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As socialist mayor battles ICE, Seattle police and crime victims say repeat offenders are terrorizing the city

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SEATTLE—Seattle police and crime victims say they’re being left behind as Mayor Katie Wilson focuses on clashes with ICE while repeat offenders continue to drive crime across the city.

“I think the center focus on that right now is ICE,” Officer Kent Loux, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG), told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

“It is the immigration,” Loux said. “It’s this federal feud that the mayor’s office is having with the federal government. That is the confusion. I think if she wants to have her feud, have it. Leave SPOG out of it. We do not need to be a part of it, we have been apolitical on all these demonstrations. We clearly can demonstrate that. We are not worried about taking a side. We’re not wanting to take a side, but putting us in this crossfire physically or potentially politically just isn’t fair to SPOG members.” 

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Shortly after taking office on Jan. 1, Wilson announced on Jan. 29 a policy requiring the Seattle Police Department to “investigate, verify, and document any reports of immigration enforcement activity.”

The announcement stated that “if dispatched to a location where apparent immigration enforcement activity is underway, officers will document the activity with in-car and body-worn video, validate the status of apparent federal law enforcement agents through official identification, and secure scenes of potentially unlawful acts to gather evidence for transmittal to prosecutors.” 

Loux told Fox News Digital that while Seattle law enforcement officers do not investigate immigration status and that “it is of no importance to us,” Wilson’s stance is “confusing.” 

“The current city’s policy on us investigating ICE is very confusing for officers,” Loux said. “What does investigating mean? What does identifying mean? This is a disastrous policy that is potentially putting officers and federal law enforcement officers pitting against one another. Not just maybe a physical crossfire situation, but also a political crossfire situation.”

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According to Loux, the city’s law enforcement officers are already struggling in a less-than-ideal environment.

“The members of the Seattle Police Department are trying their best,” Loux said, “They’re out there working, they’re making arrests every day. They are doing the work. Understand, please understand, that the criminal justice system is much larger than just the police officers. We are hitting obstacles with King County Medical Jail declines. We’re hitting obstacles with prosecution, with judges releasing people.”

“We are spinning our wheels, and it really is trying on us,” Loux added. “Please understand we are hundreds of officers short. And we have people working extra shifts all the time to just get to minimums. So we are working, delays are sometimes significant. We’re trying to improve that as best we can, but people are — we are stretched thin.”

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Melanie Roberts is the granddaughter of Ruth Dalton, an 80-year-old professional dog walker who was murdered in a carjacking on Aug. 20, 2024, by Jahmed Haynes, a repeat convicted felon who had served time in prison for vehicular homicide, robbery, and assault. Roberts told Fox News Digital that she is frustrated by the current approach to crime. 

“It’s time to stop taking such a soft stand on crime,” Roberts said. “It’s time to protect the citizens who follow the law and quit trying to mold the criminals into better citizens to be reintegrated. It’s time to protect the citizens that are already following your rules and your laws. I want a harder stance on crime, I want more discipline. I want more consequence. And then maybe people will learn their lesson and maybe people will stop committing the crimes that are putting us all at risk.” 

According to a FBI crime report for 2024, released in August, Seattle was ranked fourth-worst out of the 30 largest American cities for total crime.

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According to the report, Seattle’s total crime rate per 100,000 residents was 5,782.7, and its total crime numbers were 172.9% higher than the national average.

Roberts said her grandmother had pulled over to the side of the road in the residential neighborhood in Madison Park to send daily Bible devotionals to her friends and family when Haynes tried to steal her car, causing Dalton to fall out before he ran over her.

Dalton’s dog was stabbed to death and thrown in a garbage can.

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Haynes did not trigger the state’s three-strike law despite eight felony convictions, KIRO 7 reported. Roberts said her grandmother’s murder was a “failure of the system.” 

“He had been out of jail for, I want to say, seven years at the time that he killed my grandmother,” Roberts said. “By his own admission, he was not on the straight and narrow for those seven years. He had committed other crimes but had not been caught. So frustrating to think that if the system would have been a little better, if a deal hadn’t been cut in 2003, he would have been caught on any other charges [and] maybe my grandmother would still be alive. I feel it’s a failure of the system.”

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Michael Held, chief of staff for the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office, gave Fox News Digital an account of Haynes’ case.

