Author: NOVA Corp

A congressman in a competitive district in Pennsylvania said he’d leave the Republican Party if his state conducted open primary elections.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a Republican moderate who has bucked party lines on some of President Donald Trump‘s key initiatives, including voting against the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, is seeking re-election in a purple district he has controlled for eight years.

Fitzpatrick shared in an interview with Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer his “disdain for ideologues and partisans” and said it was “ignorant to subscribe to a party.”

“Countless people go to the floor saying I really want to vote for this, but I got to worry about my primary,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s killing our country. It’s killing good policy, and we got to fix that.”

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Sherman asked why he does not just run as an independent. Fitzpatrick said his state has a closed primary, meaning only registered party voters can vote in primaries, which he deemed a disadvantage. If Pennsylvania’s primary system were open, Fitzpatrick said he would “100%” leave the GOP.

“But you can run as an independent,” Sherman asked. “There’s some way to do it, isn’t there?”

Fitzpatrick said it wasn’t possible in Pennsylvania.

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“Do you want to forfeit your right to vote in 50% of elections?” Fitzpatrick said, referring to what would happen if voters registered as Independent.

Fitzpatrick also mentioned that he was “upset” when people criticized Sen. John Fetterman, D-PA, who has often voted with Republicans on key issues. Fetterman has been vocal about his criticism of his Democratic colleagues such as their strategy to shut the government down to push for health care negotiations last Fall.

In the 119th Congressional legislative session, there is only one U.S. House of Representative member who identifies as an Independent — Kevin Kiley, I-Calif. However, when Kiley was first elected, he ran as a Republican.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, there are two Independents: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.., and Sen. Angus Cloud, I-Me,. While they both maintain an Independent status, both senators caucus with the Democratic party.

As the Massachusetts GOP is gathering for its convention in Worcester this weekend, Airborne Ranger and former Abiomed CEO Mike Minogue appears to have the wind in his sails. With a solid business background, he is positioning himself as the practical problem-solver and outsider, running in the primary against two veterans of the Charlie Baker administration.

Minogue, who ran a leading medical devices company for two decades, also benefits from a massive financial advantage over his two GOP rivals, Brian Shortsleeve, former Chief Administrator of the MBTA, and Mike Kennealy, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development under Baker.

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“I am running as the political outsider, and because of that, I have the freedom and the ability to solve problems for our citizens. And I think that’s why I’m gonna win, and that’s why we’ve got most momentum.”

Delegates will vote for the party nomination for governor, and other statewide offices. According to party rules, candidates need 15% of the vote to qualify for the September primary ballot, and 50% of the vote to receive an official endorsement from the party.

The convention will be a test of Minogue’s ability to capitalize on a robust infrastructure and fundraising effort, against two establishment candidates.

Minogue brings a compelling narrative to a campaign in which the GOP will face an uphill battle to unseat incumbent Governor Maura Healey. 

He was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Operation Desert Storm, and went on to a highly successful career in the medical devices industry, ultimately guiding a deal in which Abiomed was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $16.6B. 

“Well, I think that the campaign has had a message that it’s time for a new kind of governor. And so since I’m not part of the establishment, I’m coming in with a blueprint as a leader. So first of all, people want a leader that has integrity, common sense and compassion. And they want to elect somebody that has a blueprint to bring accountability, affordability, opportunity, and will keep our community safe. And so that’s really my platform. 

“And on the accountability, the audit that 72% of the voters acted for is something I was able to get involved in as a concerned citizen, and that needs to be done. And so that’s something around transparency and holding the one-party system accountable, and as a business person, as the only person who’s run and built the company, as a public company CEO for 19 years, I got audited every three months by an outside agency. That’s the accountability we need.”

Minogue brings a unique set of qualifications to the table, which are essential to his campaign message, and its resonance with Bay State voters.

“I’m not a political establishment person, the other two are. I also have the most experience from West Point to being a combat veteran, to running a business for 19 years, to also having several entrepreneurial private businesses and also being a leader in the nonprofit world around education, helping veterans, helping healthcare. So I bring a skill set…it’s more about my qualifications, less about policy. 

“But again, people want someone to come in who will solve problems, doesn’t worry about the next election. And so I’ve got the most energy. I have more cash on hand, in fact, two X the cash on hand than the incumbent Governor Healey. And I am going to stop the overspending, the overtaxing and the overregulating because as a business person, I know how to do that.”

