Alan Dershowitz Registers Republican, Citing Democratic Betrayal of Israel

Jose Nino
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Alan Dershowitz Registers Republican, Citing Democratic Betrayal of Israel

(José Niño, Headline USA) Alan Dershowitz, the 87-year-old Harvard Law School professor emeritus and one of the most prominent jewish liberal legal scholars in American history, has formally registered as a Republican after 67 years as a Democrat, Breaking 911 reported on Tuesday.

The announcement came through a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published on Monday, titled “Why I’m Becoming a Republican.” Dershowitz explained his decision in stark terms.

“I am a lifelong Democrat. I started campaigning for the party’s local candidates as a teenager in Brooklyn, N.Y., have been a registered Democrat for 67 years, made speeches for John F. Kennedy as a college student, and can count on one hand the number of Republicans I’ve ever supported for any office. Yet I’ve decided to bite the bullet and register as a Republican.”

The singular driver of Dershowitz’s decision is the Democratic Party’s posture on Israel. He declared that Democrats have become “the most anti-Israel party in U.S. history,” according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The specific flashpoint was a recent Senate vote in which 40 out of 47 Senate Democrats voted for Bernie Sanders-led resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, including sales of bulldozers and 1,000-pound bombs. This April 2026 vote marked an unprecedented spike from 19 Democrats supporting a similar measure in November 2024, per the Jerusalem Post.

Dershowitz made clear this was not an ideological conversion. He explicitly stated he still disagrees with Republicans on abortion, immigration, healthcare, taxes, and the separation of church and state, according to The Blaze.

The party switch was years in the making. After the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which he called “the most anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist convention I’ve experienced,” Dershowitz left the party and became an Independent, per the Forward.

In October 2025, he publicly pledged to support Republicans in the 2026 midterms, saying “The Democrats have not only lost my votes, but they have made me an enemy,” according to The Gateway Pundit. In November 2025, he formally quit the Democratic Party again, citing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as an example of the party’s direction, per Israel National News. On Monday, he completed the transition by registering as a Republican.

Dershowitz outlined an active political role going forward, pledging to contribute money to Republican candidates, campaign and make speeches at Republican events, urge pro-Israel Americans to change party affiliation or vote against Democrats, and vote Republican for representative, senator, and president, according to RedState.

He also appeared on the Mark Levin Show on Monday, where he declared “I’m now a Republican. So Tucker Carlson’s my problem as well as your problem,” acknowledging that the GOP has its own problematic figures but arguing Republicans handle them better than Democrats handle figures like Hasan Piker, per Breitbart.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

2 Killed, 5 Injured from Deadly Shooting at North Carolina Park

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2 Killed, 5 Injured from Deadly Shooting at North Carolina Park

(Headline USA) A planned fight among young people escalated into a mass shooting at a North Carolina park Monday morning that left two teenage boys dead and five other people injured, authorities said.

Winston-Salem police Capt. Kevin Burns said a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old died at the scene after being shot around 10 a.m. at Leinbach Park, near a middle school. Five others between the ages of 14 and 19 were shot and suffered injuries ranging from critical to minor, Burns said at a news conference. Four of those victims are female, officials said.

Officials said multiple people fired guns during the shooting. Winston-Salem police Chief William Penn said no one was in custody but authorities believe some of those injured may have also been involved in the shooting.

“I feel like everyone else. I’m frustrated, I’m angry, I’m sad. This didn’t have to happen,” Penn said.

Penn said he couldn’t immediately answer whether the teens who died were the ones scheduled to fight. The police chief also said “no” when asked if it was known what the fight was about.

Officials said schools near the park were safe.

The shooting happened in a park in a suburban and residential area northwest of downtown Winston-Salem, a city of about 250,000 known for decades as the home of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Afghan Charged in Deadly Bombing at Kabul Airport Gave False Confession

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Afghan Charged in Deadly Bombing at Kabul Airport Gave False Confession

(Headline USA) U.S. authorities “got the wrong man” when they charged an alleged Islamic State militant in a deadly suicide bombing at a Kabul airport during the American military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a defense attorney said Monday at the start of the man’s trial in Virginia.

Mohammad Sharifullah is accused of scouting the bomber’s route to the airport before the attack that killed nearly 200 people, including 13 U.S. service members, at the end of America’s longest war. FBI agents interviewed him for hours over the course of several days after his capture.

