Author: NOVA Corp

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat running for governor in Georgia, has faced ethics-related scrutiny during her time in government, but that hasn’t stopped Bottoms’ ambition for higher office.   

Before launching her gubernatorial bid, Bottoms drew criticism in Atlanta over her use of public resources while serving in city government — from taxpayer-funded mailers packed with photos of herself to city-paid travel expenses that initially covered her husband’s Super Bowl airfare. 

Bottoms also drew criticism over her ties to a contractor that later landed lucrative city contracts after she signed an initial consulting contract with the firm while leading the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority (AFCRA) and just days before leaving the city council as she was preparing to become mayor, with the company’s CEO later donating to and fundraising for her campaign.

Even with Atlanta’s history of corruption scandals, former Atlanta City Council leader Jennifer Ide, who served as the head of a city council ethics committee while Bottoms was mayor, said the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful’s past scandals, in particular her alleged pay-to-play scheme with a contractor, should be “concerning” for voters.

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“I mean, I think it’s concerning,” Ide told Fox News Digital. “I don’t think that the voters want to feel like special interests impact the outcome of an election.”

As executive director of AFCRA, a position she held that earned her a six-figure salary even while also serving on the city council and running for mayor, Bottoms signed the first of three contracts for a company called Con-Real to do work for the city. The first contract, awarded in April 2017, was less than $100,000, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Just days later, she exited office as her mayoral run was heating up.

Meanwhile, in June 2017, roughly two months later, Con-Real won a second $2.4 million contract, despite the company’s bid being about twice what its competitor bid, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The outlet added that both contracts appeared to have been executed without the recreation authority’s board voting to approve it.    

Ide, who has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats, said the absence of board approval was among the issues that made the Con-Real contracts appear troubling to people in the Atlanta government, though she said she was not familiar enough with AFCRA’s rules to say definitively whether any formal procurement rule had been broken. However, according to Kyle Gomez-Leineweber, policy director at watchdog Common Cause Georgia, AFCRA did amend its contracting process following the controversy with Bottoms.

“There were serious concerns that were raised around ethics,” he added.

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Con-Real founder and CEO, Gerald Alley, reportedly held a fundraiser for Bottoms’ mayoral campaign in August 2017, and campaign finance records showed he also donated close to $4,000 to Bottoms’ mayoral campaign just days after winning the lucrative arena contract.

The subsequent year, in 2018, while Bottoms was mayor, Con-Real won a third contract for $1.4 million. Again, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they were the highest bidder. 

“It sure looked fishy that Con-Real l was not the lowest bidder,” Ide pointed out. “I don’t know exactly what the procurement rules are for the recreation authority, but for the city, the lowest responsive bidder is who would have needed to have been selected.”  

In June 2025, less than a month after Bottoms announced her bid for governor, Alley donated the maximum allowable amount for a primary election of $8,400, campaign finance records show.

“I really believe that as people start to dig under the surface, they’re going to see that she’s not fit for office,” Humberto Garcia, a Democrat who lives in Atlanta and founded the anti-Buckhead City movement Neighbors for a United Atlanta, said.

Beyond the Con-Real matter, Bottoms’ record already includes a string of ethics-related incidents, including a $37,000 state ethics fine over campaign-finance violations, questions over taxpayer-funded campaign-season mailers packed with photos of herself, and backlash over using public funds for certain expenses, including airfare for her husband’s Super Bowl trip and thousands of dollars in limousine spending.

Both Ide and Garcia lamented that Bottoms, as mayor, was “absent-minded,” and they questioned whether she would do what is in the best interest for Georgians if elected governor. 

“If you’re going to run for the highest office in the state, there needs to be no questions about whether you’re being influenced by your campaign donations in that kind of way,” Ide told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Bottoms campaign and Con-Real but did not receive a response.