“In November of 2004, [Haynes] was committed to Western State Hospital for a competency evaluation; an assessment of his mental state at the time of the offense; and evaluation of his dangerousness to others/likelihood of committing further criminal acts,” Held said, in part. “During the evaluation process, defense counsel reported to Haynes’ assigned forensic psychiatrist that he had never been able to give her a coherent account of the instant offense and that he typically does not speak. Haynes was found not competent to stand trial. The court entered an order staying proceedings and committing Haynes to Western State for further evaluation competency restoration. To that end, the and the court entered an order for the involuntary administration of medication. Eventually, Mr. Haynes’ competency was restored, and thereafter counsel for the State and the defense negotiated a plea to three nonstrike offenses with an agreed exceptional sentence of 180 months.”

The prosecutor said mental competency in severe cases can be unstable, potentially delaying or preventing a trial altogether. Held noted that proving the weapon met the legal standard of a deadly weapon was uncertain, so prosecutors focused on securing a guaranteed outcome that would keep Haynes in custody for a significant period. Under the plea deal, Haynes agreed to plead guilty to two counts of custodial assault and one count of attempted first-degree escape, and to serve the maximum sentences consecutively, totaling 15 years in prison.

Roberts said that she is “very frustrated with Washington in general.”

“I feel like they are very pro-criminal and very anti-victim,” Roberts said. “[Haynes] has all of these rights. He has the right to have his attorney. He has a right to refuse medication for mental competency. He has the right for this and that and we, my family, my grandmother, have very little rights. There’s very little that I’ve been able to do besides get in front of a camera and tell her story and tell the truth about what’s happening and the frustrations. The media has been more help to me than the criminal justice system has to this point.” 

Matt Humphrey, a Seattle barber who has locations in the Ballard and Roosevelt areas, said he faces break-ins or security incidents at least once a quarter.

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He told Fox News Digital that he lost $26,000 in retail in a robbery last year and lost $3,000 replacing a front window, and has hired professional help to protect his employees.

“I hired a friend who’s a former ATF agent to do de-escalation and safety with my team so they know how to deal with it,” Humphrey said. “And I need to hire him again. I need to bring him back in because I have a fresh new group of people working the front end who all need training on this. And I’m providing this training. I’m paying my friend to come in and do this. And I shouldn’t have to deal with the level of frequency that we deal with here, like four times a year is four times too much when it comes to cost.”

“And it comes really to the emotional part,” he continued. “I mean, that’s the hard part. I mean again, when you pour your whole life into something. I mean, I’m 32 years into this business and for the last six years it’s just been miserable, and I don’t want to give up. I don’t want my kids to see me give up. And so rather than be a victim and be afraid to talk about crime, I’m standing up, and I’m talking to you guys because this has to end.” 

Meanwhile, State Rep. Shaun Scott of Seattle, a member of the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America since 2017, told Fox News Digital that he thinks law enforcement officers are doing things that are outside of their “expertise.”

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“I think that right now we are asking police and law enforcement to do many things that fall outside of the bounds of, frankly, their expertise or their job training,” Scott said.

“It is part of the reason why alternative 911 response is… an issue that I hear so much about in the state legislature, because people understand that if you’re somebody who’s going through an overdose, if you are somebody that’s going through a mental health episode, if you’re somebody that needs to be connected to services, you don’t really need a gun in a badge response,” he added. “In fact, we have criminalized too many public health issues in our state and our society generally. So I think that the role of alternative 911 response is to fill in the gaps and to really address issues that traditional law enforcement has not historically been equipped to.” 

Asked to identify examples of what law enforcement is doing effectively, and where it is falling short, Scott said he “would have to get back to you on that.”

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Compounding the current crisis law enforcement and victims of crime are facing, some Seattle residents see the increase in socialist policies in the state as a great concern. 

“The rise of socialism is a concern for me,” Loux, the SPOG president, told Fox News Digital. “I think these socialist policies are a threat to public safety. What we’re seeing is increased mandates, increased corporate taxes, and it seems that it is squeezing businesses and pushing them out of this city.”

One of the best examples of increased taxes is the recently passed “millionaires tax” which Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed March 30. It will impose a 9.9% income tax on households earning more than $1 million each year. The tax applies to any money earned after the first $1 million of someone’s annual income.

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“Even on a larger scale, I think out of the state I think it’s very dangerous to public safety as it threatens budgets,” Loux added. “Public safety is about resources, and I need a large tax base, I think we all do. All departments need a tax base to fund training, equipment, patrol operations in high crime areas, high traffic areas. And it’s really putting a strain on things already. And you’re seeing these businesses flee, and that’s really going to distribute the budget.” 