But one of Sharifullah’s lawyers said he had no role in the bombing plot and suggested that the Afghan national gave a false confession.

“The U.S. government got the wrong man,” defense attorney Geremy Kamens said during the trial’s opening statements. “That is why we are proud to represent Mohammad Sharifullah in this trial.”

Justice Department prosecutor John Gibbs said Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, spoke to a journalist about killing American “crusaders” who invaded his home country after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

“The feeling was just to catch the crusaders and kill them,” Sharifullah told the journalist, according to Gibbs.

Sharifullah told FBI agents that he joined an Islamic State regional branch known as ISIS-K around 2016. Although he denied having a planning role in the Kabul airport bombing, he told the agents that he had done “a lot of other things” on behalf of ISIS-K, Gibbs said.

President Donald Trump announced Sharifullah’s capture during his State of the Union address in March 2025. Sharifullah arrived in the U.S. a day later to face prosecution and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Twelve jurors and three alternates were picked Monday in Alexandria, Virginia, for Sharifullah’s federal trial on one count of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death. The trial is expected to last about a week.

U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021, when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an entry point known as Abbey Gate. Approximately 160 Afghans were killed in the attack along with the 13 U.S. service members.

A review by U.S. Central Command found that the Abbey Gate bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban. Sharifullah recognized the alleged bomber as an operative he had known while incarcerated, according to an FBI affidavit.

A former Marine testified to Congress that he and others had spotted two possible suspects behaving suspiciously on the morning of the bombing but didn’t get permission to act. However, the Central Command review concluded that the snipers hadn’t seen the actual bomber and that the attack was not preventable.

Still, the carnage led to sharp criticism of how Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration handled the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan after a war spanning two decades. On the campaign trial, before he won a second term in the White House, Trump repeatedly condemned Biden’s role in the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and blamed him for the Abbey Gate attack.

One of the prosecutors assigned to the Abbey Gate case was fired by the Justice Department last year after a right-wing commentator publicly criticized him over his work during the Biden administration. Michael Ben’Ary’s ouster was part of a broader purge of Justice Department veterans deemed to be insufficiently loyal to Trump, a Republican.

Sharifullah is accused of participating in other attacks linked to ISIS-K. The FBI said he provided instructions on the proper use of firearms before other ISIS-K members carried out a March 2024 attack at a Moscow concert hall that killed roughly 140 people.

Kamens suggested that Sharifullah gave a false confession under duress while in Pakastani custody. The defense lawyer told jurors that the airport bombing was likely an “inside job” aided by sympathetic Taliban extremists who were in power and helping with airport security that day.

“The Pakistanis wanted him to confess, and their intelligence service tortures people,” Kamens said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Ex-Capitol Police Officer Sues the Blaze for Implicating Her as the Jan. 6 Pipe Bomber

Ken Silva
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Ex-Capitol Police Officer Sues the Blaze for Implicating Her as the Jan. 6 Pipe Bomber

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Ex-Capitol Police officer and current CIA security guard Shauni Kerkhoff has sued Blaze Media for implicating her as the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill pipe bomber in an article last November that has since been retracted.

Kerkhoff also sued the two reporters who wrote the story, Steve Baker and Joe Hanneman, as well as their new media venture, Veritas Regnat, which they started after the Blaze fired them over their coverage.

The lawsuit stems from a Blaze article last November that said Kerkhoff’s “gait”—the way she walks—matches the suspect seen on camera placing pipe bombs near the RNC and DNC headquarters on the night of Jan. 5, 2021.

Before the article was published, Baker reportedly took his findings to the Office of the National Director of Intelligence (ODNI), which drafted a memo and passed it to the FBI. According to Kerkhoff’s lawsuit, Baker’s tip to the ODNI caused the FBI to conduct an armed raid on her home.

“The FBI brought a bomb-disposal truck and a helicopter, which hovered loudly overhead. Agents exited their vehicles with their guns drawn in full tactical gear. An agent called Mr. Dickert [Kerkhoff’s boyfriend] and commanded him to ‘come out of the house unarmed with your dogs.’ Mr. Dickert and Ms. Kerkhoff complied and stepped outside,” the lawsuit says.

“Agents swept through the house, then reentered with bomb-sniffing dogs. They opened cabinets, rifled through drawers, and scattered Ms. Kerkhoff’s and Mr. Dickert’s belongings—all without obtaining Ms. Kerkhoff or Mr. Dickert’s consent.”

