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Washington
Analysis | Impeachment frenzy hits Capitol Hill
A look at House GOP’s three impeachment projects
Congress faces a crushing to-do list that includes preventing a partial government shutdown in less than 10 days. Yet House Republicans are carving out time this week for a trio of impeachment projects centering on President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
- The House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Accountability Committee are set to vote today on a resolution holding Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify behind closed doors as part of Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Biden.
- The House Homeland Security Committee will hold its first hearing on impeaching Mayorkas this morning.
- And Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) introduced a resolution on Tuesday evening calling for Austin’s impeachment for, in part, not moving sooner to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon as it flew over the United States last year. The resolution comes as Austin is facing criticism over failing to disclose to the White House or the public that he was hospitalized last week following complications from prostate cancer surgery.
In an interview on Newsmax on Monday, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) even raised the possibility of impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland if Garland declines to prosecute Hunter Biden if the House votes to hold him in contempt.
House Republicans are relatively unified on the effort to impeach Mayorkas, even though Jonathan Turley, a law professor who has served as a GOP witness in congressional hearings, wrote yesterday in an op-ed for the Daily Beast that while Mayorkas may have failed at his job, there’s no evidence he committed an impeachable offense.
- “He can be legitimately accused of effectuating an open border policy, but that is a disagreement on policy that is traced to the President,” Turley argued.
House Republicans are less united on impeaching Biden, though all of them voted last month to open an impeachment inquiry into the president despite a lack of evidence that Biden committed high crimes or misdemeanors. (Former speaker Kevin McCarthy initially set the inquiry in motion in September without a vote.)
Asked Tuesday whether the House could handle two impeachments at the same time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan told reporters, “We’ll find out.”
Democrats and the White House, meanwhile, have assailed the impeachment efforts as baseless.
“House Republicans are less than ten days from sparking a partial government shutdown that many of their extreme members are rooting for, but instead of working full-time to avoid it, they are wasting time on political stunts,” Ian Sams, a White House spokesman, told The Early on Tuesday in a statement.
And even some Republicans have expressed concern that two — or potentially three — impeachment efforts are overkill.
“I think that stuff is not going anywhere,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “I think there are enough distractions in general.”
Here’s what’s happening with each impeachment effort:
Republicans are moving to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress because he refused to sit for a deposition last month as part of the inquiry into his father. Hunter Biden volunteered to testify instead in a public hearing — an offer Republicans refused.
Hunter Biden’s defiance of the committee’s subpoenas “constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution as prescribed by law,” Comer plans to say in the meeting today, according to excerpts of his remarks shared with The Early.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, has bashed Comer for refusing to allow Hunter Biden to testify in public, which he described as Comer obstructing “his own hapless investigation.”
Unlike the Biden impeachment inquiry, “even vulnerable Republican lawmakers view the push to impeach Mayorkas as more politically palatable and have quickly coalesced around the effort, according to lawmakers and staffers involved with the latest impeachment target,” our colleagues Jackie Alemany and Marianna Sotomayor report.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), a Homeland Security Committee member who represents a district Biden won by nearly 15 points in 2020, said Tuesday that he supports impeaching Mayorkas.
“It was a quality investigation,” D’Esposito said. “And I look forward to laying out all the facts for the rest of the members of the Republican conference and moving forward with the impeachment proceedings.”
But while D’Esposito voted for the Biden impeachment inquiry, he declined to endorse impeaching Biden or Austin for the moment.
- “It seems like we’re getting a little impeachment friendly,” he said.
The push to impeach Austin is the most nascent.
In a brief interview Tuesday shortly after he filed the resolution, Rosendale said he thought House Republicans could handle three impeachment efforts at once.
“I truly believe that they are all warranted,” Rosendale said.
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said he supported Rosendale’s effort. But Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), who leads the Republican Study Committee, another one of the “five families” of House Republicans, declined to endorse it Tuesday.
“I need to know more about it before I go out and say I support it,” Hern said.
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley will face off one on one in Iowa tonight during CNN’s Republican primary debate, which comes only five days before the caucuses. Trump is scheduled to participate in a Fox News town hall at the same time.
One question on our mind is how successful Fox, which reached a $787.5 million settlement in a defamation suit over its 2020 election fraud claims, will be at limiting the spread of 2020-related conspiracy theories in a way that doesn’t upset Trump fans.
Both debates start at 9 p.m. Check out this visual on the importance of the Iowa caucuses while you wait.
Senate Republicans will meet today to discuss border policy negotiations.
The meeting was requested by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) before the holiday break that began in December. Bipartisan negotiations have stalled, in part, on the issue of humanitarian parole, an authority given to the president to determine that groups of people are able to be given temporary admission into the U.S.