Humphrey told Fox News Digital that socialist progressive urban policy is “like a foreign language I don’t understand.” 

“I just, as a small business owner in America, none of that makes any sense to me,” Humphrey said. “I just don’t know how you create any incentive for someone to go out and do what I’m doing, it sounds anti-me. Like, to put it all on the line, to create jobs, to create a tax base, to do all this. None of that works in the conversations I hear in New York and when that party starts speaking up. None of it makes sense to me.”

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Humphrey said he isn’t sure that Wilson, Seattle’s new mayor, will take much of a different approach than former Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell in terms of addressing crime. 

“I hope this new mayor can flip the script and get something changed, but I don’t see any signs that it’s going to be different,” Humphrey said. “I see more traffic, shutting down more traffic lanes, making it harder to get to my shop in Ballard. I see, again, the musical chairs with homeless encampments three or four blocks away.”

While Humphrey said he has considered running for office, it is not something currently in the cards as he focuses on keeping his business afloat.

“I love this city, and I was so close to running for office myself,” Humphrey said. “But I just, there’s no way. I have a small beauty empire I’m trying to grow, and I can’t do it and clean up their mess. So I need this new mayor to do her job and get us some safety and security and make it a little more friendly on businesses, cut us a break, don’t hit us with all these taxes. I get that you guys want to tax the rich, but we are not rich. Small business owners are not rich, so help us out.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, the Seattle Police Department, Gov. Bob Ferguson, and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office for comment. 

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Suspect in string of random attacks in Georgia is naturalized citizen from UK, DHS says

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The suspect in a string of attacks in DeKalb County, Georgia, is a repeat offender and a naturalized U.S. citizen from the U.K., according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was arrested on Monday after he killed two people and wounded another in what police described as a series of random attacks in the Peach State.

Abel faces two counts of murder, aggravated assault and weapons charges in connection with the attacks, which DHS said included the killing of an employee of the agency.

DHS told Fox News that Abel is a U.K. national who was naturalized into a US citizen in 2022 during the Biden administration.

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One of the victims, 40-year-old Lauren Bullis, worked in the DHS Office of the Inspector General, the agency confirmed to Fox News.

She was found dead after being shot and stabbed while walking her dog on Battle Forest Drive. Witnesses reported to DeKalb Police that they observed a man standing over her before he fled the scene.

“Yesterday, a DHS employee, Lauren Bullis, was brutally shot and stabbed to death by Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a 26-year-old, born in the United Kingdom, who was naturalized by the Biden Administration in 2022,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Tuesday in a statement to Fox News. “Since President Trump took office, USCIS has implemented measures to ensure individuals with criminal histories and who otherwise lack good moral character do not attain citizenship.”

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Before Bullis’ killing, police found a woman shot multiple times outside a Checkers on Wesley Chapel Road. She later died from her injuries.

Then in Brookhaven, a homeless man was ambushed and shot several times while sleeping outside a shopping center on Peachtree Road. He remains in critical condition.

Adel was later taken into custody in Troup County after law enforcement used license plate recognition cameras to track his silver Volkswagen Jetta, police said.

His previous criminal history reportedly includes an arrest last fall for sexual battery in Chatham County. He was sentenced to jail time and probation, which included a requirement for a mental health evaluation.

“He possesses a prior criminal record that includes convictions for sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, and assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism and now stands accused of murdering DHS employee Lauren Bullis by shooting and stabbing her while she walked her dog,” Mullin said in his statement. “He has also been arrested for the murder of an unidentified woman whom he reportedly shot outside a Checkers, before randomly shooting a homeless man multiple times outside a Kroger in Brookhaven.”

“These acts of pure evil have devastated our Department and my prayers are with the families of the victims,” the secretary added.

Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.

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From Iran to the fake Jesus image, Trump is facing a growing backlash for his inflammatory rhetoric

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Donald Trump is nothing if not impulsive – and there’s often a method to his seeming madness.

At times that means going way over the line – consciously, deliberately – and at others it’s just rash.

Whether he’s dealing with Iran, the Epstein files, mass deportation or the leader of the Catholic Church, the president busts through the usual guardrails of decency and compassion.

