FIRST ON FOX — Washington, D.C.’s professional baseball franchise could come under Justice Department scrutiny after a viral video showed a team executive appearing to admit to his religious discrimination against a Christian player.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is urging Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon to investigate alleged religious discrimination against players for the Washington Nationals, according to a letter sent Thursday to and first obtained by Fox News Digital.

The letter comes after Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe published a secretly recorded video of Washington Nationals Director of Community Relations Sean Hudson saying the team does not include pitcher Trevor Williams in certain social media promotion.

He cited the player’s public criticism of another Major League Baseball franchise for hosting a drag group mocking Catholics.

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“According to the reporting by James O’Keefe, it appears the Washington Nationals are engaged in unlawful religious discrimination,” Boebert told Fox News Digital in a written statement. “I urge the DOJ to take immediate and decisive action.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department said they received Boebert’s letter. 

“The Department is reviewing the matter and will evaluate all appropriate next steps. As always, we remain committed to enforcing federal law and protecting civil rights,” they told Fox News Digital. 

A spokesperson for the Washington Nationals did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Hudson, in the clandestine recording, pointed to Williams’ public objections to the Los Angeles Dodgers honoring the Sisterhood of Perpetual Indulgence — a drag group that dresses as nuns — during the team’s 2023 “Pride Night.

The event also drew condemnation from multiple Catholic bishops, who described it as “blasphemous.”

Williams said he found the group’s anti-Catholic demonstration featuring vulgar caricatures of the crucifixion and sacred rituals to be “deeply offensive,” in an interview with Bishop Robert Barron last year. The professional baseball player said he made the decision with his wife to speak out even though it would put “a target on our back.”

“Baseball stadiums should be a place where everyone feels welcomed, like 100%,” Williams said in the interview. “We should all feel welcomed there. But that was clearly against one certain religion. If you don’t draw the line in the sand, who’s gonna do it?”  

According to Hudson, that public criticism of the drag group’s performance later affected Williams’ opportunities at the Nationals franchise. 

“Because of that we don’t use him on social [media],” Hudson told an undercover journalist in the video. “When they’re like ‘is a hot dog a sandwich’ and the players come up, we don’t ask him.”

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Boebert said she is concerned that Hudson’s admission could mean the franchise violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on religion and other protected classes. 

“Americans of faith should not face professional repercussions for objecting to the mockery of their sacred traditions,” the Colorado Republican said in the letter. “MLB’s privileged legal position should not become a license for exclusionary practices.”

Hudson, in the video, described himself as “far-left leaning” and nonreligious. Meanwhile, he called Williams “super Catholic.”

The Washington Nationals executive also boasted about a Communist Party poster in his office and mused about pushing redistribution of wealth and other leftist agendas during baseball games at Nationals Park in Southeast Washington, D.C.

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“What a cool opportunity for us [Nationals] to also, be a little bit of like, the voice of reason,” Hudson said. “And a lot of people will tell you when I come to a baseball game, I don’t want to think about that s–t.”

“If you’re a sports fan and we piss you off, where else are you gonna go,” he went on. “I don’t give a sh–t.”

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday hundreds of millions of dollars to help with what he says are critical structural repairs and upgrades for D.C.’s Union Station.

“It was built in 1908, over a hundred years ago, and it was the largest train station in the world when it was built,” Duffy said. “And over the course of decades, it’s become run-down,” Duffy said.

A $465 million grant aims to ensure the overall experience for those coming and going remains up to par and on track at the transit hub. It will help fast-track repairs like roof upgrades and passenger concourses, Duffy said.

The project includes the Amtrak lounge and the ticket experience.

For some travelers, alternatives to fast food are a must.

Retail, parking and office spaces will be priorities of the project to maximize the station’s revenue, as will public safety.

Already, Columbus Fountain is flowing again after being broken and dry for almost two decades.