Kerkhoff said she was then interrogated by the FBI for three hours. She was made a suspect the next day, according to court records, and cleared after she produced an alibi of her filming her dog, which was taken around the time the pipe bombs were placed.

The lawsuit specifically blames Baker’s tip to the ODNI for the FBI raid.

“Had Baker never taken his ‘tip’ to ODNI, ODNI never would have drafted the memorandum; had ODNI never drafted the memorandum, the memorandum never would have landed at the FBI; had the memorandum never landed at the FBI, the FBI never would have investigated Ms. Kerkhoff,” the lawsuit says.

The Blaze retracted its story after the FBI arrested another suspect, Brian Cole Jr., in early December. The outlet fired Baker and Hanneman earlier this month. However, the lawsuit notes that neither the Blaze nor its former reporters have apologized to Kerkhoff.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Virginia federal court, asks for “punitive damages in amounts to be specifically determined at trial.”

Meanwhile, lawyers for Cole have also implicated Kerkhoff as possibly the true pipe bomber.

Cole’s lawyers want to investigate Kerkhoff further. In a court filing earlier this month, they requested three subpoenas: One for a video of Kerkhoff’s dog on the night of Jan. 5, 2021, which was reportedly taken while the pipe bomber was in DC—giving her an alibi; another for her phone and CIA employment records; and a third for documents she provided during the FBI’s pipe bombs investigation.

“Without this evidence, Mr. Cole would be unable to evaluate and prepare a defense that Ms. Kerkhoff, not Mr. Cole, placed the pipe bombs,” Cole’s filing says.

A judge has yet to rule on the request from Cole’s lawyers. Cole has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Pipe Bomb Case History

As Headline USA revealed in March 2024, the FBI had a suspect identified by Jan. 10, 2021 in the pipe bomb case, but never made any arrests.

FBI records released in September revealed that agents didn’t interview the woman who discovered a pipe bomb near the RNC around 12:40 p.m. on Jan. 6 until days later. That woman, former counterterrorism analyst and then-Commerce Department worker Karlin Younger, said she found the bomb while doing laundry.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Kamala Harris continues to be tight-lipped on the subject, despite the fact that her motorcade drove past the DNC pipe bomb on Jan. 6. Harris left the Capitol at 11:21 a.m. arrived to the DNC at 11:25 a.m., but the nearby pipe bomb wasn’t discovered until 1:07 p.m. by a plainclothes Capitol Police officer.

The lack of answers have driven many to suspect that it may have been a false-flag attempt overseen by the feds themselves to divert law enforcement from the Capitol right as the Jan. 6 protest was turning violent.

Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., has said that it may be impossible to successfully prosecute the pipe bomber, even if he or she is ever arrested.

“Here’s what a good criminal defense attorney’s going to say: If you identified the individual who’s believed to place the bomb, then hours go by, and you had a search by the Secret Service at the DNC and the dog didn’t find the explosive—so clearly, the device [the defense attorney’s] client might have left there wasn’t the device that was determined to be the pipe bomb, because it wasn’t picked up by the bomb-sniffing dog,” Griffith argued in March 2024.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

CIA Officers Die During Secret Operation in Mexico

Headline USA Editor
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CIA Officers Die During Secret Operation in Mexico

(Headline USA) Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she would demand explanations over what U.S. and Mexican officials were doing in northern Chihuahua when they died in an accident over the weekend, noting that any joint collaborations between the local government and the United States without federal permission would be a violation of Mexican law.

The crash, following an operation to destroy a clandestine drug lab in a rural area, has reignited a debate over the extent of U.S. involvement in Mexican security operations. Speculation was only fueled by Sheinbaum, local officials and the U.S. Embassy appearing to contradict each other and at times themselves, and offering sparse details about the U.S. officials who died.

“It was not an operation that the security cabinet was aware of,” Sheinbaum told journalists. “We were not informed; it was a decision by the Chihuahua government.”

According to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter, the dead U.S. officials worked for the CIA. The CIA’s involvement was confirmed Tuesday by the three with knowledge of the crash, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. That the U.S. officials worked for the CIA was reported earlier by The Washington Post.

The CIA officers were initially identified as U.S. embassy personnel by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, who is himself a former CIA employee.

The deaths come at a key moment for the relationship between the two neighboring nations as Mexico faces escalating pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump crack down on cartels and Sheinbaum underscores Mexico’s sovereignty.

