Category: USA Politics

A coalition of groups represented by the embattled Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is suing Florida over its new congressional map, arguing that it favors one political party over another.

The 41-page lawsuit was filed by Common Cause, an ethics watchdog; the League of Women Voters of Florida; and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The organizations allege the map violates the Fair Districts Amendment, which prohibits the Republican-controlled state legislature from drawing maps that favor a specific political party.

“The fact that this is a partisan gerrymander is as obvious as it is unconstitutional,” said Bradley Heard, deputy legal director for the SPLC. “And while this unnecessary map is egregious in how it advantages Republicans and disadvantages Democrats, the people who will suffer the most if it is allowed to stand are once again Black and Brown communities, whose voices are consistently silenced in these redistricting battles. The SPLC will not allow this governor to turn back the clock on voting rights in Florida.”

DESANTIS SIGNS FLORIDA REDISTRICTING MAP TO POTENTIALLY FLIP 4 HOUSE SEATS RED

The lawsuit is the second filed in as many days against the new map. The first was filed hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the map into law; the plaintiffs in that suit are the Equal Ground Education Fund, a voting rights group, and 18 Florida voters.

Fox News Digital has reached out to DeSantis’ office for comment.

The Fair Districts Amendment was approved by voters in 2010 in an effort to set redistricting standards to prevent partisan gerrymandering, the favoring of political parties, or the reduction in power of minority groups.

“The governor’s ploy to impose maps for an unfair partisan advantage is exactly why voters made it illegal in 2010—and why we’re going to court,” said Amy Keith, the executive director for Common Cause Florida. “This governor and Republican lawmakers will stop at nothing to put their finger on the scale because they are afraid of being held accountable by the people.

“We expect the courts to be the adults in the room and honor the Florida Constitution and the will of Florida voters.”

REDISTRICTING BATTLES BREWING ACROSS THE COUNTRY AS PARTIES COMPETE FOR POWER AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

The plaintiffs are asking a judge to declare the map unconstitutional and impose an injunction to prevent state officials from enacting it. Additionally, they want the state to reinstate the previous 2022 congressional map or order the adoption of a completely new redistricting plan that is compliant with the state constitution.

“When a map is distributed in a red/blue format to the media before being transmitted to the legislature, and when the governor’s staff openly acknowledges in committee that there is no new Census data being used to justify a new map, Florida voters can’t help but suspect that this is a partisan gerrymander,” said Jessica Lowe-Minor, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida.

The SPLC is one of several groups representing the plaintiffs. The organization currently faces federal charges for allegedly secretly transferring money to extremist groups it claimed to be fighting, with the goal of infiltrating and monitoring their activities.

AL SHARPTON RAGES AT FLORIDA GOV DESANTIS’ IMPRESSION OF HAKEEM JEFFRIES

The SPLC is accused of paying $3 million to people associated with violent extremist groups — including the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Movement, and the American Nazi Party — between 2014 and 2023.

Amid the battle over Florida’s redrawing of its congressional map, Democrats have repeatedly decried the move as a GOP power grab.

Currently, Florida Republicans have a 20–8 majority in the House, but the new map could extend the GOP’s power to 24–4 following the redrawing of districts. This shift could impact several Democratic incumbents, including Reps. Darren Soto, Kathy Castor, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Jared Moskowitz.

Nikki Fried, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said the new map disenfranchises millions of Black, brown, and Jewish voters in the state.

“This type of voter suppression is nothing new in Florida—from Jim Crow and the Ocoee massacre to election police and the enactment of the most extreme voter suppression laws in the country since 2021, unfortunately, Florida has always been a testing ground for conservative extremism,” she said Monday.

A Chicago alderman, incensed by the upcoming closure of a Walgreens store amid safety concerns, stated that the corporate retailer should be charged with “first-degree corporate abandonment.”

Ald. William Hall, along with several community members, held a news conference Monday to voice their anger over the company’s decision to close the location in Chicago’s 6th Ward in the Chatham neighborhood.

“Walgreens should be charged with first-degree corporate abandonment,” Hall said. “It should be a crime, the way they’re treating our elders. It should be a crime, the way they’re treating our families.”