The Democratic primary for Georgia’s gubernatorial race will take place on May 19. Currently, Bottoms is leading in most major polls, with former Georgia General Assemblyman and Chief Executive Officer of DeKalb County Michael Thurmond coming in second in many of the same polls, per The New York Times. 

RANDOLPH, N.J. — As he works to flip a vacant U.S. House seat in a blue-leaning district in northern New Jersey, Republican Joe Hathaway is not shy about pointing out where he disagrees with President Donald Trump, even as he charges that his Democratic rival is too far to the left.

“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for anybody,” Hathaway said in a Fox News Digital interview this week, when asked about Trump.

Hathaway is facing off against Democrat Analilia Mejia, who is backed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of neighboring New York, in Thursday’s special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. The winner will succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic representative who stepped down from Congress in November after winning New Jersey’s gubernatorial election.

Thursday’s special election comes as the GOP clings to a fragile House majority, and would relish the opportunity to flip a suburban district Sherrill won by 15 points in her 2024 re-election and carried by roughly the same margin in last year’s gubernatorial election.

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A confident Hathaway said, “I think we are going to have a broad coalition come together to choose common sense over socialism in this race.”

Mejia, a progressive organizer who served as national political director on the 2020 Sanders presidential campaign, pulled off an upset in the February Democratic primary as she narrowly edged out more moderate rival former Rep. Tom Malinowski in a field of 11 candidates. While Mejia was the clear choice of the party’s left flank, the rest of the field appeared to divide the more moderate and center-left vote.

Her victory was another boost for the left against the establishment after democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent shock waves across the nation with his Democratic primary victory in June 2025.

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Hathaway, a former Randolph Township mayor and current council member who was uncontested for the GOP congressional nomination, emphasized that the choice for voters is “between a common sense, practical independent leader who’s gotten things done at the local level in New Jersey and knows the issues, contrasted with someone who’s running on pure ideology, far left-wing ideology, Squad backed ideology.”

Mejia recently appeared at a town hall with Malinowski and this past weekend teamed up with Sherrill on the campaign trail, as she aims to unite Democrats, who enjoy a sizable registration advantage in the district.

Hathaway claimed that Mejia is now trying “to hide from that a little bit in some of her rhetoric, because she knows that those policies are completely out of touch, but it’s not fooling voters. It’s certainly not fooling us.”

Jewish voters make up a key part of the district’s electorate, and Hathaway, in the only debate in the special election showdown, claimed Mejia was antisemitic, noting that she has said Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

“She blamed Israel for the attacks by Hamas on October 7,” Hathaway said. “I think Jewish individuals across this district, Republican or Democrat are very afraid of this kind of rhetoric.”

Hathaway said, “I’ve spoken to more members of the Jewish community who have told me they’ve never voted for a Republican in their life, who are going to vote for me in this race. I mean, that shows you where the Jewish community is on the importance of this race and how they are not aligned with Mejia….and her platform.”

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Mejia has pledged to “protect the rights of Jewish constituents,” and has said her criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza should not be conflated with antisemitism.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Mejia said that “Joe Hathaway’s inability to distinguish between criticism of a government or government official and bigotry is troubling and disgusting in equal measure.”

Mejia last week wrote that she was “honored” after being endorsed by the liberal pro-Israel political group J Street PAC. But her acceptance of the endorsement triggered pushback on the left, with the North Jersey Democratic Socialists of America calling her move a “heel turn.”

Hathaway, as he aims to win over independent and Democrats, is pointing out where he agrees, and disagrees, with Trump, who lost the district by eight points in his 2024 presidential election victory.

“I’m always going to do what’s right for this district first. And I’ve been clear: If the president’s going to do things that are good for the district, increasing the SALT cap deduction, putting money back in people’s pockets, especially New Jersey, affordability is so tough here. If we’re doing things like border security, reducing fentanyl deaths like we’ve seen.. in our community. Those are good things. I support those policies,” Hathaway said.

