Fox News Politics: Cheney Accused of ‘Potential’ Witness Tampering
Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening… -Red state reveals plan to purchase auctioned border wall materials to store for Trump –Electoral College vote moves Trump another step toward officially becoming president -Vance will likely be 2028 front-runner, but RNC chair ‘excited about the bench that we have’ Former Rep. Liz Cheney is facing calls from GOP legislators that the FBI investigate her for “potential criminal witness tampering” related to her former role on the Jan. 6 House Select Committee, a report released Tuesday by the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight chairman, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., details. “Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge,” the report, which was provided to Fox Digital, found. Cheney, in comments provided to Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon, defended her former committee’s investigation, while arguing Loudermilk’s report “intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence.” “January 6th showed Donald Trump for who [he] really is – a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks to continue against our Capitol and law enforcement officers while he watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave,” Cheney said to Fox News Digital….Read more SCHOOL’S OUT: Jill Biden leaves job at Virginia community college ahead of White House departure…Read more ‘ALMOST A CRIMINAL ACT’: Biden taken to task for selling border wall materials …Read more ‘DEEPLY DISTURBING’: Biden administration pressuring African country to adopt lax abortion laws in exchange for foreign aid: report…Read more ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’: Biden clemency for convicted fraudsters met with outrage…Read more THE BIG C: Biden’s clemency for doc in chemotherapy fraud scheme contrasts with longtime ‘Cancer Moonshot’ advocacy…Read more LAST-DITCH EFFORT: Two new student debt relief programs from Biden barrel toward imminent release…Read more PUBLIC SHOWDOWN: Pete Hegseth may release sexual assault accuser from confidentiality agreement, setting up public showdown…Read more ‘UNOFFICIAL CO-PRESIDENT’: Elizabeth Warren wants answers from Trump over Elon Musk ‘conflicts of interest’…Read more EXCITEMENT AND WORRY: Majority of Americans optimistic about Trump agenda, poll finds, despite tariff concern…Read more ‘PHENOMENALLY BAD IDEA’: Dems push drastic move that Mike Lee calls ‘a phenomenally bad idea’…Read more IN THE DOGE HOUSE: Top Republican touts ‘real motivation’ behind House DOGE Caucus’ mission before first meeting…Read more ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: House AI task force says ‘unreasonable’ to expect immediate congressional action on AI in 250-page report…Read more WHAT HAPPENED?: Republican demands info from State Department on delayed Afghanistan flights….Read more SPARTZ FLY: House GOP lawmaker rejects committee assignments to dedicate time to DOGE…Read more GETTING STARTED: DOGE Caucus senator introduces 2 bills to kick-start waste cuts in Trump term…Read more BLOW TO SQUAD: AOC loses bid to be top Democrat on powerful House Oversight Committee…Read more ‘CONSEQUENCES’: GOP rebels plot mutiny against Johnson over government shutdown drama…Read more SWING-STATE CURVEBALL: Swing state governor’s race sees a twist as top Dem will run as independent…Read more ‘WE NEED SOLUTIONS’: Chicago community activist sounds off on migrant crisis: ‘I welcome’ Trump border czar…Read more MOVING TO SANCTUARY CITIES: TN lawmaker proposes sending illegal migrants accused of minor crimes to sanctuary cities instead of deporting…Read more NO TAX ON TIPS: Virginia Gov. Youngkin calls for end to taxes on tips ahead of legislative session…Read more LOOKING AHEAD: ‘America First’ group says its voter-targeting made a difference as Trump picks several leaders for WH…Read more ‘UNDERMINED CLIMATE PROGRESS’: Environmental group launches six-figure battleground state ad buy against Newsom’s ‘climate leadership’…Read more DRONES: Government agencies say joint investigation into drone sightings reveals no threat: ‘We recognize the concern’…Read more Get the latest updates on the Trump presidential transition, incoming Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.
Texas GOP threatens House members who support Dustin Burrows in speaker race with attack mailers
This is the latest example of the Republican Party of Texas spending its resources attacking its own members.