The store is slated to close on June 4. Fox News Digital has reached out to both Hall’s office and Walgreens for further comment.

DEMOCRAT DA IN HOT SEAT AFTER RETAIL THEFT SURGES IN MAJOR AMERICAN CITIES

In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago-area-based pharmacy store chain cited theft and violent incidents as the primary factors behind its decision to close the store on S. Cottage Grove Ave.

“Despite a range of efforts, including previous operating adjustments, these ongoing safety challenges have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a secure environment for our team members and customers,” the company said. “While this was not an easy decision, safety must remain our top priority.”

Walgreens confirmed that employees at the location will be eligible to transfer to other stores.

CHICAGO RESIDENTS DEMAND ACTION, ACCOUNTABILITY AFTER MOB OF CHILDREN BRUTALLY BEATS MOTHER AND 9-YEAR-OLD SON

Hall emphasized that the community isn’t “begging” Walgreens to stay, but argued the company is in the wrong for leaving residents without a place to fill medical prescriptions. He warned that the closure would create a “medicine drought” for seniors and residents managing chronic health conditions.

“We’re not here to beg Walgreens to stay. We are saying that their decision is the wrong decision,” Hall said. “In my opinion, it should be considered a first-degree corporate crime… the number of elders who will not have access to healthcare is evil.”

He further noted that Walgreens “ran out” all the small, local businesses in the area when it originally opened.

Ald. Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, said he understands the community’s frustration but questioned the timing of the outrage.

“Where was that anger when the stores in our communities were under years and years of assault by criminals allowed to shoplift, vandalize, and destroy neighborhood institutions?” Lopez asked. “Many leaders say it is simply an insurance matter. They are wrong. There are real-world consequences for crime running rampant. This closure is the perfect example of that effect.”

Walgreens has closed stores in other cities because of rampant theft.

In 2021, the chain closed several stores in the San Francisco area, citing organized retail crime. 

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday unveiled a new initiative targeting what he described as the “overuse” of psychiatric medications, part of a broader push to confront the nation’s mental health crisis.

Speaking Monday at a Make America Healthy Again Institute summit, Kennedy said the effort will emphasize the appropriate deprescribing of psychiatric drugs while shifting care toward prevention and more holistic treatment approaches.

“Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications — especially among children,” Kennedy said in a statement. 

“We will support patient autonomy, require informed consent and shared decision-making, and shift the standard of care toward prevention, transparency, and a more holistic approach to mental health.”

RFK JR UNVEILS $100M EFFORT TO TACKLE ADDICTION, HOMELESSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS

Antidepressants rank among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States, with a 2025 survey of over 30,000 adults showing that 16.6% were using them, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Kennedy stressed the effort is not about forcing patients off medication, the outlet reported.

“Let me be clear: If you are taking psychiatric medication, we are not telling you to stop,” Kennedy said. “We are making sure you — and your clinician — have the information and support to make the right decision for you.”

TRUMP TURNS OBAMA-ERA YOUTH HEALTH POLICY ON ITS HEAD AS SCHOOL FITNESS BENCHMARK RETURNS

In a letter released Monday, HHS urged providers to prioritize informed consent and shared decision-making, and to routinely reassess the risks and benefits of psychiatric medications with patients.

The department also highlighted other ways to treat mental health issues, including therapy, family support, better nutrition and exercise, when appropriate.

At the same time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced new guidance allowing physicians to be reimbursed for helping patients safely taper off psychiatric medications and monitor withdrawal.

The plan also includes a new report on prescribing trends, more training for doctors, and a panel of experts to guide future decisions on medication use.

TRUMP SURGEON GENERAL PICK SPARKS BACKLASH, SPLITS MAHA MOVEMENT

An HHS spokesperson pointed to rising prescription rates among children, including increases in ADHD diagnoses and antidepressant use, arguing the trend reflects “overmedicalization” and a need to expand non-drug, evidence-based treatment options.

“HHS is committed to elevating the role of nonmedication treatments and scalable, evidence-based solutions to improve mental health and prevent the unnecessary initiation of psychiatric medications,” an HHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing backlash for her response to mayoral candidate and former reality television star Spencer Pratt, who has been attacking L.A. leaders over alleged mismanagement during the deadly Palisades Fire.