Massachusetts has long been dominated by the Democratic Party, except when it comes to the governor’s office. In fact, five of the last six governors prior to Maura Healey were Republicans. 

Nonetheless, the GOP nominee will face a challenge in a state in which only 8% of registered voters are Republicans.

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“So I think what people don’t understand and why I’m gonna be the next governor is Massachusetts is not a blue state or a red state. In fact, we have low percentages for both parties, but people here have principles. More people say they’re conservative as well than the numbers of the Republican party, but people also want common sense. We’re a gritty group of people. We started the revolution. We endured in order to drive the British out of. Out of Boston in 1776. And that culture is still here. And I love that about it.”

Minogue argues that Healey’s energy and fiscal policies have left the state, and its business community, in a precarious position.

“I think the biggest issue with Governor Healey is two things. One is a failure to be a leader. She hasn’t stepped forward and driven the audit of the legislature that we voted for. In fact, she’s avoiding it. The second thing is she hasn’t solved the energy problem. She doesn’t invest in innovation. She keeps investing more and more tax dollars in the green energy, wind and solar. And after two decades and over a billion dollars in tax money, we get less than 6% of our energy in Massachusetts from wind and solar. 

“Meanwhile, we get 20% of our energy from the nuclear energy facility in Seabrook, New Hampshire that we don’t subsidize. And we have natural gas in America. We’re blessed with it. The pipelines need to come from Pennsylvania or New York. That will lower our energy. That’s safe, reliable, cheaper.”

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Minogue argues that Healey does not have a plan to address the exploding state budget, which is particularly feeling the pinch from skyrocketing health care costs. 

“So first thing is the overall budget, 63 [billion]. Then I would drill in to the health care budget, which is 54% of our budget, it’s around 34 billion. I’ve been in all the hospitals, I’m an expert in healthcare, it’s what I’ve done for 30 years…It’s known that we are one of the top places for Medicaid, Medicare fraud. We know our SNAP benefits and food stamps have massive fraud. Every time our US attorney or state auditor looks at it, they find millions to tens of millions of savings. And we have to understand how this is impacting all the other businesses. Because if you drive health care costs up and you have waste and fraud, and the health care for entrepreneurs and for individuals is one of the most expensive in the nation and energy is one the most expensive in the nation, people leave. That’s why we got to do math.”

In a state in which 65% of the electorate is registered as “unenrolled,” Minogue is cognizant of the need to appeal to independents and Democrats.

“I will work with anyone to solve problems. I don’t care if it’s blue, red or independent. It doesn’t matter to me. But as the governor, there’s some things you can do. So on day one, you can declare that one third of the energy bills, the climate utility tax is gone. So that’s gonna help quality of life immediately. Number two is, I can bring in gas pipelines and I can bring in nuclear energy by talking to companies and I will do that. The third is, I can opt into the federal scholarship tax credit, which immediately will be providing educational grants to about 80% of the parents that have kids. It gives them a choice on how they educate their kids.”

“We need a leader who loves the people more than they hate the other party. And that’s what I will do. I will solve problems. We are not political enemies. We are neighbors, and we just need to help people and understand that the goal is to make Massachusetts the best place to live, work, and raise a family, like I’ve had the blessing to do.”

The Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted this week on federal fraud charges stemming from a years-long covert paid informant program, which Justice Department officials said allocated millions of dollars in donations to a network of informants affiliated with or closely tied to White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

The 11-count indictment accuses the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

According to the Justice Department, the SPLC sent some $3 million to its paid informants between 2014 and 2023 — including persons affiliated with the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the Aryan Nations-linked “Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club,” among others.

Senior Trump administration officials took aim at the covert paid informant program, which funneled outside donations, at least in part, to informants affiliated with the same extremist groups the SPLC was founded decades earlier to oppose.

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​​”As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Tuesday at a press conference. 

“It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”

The SPLC’s paid informant program funded individuals with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Party of America, and others — including a member of an online “leadership chat group” that helped plan the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, officials said.

Here are the top five most eye-popping paid informants revealed in this week’s indictment.

Among the paid informants identified in the indictment is a member of an online “leadership chat group” that Blanche said helped plan the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

The individual, referred to only as “F-37,” attended the event at the direction of the SPLC and was paid more than $270,000 for his or her work as an informant between 2015 and 2023, according to the indictment. 