“Now when you come out of Union Station, the gateway to our city, you’ll be met with a fountain that is beautiful and a fountain that actually works,” Duffy said.

Alexander Esquivel was eating breakfast in his car outside his Washington, D.C. apartment last August when, unbeknownst to him, an ICE agent approached his vehicle. Esquivel was about to leave for his cleaning job and stepped out of the car to dust crumbs off his shirt when the agent grabbed his wrist.

“He said, ‘which border did you cross?’ He asked me that repeatedly, over and over again,” Esquivel said. “I felt so many emotions: What would happen if they deported me? I’ll lose my family, my friends, everything I’ve built, I’ll lose it all in the blink of an eye, all for nothing.” 

When he couldn’t provide proof of citizenship, the officer arrested Esquivel, after which he was transported to Chantilly Detention Center in Northern Virginia.

“They handcuffed us all like animals, at our waists, feet, and arms,” Esquivel said.

Esquivel migrated from El Salvador to the US almost 20 years ago, and he’s one of more than 1,100 people who were detained in D.C. in the two months following President Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement last August, according to Washington Post reporting. Like over 80 percent of those arrested, he did not have a criminal record. While Esquivel is comparatively lucky — he won his court hearing last month, allowing him to remain in the U.S. — he and his family are still among the thousands of D.C. families living in the shadow of the ongoing crackdown. 

“I’m always scared, you know, because even if the police stop us, then they could call ICE agents,” said his daughter Kaylie Esquivel, a 9th grader who is U.S. citizen. Kaylie said she cried every night of father’s detention. “I have this bond with my dad that I didn’t really have with anyone else,” she said.

For his part, Esquivel still has nightmares about his incarceration. “I wake up with that trauma, thinking I’m still detained,” he said.

After Chantilly, Esquivel was transferred to Southwest Virginia Regional Jail, six hours away from D.C.. He was then moved to Farmville Detention Center near Richmond, Virginia, where he was given a yellow uniform indicating his lack of a criminal record. He said he met many people who were in the country legally or were in the process of obtaining legal immigration status.

“They took them without a justification and without reason, solely because of the color of their skin and their Hispanic features,” Esquivel said.

Many of the arrests in Washington D.C. occurred without warrants, according to The Washington Post. Last September, a Supreme Court ruling greenlit the use of racial profiling in immigration arrests nationwide.

Esquivel still thinks about the conditions of the jail. “We heard that there were worms in the food,” he said. (An October 2025 report by the National Immigration Project documented reports of worms in the food at Farmville, and detainees facing retaliation for refusing to eat).  

“Everyone there was very sick — they got sick with everything, the flu, among other things,” said Esquivel, adding that people struggled to get access to medical care in detention. “The treatment was truly inhumane,” Esquivel said. 

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to request for comment.

While Alex was gone, his wife Dolores says she experienced intense fear, anxiety, and depression. “This wasn’t the life I wanted. Living in fear isn’t living,” she said.

The family received lots of support from their community during his detention, raising over $25,000 to help with his legal fees. Dolores said that while neighbors left food outside for them everyday, it was of limited comfort.

“I don’t want money, I don’t want anything, I want my husband,” she said, of how she felt during those months.

In November, after two months in detention, Esquivel was released on bail. The immigration judge cited his strong family ties and lack of a criminal record. 

“It was so fulfilling, such a joy,” said Dolores of when he finally returned home. “There is nothing better than being with your husband, my husband with his daughters, with his parents. That’s the true value of life, family.”

Even while they continue to celebrate, the family worries that last month’s court win that allows him to stay could be challenged by the Department of Homeland Security. He and his family avoid leaving the house as much as possible for fear of running into immigration enforcement.

Still, Esquivel hasn’t lost hope.

“I’d tell them not to lose faith, to fight as hard as they can,” he said of what he’d tell other people facing detention. “To fight until they give their last ounce of effort, to not give up, because without a fight there is no victor.”