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Trump, House GOP allies eye pathways to extend White House crime crackdown in DC

Trump, House GOP allies eye pathways to extend White House crime crackdown in DC

President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are working to solidify his grip on Washington, D.C. A leadership aide told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that House Republicans are working with the White House on a package of bills “to fix the many problems with D.C. governance and crime.” Trump all but confirmed the effort in a late-night Truth Social post at midnight on Wednesday stating that House and Senate leaders “are working with me, and other Republicans, on a Comprehensive Crime Bill.” “It’s what our country needs, and NOW! More to follow,” Trump posted. GOP LAWMAKERS CLASH OVER STRATEGY TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CRISIS Meanwhile, House GOP Trump allies have been working on various measures to extend the president’s grip on D.C.’s police, which another source told Fox News Digital the White House was keeping track of. Under The District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973, which, among other measures, established a local government for the nation’s capital, the president is allowed to federalize D.C.’s police force for a period of 48 hours, though it can extend to 30 days with notification to the relevant congressional committees. Any longer period must be authorized via a resolution passed in the House and Senate – several of which have already been offered while lawmakers are back on their home turfs for the annual August recess. The act does not limit how long Trump can deploy federal forces into the capital for, however – which he has also done. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., was first to announce he was working on a bill “to amend the D.C. Home Rule Act, so the president can extend this emergency as long as it takes, until our Capitol is taken back, and its streets are safe” on Aug. 13. He told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that House GOP leadership seemed positive about his bill. “I sent it to [House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.] after we drafted it,” Ogles said. “He liked the proposal, so when we get back, we’ll sort through the various ideas and approaches and see which one is best. Obviously, I’ll advocate for mine, but…whatever keeps the people safe.” Ogles pointed out that his bill, while getting rid of the 30-day limit, also requires the White House to notify Congress every 30 days about the basis for continuing federalization of D.C.’s police because “we still have a Constitution that we need to abide by.” Scalise’s office did not address Ogles’ bill when reached by Fox News Digital. Others, like Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., have introduced similar bills. “I think that there’s plenty of support for my bill, or a version of it,” Luna told Fox News Digital. “The fact is, is that, you know, we do have home rule. It’s well within our right and authority. And frankly, we’re doing it not just for us, but also for the actual civilians in the Washington, D.C., area.” Luna’s bill, like Ogles’, would extend Trump’s ability to federalize D.C. police for as long a period as the president deems necessary. GOP GOVERNOR NOMINEE PUSHES REDISTRICTING TO OUST STATE’S LONE HOUSE DEM Biggs’ bill would extend Trump’s hold on D.C. police for a period of six months. Because D.C. is a federal district, and not a state, Congress and the federal government are able to exercise significant amounts of control over various aspects of how it’s run. The White House and Trump allies have touted a significant decrease in homicides in D.C. since Trump took over policing in the city, while signaling that other U.S. cities could soon see federal government intervention to deal with crime as well. Opponents of the move, largely Democrats, have accused the Trump administration of ripping autonomy away from those who live in the nation’s capital. A White House official told Fox News Digital when asked for more information, “Efforts to address some of the underlying causes of the DC crime problem will be a topic of sustained focus for the administration, as well as other issues, such as maintenance, transportation and beautification.” “That includes working with all levels of government, executive branch, legislative branch, and Washington, DC, to ensure that the capital city of the greatest nation on earth is the envy of the world,” the official said.

Top California Republican drops ‘two-state solution’ to combat Newsom’s redistricting

Top California Republican drops ‘two-state solution’ to combat Newsom’s redistricting