Texas school districts asked to return $16 million in federal funding for special education services
The request comes after an audit found Texas improperly billed the federal government for reimbursements related to Medicaid-eligible students.
Planes, stars and hobbyists: Lawmakers insist nothing ‘nefarious’ is happening in NJ skies
Lawmakers exiting a classified briefing with U.S. intelligence officials insisted they received assurances nothing “nefarious” is going on with the recent uptick in drone sightings in New Jersey. On Tuesday, U.S. officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department privately briefed members of the House Intelligence Committee in an effort to assuage growing fears over sightings of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and fresh calls for federal action. “There’s no evidence that anybody acted unlawfully here, or that any of these drones, in as much as the authorities know anything about them, are associated with anybody with malign intent,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member of the committee, told reporters after the briefing. “I don’t think we have any reason to believe that they are hiding information. And, again, we asked an extraordinarily detailed series of questions of 28 people over a period of three hours.” ‘DRONE’ SIGHTINGS IN THE NORTHEAST SPARK ‘UNFOUNDED’ PANIC, SAYS EXPERT But the uptick in alleged drone sightings along the East Coast has touched off panicked calls for an investigation from residents and state lawmakers. The FBI has received more than 6,000 tips from the public on mysterious drone sightings. One theory can definitively be ruled out, according to Himes. The drones are not the work of a classified government operation, he said. “We asked this question over and over and over again,” he said, “They are not [linked to the U.S. government]. We were assured.” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder stressed to reporters that the drones seen along the East Coast are not a DOD asset. Instead, the running theory among U.S. officials seems to be that there is no one reason behind the phenomenon, and many of the sightings called in to law enforcement are planes, helicopters or hobbyist drones operating lawfully. “There is no evident threat coming from any place. These are just traditional planes, drones, stars, private planes — all the things that are typically in our skies,” said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican and outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s response to the drones, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation as early as this week that would allow state police to better handle the drone threat, including tracking the unmanned aircraft and, if necessary, taking them down. But Smith said Tuesday he sees the bill as a “very real extension of a capability that is needed right now” in the U.S. defense space. “There’s more vulnerability here that anyone wants to accept, but we need to take action — decisive action,” Smith said. On Friday, government agencies will lose their counter-drone authority without an FAA reauthorization from Congress. An extension of that authority is expected to be included in spending legislation to keep the government open, but security-minded lawmakers are pushing for more extensive reform to grant state and local law enforcement the authority to intercept and identify drones and equip them with radar detection capabilities. “We got a lot of answers. Quite frankly, the technology of drones has outpaced the law,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. “We have to work in a bipartisan manner to plug some holes within the law in terms of who is allowed to operate drones in what manner and how do you disable or deal with drones in improper airspace.” NJ DRONE SIGHTINGS COULD BE A ‘CLASSIFIED EXERCISE’: FORMER CIA OFFICER On Monday, the DHS, FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pentagon issued a joint statement noting that, while they “recognize the concern” from the public, there is no evidence that the drones are “anomalous” or a threat to national security. The drone complaints began pouring in last month in New Jersey, where witnesses and residents first began reporting drone sightings off of coastal areas, including off of Cape May, a scenic town roughly 50 miles south of Atlantic City along the Jersey Shore. More recently, lawmakers in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland have reported new drone sightings in their home states, with some witnesses claiming the aircraft in question have been the “size of cars” or seen flying above sensitive infrastructure or in restricted airspace. Krishnamoorthi insisted he was “satisfied” with the answers he got from the briefing, but the government needs to do more to assuage the concerns of the public. “The public needs to see for themselves what these government officials have concluded and the technology that’s been used.”