“But on the other hand, if the president’s going to do things that aren’t in the best interest of our district, it’s my job to push back, and that’s exactly what I’ve done,” he spotlighted.

Hathaway pointed to Trump’s move last year to terminate billions of federal dollars for the Gateway Project, which is funding a new train tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York, and the president’s plans to cut roughly 1,000 jobs and nearly $1 billion in funding for an Army base located in New Jersey.

“I’m going to call balls and strikes in this race. I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for anybody,” Hathaway said.

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Hathaway said his message to independents and Democrats is, “even if you’ve never voted for a Republican before, you got the chance to test drive one for the next six months. Send me to Washington. Let me prove to you I’m going to do what I say  I’m going to do, and that’s how we’re going to build the coalition to win.”

And he touted, “I think we have the right math, the right bipartisan coalition to come together to win this thing on April 16.”

But Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson University political science professor and pollster, calls Hathaway’s hopes of capturing crossover Democrats “a pipe dream.”

“Democrats as a whole do not seem interested in finding common ground with Trump,” he said as he predicted that most voters in the special election will be strong partisans. “Democratic turnout is through the roof and Republican turnout is depressed at this point.”

Cassino noted that “right now national politics drives everything. We say all politics is local. Today, unfortunately, all politics is national.”

Mejia, meanwhile, has tied Hathaway to Trump and Republicans in Congress.

“MAGA Republicans are driving up everyday costs with extreme policies my opponent supports. Healthcare and critical programs are being gutted just to fund tax breaks for the ultra-rich. We can’t afford another vote for Trump in Congress,” she wrote in a social media post.

The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Connecticut and its city of New Haven, arguing that their sanctuary policies interfere with federal enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.

The lawsuit names Connecticut, its Gov. Ned Lamont and Attorney General William Tong, as well as New Haven and its Mayor Justin Elicker as defendants.

The complaint takes issue with the state’s “so-called Trust Act” and other state and local sanctuary policies that the DOJ argues are illegal under federal law.

The DOJ claims these policies have allowed “dangerous criminals” to be released into communities in the Nutmeg State. It also alleges that Connecticut and New Haven have made “intentional efforts” that the lawsuit argues obstruct federal law enforcement, put people at risk and are preempted under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

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“For years, Connecticut communities have paid the price of these misguided sanctuary policies,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division said in a statement. “This lawsuit seeks to end such open defiance of federal law.”

But Elicker contends that the lawsuit misrepresents the city’s immigration policies. He said the city will fight the lawsuit and that he is confident they did nothing wrong.

“The complaint that’s been submitted by the federal government has untruths in it and is misleading. There’s actually quotes from the executive order that have ‘dot dot dot’ where they don’t finish the sentence and the last part of the sentence of the executive order actually clarifies the beginning part,” Elicker told Fox 61.

After Elicker was elected mayor in 2020, he signed an executive order barring law enforcement from asking for the immigration status of anyone they are working with.

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT FILED BY THE DOJ BELOW

The mayor said his city and its employees have not taken any action to obstruct the federal government’s efforts to enforce immigration laws.

“Our employees are abiding by both city, state, and federal law with the executive order that we have, and we will continue to do that,” Elicker said.

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Lamont said in a statement that state laws “do not prevent federal authorities from enforcing immigration law,” adding that they instead “reflect a longstanding principle: the federal government cannot require states to use their personnel or resources to carry out federal enforcement responsibilities.”

“We will defend Connecticut’s laws vigorously against the complaints outlined in the federal government’s lawsuit. Our Trust Act and related policies are consistent with the Constitution and reflect our responsibility to govern responsibly, protect public safety, and uphold the rights of all residents,” the governor said.

“Connecticut respects the rule of law and the constitutional roles of both federal and state governments,” he added. “Connecticut law enforcement prioritizes serious criminal activity and works every day to keep our communities safe, while also respecting constitutional protections afforded to residents and maintaining trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”

Tong, in a statement of his own, said the “sovereign people of Connecticut have exercised our right to pass state laws like the Trust Act that prioritize public safety and ensure that all people can trust and rely on law enforcement to keep us safe.” 

