top job.  

Scott, who has feuded with McConnell over party strategy since that race, tweeted on Thursday that he and his wife are keeping the leader and his family “in our prayers” and wished him “a speedy recovery.”

Senators were in the dark

The news that broke Wednesday night that McConnell had been rushed to the hospital after tripping and falling at a dinner event left Republican senators scrambling the next morning for more information about the severity of his injuries.

Speculation veered in all different directions, and the lack of details from McConnell’s office had lawmakers wondering about how bad the situation was.

McConnell’s top deputies, Thune and Cornyn, didn’t get a chance to talk to their leader before being pressed for details by reporters in the Capitol’s hallways.  

Thune, looking somber Thursday morning, only said: “Don’t know a lot yet.”  

Thune rushed straight to the floor before taking any other questions to be sure he first addressed his Senate colleagues, telling them that his “thoughts and prayers are with Leader McConnell” as well as “with his family” and “with his team.”  

Cornyn was also in the dark.

“I understand that he’s resting up, but I don’t have any details,” he said.  

McConnell’s office disclosed at lunchtime Thursday that he was being treated for a concussion and would remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment.

What exactly happened

As the day went on, a few other details leaked out about the accident.  

McConnell was at the Waldorf earlier in the evening to attend a reception for the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC that he is affiliated with and that played a major role in the last election by spending $290 million.

The reception was a thank-you event for the super PAC’s supporters, and several GOP senators attended. 

“I think it was more of a thank you to the people that had helped with the fund in the last election cycle,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “It was a pretty good showing of Republican colleagues. I don’t know how many showed up, but it seemed like there was a lot of us.”  

McConnell later attended a small, private dinner that a person familiar described as “adjacent” to the reception. He tripped and fell after that dinner.

McConnell's significant impact

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic said McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions about the future leadership of the Senate GOP conference but emphasized, “It’s not time to be talking about [it].” 

“My thoughts and prayers are with Elaine and Mitch, and I hope it’s not too serious,” the senator said, referring to McConnell’s wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. 

“I haven’t found anything good about getting old,” the senator quipped.  

McConnell has been such a major political force in Republican politics for so long that his GOP colleagues have come to rely on his ability to pump huge sums of money into Senate battleground states and to insulate them from the turbulence in conservative politics that has roiled the House GOP conference.  

He leadership is especially valued by mainstream and moderate Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) — one of McConnell’s closest friends in the Senate — because he gives them space to work with Democratic colleagues and practice the style of Republican politics they see as best suited to their home states. 

Colleagues also value McConnell’s ability to get their party out of tough political situations.  

One example came in the fall of 2021, when he rounded up his leadership team and other allies to provide the 11 GOP votes needed to pave the way for Democrats to pass legislation to raise the debt limit.  

McConnell took enormous heat from Trump and other critics for the vote, but it took the danger of a federal default off the table.  

And McConnell has historically shown a willingness to inject himself in Senate Republican primary politics to pave the way for candidates he views as the most electable in a general election — an approach he adopted after Republicans fumbled away their chances to win seats in Delaware, Nevada, Missouri and Indiana in the 2010 and 2012 elections.  

Even senators who voted to oust him from his leadership job in November admit their respect and admiration for his toughness in battle.  

“He’s a tough old crow. My money’s on him,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 

House Republicans pass bill to ban federal officials from pressuring tech platforms on content

House Republicans passed a bill on Thursday that seeks to ban federal officials from promoting censorship, a measure Republicans brought to the floor in response to what they say are efforts by the Biden administration to persuade social media companies to suppress certain information.

The measure, titled the Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, passed in a party-line 219-206 vote.

The legislation specifically calls for prohibiting “federal employees from advocating for censorship of viewpoints in their official capacity,” which includes recommending that a third party should “take any action to censor speech.”

According to Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the lead sponsor of the measure, the bill would expand limitations under the Hatch Act to prohibit federal employees from encouraging censorship on private sector internet platforms.

Republicans accuse Democrats of pressuring social media companies to suppress content — including about Hunter Biden and the origins of COVID-19. They also point to platforms limiting the reach of or adding fact checks to posts containing misinformation about the 2020 election and the coronavirus pandemic.

When introducing the measure in January, the bill’s sponsors — Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Comer — cited what they said were instances when federal officials in the Biden administration “used their positions, influence, and resources to police and censor ordinary Americans’ speech expressed on social media platforms.”

On the House floor Wednesday, Comer — who chairs the Oversight and Reform Committee — pointed to the group’s hearing last month when lawmakers “learned just how easy it was for the federal government to influence a private company to accomplish what it constitutionally cannot: limit the free exercise of speech.”