Attorney for RFK Jr. blasts ‘hysterical’ media report as distortion of HHS pick’s views on vaccines
An attorney advising Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary nominee for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is slamming a New York Times report this week that claimed he sought to revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval for the polio vaccine. “Contrary to hysterical media reports that the petition sought to make sure no polio vaccines would be available, the scope of the petition was quite narrow,” Aaron Siri, a close RFK Jr. adviser and partner at Siri & Glimstad LLP, told Fox News Digital. “It simply asked the FDA to require a proper trial for licensure for children of a novel polio vaccine.” The New York Times reported Friday that Siri is “waging a war” against all vaccines, but Siri said the report “falsely claimed the petition sought to eliminate” the polio vaccine, “as if there is only one, and that our client sought to leave Americans without the choice to get vaccinated for polio.” RFK JR SET TO FACE ABORTION, VACCINE SCRUTINY IN SIT-DOWNS WITH SENATORS ON CAPITOL HILL “In reality, the petition sought to ensure the safety of one of the six existing licensed polio vaccines that we inject into our children three times before their first birthday,” he said. The report came just days before RFK Jr. headed to Capitol Hill this week to meet with Senators, seeking support for his HHS confirmation. The petition, filed in 2022 on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) and not as an individual action by Siri, urged the FDA to suspend the polio vaccine IPOL for infants and children. ICAN’s request stems from concerns that IPOL, licensed in 1990 by Sanofi, was approved based on pediatric trials that, according to the FDA, evaluated safety for only three days after injection. This is not the traditional polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk or Albert Sabin that many people are familiar with, Siri added. Instead, it is a product utilizing a different technology, where the polio virus is grown on monkey kidney cells that have been genetically altered to replicate indefinitely, similar to cancer cells. Traces of these cells are present in each vaccine dose. BIDEN CLEMENCY ANNOUNCEMENT GETS MIXED REVIEWS ON CAPITOL HILL: ‘WHERE’S THE BAR?’ Another petition filed on behalf of ICAN in 2021 addresses 13 childhood vaccines containing aluminum adjuvants. According to the petition, a peer-reviewed study found discrepancies between the aluminum levels in these vaccines and the amounts listed on their FDA-approved labels. The petition calls on the FDA to verify and publicly release documentation proving the accuracy of the aluminum content or halt distribution until resolved — an issue critics say should not be controversial for products injected into infants. “Currently, political labeling (pro-vaccine, anti-vaccine) is inadequate to encompass the realities of medical ethics, regulatory capture, and the influence of corporate money on health policy,” Siri said. “We must be able to raise valid questions about vaccine safety, efficacy and policy without fear that any deviation from the mantra ‘safe and effective’ will be smeared with epithets and outrage.” ‘OF COURSE I SUPPORT THE PARDON OF MY SON,’ JILL BIDEN TELLS REPORTER In the days since media outlets have reported about Siri’s petition, both Trump and RFK Jr. have said they support the polio vaccine, without specifying which one. RFK Jr. has expressed his skepticism of some vaccines, while supporting the use of others, in interviews during his 2024 presidential campaign run as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) slogan. “Mr. Kennedy believes the Polio Vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly studied,” Katie Miller, the transition spokeswoman for Kennedy, said in response. Meanwhile, Trump said “everything should be looked at,” adding that he’s a “big believer in the polio vaccine,” during a Mar-a-Lago press conference Monday morning. Fox News Digital reached out to the New York Times for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.