“It is a shame that the President and the Department of Justice are not focused on public safety but are wasting federal resources on attacking Connecticut with a baseless lawsuit that has no foundation in law or fact. Connecticut is not a ‘sanctuary’ state, whatever that means. This term is meaningless and has no basis in Connecticut law. We will defend Connecticut and Connecticut families and fight this lawless attack with every fiber of our being,” he said.

This is the latest effort by the DOJ to target sanctuary policies in cities and states across the country.

Last month, a federal judge threw out a DOJ lawsuit accusing Colorado and Denver of interfering with the federal enforcement of immigration laws.

It may have been possible to bequeath this as “expulsion week.”

Instead, this might be “resignation week.”

The House has only expelled six Members in the history of the republic. But it was possible as recently as Monday that the House was primed to wrestle with a mind-boggling four expulsions.

It takes a two-thirds vote to expel a Member. The House last expelled one of its own in late 2023: former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). Before that, you have to go back to 2002 when the House kicked out late Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio).

5TH ACCUSER COMES FORWARD AGAINST REP ERIC SWALWELL AHEAD OF EXPECTED RESIGNATION

Here was the chopping block:

Calls to expel former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) piled up after reports surfaced that he sexually assaulted a former aide and several other women. Swalwell initially said he would fight the allegations. Then he dropped his bid to become governor of California after a host of once close allies abandoned their support. Swalwell has now resigned, avoiding the ignominious scene of an expulsion.

Then there was former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas). At first, Gonzales denied an affair with an aide who committed suicide by setting herself on fire. Gonzales was locked in a tough primary runoff against Republican Congressional candidate Brandon Herrera. But after pressure, Gonzales finally dropped out of the runoff and isn’t standing for re-election. However, Gonzales intended to stay on until his term expired on January 3 next year. But now Gonzales is out the door, too.

TWO DEMOCRATIC REPS CALL FOR SWALWELL TO EXIT CONGRESS AS CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND HIS BID FOR CA GOVERNOR

So two down, two to go.

This is where things grow complicated.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) could face expulsion soon. In late March, the House Ethics Committee held a rare “trial,” declaring she improperly obtained an astonishing $5 million in COVID relief funds. The Ethics panel will likely recommend a punishment for Cherfilus-McCormick next week. The full House doesn’t have to consider or adhere to the prescribed discipline. The congresswoman proclaims her innocence. She faces a criminal trial in Florida in February 2027.

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“The facts are indisputable at this point and so I believe it will be the consensus of this body that she should be expelled,” forecast House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Rep. Greg Stuebe (R-Fla.) filed a resolution to bounce Cherfilus-McCormick from the body a few months ago. 

And for the Republicans, there’s Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.). Mills is accused of “stolen valor” and exaggeration of his military record. But what triggered the current expulsion push is an allegation that the congressman struck his girlfriend in early 2025. A judge imposed a restraining order against Mills. However, police never charged the congressman. The Ethics Committee is also investigating whether he violated federal campaign rules. But the formal ethics probe of the Florida Republican isn’t as far along as the Cherfilus-McCormick inquiry.

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Johnson is mindful of that fact.

“With regard to Mills, I’m not sure the status of the Ethics Committee investigation and that’s one of the things I’ll be looking into today,” said Johnson.

Four troubled Members. Two Democrats and two Republicans. It was that parity which may have primed the House to take the unprecedented step of expelling those four Members before Swalwell and Gonzales announced their resignations. But a push to expel Cherfiulus-McCormick and not Mills creates a host of problems in the House.

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It’s about the math.