The indictment alleges that the individual shared  “racist social media posts and helped organize transportation to events” associated with the deadly rally.

The news that the informant helped coordinate logistics, at least in some small part, for the deadly rally while under SPLC supervision is significant, especially given that the aftermath of the event prompted a new influx of donations to the nonprofit.

“They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups — even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “That is illegal — and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”

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One longtime member of the National Alliance, a White supremacist group tied to multiple violent attacks, profited handsomely from the SPLC in his role as a paid informant.

According to the indictment, SPLC paid the National Alliance member more than $1 million over a nine-year period for his role, which included clandestine activities such as breaking into the group’s headquarters to steal some 25 boxes of documents, which he photocopied and distributed to the SPLC.

The group appears to have later used those documents to create a report about the National Alliance.

After the stolen documents were utilized partly in public, SPLC paid another National Alliance member $6,000 to falsely take responsibility for the theft.

The National Alliance and the writings of its founder have been closely associated with a litany of violent attacks since the 1980s, including a 1999 multi-state shooting spree targeting minorities and Jewish Americans, and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

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The SPLC also shelled out more than $140,000 to a paid informant who chaired the National Alliance neo-Nazi group. 

The indictment accuses the SPLC of funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the individual between 2016 and 2023.

At least some of the payments occurred at the same time the National Alliance chairman himself was listed on the SPLC’s website, as part of its public “Extremist File” website — a striking and somewhat ironic fact, given that the site was warning the public about how dangerous the individual was.

Among the paid informants was an “Imperial Wizard” of The United Klans of America, a White supremacist group that the SPLC has linked to the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young girls and injured more than a dozen others.

Martin Luther King Jr. described the bombing, which exploded 19 sticks of pre-laid dynamite beneath the steps of a local church, as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.” It was unclear how much the paid informant received from the SPLC.

Separately, SPLC also funneled money to a Ku Klux Klan member and spouse of an “Exalted Cyclops” — or a local Klan leader tasked with overseeing membership, organizing meetings, and directing activities.

According to the indictment, the informant’s link to the SPLC became known during the KKK chapter’s application to partake in the “Adopt-A-Highway” program, resulting in the discovery of more than $3,500 in known payments from the SPLC.

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During the six-year period between 2014 and 2020, the SPLC sent a staggering $300,000 to one paid informant, F-27, who was an officer in both the National Socialist Movement group and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club.

The SPLC also sent some $160,000 to other extremist groups, including the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

No individuals were named in the indictment, though Blanche noted during a press conference Tuesday that the investigation is ongoing.

According to federal prosecutors, the SPLC’s paid informant program began in the 1980s, shortly after its founding in the 1970s, and allegedly relied on a series of bank accounts set up for fictitious entities and used to funnel the covert payments to informants.

“They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” Blanche said.

The news comes as the SPLC has seen an increase in public support in recent years — including a groundswell of donations following the 2017 Unite the Right rally, and from prominent donors including George Clooney and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“Donors gave their money believing they were supporting the fight against violent extremism,” Kevin Davidson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, said in a statement.

“As alleged, the SPLC instead diverted a portion of those funds to benefit individuals and groups they claimed to oppose,” Davidson added.

“That kind of deception undermines public trust and social cohesion.”

A spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center told Fox News Digital earlier this week they are reviewing the indictment. The group has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” interim SPLC president Bryan Fair said this week in a statement. “The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all.”

The spokesperson for the SPLC defended its work monitoring White supremacist groups and other violent extremist organizations — including via the paid informant program — telling Fox News Digital that their use has “saved lives.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is facing federal fraud allegations less than a year after a staff mutiny triggered a leadership shakeup that has plagued the organization ever since.

The Justice Department has accused the self-styled civil rights nonprofit of using paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups and funneling money to extremist groups — claims the organization is now forcefully disputing.

Margaret Huang, who led SPLC, resigned last July after 92% of staff backed a no-confidence vote months earlier, according to the Las Vegas Sun. The center laid off about 80 employees — about 25% of its workforce — in June 2024, the outlet reported.

Huang said she stepped down because she could not both care for her parents and meet the demands of the job, while the SPLC said at the time she left after five years at the helm “to prioritize family life.”

