Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez call for changes to the Supreme Court

House progressives are calling for changes to the Supreme Court following a slate of decisions affecting affirmative action, student debt cancellation and LGBTQ protections.

“The courts, if they were to proceed without any check on their power, without any balance on their power, then we will start to see an undemocratic and, frankly, dangerous authoritarian expansion of power in the Supreme Court,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Ocasio-Cortez has called for changes to the high court, including expanding the number of justices on the bench. In ending federal abortions rights last year, and landing a blow to LGBTQ protections in a decision out Friday, the court is signaling “a dangerous creep toward authoritarianism,” she said.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), another prominent House progressive, also slammed the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on Sunday, saying if the court were a caucus in Congress, would be the “bootstrapper forced to birth don't say gay caucus.”

“They continue to overturn the will of the majority of the people and to make history for all the wrong reasons, legislating from the bench and being political from the bench,” Pressley said during an interview on MSNBC’s “The Katie Phang Show.” “It is nothing but intersectional oppression,” she added.

Both members of Congress said that every option should be on the table when it comes reining in the court’s power and reforming its ethics.

“We should be considering subpoenas and investigations. We must pass much more binding and stringent ethics guidelines,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“I think everything should be on the table,” Pressley said when asked whether she supports adding more seats to the nine-justice bench. “[Here's] a Supreme Court that has been emboldened in rolling back the hands of time, undermining and rolling back what should be fundamental civil human rights. So everything should be on the table: reform and expansion.”

Any bills to expand the court have little chance of passing in a divided Congress. And even if they do, President Joe Biden does not support the change. Doing so would be a “mistake” he said last week.

Christie: Pressuring elected officials to overturn election results 'absolutely unacceptable'

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declined to say whether former President Donald Trump’s reported 2020 call to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey might be criminal, but maintained it was “unacceptable."

Trump called the Republican governor and prodded him to overturn the presidential election results after he lost to Joe Biden by a narrow margin in the battleground state, the Washington Post reported.

“We'll let the prosecutors decide whether it's criminal or not,” Christie said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

"But is it acceptable? It's absolutely unacceptable, to be pressuring a governor or any elected official as it was with the secretary of state in Georgia, to try to find votes to be able to win a state that you didn't win or to try to somehow come up with some kind of ridiculous theory to overturn the results in Arizona,” Christie added.

Trump is currently under multiple investigations for alleged attempts he and allies made to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In Georgia, he could face an indictment after calling Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asking him to “find” enough votes to come out ahead of Biden in the state.

On Sunday, Christie said Trump lost the election in Arizona and other key state in 2020 because he “had not done the job the American people elected him to do.”

GOP candidates hit DeSantis, Trump over LGBTQ debate

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday condemned the campaign video Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released bashing Donald Trump for voicing support for the LGBTQ community.

"I'm not comfortable with [the video], and I'm not comfortable with the way both governor DeSantis and Donald Trump are moving our debate in this country,” Christie said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“They're trying to divide us further. And it's wrong. It's absolutely wrong,” Christie added, saying candidates should instead be focused on issues like inflation and American competitiveness.

“It is a teenage, you know, food fight, between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump … and it certainly doesn't make me feel inspired, as an American, on the Fourth of July weekend to have this type of back and forth going on,” Christie told CNN’s Dana Bash.

Former Rep. Will Hurd, a recent entrant into the GOP primary field, also criticized the line of attack, calling on candidates to focus on foreign policy and economic issues.

“I wish they would focus their attacks on war criminals like Vladimir Putin, not my friends in the LGBTQ community,” Hurd said. “It is 2023. We should be talking about how do we embrace our differences.”

‘Who are you trying to help?’: Buttigieg slams DeSantis over LGBTQ-focused ad

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for a campaign video the GOP presidential hopeful released attacking former President Donald Trump for vowing to protect LGBTQ rights.

“I'm going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders, and just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again, who are you trying to help?” Buttigieg said Sunday during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The video released Friday shows footage of Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016 saying he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” Trump’s remarks came in the wake of the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 50 dead.

“I just don't understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning, thinking that he's going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community, that is already so vulnerable in America,” said Buttigieg, who is gay and has spoken out frequently on LGBTQ issues.