The House swore-in Rep. Clay Fuller (R-Ga.) on Monday night. Fuller won a special election last week to succeed former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) who resigned. That GOP gain is likely offset by an anticipated victory by Democratic Congressional candidate Analilia Mejia in a Thursday special election in New Jersey. This is a Democratic seat which has been vacant since New Jersey Gov. and former Congresswoman Mikie Sherill (D) resigned from the House last fall.

With Swalwell and Gonzales out and Fuller in, the current breakdown is 431 Members: 217 Republicans and 213 Democrats. Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.) dropped his affiliation with the GOP. The addition of Fuller and presumed win by Meija would make the breakdown 217 to 214 and one independent – with one vacancy, covering 432 Members. After the Swalwell and Gonzales resignations, the remaining open seat is a solidly Republican district in northern California, long held by late Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.). He died in January.

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But what happens if the House moves against Cherfilus-McCormick and not Mills? That creates an imbalance between the parties – something which was lost when the potential expulsion of four Members was on the table.

“What about this issue of parity,” yours truly asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

“The issue of parity hasn’t been something that we’ve had a conversation about. We’ve been working through what’s in front of us today and that’s what we’re going to continue to do,” replied Jeffries.

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I followed up.

“But isn’t that a concern, though, if they take action against Cherfilus-McCormick? Her ethics process is further along than Mr. Mills,” I asked.

“The ethics process is still incomplete and we’ll see what the Ethics Committee has to recommend next week,” replied Jeffries.

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That’s in reference to the upcoming ethics panel meeting, recommending punishment for the Florida Democrat.

It was one thing if the House may have bounced four Members, two Republicans and two Democrats, all at once. But it’s dicier now that Gonzales and Swalwell stepped aside. It’s further complicated considering the uneven status of the ethics inquiries regarding Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills.

It seems that Congress is now in a period of establishing new precedents on a regular basis. A record-breaking government shutdown – only superseded by another record-breaking government shutdown. In addition, the House is experiencing a dramatic increase in the raw number of “censures” which it doles out to Members. Censure is the second-highest mode of punishment in the House, just below expulsion.

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The House censured late Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) in late 2010. Prior to that, the House last reprimanded late Reps. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) and Daniel Crane (R-Ill.) in 1983. But since 2021, the House has censured five Members: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) – when he served in the House – Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas).

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently characterized the censure explosion as the “political” weaponization of the ethics process.

It’s possible the House might not take any immediate action regarding Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills. Lawmakers from both sides may be more willing to expel one of their own – and maybe take one for the team on their side – if a similar outcome is guaranteed across the aisle.

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With such a tight majority, Republicans may not want to cede power to Democrats if the House expels a GOP Member as they try to cling to the majority. By the same token, it’s doubtful Democrats are willing to absorb a hit when they are within sneezing distance of the majority – if they don’t see a political equilibrium and document consequences for the Republican majority.

Moreover, tracking where the votes lie for disciplinary action is nearly impossible. What further complicates this is whether any expulsion motion actually comes to a true, up/down vote. There are often motions “to table” or kill any resolution to impose discipline against a Member. The same with motions “to refer” or dispatch allegations against a Member to the Ethics Committee for additional scrutiny. For instance, the Ethics panel is all but done probing Cherfilus-McCormick and is investigating Mills. So it’s unclear what would happen with any possible motion “to refer.”

And let’s be frank: some lawmakers either really want to be on the record voting to discipline one of their colleagues or want no part of it at all. Resolutions to sit in judgment of a colleague is one of the hardest votes lawmakers take. Right up with a vote to go to war. That’s why some prefer the political fig leaf of a “motion to refer” or “motion to table” to an actual up/down vote to punish one of their own.

So this could have been “expulsion week” on Capitol Hill. It’s certainly “resignation week.” And if there’s no other disciplinary action, some lawmakers will be resigned to that outcome.

The House Judiciary Committee released internal Border Patrol documents on Tuesday, showing that a Venezuelan migrant now charged in the killing of Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman was flagged as a flight risk and had no valid asylum claim before being released into the U.S. in 2023.