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The leadership rupture exposed deep tensions between staff and senior management at the Montgomery, Alabama-based group, which is known for civil rights litigation and racial justice advocacy.

Bryan Fair, a constitutional law professor at the University of Alabama and former chair of the SPLC board, stepped in as interim president and CEO following Huang’s departure.

Fair has since taken charge of the organization’s response to the Justice Department’s allegations. The group faces federal charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering tied to its past use of paid informants.

“This use of informants was necessary because we are no stranger to threats of violence,” Fair said in a video message this week, pushing back on the allegations and framing the investigation as politically motivated.

“For 55 years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive. We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration.”

He added that the SPLC “frequently shared what we learned from informants with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI.”

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“We will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work,” Fair said.

Huang’s high-profile departure marked the latest leadership turmoil at the SPLC.

The organization underwent a major upheaval in 2019 when it fired co-founder and chief trial counsel Morris Dees and removed him from its board, according to the SPLC, triggering a broader restructuring.

That overhaul led to Huang becoming the organization’s first permanent president and CEO under a new leadership model, according to the SPLC. Huang currently serves as a senior adviser at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of civil rights organizations.

Dees’ dismissal followed internal allegations of misconduct and workplace culture concerns, including claims of racial discrimination and harassment, according to multiple reports. He was not charged with any crime.

Dees co-founded the SPLC in 1971 with civil rights attorney Joseph Levin Jr., while civil rights leader Julian Bond served as its first president.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the SPLC and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights for comment.

The Department of Justice joined forces with Elon Musk on Friday by backing a lawsuit his company xAI brought against Colorado alleging a state law regulating artificial intelligence developers was a masked effort to force them to adopt diversity, equity and inclusion on their platforms.

DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon said DOJ’s intervention was the department’s first constitutional challenge in an AI case. 

Colorado faces allegations from the DOJ and xAI that its state law, set to take effect in June, violates the First and Fourteenth amendments by forcing AI developers to inadvertently discriminate, an allegation familiar to Colorado, which has faced a string of legal losses in other high-profile culture-war cases in recent years. 

“We join @xai’s landmark suit, and stand against woke DEI standards being imposed by Colorado,” Dhillon said.

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The lawsuit arose from a controversial consumer protection bill the Colorado legislature passed in 2024 that required “high-risk” developers like xAI, which built the popular platform Grok, to exercise “reasonable care” to protect consumers from “algorithmic discrimination,” saying AI tools must not result in discrimination based on protected classes in the state, such as race and religion. Musk founded xAI in 2023. 

The Colorado law also targeted entities that deploy the AI platforms, like hospitals or banks, saying the law was intended to make sure consumers in those areas were treated fairly.

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis reluctantly signed the bill into law in 2024 but has raised concerns over whether it would alienate tech innovators in his state because of the slate of burdensome regulations it imposed on them. Fox News Digital reached out to Polis’ office for comment on DOJ’s intervention in the lawsuit.

The DOJ lawyers argued in their lawsuit that Colorado’s bill actually “fosters further discrimination,” citing language in the bill that allowed AI developers to favor certain classes of people in their AI tools when it was “to increase diversity or redress historical discrimination.”

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The law “jeopardizes the United States’ position as the global AI leader by requiring AI systems to incorporate discriminatory ideology that prioritizes preferred demographic characteristics and outcomes over accurate and merit-based outputs,” government lawyers wrote.

The DOJ’s lawsuit focused on what it alleged were equal protection violations, while Musk’s xAI lawsuit alleged numerous violations, including unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. xAI lawyers contended in their complaint, brought earlier this month, that the law would force AI developers to output “progressive ideology.”

“By requiring ‘developers’ and ‘deployers’ to differentiate between discrimination that Colorado disfavors and discrimination that Colorado favors, SB24-205 compels Plaintiff xAI—a ‘developer’ under the law—to alter Grok, forcing Grok’s output on certain State-selected subjects to conform to a controversial, highly politicized viewpoint,” xAI lawyers wrote.

One law firm said Colorado would become a “national test case” for AI consumer protection, saying it was the first state to pass such a law, suggesting the state would once again become a case study on how far it could push constitutional bounds.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court found 8-1 that Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, signed into law by Polis in 2019, violated the First Amendment because it only restricted certain types of speech, in this case talk therapy when the therapy aimed to prevent minors from embracing being transgender or gay.