I know this is often intentional, because the president has acknowledged it to me. Ripping others may bring him negative publicity, but Trump doesn’t mind that if it gets the pundits and the public chattering about the issue he wants driving the media agenda.

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Trump posting a user’s AI image of himself as Jesus Christ, healing a patient with glowing hands – and adding a demon in the background – was such a fiasco that he deleted it 12 hours later, which he almost never does. It was striking to hear him blaming it on “fake news” – which certainly covered it – when it was Catholic leaders, along with prominent conservative hosts and podcasters, who led the chorus of condemnation.

Isabel Brown, a Catholic podcaster with the Daily Wire and a Trump supporter: “This post is, frankly, disgusting and unacceptable, but also a profound misreading of the American people experiencing a true and beautiful revival of faith in Christ in the midst of our broken culture.” 

Riley Gaines, a conservative podcaster and anti-trans activist who has spoken at Trump rallies: “I cannot understand why he’d post this…Two things are true…”a little humility would serve him well” and “God shall not be mocked.”

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Megan Basham, a conservative Protestant Christian writer: “He needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”

Rev. James Martin, editor-at-large of the Catholic magazine America, told CNN: “I don’t know too many doctors that have glowing hands. That’s the most Jesus-looking picture I think I could imagine.”  

The posting came shortly after Trump got into a rhetorical battle with Pope Leo, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy.” The first American-born pontiff replied that “I have no fear of the Trump administration.”

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But that was being covered as a straight he said/he said news story and probably would have faded after a day. By quickly following up with the fake image that so many found blasphemous, he created a furor that will dominate the news for days.

Nobody bought his attempt at an explanation: “I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker, which we support. It’s supposed to me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.” Trump is pictured in the red and white robes commonly used to depict Christ.

JD Vance told Fox’s Bret Baier: “I think the president was posting a joke. And, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case.”

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Just a joke. That’s their default defense. Except it wasn’t. 

Nearly a year ago, the president took heat for posting an image of himself dressed as the Pope.

In February, Trump was widely denounced as racist, for an image at the end of a minute-long video of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. He claimed to have missed that part and did not apologize.

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Sometimes it would be better if he said nothing at all. After Rob Reiner and his wife were brutally murdered in their home, Trump posted a message lambasting the famed director as having Trump Derangement Syndrome. 

On the war, the president took immense flak for saying a week ago Tuesday, his deadline for unleashing hell upon Iran’s energy facilities: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” 

Of course he gave the Iranians a two-week extension, which was hardly the first delay, and now says the U.S. will fire upon any vessel that tries to challenge his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has used to choke off a fifth of the world’s oil supply.

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This has basically destroyed the so-called ceasefire, but also plays into criticism that Trump, under pressure from Israel, launched the war without a clear exit strategy. He keeps saying America has already won and he can pull out at any time, but that would be far short of his original goal of getting Iran to stop enriching uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons. 

The president and his team say his threats and delays are a way of keeping the terror state’s leaders off balance.

The confluence of these events has prompted talk about removing the president through the 25th Amendment–despite the fact that this is a fantasy, requiring a majority vote in the Cabinet and a two-thirds majority of Congress.

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 In an obvious stunt, 50 Democrats filed legislation yesterday to create a commission to assess Trump’s mental health. The majority Republicans will obviously ignore it.   

But as the president approaches 80, more concerns, fairly or unfairly, are being openly raised about his stability, as in yesterday’s New York Times piece:

“President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade.

TRUMP’S THREAT TO END IRANIAN ‘CIVILIZATION’ SPARKS UPROAR ON CAPITOL HILL

“The White House rejected such assessments, saying that Mr. Trump is sharp and keeping his opponents on edge. But the president’s eruptions have raised questions about America’s leadership in a time of war. While the country has had presidents whose capacity came under question before, most recently the octogenarian Joseph R. Biden Jr. as he aged demonstrably before the public’s eyes, never in modern times has the stability of a president been so publicly and forensically debated — and with such profound consequences.”

First, I think the “dementia” arguments, mostly from people who have never met Trump, are BS. He handles reporters’ questions with ease and at length, whether you agree with the substance or not. 

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But he is clearly stepping up his inflammatory rhetoric and making big unforced errors like the Jesus image.

Second, the mental decline of Joe Biden was obvious to everyone, even as he was shielded from the press, o the point of declining two Super Bowl interviews. And there did come a point when the media were forced to cover it. But some prominent pundits said they had spoken to Biden privately and he was sharp as a tack.