Jose Medina-Medina, 25, is accused of fatally shooting 18-year-old Gorman in Chicago in March.

Fox News Digital previously reported that Medina-Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was apprehended at the southern border in 2023 and later released into the country under the Biden administration.

In a post on X, House Judiciary Republicans said the documents show officials released a migrant they described as dangerous despite warning signs.

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“The subject is a native and citizen of Venezuela by virtue of birth,” the document reads. “The subject is a migrant illegally present in the United States, have no immigration documents in their possession nor have or anyone else filed a petition on their behalf. Subject has close family ties or roots in this country yet are likely to abscond.”

Additional records state the subject had no valid U.S. address or identification and was unable to provide a verifiable point of contact.

The documents also detail the circumstances of Medina-Medina’s apprehension at the border.

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“A Border Patrol Agent encountered subject in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector area of responsibility,” the document read. “A Border Patrol Agent determined this subject had unlawfully entered the United States from Mexico, at a time and place other than as designated by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security of the United States.

“After determining that the subject was an undocumented migrant who illegally entered the United States, the subject was arrested and transported to the Central Processing Center (CPC) in El Paso, Texas for further processing using the [redacted] Systems,” the document continued. “The subject was asked and responded that they do not fear harm or persecution should they be returned to their native country.”

Despite those findings, the documents show he was processed for a Notice to Appear and released on recognizance “due to lack of space,” under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

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Federal prosecutors on April 2 charged Medina-Medina with illegally possessing a firearm, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. In addition to the federal charge, he faces state-level charges including murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and illegal possession of a weapon.

Prosecutors said Gorman was with friends at a Rogers Park pier in the early morning hours of March 19 when she spotted Medina-Medina near a lighthouse and warned others. Authorities said Medina-Medina then chased the group and shot Gorman in the upper back as they fled.

In a statement after charges were filed, the Gorman family said, “Sheridan was a real person—she had a future, a family, and a life full of promise.”

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.

One of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s, D-Calif., closest friends in Congress said their tight-knit relationship “clouded my judgment” regarding rumors that swirled about the ex-lawmaker for years in Washington, D.C.

“Eric Swalwell lied to all of us,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said at an impromptu press conference in his office. “He lied to the most powerful people in this country and they trusted him. They trusted him with some of the most sensitive spots in our government, whether it was on Judiciary Committee, Intel Committee, impeaching Donald Trump.”

“And that clouded my judgment, my friendship with him,” he continued. “Our family’s friendship together with him clouded my judgment. And I was wrong. I deeply, deeply regret that.”

SWALWELL OUT AMID SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS AFTER 13 YEARS IN CONGRESS

It’s a sharp pivot for Gallego, given that the two had a familial-like relationship. Just last week, Gallego defended Swalwell online against allegations of misconduct, which he later said he regretted.

Their kids went to baseball camp together, they babysat one another’s children, and Gallego even jumped on board as national chair for Swalwell’s failed 2020 presidential bid.

But after a bombshell report from the San Francisco Chronicle alleged that Swalwell sexually assaulted a former staffer, his former friend is no longer sticking up for him.

SWALWELL’S ‘BEST FRIEND’ IN CONGRESS TURNS ON HIM AFTER BOMBSHELL ALLEGATIONS TORPEDO HIS POLITICAL CAREER

In the days since that report surfaced, five people in total have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct or rape.

Gallego, while heaping blame on Swalwell and apologizing to his alleged victims, maintained that he had no knowledge of the alleged behavior. He noted, however, that rumors had circulated about Swalwell — and other past lawmakers — in the nation’s capital for years.

When pressed on the nature of those rumors, Gallego said Swalwell was “flirty,” but nothing along the lines of the allegations that sank his gubernatorial bid and congressional career — nor activity that “I would say would rise to the occasion that I would be able to, you know, not talk to his wife the next day and be able to look her in the eye.”