Farm state Republicans appear skeptical about RFK amid his quest for HHS confirmation
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be asked to explain some of his beliefs about farming and food production by Republicans who are protective of the agricultural industry in their states. This could stand in the way of a smooth confirmation if he doesn’t manage to address their concerns. “They’ve got to be able to use modern farming techniques, and that involves a lot of things, not only really sophisticated equipment, but also fertilizers and pesticides. So, we have to have that conversation,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told reporters. “I’m always going to stand up for farmers and ranchers.” ELIZABETH WARREN WANTS ANSWERS FROM TRUMP OVER ELON MUSK ‘CONFLICTS OF INTEREST’ Hoeven told Fox News Digital he would need certain assurances from Kennedy to support him. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters he wants Kennedy “to understand that when I started farming in 1960, we raised 50 bushels of corn to the acre. Now, we raise on an annual average about 200 in Iowa. A lot more than that. “And you can’t feed 9 billion people on the face of the earth [if] we don’t take advantage of genetic engineering.” Before meeting with Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tuesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., told reporters he planned to ask him about pesticide use. Afterward, it seemed Kennedy addressed any concerns, because Tuberville wrote on X, “Our meeting reaffirmed what I already knew: RFK Jr. is the right man to make sure our food is safe, bring transparency to vaccines and health care, and Make America Healthy Again.” DOGE CAUCUS FOUNDING MEMBER DEBUTS 2 BILLS TO KICK-START WASTE CUTS IN TRUMP TERM While some Republicans are worried about the agricultural implications of Kennedy’s positions, his food safety stances are providing some level of appeal to certain Democrats, whose votes he could potentially need to be confirmed. A number of Democratic senators told Fox News Digital their interest was piqued by Kennedy’s thoughts on food regulations, but none said they had meetings scheduled yet. TOM COTTON DEMANDS DOD RECORDS ON BORDER-WALL MATERIAL SALES BE PRESERVED “His approach to food and nutrition is more direct and perhaps might be more successful than continuing the way we’ve been doing it,” Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., told Fox News Digital. “I’m definitely looking forward to him coming in and testifying.” A representative for Kennedy did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication.
GOP senator moves to block feds from disposing of border wall materials amid auction backlash
FIRST ON FOX: A top Republican senator is introducing legislation to block the federal government from disposing of border wall materials after a controversy over the auctioning of border wall parts made headlines again. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., is introducing legislation to prohibit the use of federal funds “to deconstruct, dismantle, or otherwise render inoperable any segment of the physical barrier along the international border between the United States and Mexico.” The bill would also bar the use of funds “to auction, sell, transfer, or otherwise dispose of any materials or supplies purchased or otherwise acquired by the Federal Government for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, or reinforcing a physical barrier along such border.” ‘STANDING BY TO HELP’: RED STATE REVEALS PLAN TO PURCHASE AUCTIONED BORDER WALL MATERIALS TO STORE FOR TRUMP The bill comes in response to the ongoing controversy over the auctioning of border wall materials by the Biden administration. The Biden administration abruptly ended border wall construction in January 2021 after 450 miles had been built during the first Trump administration. The auctioning of border wall parts began in 2023 with parts listed for sale on GovPlanet.com, an online auction marketplace. The Defense Department’s logistics agency told media outlets the excess material had been turned over for disposition by the Army Corps of Engineers and was for sale. Those auctions have continued, with officials in Arizona telling Fox News Digital that auctions have been occurring weekly for some time. The practice made headlines last week when The Daily Wire published video showing unused wall parts being transported on flatbed trucks in Arizona even though the materials could be used by the next Trump administration. A furious President-elect Trump called the moves “almost a criminal act” and called on President Biden to “please stop selling the wall.” TRUMP CALLS FOR END TO BORDER WALL AUCTIONS: ‘ALMOST CRIMINAL ACT’ The president-elect also said he is working with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Texas leaders to reacquire the materials. “What they’re doing is really an act, it’s almost a criminal act,” he said. “They know we’re going to use it, and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it. And it’ll cost double what it cost years ago, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars because you’re talking about a lot of, a lot of wall.