Bass accused Pratt of “exploiting” the tragedy, which he faced personally, to score political points. Pratt, however, pushed back and said he won community awards for his support of the Palisades community during the tragedy that resulted in both his and his families’ homes being burnt down. He said he also knew people who burned alive across the street from his childhood home.

“Honestly, before this, I had never heard of Spencer Pratt,” Bass told MeidasTouch as the former reality star’s anti-Bass ads about her mismanagement during the Palisades began gaining traction online. “The thing I am concerned and feel about him is that I feel like he’s exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades and I just think that’s just reprehensible. That’s the main thing and I think he is about his own celebrity — he’s famous now again.”

The questioner during the interview agreed with Bass throughout the talk, but did concede that the fires were something “top of mind” for California voters. Still, Bass was lauded by the questioner for her experience working in public office during such a major disaster, a tenure Pratt is targeting.

SPENCER PRATT ANNOUNCES LA MAYOR RUN ON ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF PALISADES FIRE THAT DESTROYED HIS HOME

“For a longtime politician, I am godsmacked by Karen Bass’ absolute tone deafness in attacking a survivor of the Palisades Fire in this way,” Roxanne Hoge, Chairwoman of the L.A. Republican Party, told Fox News Digital.

“All of Los Angeles is grieving the loss of our once-beautiful and prosperous City under Karen Bass’ and Nithya Raman’s leadership the last 4 years. To accuse Spencer Pratt — who lives in his burned-out lot in a trailer — of ‘exploiting grief’ is a new low,” Elizabeth Barcohana, an attorney and political strategist in Los Angeles, added. “It is only thanks to Pratt that we know why Bass was unprepared for the Palisades Fire, why [Gov. Gavin] Newsom chose to save plants instead of the people who burned alive that day, how the FireAid money disappeared into local NGO coffers instead of going to victims, and what our taxpayer funding that is supposed to be used to reduce homelessness is actually being spent on.”

“Mayor Bass calling Spencer Pratt’s campaign ‘reprehensible’ is the kind of tone-deaf political malpractice that explains exactly why Los Angeles is in crisis. Spencer Pratt lost his home. His parents lost their home. He watched his city burn while his mayor was on a plane to Ghana. That’s not exploitation, that’s lived experience, and it’s the most legitimate credential anyone could bring to this race,” former Trump campaign advisor Janiyah Thomas also told Fox News Digital. “Mayor Bass had the audacity to say she’d never heard of Spencer Pratt, but Angelenos have never forgotten that she cut the fire department’s budget and was absent when their homes were turning to ash.”

LA TIMES OWNER BLAMES MAYOR FOR CUTTING FIRE DEPARTMENT BUDGET AHEAD OF WILDFIRES: ‘COMPETENCE MATTERS’

Meanwhile, Bass said during the MeidasTouch interview that her experience leading the city’s response during the deadly Palisades Fire, in addition to her experience at the federal level in Congress, was exactly why she was a better candidate than Pratt, adding he could use a civics class to understand how government works.

But Bass faced heavy criticism during the fire for being absent, including taking a trip to Ghana as a historic windstorm swept the area ahead of the blaze, for not deploying proper pre-fire resources and enacting around $17.6 million cuts to the city’s fire department ahead of the tragedy.

Bass appeared to blame the fires and their destruction on climate change during the interview, while arguing her experience serving in public office during the disaster is why she should be re-elected. 

DEMS BLAME LA FIRE ON ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’ DESPITE CITY CUTTING FIRE DEPARTMENT BUDGET

“These fires, it was the worst natural disaster that we experienced in our city — at the root of it, you know, we have to get adjusted to — just like everybody else in the nation — to different weather experiences that we’re not used to because of climate change,” Bass added during the discussion about Pratt and his attacks on her record. “We don’t know hurricanes — I’m born and raised in Los Angeles — to have hurricane-strength winds and actually no rain is odd anywhere but especially Los Angeles.”

Bass’ office referred Fox News Digital to the mayor’s campaign team, but they did not provide any response in time for publication.