DeSantis has championed several laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ people in Florida as governor, most notably an education bill referred to by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation with some students. The bill spurred the GOP primary candidate’s controversial, months-long battle with Disney.

The video shared by the “DeSantis War Room” Twitter account angered some within the Republican party as well, including the Log Cabin Republicans, a group representing LGBT conservatives, who said the clip “ventured into homophobic territory.”

Vance, Brown call for action against China over fentanyl crisis

As the fentanyl crisis continues to claim thousands of lives across the country, senators are calling for more forceful efforts to slow China’s role in producing the deadly synthetic version of the drug.

“We should be willing to say [to China], ‘If you don't stop sending fentanyl precursors to Mexico and to our own ports of entry, we're going to really penalize you guys economically.’ That is the real tool,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday.

“We're not going to invade China because they're sending fentanyl into our country. We can increase tariffs and extract a massive economic cost. I think the Biden administration should be doing exactly that,” Vance told NBC’s Chuck Todd.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, Vance’s Democratic counterpart in Ohio, agreed.

"I don't know if we can quantify the dollars and the wealth that that produces for China. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they're actually doing," Brown said of China. “I think it's important that, you know, that we hit them.”

“These sanctions, if done right, cost them a lot of money. … We've got to go after all sources that are financing this and that are laundering these drugs,” he added.

Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram also called out the PRC for its role in the crisis, though she added that the DEA will “stand ready” to work with other countries.

“For about the past year, we have not had the cooperation that we want to have,” Milgram said on “Meet the Press,” noting that the recent conversations Secretary of State Antony Blinken had with Chinese leaders during his trip to Beijing about the issue “are very important.”

Vance also called for stronger military action from the White House in going after drug cartels.

“I want to empower the president of the United States, whether that's a Democrat or Republican, to use the power of the U.S. military to go after these drug cartels,” Vance told Todd.

Vance is not alone in calling for the use of force to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. Former President Donald Trump has talked of sending “special forces” and using “cyber warfare” to target cartel leaders if he’s elected president in 2024, and according to a Rolling Stone report asked for “battle plans” to strike Mexico while in office. Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill to authorize the use of military force to “put us at war with the cartels.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he is open to sending U.S. troops into Mexico to target cartels. And some prominent Republicans have called for bombing drug cartels in Mexico.

Vance also said in the interview that the U.S. should tighten economic pressures on Mexico, claiming that it would help U.S. workers in the long term.

“You really want to help American companies? Stop the flow of this poison that's making our workforce and our entire country more desperate and less able to get up and go to work,” he said.

Pence says ‘no pressure involved’ in calls to governors following 2020 election

Former Vice President Mike Pence called former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey following the 2020 election, but “there was no pressure involved,” he said in an interview airing Sunday.

Pence's comments followed a report in the Washington Post that former President Donald Trump pushed Pence to make a call to Ducey to urge him to find evidence that would help Trump overturn the state’s presidential results.

“I did check in, with not only Governor Ducey, but other governors in states that were going through the legal process of reviewing their election results, but there was no pressure involved,” Pence said during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation."

“After so much uncertainty about the election outcome in places like Arizona, in places like Georgia, states around the country, were going through the legal process of engaging in a … review under state law,” Pence said. “I got updates on that, passed that along, and it was no more, no less than that.”

According to the Post’s report, Trump also called Ducey, prodding the Republican governor to find enough fraudulent votes to help overturn his narrow loss to Joe Biden in the state.

Since Ducey’s refusal to overturn the state’s election results in 2020, he has been a political punching bag for Trump, who has called him a “RINO” — Republican in Name Only — and “one of the worst Governors in America.” But Ducey, who has since left office after reaching his term limit, has stood by his decision, saying he was “loyal to the Constitution and the law.”

Trump is under federal investigation over efforts he and allies may have taken to attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. He is also facing a state investigation in Georgia on similar allegations; in a recording of a call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump can be heard asking Raffensperger to “find” more votes.

Pence: No racial inequality in the education system

Former Vice President Mike Pence endorsed the Supreme Court’s decision to gut affirmative action programs at colleges and universities across the country, saying he does not believe there is racial inequality in America’s education system.

“I really don't believe there is,” Pence told CBS’s Margaret Brennan during an interview on “Face the Nation” broadcast Sunday.