That ruling followed a broad free speech decision in 303 Creative related to a website designer’s right to deny creating a wedding page for a gay couple based on religious beliefs and a narrower 2018 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

The libertarian CATO Institute observed a trend in Colorado, citing the trio of recent landmark Supreme Court cases.

“This law will inevitably result in developers restricting lawful speech from their AIs in the name of compliance, especially given Colorado’s view of what constitutes harmful discrimination,” CATO fellow David Inserra wrote. “And Colorado clearly has strong views on what kinds of speech are harmful and discriminatory, as seen in its multiple losses at the Supreme Court.”

Fox News Digital reached out to an xAI attorney on Friday. 

Texas Democrat James Talarico slammed a court ruling this week allowing Texas to enforce a law requiring classrooms to display the 10 Commandments, calling it a “deeply un-Christian decision.”

He decried “Christian nationalism,” saying, “I’m a Christian, but I know that the most dangerous form of government is theocracy.”

Talarico, a Democratic Texas state representative, is running to flip one of Texas’ Senate seats blue for the first time in decades. Democrats believe Talarico has a real shot at defeating either incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn or current state Attorney General Ken Paxton. A Talarico victory would be devastating to the GOP’s hopes of retaining or expanding its Senate majority this November.

Speaking on CNN this week, Talarico condemned the decision by the federal Fifth Circuit Court. He suggested the law requiring the 10 Commandments to be displayed poses an affront to individuals in Texas who are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, agnostic and atheist.

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“I don’t want anyone forcing their religion down my throat, and I certainly don’t want the government forcing a religion down my throat. So why would I do that to any of my neighbors?” he told CNN. “I think this is an unconstitutional decision, I also think this is a deeply un-Christian decision, because we are supposed to be loving all of our neighbors, particularly our neighbors of other faiths.”

In a 9–8 ruling on Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Texas law requiring public schools across the state to display the Ten Commandments. The court ruled the law does not violate either the Constitution’s Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause.

The court’s majority opinion stated that “because Plaintiffs fail to show that [Texas law] S.B. 10 substantially burdens their right to religious exercise, their Free Exercise claims must be dismissed.”

However, Talarico, who is a Presbyterian seminarian in addition to a former middle school teacher, asserted that the law runs afoul of the Christian imperative to love God and love neighbor.

“My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself. Not just my neighbors who look like me, not just my neighbors who vote like me, not just my neighbors who pray like me. I’m called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself. That includes my Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, agnostic and atheist neighbors,” he said.

He also decried what he referred to as “Christian nationalism,” saying, “the only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they’re on a mission from God.”

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As a member of the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico has opposed the 10 Commandments bill as “idolatrous” for years.

While speaking on CNN, he ripped into Paxton for praising the ruling. Smiling, he said, “I’m not sure that Ken Paxton is in a place to lecture us on moral values.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Paxton for comment.

Paxton, who is currently locked in a bitter primary runoff with Cornyn, had called the ruling a “major victory for Texas and our moral values.”

He said the 10 Commandments “have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day,” adding, “My office was proud to defend SB 10 and successfully ensure that the Ten Commandments will be displayed in classrooms across Texas.”

After Talarico’s dig, Paxton responded on X, writing, “James Talarico says God commands us to believe in six genders, support late-term abortion, and abuse children by ‘transitioning’ them. He’s completely and totally morally bankrupt.”

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Paxton was not the only one to slam Talarico’s take on the ruling. Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet posted on X, “Imagine being a Christian who goes on CNN to condemn putting the Ten Commandments in schools. Imagine James Talarico.”

In response, Talarico doubled down, telling Fox News Digital, “Jesus taught us to love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor. My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself. I don’t want the government forcing a religion down my throat.”

Talarico added that “the separation of church and state is a sacred boundary that doesn’t just benefit the state — it also benefits the church, because when the church gets too cozy with political power, it loses its prophetic voice.”

A spokesperson for Cornyn responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by saying, “We support the ruling.”

The Minneapolis man who sprayed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., with vinegar during a January town hall is changing his plea to guilty on federal charges stemming from the incident.

Anthony James Kazmierczak’s assault on Omar occurred weeks after Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent, which heightened tensions between federal officials and Democratic state leaders to an all-time high. Democratic leadership called for federal agents to leave Minnesota.