“I’m not sure if Karen Bass forgot she let my house burn down and my parents house burn down and I had actual neighbors burn alive across the street from my childhood home,” Pratt responded on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” when asked about Bass’ criticism of him. “The only grief is my grief, my community’s grief that I initially started this fight on behalf of.”

“It’s the most insane, psycho, diabolical thing I’ve heard in a minute – but it’s not shocking,” Pratt added.

“How the hell is Spencer Pratt ‘exploiting grief’?” Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, questioned in a post on X about Bass’ response. “He, his wife, children and parents lost their homes and everything in it in a fire because of Karen Bass and her failed policies.”

“Mayor Bass is in damage control. Bass calling this ‘exploitation’ tells you that she wants sympathy for herself and silence from the actual victims of the fires,” Corrin Rankin, California Republican Party chairwoman, told Fox News Digital. “Californians are tired of Democratic politicians who lack accountability and attack critics. When people lose everything, they have every right to demand answers from the people in charge that failed them.”

A trauma surgeon seen as the current frontrunner to succeed a retiring House Democrat was an acquaintance of and defense witness for the Egyptian-born cleric and convicted terrorist known as the “Blind Sheikh” in the seditious conspiracy trial that put the latter away for life.

Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman was one of several people convicted of seditious conspiracy in the aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Abdel-Rahman later died in prison at the federal detention center in Butner, North Carolina, in 2017.

Dr. Adam Hisham Hamawy, now a plastic surgeon who runs his own “regenerative medicine” practice near Princeton, was one of the witnesses for the defense in Abdel-Rahman’s case and now faces questions about his judgment and past association with the sheikh, which his campaign told Fox News Digital amount to “guilt-by-association” shaming.

Hamawy is running to replace Rep. Bonnie Watson-Coleman, D-N.J., in a crowded primary for the blue-favored district spanning Trenton through Somerville to the Plainfields that has not elected a Republican since 1994.

DEM FREE-FOR-ALL ENGULFS NJ AS 13 CONTENDERS SCRAMBLE FOR SHERRILL’S HOUSE SEAT AHEAD OF CRITICAL 2026 FIGHT

Hamawy and Abdel-Rahman first met at a middle school forum in Matawan, New Jersey, in 1991, according to the former’s testimony in court, as he began accompanying the Blind Sheikh to mosques and even took a 13-hour road trip with him and others, including future FBI informant Emad Salem, from the cleric’s home mosque in Jersey City to an Islamic conference in Michigan.

In his testimony, Hamawy recounted being in a Michigan hotel room with Abdel-Rahman and Salem, where the latter was saying he was “bragging about his abilities” in bombmaking from his time in the Egyptian special forces.

Abdel-Rahman regularly verbalized envisioning the assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and spoke of jihad, according to court documents.

Abdel-Rahman’s mosque was also where several 1993 World Trade Center bombing suspects would meet, according to Front Page Magazine and the Washington Free Beacon.

Court records characterized the Jersey City mosque as a “jihad office,” according to reports, as Abdel-Rahman had also founded Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, a group considered a terrorist organization by European governments.

While he did not directly participate in the World Trade Center bombing, followers of Abdel-Rahman who frequented his mosque did, and the government later arrested him on charges of a plot to wage “urban terrorism against the United States” by targeting Mid-Atlantic landmarks such as the George Washington Bridge, the United Nations and part of Interstate 78.

MAMDANI TAPS CONTROVERSIAL LAWYER WHO DEFENDED AL QAEDA TERRORIST FOR TOP ROLE: ‘POWERFUL ADVOCATE’

RNC spokesperson Kristen Cianci told Fox News Digital that Hamawy’s testimony is a “matter of record” and that his campaign can try to “sweep this under the rug but voters won’t ignore it.”

According to Front Page Magazine’s review of the thousands of pages, a federal prosecutor summarized Hamawy in part as someone who “didn’t want the defendant, Abdel-Rahman, to look bad,” and didn’t recall discussions about Mubarak until a transcript was shown to him.

Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy — who was formerly the Southern District of New York prosecutor credited with putting Abdel-Rahman away for life — said that while Hamawy was a witness for the terrorist, his testimony helped the government more than his acquaintance.

“As was uniformly the case with witnesses presented in the extensive defense case, his testimony, once cross-examination was over, did more to bolster the prosecution’s proof of a jihadist terrorism conspiracy against the United States than to help the accused,” McCarthy said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

McCarthy said the jury credited Salem’s recollection of their trip to Michigan, and that the evidence Abdel-Rahman called for Mubarak’s assassination had been so overwhelming, that the Blind Sheikh’s attorneys were reduced to “arguing, in essence, that Mubarak had it coming.”

“Not surprisingly, that’s not how the jury saw it.”

DEM SEEKING NY SWING SEAT DEFENDS EMBRACING EXTREMIST WHO SAID HAMAS IS ‘A THOUSANDS TIMES BETTER’ THAN ISRAEL

Hamawy also recently appeared on far-left anti-Israel podcaster Hasan Piker’s program, where he advocated for a “healthcare, not bombs” platform that would “dismantle” the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon — which he monikered “The Department of War Crimes” — and instead divert funding to education and healthcare.

Through his campaign, Hamawy blasted the media for resurrecting his time with Abdel-Rahman and his witness testimony in the case, with his campaign characterizing the reports as an attempt by wealthy Republicans to shield President Donald Trump through the press from lawmakers who would hold his feet to the fire.

“It’s unsurprising that the RNC and Republican billionaire-backed outlets are trying to cast Dr. Adam Hamawy in a negative light: he’s Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” Hamawy’s campaign told Fox News Digital on Monday when presented with the association with Abdel-Rahman and related reporting.

Hamawy’s campaign added that he used his medical background to treat victims of the ensuing 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center and said the doctor’s “patriotism and love of this country are at the core of his values.”

Instead, the campaign said, Republicans and other critics are using “bad-faith, guilt-by-association attacks” on Muslim and Arab candidates.

“He was in the military at the time the events litigated in the trial took place, during the trial, and after the trial,” the campaign said, adding he performed his civic duty to testify truthfully — while noting that Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., credits him with saving her life after her helicopter crashed during the Iraq War.

In turn, Hamawy credited Duckworth with saving his life when he and a Gazan aid group were trapped by a closed Israeli border at Rafah that the senator pressed the Biden administration to act upon.

Voters will decide whether Hamawy’s role in the case reflects routine legal duty or a deeper question about his judgment as they choose among a crowded Democratic field.

President Donald Trump isn’t happy with Senate Republicans for not pulling the trigger on the one procedural move that could unlock his agenda.

Trump, since taking office again last year, has time and again called on Republicans to terminate the filibuster — the 60-vote threshold in the Senate that can either make or break legislation.

It’s what’s holding up the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, voter ID and citizenship-verification legislation that Trump and conservatives view as key to winning big in the midterm election cycle.

SCHUMER, DEMS LAUNCH ‘FREE AND FAIR’ ELECTIONS TASK FORCE AS TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT STUMBLES

When asked on Tuesday if he was disappointed that Republicans hadn’t terminated the filibuster, Trump said he was, but he didn’t blame Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

“I’m disappointed,” Trump said. “I like John a lot, but he, you know, he has a couple of Republicans that are foolish people. A couple of them are, like, a couple of them I can’t stand, actually.”

Which Republicans Trump was referring to is unclear, given his revolving door of frustration with some in the GOP who break with his agenda, but his message has remained the same: nuke the filibuster or Democrats will win in November.

TRUMP PRESSURES GOP TO SCRAP FILIBUSTER, SAYS ‘DESPERATE’ SCHUMER ‘WILL MAKE A DEAL’

Trump argued that without the filibuster, the SAVE America Act would have passed, there would be proof of citizenship to register to vote, and mail-in voting would be limited. “Because anytime you have mail-in voting, they’re going to cheat. And they cheat like dogs, and they have to cheat.”

“When you have policies like that, you have to cheat,” Trump said. “It’s the only way they can win. And we shouldn’t allow them to cheat. And we should terminate the filibuster, because if they get the chance, they’ll do it in the first hour back.”