The top Republican in the State Assembly will announce Wednesday a new bill to split California into two new states along a north-south line as a response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mid-decennial redistricting effort, Fox News Digital has learned. Assemblyman James Gallagher’s plan, laid out in what will be filed as AJR-23, would create a new state featuring its liberal coast and another uniting California’s conservative inland counties. Gallagher, R-Yuba City, dubbed the move a “two-state solution” – a term more identified with territorial clashes in the Middle East – to Newsom’s own clash with Republicans, which is the governor’s reply to Texas’ redistricting efforts. “The people of inland California have been overlooked for too long. It’s time for a two-state solution,” Gallagher said. Gallagher’s resolution responds to Sacramento’s attempt to permanently redraw California’s congressional maps – an act he says would silence rural voices and rig the political system forever. DEMS WANTED TO DRAW EVERY REPUBLICAN OUT OF MARYLAND BUT NOW LAMBAST TEXAS REDISTRICTING While the political power of California’s overall current landmass would be diminished, the new “Inland” California would be one of the largest states by population in the nation, and reliably right-leaning. Following a series of county lines generally slightly west of Interstate 5 – which runs the 800-mile height of the state – the new coastal state would retain many notably left-wing communities like San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Sonoma. It would also include the relatively center-right Orange County, as well as San Diego County, where the state’s Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones hails from. Jones said earlier this month that Newsom wasn’t elected “to play gerrymandering games to boost his presidential campaign, [but] to solve problems here at home.” Fox News Digital reached out to Jones, Newsom and Gallagher, for comment. Gallagher’s home county – Sutter, located north of Sacramento – would fall in the new conservative inland state. It would also include right-leaning Truckee – where Interstate 80 crosses the Sierras – along with Kern County, where former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., hails from. San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties – which today make up what is similarly called the “Inland Empire” – would also fall in the new state.  The 17 coastal counties would together create a state of 29.5 million people while the inland state would be home to 10 million, according to the Manteca Bulletin. MEXICAN IMMIGRANT-TURNED-CONGRESSWOMAN BLASTS DEM CLAIMS TEXAS REDISTRICTING HURTS LATINO VOTE Texas would become the nation’s most populous state, edging out Coastal California by about 1.5 million, while Inland California would become the 11th most populous state – fitting in between Michigan and New Jersey. Gallagher has lambasted what he calls Newsom’s “mid-decade power grab” as a “mockery of democracy.” “Don’t p— on my boots and tell me it’s raining. These are rigged maps, drawn in secret to give Democrat politicians more power by dismantling the independent commission Californians created to keep them out of map-drawing,” he said in a statement earlier this month. His comments came after Newsom approved the Democrats’ plan to place a resolution on the November ballot allowing the state to circumvent its semi-independent redistricting board. “Californians should choose their representatives, not the other way around,” he said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP State Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, is the top Republican on the elections committee. Niello said earlier this month that Democrats only recently found interest in redrawing the congressional maps – sharing several examples of liberal lawmakers verbally opposing redistricting as recently as July. “In just a few weeks, a mysterious case of collective and selective amnesia seems to have set in. Let’s rewind the tape and hear them in their own words,” Niello said. Gallagher is expected to hold a press conference at 10 a.m. PT in Sacramento to further discuss his plan.

Jack Smith’s lawyers blast Hatch Act probe as ‘imaginary and unfounded’

Jack Smith’s lawyers blast Hatch Act probe as ‘imaginary and unfounded’