At one point during the hearing, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) asked Yoel Roth, the former global head of trust and safety at Twitter, how many tweets were flagged and removed at the behest of the Biden administration.

Roth denied the characterization of the question, telling lawmakers that “tweets were reported and Twitter independently evaluated them under its rules.”

The hearing also featured references to the “Twitter Files,” reports by journalists that include internal communications between company employees and outside actors. David Zweig, who released one of the “Twitter Files” installments, said internal files from the company that he reviewed “showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.”

“It is inappropriate and dangerous for the federal government to decide what lawful speech is allowed on a private sector platform,” Comer said during debate on Wednesday.

“My bill, the Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, makes this type of behavior an unlawful activity for federal officials to engage in — subjecting those who attempt to censor the lawful speech of Americans to disciplinary actions and monetary penalties,” he continued. “The federal government should not be able to decide what lawful speech is allowed — we have the First Amendment for a very good reason.”

Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) argued that the bill was unnecessary because of protections provided under the First Amendment.

“This bill purports to protect free speech from government censorship. And I agree, it’s a great idea. It’s such a good idea, in fact, that the Founding Fathers put it in the Constitution,”  Goldman said on the House floor Wednesday. “It’s called the First Amendment.”

“We don’t need a new bill to protect free speech because that is currently the law of the land. So we must ask ourselves: what is the point of this bill?” he added.

The congressman, who serves as lead counsel in former President Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, argued that the measure would allow malign actors to continue using social media “unfettered” or adverse reasons.

“H.R. 140 would effectively allow these and other foreign malign actors — who have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into online propaganda — to create chaos, mistrust, hate and confusion for Americans, to continue using social media platforms unfettered to wreak havoc on our democratic institutions, including the integrity of our elections,” Goldman said.

“It would do so by undermining the only defense that we have against these operations, which is the ability of our national security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to warn social media platforms and the public about the deployment of counterfeit accounts, disinformation and cyber surveillance by malign actors,” he added.

Lawmakers approved a number of amendments to the bill, including one that would prohibit law enforcement officials from sharing information with social media companies unless it pertains to speech not protected by the First Amendment — such as obscenity, fraud or incitement to imminent lawless action.

The measure also exempts actions from federal employees meant for “exercising legitimate law enforcement functions directly related to activities to combat child pornography, human trafficking, or the illegal transporting of or transacting in controlled substances and safeguarding, or preventing, the unlawful dissemination of properly classified national security information.”

Mayorkas gushes over border agents as possible impeachment proceedings loom

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spoke at the League of United Latin American Citizens conference Wednesday, where he enthusiastically commended U.S. Border Patrol agents.

"The United States Border Patrol make up an extraordinary workforce – individuals who risk their lives every day to secure the border," Mayorkas told the LULAC crowd.

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Mayorkas made the remarks in conversation with LULAC National President Domingo Garcia after his keynote address.

"And I will tell you something," he continued, "[In] the summer of 2014, I visited the border when the increase in unaccompanied children was occurring, and it was incredible what those Border Patrol agents were doing for those children out of their own pockets."

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"What they were doing in terms of providing much needed supplies for those kids – whether it was blankets, diapers or whether it was toys," the secretary said. "These are parents in their own right and I want to commend the Border Patrol."

Asked by Garcia what his department was doing to improve humanitarian care at the border, Mayorkas defended the agency over images of migrant children sleeping on Border Patrol facility floors in silver mylar blankets.

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"This is why I said in 2021, when we saw the increase in the number of children in Border Patrol stations, ‘The Border Patrol station is no place for a child,’" Mayorkas told Garcia. "There are no cots, there are no beds, so children are on the floor. Those silver blankets are mylar blankets. Why? Because they provide warmth but a cloth or wool or the like actually breed insects that can actually serve a detriment to the well-being of the children. So it's visually troubling, but it's actually a health safety issue."

He went on to say that – under his direction – the department went on to dedicate 300 individuals to ensure the system would not "bottleneck" at the stations.

"And so we succeeded in that process," he concluded.

Mayorkas, a Cuba native who grew up in Beverly Hills, California, after his family fled the Castro regime, has been under fire for his handling of the southern border crisis.

Republicans claim he has failed to adjudicate standing federal immigration laws and instead has overseen a deluge of illegal immigrants.

Numbers at the border rocketed up shortly after the Biden administration took office and remained high since then. There were over 1.7 million encounters of migrants at the border in FY 21 and more than 2.3 million in FY 22. So far in FY 2023, which began in October, there have been more than a million encounters.