In March, Kazmierczak pleaded not guilty to one federal count of assaulting a United States officer, but an April court filing from his attorney, John Fossum, stated that Kazmierczak will change his plea to guilty after they have “reached a settlement” with federal prosecutors. Kazmierczak’s change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for May 7.

The exact details of the settlement are unknown. Fox News Digital reached out to Kazmierczak’s lawyer for comment.

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Video of the Jan. 27 town hall showed Kazmierczak rushing the stage as Omar spoke. She was calling for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to step down and for ICE agents to leave Minnesota.

He pulled out a syringe filled with apple cider vinegar and water and attempted to douse the congresswoman with the liquid before an officer stepped in.

“She’s not resigning,” Kazmierczak said in the video, referring to then Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Kazmierczak also pointed his finger at Omar, screaming, “you’re splitting Minnesotans apart.”

Omar was not injured and continued her town hall after Kazmierczak was arrested.

“I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong,” Omar wrote in a post on X at the time.

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Since the incident, Kazmierczak has been held in custody. A magistrate judge ruled that the “exceedingly serious and dangerous circumstances” of the assault allegations make it impossible to ensure that public safety is not at risk if Kazmierczak is released on bail.

During the investigation, an FBI agent interviewed an associate of Kazmierczak, who claimed that Kazmierczak once said that “somebody should kill” Omar.

“Assaultive behavior and acts of intimidation directed at officers and employees of the United States will not be tolerated,” said United States Attorney Daniel N. Rosen. “Persons who engage in this criminal conduct can expect a swift response from law enforcement and federal prosecutors

Fox News Digital reached out to the United States Attorney’s Office District of Minnesota for comment.

The Department of Justice on Friday directed the Bureau of Prisons to expand death penalty protocols to include pentobarbital injections and firing squads as part of broader actions to strengthen the federal death penalty. 

“Today, the Department of Justice acted to restore its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences — clearing the way for the Department to carry out executions once death-sentenced inmates have exhausted their appeals,” the DOJ memo obtained by Fox News read.

“Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases,” the memo read. 

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

The Treasury Department is tightening Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax-exempt reporting requirements in an effort to uncover nonprofit funding being used for “extremist activity” and “hiding fraud.”

The move comes days after the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit known for civil rights litigation and racial justice, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly funneling millions to members of violent extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and the National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party). 

“Public money and tax-exempt status demand public accountability,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in a statement. “We are ending the days of hiding fraud, abuse and extremist activity behind complicated nonprofit arrangements.

“When bad actors misuse charitable structures, directors and officers should understand that transparency can lead to scrutiny, accountability and liability under the law.”

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The indictment against the SPLC was announced Tuesday, with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche saying the nonprofit “was doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing — not dismantling extremism but funding it,” at a subsequent news conference.

According to the SPLC’s Form 990 filing with the IRS, the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization posted roughly $129 million in total revenue in fiscal year 2024 with nearly $800 million in total assets. 

The organization pushed back against the federal indictments, claiming the money given to extremist groups was spent “to gather credible intelligence” by using paid informants who operate within groups like the KKK.

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“The federal government has been weaponized to dismantle the rights of our nation’s most vulnerable people,” SPLC interim president and CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement. “And any organization like ours that tries to stand in the breach.”

“While we no longer work with paid informants, we continue to take their safety seriously,” Fair added. “These individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation’s most radical and violent extremist groups.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the SPLC for comment.

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The Treasury Department plans to rein in the lack of transparency that exists surrounding 501(c)(3)s through revisions to Form 990 to clarify sponsorship arrangements that do not clearly show who is operating a project and how funds are being used. 

The Treasury noted increased reporting can make it more difficult for organizations to hide behind opaque arrangements. 

“Tax-exempt status is not immunity from scrutiny,” Treasury assistant secretary and acting IRS chief counsel Ken Kies wrote in a statement. “If an organization receives public funds or tax-deductible donations, it should be prepared to show who controls the money and where it goes.”

Under current Form 990 rules, nonprofits generally do not have to disclose the names of individual donors and can provide vague descriptions of entities to which payments are routed.

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Rogue actors, like Shanghai-based American tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, are able to use nonprofits to mask flows of money. 