REPUBLICANS FAIL TO ATTACH SAVE AMERICA ACT TO PARTY-LINE FUNDING PACKAGE

Several Senate Republicans have echoed the latter part of Trump’s concern: if Senate Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., regain control of the upper chamber, they’ll try once more to do away with the filibuster.

But there isn’t an appetite among Republicans to get rid of the safeguard, which has historically been used by the minority party as a tool to prevent partisan bills from being rammed through the Senate.

And while the Senate is still debating the SAVE America Act, the legislation already suffered a setback on a test vote to attach it to the GOP’s budget blueprint to fund immigration enforcement last month.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., offered a version of the legislation as an amendment, and it failed to crack a simple majority vote — the same threshold any legislation would have to meet if the filibuster were gutted.

A federal magistrate judge who apologized to the suspect accused of plotting an assassination attempt against President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner has a history as a sharp critic of Trump-era federal prosecutions, a Fox News Digital review of his background found.

“To me, it’s extremely disturbing that he was put in five-point restraints, a person with no criminal history. It’s troubling,” said Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, referring to suspect Cole Allen’s jail treatment on Monday. “I never heard of one Jan. 6 defendant who was put in five-point restraints or in a safe cell. If the only way to keep him safe is the most punitive thing, that’s a problem.”

“At a minimum, I should be apologizing to him. We are obligated to make sure he’s taken care of. Mr. Allen, I’m sorry that things have not been the way they are supposed to,” said Faruqui.

Faruqui, appointed as a U.S. magistrate judge in 2020, has previously clashed with federal prosecutors in Washington over Trump administration law-enforcement surge cases, accusing U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office of overreaching by bringing some matters in federal court that he said belonged in local court.

COLE ALLEN CHARGED IN TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT IN FIRST COURT APPEARANCE AFTER WHCA DINNER SHOOTING

Faruqui was selected by judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to serve an eight-year term as a magistrate judge in 2020. At the time of his September 2020, appointment, the court’s active Article III bench was composed of 15 judges — 11 appointed by Democratic presidents and four appointed by Republican presidents.

He was sworn in by then-Chief Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee who has faced ethics complaints and criticism from Trump allies over her handling of Trump-related matters.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly cast the D.C. federal bench as hostile terrain for the administration, accusing judges in the district — including Chief Judge James Boasberg, who has drawn Trump’s ire in high-profile immigration litigation — of anti-Trump bias in politically charged cases.

The Allen hearing was not the first time Faruqui’s handling of a Trump-related threat case drew backlash from federal prosecutors. Last year, he clashed with Pirro’s office amid the case against Edward Alexander Dana — who was accused of threatening to kill Trump while in police custody on vandalism charges — before it was dismissed. 

Pirro issued a statement at the time accusing Faruqui of having an “allegiance to those who violate the law.”

FEDERAL JUDGE RIPS DOJ PROSECUTORS, DISMISSES TRUMP THREAT CASE: ‘THERE’S NO CREDIBILITY LEFT’

“This judge took an oath to follow the law, yet he has allowed his politics to consistently cloud his judgment and his requirement to follow the law,” Pirro wrote last year. “America voted for safe communities, law and order, and this judge is the antithesis of that.”

At the time, Faruqui said the government owed Dana an apology, arguing the department’s rush to charge and its repeated dismissal of cases showed “too many misfires.” Faruqui used the moment to preach about equality, adding the message that “people who look like Mr. Dana” is to “be very afraid” saying the country is “past the point of constitutional crisis.”

Faruqui also played a role in Jan. 6, 2021, cases, when protesters breached the U.S. Capitol. Lawmakers and political figures called out Faruqui, saying that he did not show the same level of concern for the Jan. 6 protesters as he did for Allen.

NEW VIDEO SHOWS WHCD SUSPECT INSIDE HOTEL BEFORE RUSHING SECURITY CHECKPOINT WITH WEAPON

“Strange that not a single judge in DC had a thought anywhere close to this for any of the Jan 6 people they maliciously prosecuted,” wrote Donald Trump Jr. on X.