Sheinbaum said her government would investigate the incident to ensure no laws were broken after the deaths on Sunday, adding that state governments must have authorization from Mexico’s federal government to collaborate with U.S. and other foreign entities “as established by the Constitution.”

Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui said Sunday the officials died while returning from the operation to destroy labs of criminal groups. They were driving in the middle of the night through rugged mountain territory connecting Chihuahua to the state of Sinaloa, when the truck “appears to have skidded at some point and fell into a ravine, exploding.”

He said the four who died were two local Mexican investigative officials and two U.S. Embassy instructors who were participating in routine “training work.”

The U.S. Embassy on Monday declined to identify who the U.S. officials were or which entity of the U.S. government they worked for, but said the officials were “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations.” U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson expressed his condolences on social media but he and other officials provided few details of the incident.

Jáuregui said that the operation came following months of investigation by state prosecutors and Mexico’s federal military, indicating there was at least some level of involvement in the operation from Sheinbaum’s security forces. Hours later, the Mexican Security Cabinet confirmed that the army and state prosecutor’s office carried out a joint operation over the weekend in Chihuahua dismantling drug labs in the same location, Morelos.

After locating the labs using drones, officials found tons of material to manufacture drugs but no people, who were likely alerted beforehand and fled, the prosecutor added.

The local official later backtracked and clarified to press that there “were no U.S. agents in the operation to secure the narco-lab,” and said the embassy officials joined the group after the operation and were several hours away from where the action took place.

Sheinbaum said her government would provide more information when it has more details, but insisted Monday that “there are no joint operations on land or in the air” in Mexico. She said there is only sharing of information between her government and the U.S., carried out within a “well-established” legal framework.

While U.S. officials’ training of Mexican security forces is common, their presence on Mexican territory has been the subject of ongoing debate, which has intensified after Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

Trump has repeatedly offered to take action on Mexican cartels, intervention which Sheinbaum has said was “unnecessary. ” The Trump administration has already launched joint military operations in Ecuador, a country that has been roiled by violence by drug gangs in recent years.

Last year, Sheinbaum said the U.S. had conducted surveillance drone flights at Mexico’s request after a series of conflicting public statements on the issue, also sparking alarm among observers.

The most recent controversy surfaced in January over the detention in Mexico of former Canadian athlete Ryan Wedding, one of the United States’ most wanted fugitives. While Mexican officials claim he surrendered at the U.S. Embassy, U.S. authorities have described his capture as the result of a binational operation.

The recent debacle comes at a pivotal time in U.S.-Mexico relations. The second round of negotiations between the United States and Mexico on the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, the USMCA, was slated to begin in Mexico City. The U.S. delegation is led by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who was scheduled to meet with the president on Monday.

That same day, the Trump administration also announced it was imposing visa restrictions on family members of the Cartel de Sinaloa.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Harvey Weinstein’s Rape Retrial Opens in New York, the Third Time this Case has Gone to Trial

Headline USA Editor
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Harvey Weinstein’s Rape Retrial Opens in New York, the Third Time this Case has Gone to Trial

(Headline USA) Prosecutors once again portrayed Harvey Weinstein as a onetime Hollywood power player who used his sway as a tool of sexual assault, repainting a familiar but fraught picture Tuesday at a rape retrial nearly eight years after the former movie tycoon’s arrest.

“This case will come down to power, to control and to manipulation,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White told jurors as opening statements began in the bellwether #MeToo case, with DA Alvin Bragg watching from the audience.

Weinstein lawyer Jacob Kaplan countered that the case actually “is about consent, about choice and about regret,” echoing Weinstein’s longtime defense that his accuser has recast a willing encounter as a crime.

Since Weinstein became a major target of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct nearly a decade ago, he has been convicted of some sexual assault charges and acquitted of others in trials on two U.S. coasts. A couple of charges ultimately were dismissed. But the rape charge involving a 2013 encounter in a Manhattan hotel has lingered, due to an overturned conviction followed by a jury deadlock.

The allegation is, by now, well known. But the contours of the case have changed.

The prior trials included other accusers and charges. This trial is pared down to the single question of what happened in a hotel room one morning between Weinstein and hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann, though jurors will again also hear a lot about their relationship before and after.