The talk about Trump is now coming from retired generals, diplomats, and onetime media allies on the right, who the president has lambasted as having “low IQs.” And it also includes such ex-appointees as Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer in the first term, who calls him “clearly insane.”

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in February found 61 percent believe he has become more erratic with age, and 45 percent saying “he is mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges.”

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Liz Peek, a Hill columnist and Fox News contributor, defended him: “Trump knows exactly what he is doing,” adding “Trump will continue to use maximalist (and sometimes outrageous) military and diplomatic pressure in his campaign to rid the Middle East of Iran’s near 50-year campaign of terror.” 

The question now is whether Donald Trump can tone things down a bit or even whether he wants to, since that has not exactly been his style.

Footnote: Now that Eric Swalwell has resigned his House seat in the face of near-certain expulsion, after abandoning his campaign for California governor, a new accuser has emerged.

Lonna Drewes accused the California Democrat of rugging and raping her during a Los Angeles news conference yesterday.

Drewes said they met in 2018 when she was a Beverly Hills fashion model and owner of a fashion software company. told reporters she met Swalwell in 2018 while working as a model in Beverly Hills. Drewes said they met two times socially after Swalwell offered to help her with connections.

On the third occasion, Drewes said, “I believe he drugged my drink. “I only had one glass of wine. We were supposed to go to a political event and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room. When I arrived at his hotel room I was already incapacitated and couldn’t move my arms or my body.”

She added: “He raped me and he choked me. And while he was choking me I lost consciousness and I thought I died.”

Now that Swalwell is no longer a congressman, two of his accusers, Ally Sammarco and Annika Albrecht, went on the record with CBS. “He thought he was untouchable,” Samjmammarco said. He acted with total impunity. He never thought that the consequences of his actions would follow him.”

CNN had earlier interviewed one of the accusers but shot her in shadow to conceal her identity.

Also yesterday, Democratic Rep. Tony Gonzales said he would resign his House seat, also in the face of virtually certain expulsion. “There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,” he said.

Sexual text messages made public in 2024 made clear that he had an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles while she was working for him.

She killed herself in September by setting herself on fire.

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House avoids unprecedented four-member expulsion week as Swalwell and Gonzales resign instead

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It may have been possible to bequeath this as “expulsion week.”

Instead, this might be “resignation week.”

The House has only expelled six Members in the history of the republic. But it was possible as recently as Monday that the House was primed to wrestle with a mind-boggling four expulsions.

It takes a two-thirds vote to expel a Member. The House last expelled one of its own in late 2023: former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). Before that, you have to go back to 2002 when the House kicked out late Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio).

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Here was the chopping block:

Calls to expel former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) piled up after reports surfaced that he sexually assaulted a former aide and several other women. Swalwell initially said he would fight the allegations. Then he dropped his bid to become governor of California after a host of once close allies abandoned their support. Swalwell has now resigned, avoiding the ignominious scene of an expulsion.

Then there was former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas). At first, Gonzales denied an affair with an aide who committed suicide by setting herself on fire. Gonzales was locked in a tough primary runoff against Republican Congressional candidate Brandon Herrera. But after pressure, Gonzales finally dropped out of the runoff and isn’t standing for re-election. However, Gonzales intended to stay on until his term expired on January 3 next year. But now Gonzales is out the door, too.

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So two down, two to go.

This is where things grow complicated.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) could face expulsion soon. In late March, the House Ethics Committee held a rare “trial,” declaring she improperly obtained an astonishing $5 million in COVID relief funds. The Ethics panel will likely recommend a punishment for Cherfilus-McCormick next week. The full House doesn’t have to consider or adhere to the prescribed discipline. The congresswoman proclaims her innocence. She faces a criminal trial in Florida in February 2027.

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“The facts are indisputable at this point and so I believe it will be the consensus of this body that she should be expelled,” forecast House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Rep. Greg Stuebe (R-Fla.) filed a resolution to bounce Cherfilus-McCormick from the body a few months ago. 

And for the Republicans, there’s Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.). Mills is accused of “stolen valor” and exaggeration of his military record. But what triggered the current expulsion push is an allegation that the congressman struck his girlfriend in early 2025. A judge imposed a restraining order against Mills. However, police never charged the congressman. The Ethics Committee is also investigating whether he violated federal campaign rules. But the formal ethics probe of the Florida Republican isn’t as far along as the Cherfilus-McCormick inquiry.