We are watching to see whether the stalemate in the negotiations softens.
We’re watching to see how Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis responds to claims that she had an “improper” relationship with the Georgia election-interference case’s lead prosecutor, Nathan Wade, who has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his work. We’re also waiting to see whether Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will grant a motion disqualifying the entire prosecution team from the case.
- Background: Mike Roman, a co-defendant in the Georgia case, claims the indictment is tainted by the alleged ongoing relationship between Willis and Wade, which the filing described as a breach of professional ethics, our colleagues Holly Bailey and Amy Gardner report.
- But as our colleagues note, “the filing did not offer evidence to back up those sensational claims.”
- “Separately, court records in Wade’s divorce case indicate that Willis was issued a subpoena Monday by Wade’s estranged wife to testify in the proceedings, which appear to have turned contentious…It is unknown what Willis will be asked or why she was deemed a potential witness.”
New Hampshire looms as Haley’s last chance to stop Trump
New Hampshire, a state where Nikki Haley has narrowed the gap with Trump, is shaping up to be “the most consequential early state — and perhaps the only shot to stop or slow Trump’s march to the GOP presidential nomination,” our colleagues Maeve Reston, Dylan Wells and Meryl Kornfield report.
But the former U.N. ambassador must overcome some major obstacles first:
Wild card: “Undeclared” voters.
- “One element of this cycle’s unpredictability is the outsize role that voters who are unaffiliated with either party could play in the GOP primary. … Those ‘undeclared’ voters — who span the ideological spectrum from libertarians to ardent Trump supporters alienated by the mainstream GOP to moderate voters who despise Trump — compose 39% of the electorate and can cast a ballot in either primary on Election Day.”
Chris Christie has split the vote.
- “With anti-Trump support splintering between her and Christie, there’s no guarantee that consolidation of the anti-Trump movement behind Haley will be enough to win.”
This isn’t the 2020/2016 Trump campaign.
- Haley is up against the fervent energy of Trump’s supporters and the finely tuned ground game of his campaign, our colleagues report. Trump received a late Tuesday night endorsement from Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican.
Trump is spending big on attack ads.
- “For the first time, Trump’s campaign is also now targeting Haley’s record on immigration and taxes on the airwaves, criticizing her rhetoric on immigration and attempting to portray her as ‘too liberal’ in a way that could hamper her momentum. While Haley’s campaign and SFA Inc., the super PAC allied with her campaign, had dominated New Hampshire media markets in November and December, ad spending by the Trump campaign and MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting him, shot up at the end of December to match her efforts, according to data from AdImpact.”
Trump rhetoric, Republican candidates’ ads frighten immigrants in Iowa
Our colleagues Danielle Paquette and Sabrina Rodriguez take a look at how anti-migrant rhetoric — like Trump’s “poisoning the blood” comments — has unsettled immigrants living in Iowa. Danielle and Sabrina spoke to immigrants from Liberia, El Salvador and the Democratic Republic of Congo for this story. Here’s an excerpt:
“As the race for the White House officially kicks off and GOP contenders jostle for votes before next week’s Iowa caucuses, people who’ve settled here from all over the world say the intensifying spotlight on border security and caustic language lobbed by Republican candidates has filled them with dread,” Danielle and Sabrina write.
- “The fire hose of campaign vitriol targeting ‘undocumented’ or ‘illegal’ migrants crushes room for nuanced debate, some say, threatening to demonize anyone who looks foreign. Naturalized citizens fear their neighbors might lump them in the same category as ‘criminals’ and ‘terrorists,’ and even those who agree with cracking down on unauthorized entry are disturbed by the relentless condemnation of people they see as fleeing danger or seeking a better life.”
- “I will use Trump’s own words: He will poison Americans’ mindsets,” Gloria Henriquez, 47, told our colleagues. “They will see an immigrant and say, ‘Oh, they ruin us.’”
Thanks for reading. You can also follow us on X: @theodoricmeyer and @LACaldwellDC.
Washington
‘Eye-opening’: Ursula shocked at nearly half of ICE arrests in Washington have no criminal history
After federal data revealed that nearly 2,000 people were taken into ICE custody in Washington between the start of President Trump’s second term and October 2025, The Seattle Times found that 47% of those who were taken into custody had no criminal convictions or pending charges.
KIRO hosts Ursula Reutin and Spike O’Neill were appalled at the findings due to the Trump administration’s promise to target the most violent offenders, but now individuals without a criminal history are being arrested.