“I believe there was. I mean, it's — there may have been a time when affirmative action was necessary simply to open the doors of all of our schools and universities, but I think that time has passed,” Pence said.

The GOP presidential hopeful cited former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who in ruling in favor of affirmative action in 2003 said she expected there to be no need for colleges and universities to use racial preferences in admissions within the next 25 years.

Affirmative action was a “temporary solution,” Pence said. The fact that it has been effectively ended by the Supreme Court ahead of O’Connor’s predicted timeline is “a tribute to our nation,” and “a great, great credit to the extraordinary accomplishments that minority students have had on our campuses,” he added.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling on Thursday sent shockwaves across higher ed institutions. Education and civil rights groups say that ending the use of race-conscious admissions policies will exacerbate inequality for years to come, citing the challenges some institutions in the nine states that have already banned the practice have faced in enrolling diverse classes.

Pence’s fellow Republican presidential candidates also lauded the decision, including former President Donald Trump, who called it “a great day for America.”

'This is not a normal court': Biden blasts affirmative action ruling

President Joe Biden slammed the Supreme Court’s ruling undercutting affirmative action programs in higher education during a speech at the White House on Thursday.

“This is not a normal court,” Biden said in response to a question from a reporter following his remarks.

“The truth is, we all know it, discrimination still exists in America ... today’s decision does not change that,” Biden said during his White House speech. He proposed “a new standard,” within the college admissions process, “where colleges take into account the adversity a student has overcome,” and pledged to have the Department of Education look into ways to promote diversity within the country’s education system.

But when it comes to reforming the high court, expanding the number of justices would be a “mistake,” Biden said during an interview on MSNBC on Thursday afternoon.

“[It] doesn’t make sense because it can become so politicized in the future,” Biden told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace during a live interview — his first such format since becoming president. “I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it maybe forever in a way that is not healthy,” Biden added.

The remarks came hours after the Supreme Courtstruck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, a major blow to affirmative action in higher education.

In the 6-3 opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court found that the universities discriminated against white and Asian American applicants by using race-conscious admissions policies that benefited applicants from underrepresented backgrounds.

Roberts was joined by the court’s five conservative justices, with the three liberal justices dissenting. The chief justice noted in his decision that the court was not prohibiting schools from considering applicants’ experiences related to race, but emphasized that this should not create a loophole for explicit consideration of race.

“Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise,” Roberts wrote. “But, despite the dissent’s assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”

Biden to visit Mississippi on Friday after deadly tornado

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Rolling Fork, Miss., on Friday, the White House announced on Wednesday, following the deadly tornado that ripped through the Mississippi Delta last week.

The storm left 25 dead and dozens injured after it tore through several towns in one of the poorest regions in the U.S. On Sunday, the White House issued an emergency declaration for the state, making federal funding available to the counties hit hardest by the storm.

On Friday, Biden will meet with first responders and state and local officials in Rolling Fork, a town of 2,000 that saw homes and buildings reduced to rubble. The will demonstrate Biden’s “commitment to supporting the people of Mississippi as long as it takes,” the White House said in a statement announcing the trip.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell visited the state on Sunday, two days after the tornado struck.

Sen. Menendez: Biden’s policies risk making him ‘asylum-denier-in-chief’

If President Joe Biden follows through with plans his administration is weighing to restart family detention for migrants, he risks becoming “the asylum denier in chief,” Sen. Bob Menendez said Sunday.

“The best part of the administration's immigration policy over the first two years is that they ended family detention,” Menendez (D-N.J.) said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” calling the policy a “failure.”

“When the administration opened up a legal pathway to those fleeing, it dramatically saw a reduction in assistance — an example of what you can do in a way that is both good for the border and preserves our nation as a nation that preserves asylum,” Menendez said. “But if not, if the administration does go down this path, I am afraid the president will become the ‘asylum denier in chief.’”

The comments come after reports that the Biden administration is considering reinstating the policy, which would require families who attempt to cross the U.S. border illegally to be detained as their cases work their way through immigration court.

This would only exacerbate the situation at the southern border, which Menendez noted is already tense, particularly after four Americans were kidnapped — two of whom died — shortly after crossing the border into Mexico.