When allegations began to surface online at the onset of Swalwell’s gubernatorial run, Gallego said Swalwell “manipulated” him into believing it was a smear campaign similar to the one used against him during his 2024 Senate race against Kari Lake.

PELOSI, CALIFORNIA DEMS SLAM SWALWELL OVER BOMBSHELL SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS: ‘INDEFENSIBLE’

“He knew I came off a horrible race where I had to answer to my family. I have to answer accusations to best friends, to my kids. And he fed into that,” Gallego said. “He fed into it and I fell for it like everyone else. I fell for the lies. I regret it, but that’s what happened.”

The two spent significant time together — on official and private trips, on each other’s campaigns, and within the halls of Congress.

When asked how it was possible that neither he nor other lawmakers who had known Swalwell for years — including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. — were aware, Gallego said “he became very good at being a predator.”

“And he clearly preyed on these women in different positions. And he became extremely proficient at lying to us, lying to his family, lying to his community,” Gallego said. “You know, the nature of his job allowed him to travel. And we just did not fully understand … There’s just no way we could have seen any of this.”

Facing expulsion and a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of his conduct, Swalwell officially resigned from Congress on Tuesday.

While he apologized to his family and constituents, he doubled down against the accusations leveled against him.

“I will fight the serious false allegations made against me,” Swalwell wrote in his resignation letter. “However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”

House Republicans are demanding ActBlue, a top Democratic campaign fundraising apparatus, turn over international communications, probing whether the organization knowingly misled lawmakers and dodged subpoenas to hide weaknesses in its screening process to weed out illegal, overseas donations.

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., collectively laid out their demands in a letter published on Tuesday.

“For more than a year, the Committees have conducted oversight regarding ActBlue’s ‘fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention,’” the letter reads.

“Recent reporting … strongly suggests that ActBlue deliberately obstructed the Committees’ investigation, including through misleading statements and noncompliance with our subpoenas.”

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The letter is addressed to Regina Wallace-Jones, the CEO and president of ActBlue, and is the most recent entry in investigations that began in 2023 when Republicans originally raised concerns about foreign donations possibly influencing American elections.

It also follows New York Times reporting on a memo from Covington & Burling, a law firm, warning that gaps in its screening armor could present “a substantial risk for ActBlue.”

The memo, on its own, does not implicate wrongdoing or indicate that ActBlue accepted international donations. Even so, the reporting caught the eye of Republicans in Congress.

Steil, Jordan and Comer are collectively asking ActBlue to produce two internal documents to examine the internal understanding ActBlue may have had about its own weaknesses.

The first is a resignation letter from General Counsel Aaron Ting — a document Republicans contend centers on liabilities created by ActBlue’s donation security.

Republicans believe the second, a message from ActBlue’s former legal counsel Zain Ahmad, relates to an ignored whistleblower complaint about those practices.

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Republicans have already requested those documents before, but haven’t received them.

“There is considerable reason to believe that ActBlue may have deliberately withheld this responsive material to impede our investigation,” the letter states.

For its own part, ActBlue has claimed it makes every effort to ensure its fundraising complies with legal requirements.

In ActBlue’s own letter published in Nov. 2023, Wallace-Jones, the CEO, affirmed that the organization maintained the highest standards for scrutiny of its fundraising.

“Our approach is multilayered, with checks and confirmations occurring throughout the donation process to verify donors and donor information,” Wallace-Jones wrote.

“These measures, which include compliance measures, technological tools, and manual reviews, help to ensure the identity of donors, root out potential foreign contributions, and protect donors from financial fraud.”

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Republican lawmakers have given ActBlue two weeks to produce the requested documentation, setting a deadline for April 28, 2026.

“Absent these steps, the Committees are prepared to use available mechanisms to enforce our subpoenas,” the letter reads.