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS A defense official told Fox News last week that the Pentagon has been disposing of excess wall construction in accordance with the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which required the defense secretary to submit a plan to use, transfer or donate all remaining wall material purchased with Pentagon funds. That plan was submitted in March. The official said that border states, including Texas, were given preference for materials and that the materials no longer belong to the U.S. government, adding the Defense Department has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of it. “Through our reutilization, transfer and donation process, nearly 60% of those materials were transferred to authorized recipients, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California,” the official said. “The remaining 40% was sold to GovPlanet under a competitive sales contract process beginning in June 2024. The material currently being sold through GovPlanet online auctions no longer belongs to the U.S. Government, and DOD has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of material it no longer owns.” Hagerty’s bill would supersede any existing law, including the NDAA. His office says the NDAA provision was intended to encourage border wall construction. Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
RFK Jr. says he plans to also meet with Dems in bid to get confirmed as Trump HHS head
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News Digital he plans to meet with Senate Democrats, in addition to Republicans, as he looks to shore up support for confirmation as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in President-elect Trump’s incoming administration. Asked by Fox News Digital whether he would be meeting with Democrats on the Hill as well, Kennedy, a former Democrat himself, said, “Oh yeah.” ELIZABETH WARREN WANTS ANSWERS FROM TRUMP OVER ELON MUSK ‘CONFLICTS OF INTEREST’ However, the former independent presidential candidate didn’t say which Senate Democrats he would meet. “I don’t know,” he said when asked by reporters. Kennedy kicked off his Capitol Hill meetings for his HHS bid on Monday, meeting with several Republicans. No Democratic senators were included in a list of dozens of lawmakers that he was set to meet with at the beginning of the week. DOGE CAUCUS FOUNDING MEMBER DEBUTS 2 BILLS TO KICK-START WASTE CUTS IN TRUMP TERM Last month, Trump announced Kennedy as his HHS pick. The two were initially running against each other in the 2024 election before Kennedy dropped out and endorsed Trump. Kennedy’s confirmation could face several obstacles, particularly when it comes to vaccines, agriculture and abortion. TOM COTTON DEMANDS DOD RECORDS ON BORDER-WALL MATERIAL SALES BE PRESERVED He has been an outspoken skeptic of vaccinations, which some Republican and Democrat senators have pointed to as a concern. Kennedy is also pro abortion rights and has supported abortion access throughout his life, which has left some Republicans with questions, as HHS has some authority over regulations that apply to abortion and those who provide them. JUDGES BACKING OUT OF RETIREMENT AHEAD OF TRUMP TERM LEAVE GOP SENATORS FUMING His critiques of the food industry and farming have given him some appeal with Democrats, but at the same time, Republicans representing agricultural states have stressed that they want to protect farmers and ranchers from certain burdensome policies and regulations. It’s unclear what exactly the coalition supporting Kennedy will look like in the Senate, whether he will have the support of all Republicans or if some Democrats will be needed to get him over the finish line.
EXCLUSIVE: Republicans in key red state launch campaign to elect ‘true’ conservatives ahead of Trump return
EXCLUSIVE – Ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, conservatives in the most populous red state in America are launching a new Texas Republican Leadership Fund (TRLF) to elect “true” conservatives to crucial leadership roles. Despite being led by a strongly conservative Republican governor and having a commanding majority in the legislature, the last four Texas House speakers have been elected through the support of Democrats. The result has been Democrats exercising an outsized level of power and influence in the largest Republican state in the nation. An inside track with the Texas speaker also gives Democrats significant control over some of the most important issues affecting the nation, such as enforcement of Texas’ more than 1,250 miles of border. Alex Fairly, the TRLF’s principal donor, told Fox News Digital it is time for that to change. TRLF, which is officially registering with the Texas Ethics Commission Tuesday and launching with $20 million of initial funding, has the support of many of Texas’ most influential leaders who are intent on making the state the definitive leader in conservative politics. ELON MUSK MOVES TO MAKE STARBASE, TEXAS, THE OFFICIAL ‘GATEWAY TO MARS’ While he hopes that all Republicans in the Texas House will stand with the caucus to elect a conservative leader, Fairly said the $20 million will be available for use in the primaries and upcoming 2026 general election to hold elected officials “accountable” if they side with a Democratic-backed speaker. According to Fairly, Texas conservatives are fed up with lukewarm Republicans cutting backroom deals with Democrats in the state legislature. And as Trump prepares to return to the White House in January, he said it will be more important than ever for Texas to support the new administration’s agenda through strong conservative leadership at the state level. “Texas leads the way on many of the biggest conservative issues,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any question that having a Republican majority in the