Former special counsel Jack Smith responded through his lawyers on Tuesday to news that a government watchdog had opened an investigation into his two prosecutions of President Donald Trump, calling the inquiry baseless. Smith’s attorneys at Covington & Burling wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) that the predicate for its investigation was “imaginary and unfounded” and that Smith followed all the Department of Justice’s rules and principles in his work. “Mr. Smith’s actions as Special Counsel were consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his career to following the facts and the law, without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences, not because of them,” his attorneys wrote. EX-TRUMP PROSECUTOR JACK SMITH UNDER INVESTIGATION BY GOVERNMENT WATCHDOG OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL The Office of Special Counsel is an independent agency unrelated to the DOJ or the special counsels, such as Smith, who have worked there. The OSC, which functions as a watchdog, handles complaints from government whistleblowers and investigates Hatch Act violations by federal employees. It can impose administrative punishments for wrongdoing, including fines or termination from government work. Fox News confirmed this month that the OSC was investigating Smith under the Hatch Act, which bars certain government employees from engaging in political campaign work while on the job. The OSC’s investigation came after Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., demanded in a letter to the OSC that it look into instances of Smith seeking to expedite Trump’s prosecutions. “Many of Smith’s legal actions seem to have no rationale except for an attempt to affect the 2024 election results—actions that would violate federal law,” Cotton wrote. TOP GOP SENATOR DEMANDS PROBE INTO WHETHER JACK SMITH ‘UNLAWFULLY’ TRIED TO INFLUENCE 2024 ELECTION Smith spent about two years investigating and prosecuting Trump during the Biden administration. He brought two indictments against Trump, one alleging he violated the Espionage Act by mishandling national defense information and another alleging he attempted to subvert the 2020 election. Smith dismissed both cases after Trump won the 2024 election, a move that aligned with longstanding DOJ policy about prosecuting sitting presidents. Smith’s attorneys wrote that the actions Cotton cited in his letter, including asking courts to move the proceedings along and to give him permission to file longer briefs, were “unremarkable,” standard for a prosecutor and subject to court approval. “This investigation is premised on a partisan complaint that suggests the ordinary operation of the criminal justice system should be disrupted by the whims of a political contest,” Smith’s attorneys wrote. The letter was addressed to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who is serving as the acting head of the Office of Special Counsel while Trump’s nominee for the role faces roadblocks to Senate confirmation. The attorneys asked Greer to reach out to them directly before taking any further steps to investigate Smith so that his findings, if any, could be “fully informed by the record.” Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.

Abrego Garcia renews push for asylum in US, reveals new country willing to accept him

Abrego Garcia renews push for asylum in US, reveals new country willing to accept him

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man at the center of widely watched legal wranglings with the federal government, is making a fresh bid for asylum in the U.S., and he is also pushing back against the government’s plan to remove him to Uganda, and instead suggesting Costa Rica. “At 5pm yesterday, Petitioner filed a motion to reopen before an immigration judge pursuant to 8 C.F.R. §1003.23(b)(4)(i), to seek asylum in the United States pursuant to 8 U.S.C. §1158,” a Tuesday court filing noted. Abrego Garcia — who was arrested at an ICE facility on Monday, could be heard saying, “gobierno corrupto,” which translates to “corrupt government,” in a video posted on X by the Department of Homeland Security. ABREGO GARCIA HEARD SAYING TWO WORDS DURING ICE ARREST “I, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia … hereby state that I fear persecution in UGANDA on account of my race, nationality, political opinion, and membership in a particular social group,” he claimed in a document titled “Notice of Fear of Removal to UGANDA.  “I also fear torture by or at the acquiescence of a public official in that country. Finally, I feat [sic] that country will refoul me (re-deport me) to EL SALVADOR, where I also fear persecution on account of the above-mentioned protected grounds and torture by or at the acquiescence of a public official, and where I have been tortured in the past.” Costa Rica has indicated that it would be willing to accept him, and Abrego Garcia has expressed that as his preference. FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY BARS ABREGO GARCIA FROM DEPORTATION TO UGANDA Back in 2019, an immigration judge signed an order denying Abrego Garcia’s application for asylum, but granted an application for withholding of removal.  But earlier this year, the U.S. removed him to El Salvador.  Following legal wranglings, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Salvadoran man had “landed in the United States to face justice,” noting that the U.S. “government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant, and they agreed to return him to our country.”  TOP TRUMP AGENCY TORCHES DEM LAWMAKERS RALLYING AROUND DETAINED ABREGO GARCIA: ‘IT IS INSANE’ A grand jury returned an indictment against him earlier this year that included a count for “Conspiracy to Transport Aliens” and a count for “Unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.”  He pleaded not guilty.