Former President Joe Biden raised eyebrows Tuesday at Syracuse University after making an awkward onstage remark comparing a Black member of the school’s Board of Trustees to former President Barack Obama.

Biden returned to his alma mater Tuesday to celebrate the unveiling of his portrait, which will be permanently displayed in the law school’s Law Library Reading Room.

Video shows Biden speaking at the podium, addressing the law school’s leadership by name before making the awkward joke.

“I always want to turn around to one guy and say.. ‘Barack what are you doing?” Biden said as the audience laughed.

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He then motioned for the man off camera to join him on stage. The man is Jeffrey M. Scruggs, chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees.

“I feel like he should be standing on the right and I should be standing on the left,” Biden said as Scruggs and the audience laughed.

Commentators on social media debated the moment, with critics remarking that Biden, a well-known gaffe machine, was showing his age. Others defended the president, saying it was clearly a joke.

Biden’s following speech was personal and reflective, crediting family, classmates and mentors for his career while recounting how Syracuse Law shaped his belief in using the law to advance dignity, equality and democracy. He discussed his path from law student to public service through moments of national upheaval and personal tragedy, highlighted his late son Beau’s legacy, and described his commitment to “dignity, respect, fairness, equality.”

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In his closing remarks, Biden touched on his legacy and said he hoped he’d be remembered for his fight for democracy.

“As I began to build my presidential library and foundation, [I] hope to pass down to future generations a reverence for democracy,” Biden said. “And my classmates and I learned here at Syracuse because whatever, whatever my legacy may be, I hope will be said that I never stopped striving for the cause of democracy.”

“And I hope that long after I’m gone on future classes of Syracuse law students see the portrait and the reminder, not of me, but of the greatness and power of our democracy and of their obligation to do their part to preserve, protect, defend our Constitution,” Biden continued.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of Joe and Jill Biden for comment.

Erika Kirk canceled her planned appearance at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia on Tuesday after receiving what organizers described as “very serious threats.”

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Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said Erika Kirk, wife of late conservative icon Charlie Kirk, received “some very serious threats in her direction,” prompting her absence from the event in Athens, Georgia.

Vice President JD Vance said he had been concerned the event might be canceled and spoke with the Secret Service, adding he told Kirk to “do what she needs to do for her and her family.”

News that now-former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., would abandon his California gubernatorial bid in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations on Sunday didn’t prevent Senate lawmakers on Monday from demanding that the embattled congressman go one step further and resign.

“I do,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., said plainly when asked if Swalwell should step down from the House of Representatives.

“Yes,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., answered.

But even as lawmakers began weighing in, Swalwell said he had decided to yield to the pressure. He announced plans to leave office, even while pushing back on claims of abuse, harassment and even rape.

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“I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegations made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make,” Swalwell said in a statement.

To Sen. Jeane Shaheen, D-N.H., the deciding pressure point likely came from his district.

“I think he must have heard from his constituents and he responded to that,” Sen. Jeane Shaheen, D-N.H., said.

Bombshell reporting from CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle last Friday recounted allegations from several women, providing detailed accounts of how Swalwell had pursued intoxicated women, pressured employees into intimate situations and asked for explicit images from female contacts.

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The story prompted several lawmakers across both chambers to demand Swalwell’s resignation.

In the hours ahead of Swalwell’s resignation announcement, senators voiced alarm at the detailed accounts and their sources.

“They sound extraordinarily serious and I think — I don’t know Mr. Swalwell, but I do think when you have this many people who know him well, [making accusations] he should go,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said.

Ahead of his resignation, Swalwell had faced a potential expulsion resolution, a vote that, if successful, would have stripped him of his seat.

Despite his ultimate decision to step away, Swalwell condemned the effort.

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“I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong. But it’s also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress,” Swalwell said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom must announce a special election to fill Swalwell’s seat within 14 days, according to California state law. Once announced, the election must be held within 140 days.