“As a former judge for over a decade, I am appalled by this judge’s condemnation of law enforcement and prosecutors who were simply doing their jobs to address the safety of this would be Trump assassin,” wrote Republican Florida Sen. Ashley Moody on X.

“Apologizing and coddling the man who attempted to kill the President of the United States and his cabinet is embarrassing to the entire judiciary,” she added. “This judge has no business being on the bench let alone on this case.”

“I thought perhaps the article with its headline about the judge apologizing to the assassin was from The Babylon Bee,” wrote former Clinton pollster Mark Penn on X.

“What planet could this judge possibly be on? Does he not remember what happened to Lee Harvey Oswald? Does he not realize that mixing him at this point would be a danger to him? And not realize that putting him on suicide watch was a perfectly realistic action given Allen never expected to survive the attack? Sometimes it just seems like an upside down world,” Penn added.

Allen faces federal charges, including attempted assassination and firearms offenses, and could face life in prison if convicted.

Fox News Digital reached out to Faruqui’s chambers on Tuesday. 

Election officials in Fulton County, Georgia, asked a federal judge to reject a U.S. Department of Justice effort to obtain identifying details for people who worked on the 2020 election in the county.

The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (FBRE) filed a 27-page motion Monday asking the Georgia federal court to quash a grand jury subpoena issued by the DOJ.

The motion to quash called the subpoena “an unprecedented and harassing grand jury subpoena” and characterized it as the DOJ’s “latest effort to target and harass the President’s perceived political enemies — this time election officials, poll workers, and volunteers in Fulton County whom Donald Trump continues to disparage as he perpetuates his false claim that they ‘stole’ the 2020 election.”

The subpoena, according to the FBRE motion, requests that the Board send information for thousands of poll workers and county employees to an out-of-district U.S. attorney and an FBI agent. The motion argues that the probe be quashed on grounds that it cannot result in criminal prosecution “because, among other things, the statutes of limitations have expired for any purported 2020 crimes.”

GEORGIA’S FULTON COUNTY FILES MOTION SEEKING RETURN OF 2020 ELECTION MATERIALS SEIZED BY FBI

Trump lost the state of Georgia by a razor-thin margin in 2020, prompting Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to announce a recount by hand. The Nov. 18, 2020, recount confirmed that former President Joe Biden won the state by 11,777 votes.

The subpoena represents the latest from the Trump administration in an effort to investigate alleged voter fraud in Georgia.

In January, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Raffensperger to compel him to produce an unredacted statewide voter registration database.

FBI’S FULTON COUNTY WARRANT SOUGHT ELECTION RECORDS, VOTER ROLLS FROM 2020 ELECTION

Five days later, FBI agents conducted a search at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center as part of a probe related to the 2020 election.

The FBI also filed search warrants in February revealing a probe into missing ballots and chain-of-custody problems in Georgia’s biggest county.

FBRE’s pushback claims, in part, that Trump’s efforts amount to “arbitrary fishing expeditions.”

Trump officials, meanwhile, defend their efforts as necessary to ensure election integrity.

“Interference in U.S. elections is a threat to our republic and a national security threat,” Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard said in a letter to Congress in February.

Fox News Digital reached out to spokespeople for the White House, the DOJ, the DNI, the FBI and for the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners but did not immediately receive a response.

Seattle’s socialist mayor Katie Wilson is facing fierce blowback on social media after a 77-year-old man was seen on video being beaten by two individuals in a crime that was captured by closed-circuit television cameras, a tool that Wilson has denounced in the past as something that makes the community feel unsafe and “vulnerable.”

The elderly man was walking down the street in downtown Seattle last month when two men walking by him stopped, without any provocation, shoved him to the ground and beat him, KOMO News reported. 

Ahmed Abdullahi Osman, 29, was later arrested and charged with second-degree assault, and police are looking for the second suspect. Osman was reportedly booked into jail the night of the assault and then released back onto the streets before a bail hearing. 

“Turning on more cameras won’t magically make our neighborhoods safer, but it will certainly make our neighborhoods more vulnerable,” Wilson said in 2025 after Seattle City Council’s approval of expanding the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) CCTV pilot program, the program used to capture the video of this specific crime, according to KOMO News.