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Johnson is mindful of that fact.

“With regard to Mills, I’m not sure the status of the Ethics Committee investigation and that’s one of the things I’ll be looking into today,” said Johnson.

Four troubled Members. Two Democrats and two Republicans. It was that parity which may have primed the House to take the unprecedented step of expelling those four Members before Swalwell and Gonzales announced their resignations. But a push to expel Cherfiulus-McCormick and not Mills creates a host of problems in the House.

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It’s about the math.

The House swore-in Rep. Clay Fuller (R-Ga.) on Monday night. Fuller won a special election last week to succeed former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) who resigned. That GOP gain is likely offset by an anticipated victory by Democratic Congressional candidate Analilia Mejia in a Thursday special election in New Jersey. This is a Democratic seat which has been vacant since New Jersey Gov. and former Congresswoman Mikie Sherill (D) resigned from the House last fall.

With Swalwell and Gonzales out and Fuller in, the current breakdown is 431 Members: 217 Republicans and 213 Democrats. Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.) dropped his affiliation with the GOP. The addition of Fuller and presumed win by Meija would make the breakdown 217 to 214 and one independent – with one vacancy, covering 432 Members. After the Swalwell and Gonzales resignations, the remaining open seat is a solidly Republican district in northern California, long held by late Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.). He died in January.

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But what happens if the House moves against Cherfilus-McCormick and not Mills? That creates an imbalance between the parties – something which was lost when the potential expulsion of four Members was on the table.

“What about this issue of parity,” yours truly asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

“The issue of parity hasn’t been something that we’ve had a conversation about. We’ve been working through what’s in front of us today and that’s what we’re going to continue to do,” replied Jeffries.

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I followed up.

“But isn’t that a concern, though, if they take action against Cherfilus-McCormick? Her ethics process is further along than Mr. Mills,” I asked.

“The ethics process is still incomplete and we’ll see what the Ethics Committee has to recommend next week,” replied Jeffries.

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That’s in reference to the upcoming ethics panel meeting, recommending punishment for the Florida Democrat.

It was one thing if the House may have bounced four Members, two Republicans and two Democrats, all at once. But it’s dicier now that Gonzales and Swalwell stepped aside. It’s further complicated considering the uneven status of the ethics inquiries regarding Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills.

It seems that Congress is now in a period of establishing new precedents on a regular basis. A record-breaking government shutdown – only superseded by another record-breaking government shutdown. In addition, the House is experiencing a dramatic increase in the raw number of “censures” which it doles out to Members. Censure is the second-highest mode of punishment in the House, just below expulsion.

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The House censured late Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) in late 2010. Prior to that, the House last reprimanded late Reps. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) and Daniel Crane (R-Ill.) in 1983. But since 2021, the House has censured five Members: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) – when he served in the House – Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas).

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently characterized the censure explosion as the “political” weaponization of the ethics process.

It’s possible the House might not take any immediate action regarding Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills. Lawmakers from both sides may be more willing to expel one of their own – and maybe take one for the team on their side – if a similar outcome is guaranteed across the aisle.

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With such a tight majority, Republicans may not want to cede power to Democrats if the House expels a GOP Member as they try to cling to the majority. By the same token, it’s doubtful Democrats are willing to absorb a hit when they are within sneezing distance of the majority – if they don’t see a political equilibrium and document consequences for the Republican majority.

Moreover, tracking where the votes lie for disciplinary action is nearly impossible. What further complicates this is whether any expulsion motion actually comes to a true, up/down vote. There are often motions “to table” or kill any resolution to impose discipline against a Member. The same with motions “to refer” or dispatch allegations against a Member to the Ethics Committee for additional scrutiny. For instance, the Ethics panel is all but done probing Cherfilus-McCormick and is investigating Mills. So it’s unclear what would happen with any possible motion “to refer.”

And let’s be frank: some lawmakers either really want to be on the record voting to discipline one of their colleagues or want no part of it at all. Resolutions to sit in judgment of a colleague is one of the hardest votes lawmakers take. Right up with a vote to go to war. That’s why some prefer the political fig leaf of a “motion to refer” or “motion to table” to an actual up/down vote to punish one of their own.

So this could have been “expulsion week” on Capitol Hill. It’s certainly “resignation week.” And if there’s no other disciplinary action, some lawmakers will be resigned to that outcome.

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