Weinstein also switched his legal team, and with it the rhetorical style and perhaps some strategic choices in his defense. His new attorneys have made clear that they intend to be more circumspect about broaching, for example, Mann’s compensation from a claims fund for women who said Weinstein sexually mistreated them.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having nonconsensual sex. He said in court in January that he had been unfaithful to his then-wife and “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”

The jury — seven men and five women — was selected last week. Weinstein’s last New York jury was majority-female, but his first was mostly male.

Now a 73-year-old prison inmate, Weinstein was once one of the most influential people in Hollywood. An Academy Award-winning producer and a studio boss, he helped bring such acclaimed films as “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “Gangs of New York” to movie houses and the popular reality series “Project Runway” to TV. He also was a prominent Democratic donor.

His career collapsed in 2017, when years of Hollywood whispers about his behavior toward women became public accusations in news and social media. Criminal charges followed in New York and Los Angeles.

Mann was a 27-year-old hairstylist hoping to break into big-time acting when she met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party in early 2013.

She has testified that she was looking for a professional connection but ended up, ambivalently, in a consensual relationship with the then-married Weinstein.

During a New York trip with a friend in March 2013, she arranged a breakfast for pals and Weinstein, she said at previous trials. According to Mann’s prior testimony, Weinstein ultimately trapped her in a hotel room, ignored her protestation that “I don’t want to do this,” demanded she undress and grabbed her arms, and she succumbed because she “just wanted to get out.”

White told jurors Tuesday that Weinstein “was used to getting his way. He did what he wanted, when he wanted and with whom he wanted.” She added, “Behind closed doors, power meant him taking what he wanted from the victim in this case.”

Weinstein shook his head slightly at one point as White claimed that he had “silenced” Mann by letting her know that crossing him could be professional quicksand.

Weinstein’s defense emphasized that after the alleged rape, Mann kept seeing Weinstein, accepting invitations, asking him for career help and sending warm messages to him.

She has said she was trying to avoid angering a volatile and well-connected man. But his lawyer said the case “isn’t a ‘he said, she said’ — it will be her word against her own word.”

“Ask yourself: What is Jessica Mann getting from Harvey Weinstein?” Kaplan told jurors. He contended that she reevaluated the relationship and came to regret it years later, but that “does not remove consent.”

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be named, as Mann has done.

The trial is expected to take up to four weeks.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

College Student from China Charged with Illegally Taking Photos of US Military Planes

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College Student from China Charged with Illegally Taking Photos of US Military Planes

(Headline USA) A college student from China has been charged with illegally taking photos of U.S. military planes in Nebraska during a multistate road trip that included a stop at an Air Force base in South Dakota.

Tianrui Liang, 21, was arrested April 7 at a New York airport while trying to leave the U.S. for Glasgow, Scotland, where he attends school, the FBI said in a court filing.

Liang admitted that he got out of a car on a public road in late March and took photos of an RC-135, a reconnaissance aircraft, and an E-4B at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, the FBI said.

The E-4B, known as the “Nightwatch”, can serve as an airborne command center for a president and military officials in times of emergency, according to the Air Force.

The FBI said it’s illegal to photograph or sketch defense installations without approval. Images of both planes are available online.

Liang told investigators that it was ”legal to take pictures of the sky, but he knew it was illegal to take pictures of the planes on the ground,” the FBI said. He said they were for his personal collection, the FBI said.

Liang’s attorney, Jeff Thomas, declined to comment Tuesday. Liang has not appeared yet in federal court in Omaha.

Liang flew to Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada on March 26 and met a friend who is a college student in New York, the FBI said. They drove across the U.S. border in Washington state before Liang drove alone to see Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, according to the affidavit. The FBI said he was also interested in going to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.

Other cases involving military sites have been filed against college students from China.

Five men were charged with lying and trying to cover their tracks after they were confronted in the dark in 2023 near a Michigan military site where thousands of people had gathered for drills. They graduated from the University of Michigan and apparently returned to China months before they were charged and have never appeared in court.

In 2020, two Chinese nationals who were pursuing master’s degrees at the University of Michigan were sentenced to prison for illegally taking photographs at a naval air station in Key West, Florida.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

House Ethics Committee Releases List of 26 Members Investigated for Sexual Misconduct

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House Ethics Committee Releases List of 26 Members Investigated for Sexual Misconduct

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square)  The U.S. House Ethics Committee released a list of names of 26 current and former members of Congress who it’s investigated for sexual misconduct. 

It did so after members of Congress have called for two members to be expelled, both from Florida: U.S. Reps. Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Republican Cory Mills, The Center Square reported. 