“The reality is along the border communities, it is the cartels that run the border communities, not the government of Mexico,” Menendez said, adding that he is concerned the U.S. is “headed in the wrong direction in Mexico.”

“We have to engage the Mexicans in a way that says, ‘You've got to do a lot more in your security.’ We can help them, you know. We have intelligence. We have other information we can share. But we need them to enforce in their own country,” Menendez said.

GOP senator: Only way to improve Biden's budget 'is with a shredder'

Sen. John N. Kennedy (R-La.) took shots at President Joe Biden’s proposed budget Sunday, mocking the $6.8 trillion proposal the White House unveiled Thursday.

“The president says that his budget will solve our financial problems in Medicare and Social Security; that is not true. Anything seems possible when you don't know what you are talking about,” Kennedy said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

“The only way I know how to improve the president's budget is with a shredder,” he later added.

Biden’s budget, which includes tax hikes on wealthy Americans and corporations, record military funding and a plan to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the course of a decade, is seen of having little chance of passing in Congress.

House Republicans have called for cuts to spending in return for lifting the debt ceiling later this year; the House Freedom Caucus offered a 10-point plan last week. In addition, Florida Sen. Rick Scott has suggested sunsetting Social Security and Medicare programs as a way to do so, a topic that became particularly contentious after Biden criticized the plan during his State of the Union speech earlier this year.

On Sunday, Kennedy said there should be conversations about making changes to these programs, though he was quick to say people should receive the Medicare and Social Security benefits they’ve paid for. But he echoed recent comments by Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley suggesting the possibility of raising the eligibility age for Social Security.

“Of course we ought to talk about it,” Kennedy told host Shannon Bream.

“The life expectancy of the average American right now is about 77 years old. For people who are in their 20s, their life expectancy will probably be 85 to 90. Does it really make sense to allow someone who is in their 20s today to retire at 62? Those are the kind of things that we should talk about.”

“There are a lot of things we could talk about,” Kennedy added, “but President Biden has taken that issue totally off the table.”

2 Americans killed, 2 survivors returned to U.S. after kidnapping in Mexico

Two of the four Americans kidnapped in Mexico last week were killed and two were returned to the U.S., the State Department confirmed on Tuesday.

“Two U.S. citizens were returned to the United States, the bodies of two other U.S. citizens killed in the same incident were also recovered,” department spokesperson Ned Price said during a news conference. The two survivors were receiving medical care in the U.S. on Tuesday, according to the Justice Department.

The four U.S. citizens, who have not been publicly identified, were kidnapped at gunpoint on Friday in Matamoros, in the state Tamaulipas, shortly after crossing the border into Mexico,officials said. A Mexican woman was also killed in the episode. The four Americans were later found in Ejido Longoreño, a rural area east of Matamoros,The Associated Press reported, after getting caught amid fighting between rival cartel groups last week.

“We’re providing all appropriate assistance to [the victims] and their families,” Price said on Tuesday. “We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased. We thank our Mexican and U.S. law enforcement partners for their efforts to find these innocent victims, and the task forward is to ensure that justice is done.”

The Justice Department “will be relentless in pursuing justice” on behalf of the victims, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Tuesday. “We will do everything in our power to identify, find, and hold accountable the individuals responsible for this attack on American citizens.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also addressed the kidnapping on Tuesday.

“Since day one of this administration, we have been focused on disrupting transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican drug cartels and human smugglers,” Jean-Pierre said at the daily press briefing, adding the Biden administration had “imposed powerful new sanctions against cartel organizations in recent weeks.”

She declined to provide names of those abducted. “For the sake of privacy and out of respect to the families, we are going to refrain from further comment about those circumstances at this time,” she said.

Biden hails bipartisan rail safety bill

President Joe Biden on Thursday praised bipartisan legislation that would strengthen safety rules governing railroads, following the fiery Ohio train derailment that left residents concerned about the air and water quality in the town of East Palestine.

The legislation was introduced by Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican, and four other senators Wednesday. The Railway Safety Act would bolster a slew of railroad safety measures including raising fines for safety infractions, increasing inspections and imposing new requirements for trains carrying toxic or hazardous materials.