WILL SOCIALISM SAVE SEATTLE? CITY ADVOCATES STRUGGLE TO FIND SOLUTIONS AS HOMELESS, DRUG ADDICTS FLOOD STREETS

Conservatives on social media quickly pointed to Wilson’s policies, which have been much maligned as “soft on crime,” as a contributing factor, as well as her previous comments on CCTV.

“They elected a SOCIALIST,” Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez posted on X. “What did they think would happen?”

“Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson remains clueless on the job,” journalist Jonathan Choe posted on X. “So she’s allowing far-left activists to make public safety decisions for the city.”

“Go ahead and explain the ‘sOCiONoMic rOoT cAusES’ of this heinous crime,” Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael A. Mangual posted on X.

SEATTLE LEADERS SLAMMED FOR POLICE ORDER TO STOP PROSECUTING DRUG USERS

“Ahmed Abdullah Osman beat a 77-year-old in Seattle,” conservative influencer account End Wokeness posted on X in a clip that has been viewed over a million times. “Police ID’d him thanks to street video cameras. Mayor Wilson: ‘CCTV puts refugees at risk.’”

Wilson has amplified concerns from local activist groups that CCTV cameras will pose a threat to illegal immigrant communities.

“We are deeply concerned that the expansion of these tools will create an infrastructure where federal agencies can more readily target vulnerable communities, including immigrants and refugees,” the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Washington and the Church Council of Greater Seattle said in a letter last year.

The victim in the incident spent a week in a hospital after suffering a broken arm, knee and facial injuries, KOMO News reported. 

Wilson’s office directed Fox News Digital to a March press release in which she outlined her position on the cameras, saying she is leaving the current cameras on but the “pausing expansion of the pilot” program until “we have completed a privacy and data governance audit, and taken significant steps to strengthen our policies.”

Wilson acknowledged there’s “no doubt that these cameras make it easier to solve some crimes” that include “serious ones like homicides, but also, cameras are not the one key to making our neighborhoods safe.”

“I want to acknowledge that this is a controversial issue,” Wilson added. “For some people, seeing CCTV cameras in the neighborhood where they live or work or attend school makes them feel safer. For others, those same cameras make them feel less safe.”

“Those feelings are important, because our quality of life is partly about our feelings of safety or lack thereof, and our sense that our city is a welcoming place that is designed with consideration for our well-being and our humanity.”

Wilson continued, “But precisely because different people and different communities experience the cameras differently, it’s important to base a decision on more than feelings. It’s important to ground our actions in a thorough understanding of how the cameras are being used, of the public benefits they are providing, and of any harm they are causing or could cause.”

Last month, Fox News Digital reported on city advocates who say they are struggling to find solutions as homelessness and open-air drug use spread across Seattle’s streets, amid growing concerns about the direction of Wilson’s new administration.

“You can just see the foil is like blowing down the sidewalks like autumn leaves,” Andrea Suarez, founder and executive director of We Heart Seattle, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

“Very common to see property damage of our parks and shared spaces. You can see Narcan is used to reverse an overdose, so you’ll see cartridges. But at least we’re remodeling the bathroom to be gender-neutral. I’m not [kidding] you, that’s where our priorities are.” 

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit against the city of Denver, Colorado, “alleging that the City unconstitutionally bans certain constitutionally protected semi-automatic rifles.”

“These laws unconstitutionally infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms in common use for lawful purposes,” according to the Justice Department.

“The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”

The 12-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado names the City and County of Denver, Colorado, and the Denver Police Department as defendants. The DOJ said, “As the complaint explains, the City enforces an ordinance that makes it a crime to possess so-called ‘assault weapons.’”

“But the City’s ban includes AR-15-style rifles, which are the most popular rifles in America. Law-abiding Americans own tens of millions of rifles like those banned by the City,” the DOJ added.

“I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our new Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding Americans from restrictions such as those we are challenging in these cases,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Law-abiding Americans, regardless of what city or state they reside in, should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction just for exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens.”

“In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its landmark decision District of Columbia v. Heller, held that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to possess weapons that are in common use for lawful purposes,” the Justice Department said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.