In the case of Singham, a known Chinese Communist Party sympathizer, a Fox News Digital investigation uncovered millions of dollars had flowed from him directly to organized agitator groups across the country.

With limited reporting requirements, Singham’s money trail was difficult to trace because nonprofits are not mandated to disclose individual donor names.

In the case of the SPLC, federal authorities allege payments were originally made to fake entities, like “Fox Photography” or “Rare Books Warehouse.” 

Still, those payments to the fraudulent organizations are not required to be disclosed under current Form 990 rules as individual recipients are not required to be reported.

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The gap in reporting is one of the key ways “dark money” nonprofits hide their money, which the Trump administration said is a central reason behind the plans to revise the Form 990 requirements.

“This is an important case brought by President [Donald] Trump’s administration, and we’re thankful to the president for his leadership and funding of not just the FBI and DOJ, but his commitment to go out there and wipe out fraud, conspiracy, and waste and abuse wherever it occurs, including the Southern Poverty Law Center,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Tuesday. 

EXCLUSIVE: A new Pentagon review of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is set to declassify previously restricted materials from earlier investigations, reopening scrutiny of key decisions made during the Biden administration’s botched 2021 exit from the country. 

The review will include interview transcripts, internal documents and prior findings that officials say were overclassified, according to Pentagon adviser Stu Scheller.

“We plan to declassify all of the documents that we source in this investigation — all the interview transcripts, all the previous investigations that the Biden administration did that have been overclassified,” Scheller told Fox News Digital. “We’re going to declassify all of it so that everyone can make assessments for themselves.”

Unlike earlier reviews that cataloged failures but stopped short of pinning down individual responsibility, this Pentagon effort is examining a broader set of records and conducting extensive interviews with both senior military leaders and rank-and-file troops — a scope officials say could reopen unanswered questions about who made the key decisions during the 2021 withdrawal.

“There will be accountability,” Scheller said. 

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“We’ve talked to many people, all the key generals… and we also interviewed thousands of young service members,” Scheller told Fox News Digital of the report. “One of the things they said was that they didn’t feel like their experiences were validated.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted the previous Biden administration over the Abbey Gate tragedy that killed 13 U.S. service members, calling the 2021 withdrawal “a Biden disaster” and “the lowest point in the history of our country.” The administration in May 2025 ordered a new Pentagon review as part of what officials described as his push for accountability.

Scheller’s role in the review marks a striking reversal for a Marine officer who was previously punished after publicly criticizing the military’s handling of the withdrawal.

Then a lieutenant commanding an infantry training unit at Camp Lejeune, Scheller drew national attention in August 2021 after posting a viral video in uniform demanding accountability from senior leaders. He was relieved of command, placed in pretrial confinement and later pleaded guilty at a court-martial.

“I just felt like there wasn’t another voice that was going to advocate for the emperor’s not wearing clothes,” Scheller said. “I didn’t do it haphazardly.”

“God was with me on that one. I got through it. Here I am influencing the changes I originally pointed out.”

Previous investigations by Congress, the Pentagon and federal watchdogs identified a range of failures in planning and executing the withdrawal, including gaps in evacuation efforts, intelligence assessments and senior-level decision-making.

A Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee report found the State Department failed to develop a plan to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies despite mounting warnings that Kabul could fall, delaying evacuation efforts until the Taliban entered the capital.

The report also said U.S. officials were tracking credible threats of a suicide attack in the days leading up to the Abbey Gate bombing — including intelligence pointing to a potential ISIS-K attack at the airport — but operations at the gate continued.

Those conditions are now being reexamined as part of the Pentagon’s review, including how actions by Marines on the ground were recognized.

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Scheller said his team focused early on the unit stationed at Abbey Gate, where several Marines had been nominated for higher awards that were later downgraded during the approval process.

“They had actually submitted awards that were downgraded. So we didn’t create these awards out of nothing,” Scheller said. “All seven of these awards were submitted and we had the formal paperwork from the original write-up.”

The upgrades affected Marines from Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, including cases where commendation medals were elevated to include valor devices and, in one instance, a Bronze Star was upgraded to reflect combat heroism.

The bombing at Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans, marking the deadliest day for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in years.

The Biden administration has defended its handling of the withdrawal, arguing the decision ended America’s longest war and prevented further U.S. casualties, while accusing critics of politicizing the issue.

A spokesperson for former President Joe Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.