“I applaud the bipartisan group of senators for proposing rail safety legislation that provides many of the solutions that my administration has been calling for,” Biden said in a statement Thursday. “This legislation provides us with tools to hold companies accountable to prevent terrible tragedies like the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine and to make those communities whole.”

Republicans have been critical of the White House’s response to the derailment, accusing the administration of moving too slowly. But the White House has repeatedly pushed back, noting that federal officials were at the site hours after the crash. Biden, who has been criticized for having yet to visit East Palestine, said on Thursday that he planned to travel there “at some point.”

“I’ve spoken with every official in Ohio, Democrat and Republican, on a continuous basis, as in Pennsylvania. I laid out a little bit in there what I think the answers are, and we put it together. And we will be implementing an awful lot to the legislation here. And I will be out there at some point,” the president told reporters.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline to leave Congress

Rep. David Cicilline will resign from Congress on June 1 to become CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, his office announced Tuesday.

“Serving the people of Rhode Island’s First Congressional District has been the honor of my lifetime,” Cicilline (D-R.I.) said in a statement. “As President and CEO of one of the largest and oldest community foundations in the nation, I look forward to expanding on the work I have led for nearly thirty years in helping to improve the lives of all Rhode Islanders.”

Cicilline, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees called the transition “unexpected,” but “an extraordinary opportunity to have an even more direct and meaningful impact” on the lives of Rhode Islanders. The Rhode Island Foundation is the state’s largest and oldest philanthropic organization, backed by $1.3 billion in assets.

“We are confident in Congressman Cicilline’s abilities, intellect and accomplishments and are excited to begin working with him as our next president and CEO,” Dr. G. Alan Kurose, chair of the foundation’s board of directors, said in a statement Tuesday. “David’s skills and values fit perfectly with those of the Rhode Island Foundation — he is committed to meeting the needs of all Rhode Islanders and has been throughout his public-service career.”

Cicilline’s departure will not affect the margin of control in the House. Democrat Jennifer McLellan is expected to prevail on Tuesday in a Virginia special election to fill the deep-blue, Richmond-area House seat left vacant by the November death of Rep. Donald McEachin. Should she win, McLellan would be sworn in well before Cicilline steps down.

The long-time congressman won his seventh term in November, thumping Republican challenger Allen Waters by more than 28 percentage points. Cicilline's announcement is Rhode Island's second recent congressional shake-up. The Ocean State's other long-serving congressman, Rep. Jim Langevin, retired last year, after more than two decades in Congress. Langevin was replaced by another Democrat, Rep. Seth Magaziner, after a close race between Magaziner and Republican Allan Fung in November.

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.

N.Y. AG's office: Trump and kids 'falsely deny facts they have admitted'

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James says former President Donald Trump and three of his adult children lied in the answers they submitted to the court in response to James’ $250 million lawsuit accusing them and the Trump Organization of large-scale financial fraud.

Both the former president his children “falsely deny facts they have admitted in other proceedings,” deny knowing things “ that are plainly within their knowledge,” and use defenses “repeatedly rejected by this Court as frivolous and without merit,” Kevin Wallace, senior enforcement counsel in the Attorney General’s office, said in a letter to New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.

James’ office is seeking a pre-trial conference to work out fact from fiction and to “sanction Defendants and their counsel,” for the false claims, according to the letter.

Some of those claims include Trump’s denial that he served as the inactive president of the Trump Organization while in the White House, despite Trump’s own sworn testimony that he did so; an argument from from Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump that “they are being improperly targeted for investigation,” despite the court previously rejecting the “witch-hunt” argument; and Ivanka Trump’s inability to confirm the contents of her own emails, according the letter from James’ office.

The new accusations against Trump and his children are the latest in what has been a series of legal tiffs between the prominent New York attorney and the former president. Earlier this month, Trump’s attorneys withdrew a lawsuit filed against James in Florida that sought to block her access to a trust that holds a number of his business assets.

Biden says he will talk with Zelenskyy after rejecting Kyiv request for jets

President Biden answered a question Tuesday about Ukrainian requests for additional U.S. weapons by saying he is "going to talk" to his counterpart in Kyiv, a pledge that came one day after his flat "no" when he was asked about America sending fighter jets to Ukraine.