House… has a massive impact on what happens across the country and supporting President Trump and his agenda.” This comes amid an ongoing battle in the Texas legislature over who will be the next speaker of the House. The most recent speaker, Rep. Dade Phelan, who came to power in 2021, dropped out from consideration after facing intense criticism from Republicans for failing to pass key conservative priorities such as school choice and for his role in the unsuccessful impeachment effort against vocal Trump ally Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. TEXAS BLOCKS SCHOOL CHOICE AS OTHER REPUBLICAN-LED STATES GO ALL-IN Now, the Texas House of Representatives is set to elect a new speaker on Jan. 14. There are two frontrunners: Phelan ally Rep. Dustin Burrows and Rep. David Cook, who is backed by more hardline conservatives. After going to the Democratic side of the aisle to help him secure the necessary 76 votes to win the speakership, Burrows declared the race over. However, Burrows’ attempt to bargain with Democrats has caused outrage from many conservatives, even including Donald Trump Jr., who said the move was not in line with voters’ election night “mandate” to Republicans. “It’s unbelievable what is happening in Texas right now,” he said on X. “There is a group of so-called Republicans cutting a deal with liberal Democrats to elect a speaker instead of uniting behind the Republican nominee, @DavidCookTexas! Unbelievable! Republicans have a mandate!” LONGTIME DEMOCRAT TEXAS JUDGE SWITCHES PARTIES IN MONUMENTAL MOVE Fairly, who is an entrepreneur and health care executive who has been a vocal supporter of school choice, says the race for the speakership is not set in stone. This time, he believes there is strong resolve among Texas Republicans to stop moderates from handing over control to the Democrats. “In spite of the progress made in this past election cycle toward… conservative priorities, there may still be work to do in the next primary cycle,” he said. “These funds will be available to help expand a true Republican majority.” “Democrats don’t give their votes away for free, they want things in return,” he went on. “So, we end up with a House that’s not really run by the majority, it’s co-run by Democrats and a minority of Republicans. It just puts Texas in just such a weak position to accomplish what we could if we really were led by a majority of Republicans.” “This time we’re bringing this out into the light.”
GOP lawmakers demand Biden appointees who have accepted ENGO jobs to recuse themselves from pending business
FIRST ON FOX: Republican lawmakers are calling for political appointees who have already announced roles in outside environmental organizations next year to recuse themselves from pending business, citing “conflicts of interest” concerns. In a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Tuesday, shared first with Fox News Digital, the Congressional Western Caucus demanded the agency identify people who are planning to join an environmental non-governmental organization (ENGO) and that they recuse themselves from pending business in their current government role. The caucus, made up almost exclusively of Republicans, seeks to be a “voice for rural America,” according to its website. The letter specifically named President Biden’s BLM director, Tracey Stone-Manning, who recently announced that after the administration ends, she will assume the role of president of The Wilderness Society, an environmental group working against development, such as mining and drilling, on public lands. “While we are not surprised to learn of this career move, we are strongly concerned about the conflict of interest that has arisen given the competing missions of her current job and her future job,” the letter read. CLIMATE JUSTICE GROUP HAS DEEP TIES TO JUDGES, EXPERTS INVOLVED IN LITIGATION AMID CLAIMS OF IMPARTIALITY The letter argued that given the “objectives and practices” of The Wilderness Society, her new position poses a conflict as Stone-Manning leads the government agency. “Over the last four years, the American West has suffered greatly as the BLM has imposed policies straight from the playbook of the BLM Director’s future employer,” the lawmakers wrote of The Wilderness Society. “Across the west, those who live near and rely on public lands for their economic livelihood have suffered from new resource management plans that choose preservation over multiple use.” SCOTUS HEARS ARGUMENTS IN CASE THAT COULD RESHAPE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, who led Tuesday’s letter alongside Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital in a statement that BLM should not conflict with the interests of the public. “The role of BLM is to fairly administer the multiple-use mandate for America’s public lands, a mission at odds with the agenda of extreme environmental groups who want to lock up our lands,” Newhouse said in a statement shared with Fox. “For this reason, I have joined my colleagues in demanding any political appointees at the agency recuse themselves from pending official business if they have accepted future positions at ENGOs as this presents a conflict of interest.” Other Republicans cosigning the letter included Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Steve Daines of Montana, and Mike Lee of Utah, along with Reps. Doug LaMalfa of California, Western Caucus executive vice chair, and Ryan Zinke of Montana. Fox News Digital reached out to BLM for comment but did not receive a response by press time.