Mills is the only member with an open investigation for “sexual misconduct and/or dating violence.” He currently has a restraining order against him issued by a Florida judge. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, filed a resolution to remove him from office, which failed. 

The committee is expected to release its findings into Cherfilus-McCormick on Tuesday. She was found guilty of 25 ethics charges and is accused of stealing $5 million in FEMA funds. If she doesn’t resign, U.S. Rep. Gary Steube, R-Florida, says he will file an expulsion resolution and force a vote to have her removed from office. 

The committee released the list after the majority in Congress voted against releasing the names of members who’ve used taxpayer funds to settle sexual harassment claims, The Center Square reported. 

The committee said it did so because it is “dedicated to providing transparency for the American public.” It also says it is “dedicated to maintaining a congressional workplace free from sexual misconduct and ensuring that any individuals responsible for misconduct are held responsible for their behavior. There should be zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, harassment, or discrimination in the halls of Congress, or in any employment setting.”

The 26 members are listed chronologically, with the most recent resignations listed first.

All but one are men. One member was investigated twice. Half resigned.

Three members were investigated for House Page “sex and drugs investigation” and “sexual misconduct with a minor”:Reps. Gerry Studds, D-MA, and Daniel Crane, R-IL, in 1983 and Mark Foley, R-FL, in 2006. 

The committee issued a “public report finding sexual misconduct violations” for Studds and Crane for having sex with teenage pages. Neither were expelled nor resigned. Congress censored them.

Foley resigned after it was made public that he sent sexually explicit emails to teenage pages. Congressional hearings were held, including then House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, testifying. Later, in 2016, a federal judge sentenced Hastert to 15 months in federal prison in a bank fraud case linked to allegations that he sexually abused teenage boys.

The remainder on the list include:

  1. Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-CA, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2026 for “sexual misconduct including with staffer.” 
  2. Former Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-TX, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2025 for “sexual misconduct including with staffer.” 
  3. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Florida, is currently being investigated for “sexual misconduct and/or dating violence.”
  4. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2024 into “sexual misconduct with minor; solicitation of prostitution.” The committee issued a “public report finding sexual misconduct violations.”
  5. Former Rep. George Santos, R-NY, was investigated in 2023 for “sexual harassment of staffer.” The committee found “NO sexual misconduct violations.”
  6. Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-NC, was investigated in 2022 for “improper relationship with staffer.” The committee found “NO sexual misconduct violations.”
  7. Former Rep. Michael San Nicolas, D-Guam, was investigated in 2022 for “sexual relationship with staffer.” The committee found “NO sexual misconduct violations.”
  8. Former Rep. Tom Reed, R-NY, resigned in 2022 after an investigation was launched in 2021 for alleged sexual misconduct. 
  9. Former Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-FL, was investigated in 2014 and 2020 for “sexual relationship with staffer.” The committee found “NO sexual misconduct violations.”
  10. Former Rep. Katie Hill, D-CA, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2019 for “sexual relationship with staffer.” 
  11. Former Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-NV, was investigated in 2018 for “sexual harassment of campaign staffers and lobbyist.” After the committee found “sexual misconduct violations,” he refused to resign and did not run for reelection.
  12. Former Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-PA, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2018 for “sexual harassment of staffer.” 
  13. Former Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-TX, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2018 for “sexual harassment of staffer.”
  14. Former Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2017 for “sexual harassment of staffer.” 
  15. Former Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2017 for “sexual harassment of staffer.” 
  16. Former Rep. Eric Massa, D-NY, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2010 for “sexual harassment of staffers.” 
  17. Former Rep. Gary Condit, D-CA, resigned after an investigation was launched in 2001 for “sexual relationship with staffer.” 
  18. Former Rep. Mel Reynolds, D-IL, resigned after an investigation was launched in 1995 for “sexual misconduct with minor.” 
  19. Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, was investigated in 1990 for “sexual misconduct involving prostitution and/or use of House gym.” The committee found “NO sexual misconduct violations.”
  20. Former Rep. Gus Savage, D-IL, was investigated in 1990 for “sexual harassment during official travel.” The committee found “sexual misconduct violations.”
  21. Former Rep. Jim Bates, D-CA, was investigated in 1989 for “sexual harassment of staffers.” After the committee found “sexual misconduct violations,” he was the first member of Congress to be sanctioned over sexual harassment allegations.
  22. Former Rep. Donald “Buz” Lukens, R-OH, was investigated in 1989 for “sexual misconduct with minor.” After the committee found “sexual misconduct violations,” he was later convicted of having sex with a minor and of bribery.
  23. Former Rep. Wayne Hays, D-OH, resigned after he was investigated in 1976 for “sexual relationship with staffer.” 