Trump’s cartel crackdown gains ‘powerful political leverage’ with El Mayo guilty plea

Trump’s cartel crackdown gains ‘powerful political leverage’ with El Mayo guilty plea

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, is set to face the rest of his life behind bars as the Trump administration ramps up its efforts to dismantle cartels.  Zambada, 75, confessed in a Brooklyn, New York, courtroom Monday that he had coordinated with Mexican officials to smuggle drugs into the U.S. for decades — and ultimately pleaded guilty to serving as principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy.  The Trump administration has pledged to take down the cartels — and experts predict Zambada’s guilty plea paves the way for the Justice Department to launch more indictments against high-profile cartel members moving forward and exerts additional pressure on Mexico to comply with U.S. requests.  SINALOA CARTEL CO-FOUNDER ‘WILL DIE IN A US FEDERAL PRISON WHERE HE BELONGS’ AFTER GUILTY PLEA, SAYS AG BONDI “It gives Trump powerful political leverage,” Brian Townsend, a retired supervisory special agent with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, told Fox News Digital Monday. “I expect him to use this moment to rally public support for more aggressive cross‑border operations and tougher measures against Mexico.”  “Zambada admitted in court that for decades he paid off Mexican generals, governors, and politicians,” Townsend said. “These are words directly from the mouth of one of the world’s biggest drug traffickers. It confirms what we have been seeing for decades: Mexico’s institutions have been deeply compromised.”  A drug cartel is a criminal group where drug lords coordinate to produce and distribute illegal drugs.  Zambada’s plea deal requires the cartel boss to forfeit $15 billion. Meanwhile, Zambada’s attorney, Frank Perez, said in a Monday statement that the cartel boss will not comply with U.S. government officials, signaling he’d be unwilling to disclose any information on the cartel system to the U.S.  “The agreement that he reached with the U.S. authorities is a matter of public record,” Perez said in a statement, according to ABC News. “It is not a cooperation agreement, and I can state categorically that there is no deal under which he is cooperating with the United States Government or any other government.” Perez could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital.  The Trump administration has moved to crack down on cartels, and designated groups like Sinaloa, Tren de Aragua and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February. Doing so blocks the groups from using the U.S. financial system, aiming to hamper their ability to carry out operations.  MEXICO TO EXTRADITE 26 TOP CARTEL LEADERS TO US IN TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DEAL Additionally, the Trump administration navigated a deal with Mexico to send 26 high-ranking cartel figures to the U.S. in August — including some with ties to Sinaloa.  Townsend predicted more indictments from the Justice Department would follow.  “I think we’re going to push for broader cooperation from Mexico, more indictments,” Townsend said. “We’ve shown that we need to extradite these folks into the United States for prosecution. We have the resources, the criminal investigations. So I would expect to see broader DOJ indictments, in a renewed look at the overall leadership of Sinaloa and other cartels, for that matter, and how we can bring more indictments and more charges against those key players.” Meanwhile, other actions the Trump administration could take could involve the U.S. military. Trump signed off on an order to direct military operations targeting cartels on foreign ground, The New York Times reported in August. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that while Mexico would “collaborate” with the U.S., an “invasion” was out of the question.  DOJ CHARGES FIVE ALLEGED MEXICAN CARTEL LEADERS, TOUTS ‘EXTRAORDINARY POLICEWORK’ THAT LED TO INDICTMENTS Nathan Jones, a nonresident scholar in drug policy and Mexico studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said that Zambada’s guilty plea does place additional pressure on Mexico to comply with U.S. requests, although U.S. troops in Mexico would be perceived as a violation of Mexican sovereignty.  “For Mexico, you’ve got a very sensitive issue, and American boots on the ground without permission is highly problematic,” Jones told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “But there are ways that the Mexican government can without violating their own sovereignty. Work with the United States, U.S. law enforcement can be there.” Zambada was arrested in July 2024 following a joint Homeland Security Investigations and FBI investigation.  Zambada’s sentencing is scheduled for January. He faces a mandatory minimum term of life in prison for leading a continuing criminal enterprise, and a maximum sentence of life in prison for the racketeering charge, according to the Justice Department.  “This foreign terrorist committed horrific crimes against the American people — he will now pay for those crimes by spending the rest of his life behind bars in an American prison,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Monday. “Today marks a crucial victory in President Trump’s ongoing fight to completely eliminate foreign terrorist organizations and protect American citizens from deadly drugs and violence.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.