“It’s just like promises kept, promises made, promises broken, from the Trump administration,” Spike said. “Nobody campaigned on clearing out the Home Depot workforce or the kitchen staff here, there, and everywhere. That’s not what people campaigned on. They campaigned on the worst of the worst. We all, I think, support the removal of the worst of the worst. But you mentioned 47% in Washington have no criminal record.”
Ursula noted that a small percentage of the 2,000 ICE arrests made in Washington had a criminal with a violent crime, while a vast majority had nothing worse than a traffic violation.
“When we break it down, we’re talking about a very, very tiny percentage, 13%, being violent crimes,” Ursula said. “If you have a violent crime, you should be deported, period. But we’re talking about, again, some kind of traffic infraction. It’s eye-opening when you see what was promised, and what is actually happening.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.
A federal judge in Virginia scolded Justice Department attorneys on Friday for not mentioning the 1980 Privacy Protection Act when they submitted their application for a warrant to search a Washington Post reporter’s home and seize her devices.
The Privacy Protection Act limits the government’s ability to search and seize journalists’ materials.
“Did you not tell me intentionally or did you not know,” Magistrate Judge William Porter asked.
The testy exchange unfolded in the middle of a hearing to determine whether the government should be permitted to search through the devices seized from Post reporter Hannah Natanson – or whether the government must return those devices to Natanson without an extensive search.
The judge appeared inclined to find a middle ground that would allow the court to do a search of the devices on behalf of the government – and then hand information relevant to the search warrant over to prosecutors. This would prevent the government from having potentially unfettered access to Natanson’s devices, which The Post said the reporter has used to communicate with roughly 1,200 confidential sources.
“I have a pretty good sense of what I’m going to do here,” Porter said, adding that he wanted to spend some more time thoroughly considering his options before making a ruling. He scheduled another hearing for March 4 and said he expects to issue his ruling before then.
Friday’s hearing marked the first time that prosecutors and attorneys for The Post have met in court since the unprecedented Jan. 14 search of Natanson’s home in Virginia. Federal agents seized a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a Garmin watch. Law enforcement officials said the search was part of their investigation into government contractor Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a systems administrator with top secret clearance who was indicted in Maryland last month on charges of unlawfully obtaining and sharing classified materials.
The discussion of the Privacy Protection Act reflected the tense moment of the nearly hour-long hearing in the Alexandria, Virginia, federal courthouse. Porter said he was particularly frustrated because he had spent two days going back and forth with the government in January before he approved the warrant. He said he rejected multiple versions of the warrant requests before settling on a relatively narrow warrant to seize information on Natanson’s devices pertaining to her communications with the government contractor.
The 1980 act is intended to prevent the criminalization of a reporter gathering information. It says that a journalist’s materials should be seized only if that journalist is suspected of committing a crime with those materials. The law says that a reporter’s possessions can be seized if investigators suspect they contain certain materials related to sensitive national security information.
Justice Department trial attorney Christian Dibblee apologized to the judge and said he could not answer the questions about why the government had not discussed that law because he was not involved in the submission of the warrant. Another prosecutor who submitted the warrant – Gordon Kromberg, a veteran attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia – chimed in and said he did not mention the law because he does not believe it applied to the case.
Porter suggested that whether or not the law applied in this instance, prosecutors should have included it in the application so that the judge could determine its relevance.
“That’s minimizing it,” Porter told the government trial attorney when he said he understood the judge’s frustration.
It is exceptionally rare for law enforcement officials to search reporters’ homes to further cases in which the journalist is not a target. The law allows such searches under some circumstances, but federal regulations intended to protect a free press are designed to make it more difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to obtain the identities of their sources.
The Post and Natanson’s attorneys have decried the search as one that “flouts the First Amendment and ignores federal statutory safeguards for journalists.” They have demanded that the government return the devices so Natanson can continue reporting and said that “almost none” of the materials on the devices are relevant to the case against the contractor.
Attorneys for The Post and Natanson argued in court that the seizures have prevented Natanson from doing her job because she cannot publish material without her devices and sources. They also said that the government’s seizure could have a chilling effect on future government sources who may want to speak out about their workplaces to reporters.
“It is not about one reporter and one journalist – it has to do with confidential sources,” an attorney for The Post, Simon Latcovich, told the judge.
The Justice Department attorneys conceded that they seized more materials from Natanson than is relevant to the search warrant. But they said that’s a standard reality in such searches. The government planned to set up a filter team to sift through the materials and then hand over only relevant information to the investigators, the prosecutors said.
“The government takes seriously that you did not authorize a fishing expedition,” Dibblee told Porter.
Perez-Lugones pleaded not guilty last month to counts of retaining and sharing sensitive national security information. The Justice Department has said that Perez-Lugones had been messaging Natanson shortly before his arrest.