En route to New York for an event highlighting domestic infrastructure legislation he signed in late 2021, Biden was asked by reporters if he had spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently and what he would tell him about requests for further military aide in Ukraine's war effort against Russia. Biden said only that he would talk to Zelenskyy and did not elaborate further.

Tuesday’s comments followed Biden’s initial rejection a day earlier of talk that the U.S. might supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. POLITICO reported Monday that there have not yet been any serious, high-level discussion about F-16s for Kyiv.

Biden’s comments come as Ukraine continues to push NATO to send fighter jets, a proposition that has yet to gain broad support from Ukraine’s western allies — though France and Poland have expressed an openness to sharing jets.

Three men indicted in plot to kill Iranian-American journalist on U.S. soil

Three members of an Eastern European criminal group with ties to Iran have been indicted for plotting to murder a U.S. journalist and human rights activist who was critical of the Iranian regime, the Justice Department announced Friday.

“The victim in this case was targeted for exercising the rights to which every American citizen is entitled,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference Friday. “The victim publicized the Iranian government’s human rights abuses, discriminatory treatment of women, suppression of democratic participation and expression, and use of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and execution."

“The conduct charged in today's case shows just how far Iranian actors are willing to go to silence critics of the Iranian regime,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

The men — Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev — were charged with murder-for-hire and money laundering for their role in a Tehran-backed plot to kill Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, on U.S. soil. One of the defendants has been detained since his arrest last July, another is in custody of foreign partners pending extradition, and the third is in U.S. custody and will be presented today in court, Garland said.

Alinejad responded to the news in a video posted on Twitter shortly after the press conference, expressing gratitude for the law enforcement teams who thwarted the plot to kill her, and calling on the U.S. government to respond to the regime’s violent crackdowns on protesters.

“Let me make it clear: I am not scared for my life. Because I knew that killing, assassinating hanging, torturing, raping, is in the DNA of the Isalmic Republic,” Alinejad said. “And that’s why I came to the United States of America. To practice my right, my freedom of expression, to give voice to brave people of Iran who say no to [the] Islamic Republic.”

Alinejad added she is “thankful” for the work of the FBI and U.S. law enforcement, but called on the U.S. government to continue to take “strong action” against Iran. “This is the time that we have to pay attention to innocent people in Iran who don't have any protection,” she said.

“The law enforcement action today is the latest U.S. disruption of plotting activities against this victim and other Americans,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in statement. “It follows a disturbing pattern of Iranian Government-sponsored efforts to kill, torture, and intimidate into silence activists for speaking out for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Iranians around the world. Today’s announcement by the Attorney General should serve as a warning about the long reach of the U.S. Government in defense of Americans everywhere”.

Earlier this week, the U.S. and its allies hit Iran with new sanctions targeting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, five of its board members, four senior IRGC commanders and Iran’s deputy minister of intelligence and security.

New program will allow private citizens to sponsor refugees in the U.S.

Ordinary Americans will soon be able to directly sponsor refugees entering the U.S. through a new policy, the State Department announced Thursday.

The State Department has historically relied on nonprofit organizations to help refugees find their footing when they first arrive in the U.S. But under the new program, called the “Welcome Corps,” groups of five or more Americans can volunteer to assist refugees with everything from finances to finding a place to live.

“The Welcome Corps will build on Americans’ generosity of spirit by creating a durable program for Americans in communities across the country to privately sponsor refugees from around the world,” the State Department said in a statement, calling the program “the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades.”

Sponsors will be required to raise an initial $2,275 per refugee to help support them during their first three months in the country — money that will go toward things like a security deposit on an apartment or new winter clothes, a senior State Department official said during a call with members of the press. After the first three months, the refugees will become eligible for other federal programs.

"The goal is for the refugees to become self-reliant as quickly as possible," the official said.

The program will roll out in two phases, with a goal of matching 10,000 U.S. citizens with 5,000 refugees in the first year, the State Department said. During the first phase, volunteers will be matched with refugees already approved under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. In the second phase, which will begin mid-2023 according to the State Department, sponsors will be able to identify refugees and refer them to the admissions program.

The announcement comes two weeks after President Joe Biden laid out a new immigration policy that boosts refugee resettlement from the Western Hemisphere to up to 20,000 people this year and next year, while also prohibiting migrants from applying for asylum in the United States unless they were first turned away for safe harbor by another country.