The committee encourages “individuals who have been the victim of or who are otherwise aware of any sexual misconduct, regardless of whether they are a House employee,” to file a complaint.

Trump Defends Iran War in Series of Posts on Truth Social

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Defends Iran War in Series of Posts on Truth Social

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Donald Trump on Monday issued a series of posts on his Truth Social account defending his war with Iran and a potential diplomatic deal that he may reach with Tehran, though the state of the negotiations remains unclear.

The president started with a post where he said that the state of Israel didn’t talk him into launching the war, an apparent response to the reports and commentary about how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played a major role in convincing Trump to launch the war.

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that Trump launched the war after being briefed at the White House by Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, who made a series of claims that didn’t come true, including that Iran was ripe for regime change. But the report said that Trump was very hawkish on the issue and closely aligned with Netanyahu for many months, suggesting the US president didn’t need much convincing.

“Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did,” Trump said in his post. While he and Vice President JD Vance have framed the war as about preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, there was no evidence either before the current war or the June 2025 war that Tehran was attempting to develop one.

Trump continued, “I watch and read the FAKE NEWS Pundits and Polls in total disbelief. 90% of what they say are lies and made up stories, and the polls are rigged, much as the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged. Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn’t like talking about, the results in Iran will be amazing – And if Iran’s new leaders (Regime Change!) are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future!”

A few hours later, the president insisted in another post that the deal he may make with Iran will be “FAR BETTER than the JCPOA,” referring to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that was signed during the Obama administration, something Trump campaigned strongly against in the 2016 election and later tore up in his first administration, leading to Iran increasing its uranium enrichment.

In a follow-up post, Trump responded to Democratic criticism of the timeline of his war, listing off the length of previous US conflicts. “Despite World War I lasting 4 years, 3 months, and 14 days, World War II lasting 6 years and 1 day, the Korean War lasting 3 years, 1 month, and 2 days, the Vietnam War lasting 19 years, 5 months, and 29 days, and Iraq lasting 8 years, 8 months, and 28 days, they like to say that I promised 6 weeks to defeat Iran, and actually, from the Military standpoint, it was far faster than that, but I’m not going to let them rush the United States into making a Deal that is not as good as it could have been,” he said.

The president rejected the idea that he was under pressure to make a deal, saying that “Time is not my adversary.” About a half hour later, Trump insisted that he’s winning the war and lashed out at media outlets for negative conflict.

“I’m winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well, our Military has been amazing and, if you read the Fake News, like The Failing New York Times, the absolutely horrendous and disgusting Wall Street Journal, or the now almost defunct, fortunately, Washington Post, you would actually think we are losing the War,” he wrote.

In his final post of the afternoon, the president claimed many tankers were headed to the US to purchase oil due to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “The Iranian leadership has forced hundreds of Ships toward the United States, mostly Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to get their Oil — Thank you very much!” he said.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.  

US Estimates Iran Has 70% of Pre-War Missile Stockpile, 60% of Launchers

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US Estimates Iran Has 70% of Pre-War Missile Stockpile, 60% of Launchers

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Despite claims that the US has significantly degraded Iran’s ballistic missile program, US intelligence estimates that Iran has access to the vast majority of its missiles and launchers.

Multiple US officials, citing intelligence and military estimates, told The New York Times that Iran has used the ceasefire to dig out its underground military sites that were blocked by rubble. The US believes that Iran now has access to 70% of its missiles, 60% of its launchers, and 40% of its drones.

The estimates conflict with the narrative coming out of the White House. Earlier this month, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth claimed that Tehran’s missile program had been “functionally destroyed.”

While Iran has most of its missiles available after nearly two months of war, the US has strained its supply of offensive missiles and interceptors. After just two weeks of fighting, the US had used nearly half of its ATACMS and 40% of its THAAD interceptors.

The Pentagon is also facing shortages of Tomahawk missiles, JASSM, SM-3 missiles, and Patriot interceptors. At current production rates, it will take years to refill the American arms stockpiles.

President Donald Trump is threatening to break the ceasefire and attack Iran if Tehran does not agree to his peace proposal during talks on Tuesday.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

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