Natanson covers the federal workforce and has been part of The Post’s most high-profile and sensitive coverage related to government firings, national security and diplomacy during the first year of the second Trump administration. She contributed reporting to a number of recent articles around the United States’ capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.
In December, Natanson wrote a first-person account about her experience covering the federal workforce as the Trump administration created upheaval across the government. She detailed how she posted her secure phone number to an online forum for government workers and amassed more than 1,000 sources, with federal workers frequently contacting her to share frustrations and accounts from their offices.
Natanson wrote in a declaration to the court last month that she typically receives anywhere from dozens to upward of 100 tips from sources per day on Signal. Since the seizure, the number of tips has fallen to zero.
Prosecutors also served The Post with a subpoena seeking information related to the same government contractor. The subpoena asked The Post to hand over any communications between the contractor and other employees.
Porter said at the hearing that he took issue with the framing of the search as unprecedented because it was executed at a journalist’s home. He noted that Natanson wrote in her first-person essay that she often works from home, which would make it a logical place to execute a search warrant.
“I think that’s an inflammatory fact,” Porter said.
Attorneys for The Post and Natanson repeatedly suggested that the government’s search was an overreach because agents seized all of her devices, which comprised the entirety of her reporting materials. Porter asked multiple times whether there was an alternative way the government could have conducted its search since the materials are stored together on electronic devices – and not, for example, on individual pages or notebooks.
“I still haven’t heard some alternative way that you think this could have been done,” Porter said to the attorneys.
Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this report.
EDMONDS, Wash. — Ahmad Hilal Abid arrived in Seattle as a teenager, leaving Afghanistan with his family in search of opportunity and safety.
Looking back, he admits that adjusting to life in the United States was not easy.
I immigrated from Afghanistan to Seattle directly back in 2018 when I was just fifteen years old,” Abid said. “Life, in the beginning, was very challenging: coming as a teenager to America, navigating a new culture, a new place.
He said he struggled to learn English.
“I found myself as a guy who could not speak any English,” Abid continued. “A person who was bullied because of my English skills.”
An image of students participating in the non-profit called House of Wisdom in Seattle, Washington. (KOMO News)
Abid remembers multiple instances of his broken English being met with laughter and ridicule. Despite those challenges, Abid said he found freedom in his new home.
“I can practice my faith. I can freely express myself. I can stand by my word, you know?” Abid said. “I can do certain things that I could never do in my past country.”
While he was finding joy in his newfound freedom, Abid had some trouble finding his place. Rather than focus on fitting in, he decided to create opportunities for others who shared similar experiences.
A lot of youngsters around my age want to fit in. But me, I want to create a space for me and my community.” He added, “If we study our history, immigrants from all over the world have come here to call it home. I am an American, but with my own identity, with my own values, so I could never try to fit in.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abid launched a non-profit called House of Wisdom, which, according to its website, is a program that offers “free, inclusive academic support and culturally responsive mentorship to underserved youth.”
Abid started the non-profit with a small group of students inside his family’s garage. He says he borrowed three-hundred dollars from his dad to purchase tables and chairs. It didn’t take long for twenty students to turn to Abid’s new program for help with math and English homework. Abid says he connects deeply with the students.
An image of students participating in the non-profit called House of Wisdom in Seattle, Washington. (KOMO News)
“We share tutoring, math, English, and helping them with their homework, navigating a life in a new country,” Abid said, sharing that he sees himself in every student who comes into the program.
House of Wisdom has since expanded beyond its original location. It is now holding sessions in four different sites and serves more than 200 students.
“This is a non-profit with over 70 mentors coming and getting paid opportunities.”
In addition to tutoring, the program emphasizes mentorship and emotional support, with a focus on serving refugees, immigrants, and young women whose access to education may have been limited.
“So here, helping empower women and girls, empowering the underserved, empowering refugees and immigrants, means that we are empowering while others are suffering from a lack of education,” said Abid.
Abid said the mission is personal and rooted in his own values.
An image of students participating in the non-profit called House of Wisdom in Seattle, Washington. (KOMO News)
“Helping others is part of my identity, and that’s why I am living. That’s why I wake up in the morning.”
He encourages others to give their time to strengthen their communities.
“If you’re touching someone’s life by volunteering, this is what makes a difference in our community. Even one or two hours, having that will also inspire you to do more in your community.” Reflecting on his journey, he said, “My family was very worried about me. ‘What would he do in America?’ And now, I am an entrepreneur. I am creating opportunities for students who were born and raised in America. That’s where this immigrant came from. I want to say, immigrants: we don’t take jobs, we create jobs.”
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