Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., has passed away following a bitter cancer battle, his family announced on Wednesday.
The lawmaker announced his initial diagnosis with esophageal cancer more than six months ago. He was 75 years old.
"It is with immense sadness that we share that our devoted and loving father, husband, brother, friend, and public servant, Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, passed away peacefully at his home this morning surrounded by family," his family announced in a statement.
"Gerry lived his life to give back to others and make our community better. He looked out for the disadvantaged and voiceless. He always stood up for what is right and just. He was a skilled statesman on the international stage, an accomplished legislator in Congress, a visionary executive on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, a fierce defender of democracy, an environmental champion, and a mentor to so many. But more important than his accomplishments in elected office, Gerry lived by the ethos of ‘bloom where you are planted.’ From the Silver Line to the Oakton Library, Mosaic District to the Cross County Trail and beyond, his legacy now colors our region," the family added.
This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about his decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic while serving as governor, a source familiar with the probe confirmed to Fox News.
The New York Times first reported that the U.S. attorney's office in Washington opened the inquiry into Cuomo about a month ago after senior officials in the DOJ demanded an indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams for corruption charges be dismissed.
The DOJ declined to comment to Fox News.
The Trump administration is now in an unusual spot of ending a criminal case against Adams while opening a new case into Adams’ main rival within months of each other.
Cuomo is running in the Democratic primary to serve as the next mayor of New York City, while Adams is seeking re-election as an independent candidate.
"We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple—something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against," Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesperson told Fox News. "Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political."
The former governor was grilled by Republican lawmakers last year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. House Republicans subsequently recommended the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against him. They accused him of intentionally lying to Congress during the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the excessive number of nursing home deaths.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., referred Cuomo to President Donald Trump's Justice Department for criminal prosecution.
Cuomo – the Democratic scion now considered the current frontrunner in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in June – was first referred to the Biden Justice Department for criminal prosecution in October 2024.
Former Rep. Brad Wenstrup, then-chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said Cuomo made "multiple criminally false statements" to Congress about his handling of the 2020 COVID-19 nursing home death scandal.
Cuomo, who was governor at the time, issued a March 2020 directive that initially barred nursing homes from refusing to accept patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. The directive was aimed at freeing up beds for overwhelmed hospitals.
More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients were released from hospitals into nursing homes under the directive, which was later rescinded amid speculation that it had accelerated outbreaks.
The eight plaintiffs in the case argued that their loved ones contracted COVID-19 in nursing homes and died as a result of the directive. They accused Cuomo and his administration of being civilly liable for their deaths as well as being liable for failing to accurately report the number of nursing home deaths in New York state that resulted from the virus.
Cuomo has previously said that the directive was based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidance at the time.
A report released in March 2022 by the New York state comptroller found Cuomo's Health Department "was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes" and it "understated the number of deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%" during some points of the pandemic.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi last month, Comer said "to our knowledge, the Biden Administration ignored this referral despite clear facts and evidence." He requested that Bondi review the referral and "take appropriate action."
"Andrew Cuomo is a man with a history of corruption and deceit, now caught red-handed lying to Congress during the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the COVID-19 nursing home tragedy in New York," Comer said in a statement Monday. "This wasn’t a slip-up – it was a calculated cover-up by a man seeking to shield himself from responsibility for the devastating loss of life in New York’s nursing homes. Let’s be clear: lying to Congress is a federal crime. Mr. Cuomo must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The House Oversight Committee is prepared to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into Andrew Cuomo’s actions and ensure he’s held to account."
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver will make her first court appearance Wednesday after being charged with assaulting two federal agents at an immigrant detention facility in Newark earlier this month.
McIver was there with two other members of Congress on May 9 to conduct what they claimed were their congressionally-mandated oversight duties, as was Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was subsequently arrested following the incident but later had his charges dropped.
The Democrat will now appear in front of a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey at 11 a.m. and be read her rights and charges. The judge will then decide her bail package.
"I think the charges are absurd. You know, it's ridiculous. I was there to do my job along with my other colleagues. We have done this before. This is our obligation to do. It's in our job description to have oversight over a facility. And the entire situation was escalated by ICE," McIver said during an appearance on CNN Tuesday.
"They caused the confrontation. Homeland came and caused this chaos that we see. It was a very tense situation, but it could have been easily not, it could've easily not happened. They had every opportunity to not allow this to happen. It was very unnecessary. And it just, once again, we were there to do our jobs," she added. "And if I'm going to be charged with a crime for doing my job, it just speaks to where we're headed in this country and what we are dealing with as leaders and as congress members, you know, here in this country."
A charging document cites bodycam footage from law enforcement officers who recorded events as McIver and two other New Jersey lawmakers stormed the ICE facility. Prosecutors say the first officer McIver allegedly assaulted was a Homeland Security Investigations agent, and the second was an ICE agent.
The Justice Department accuses McIver of having "slammed her forearm into the body of a uniformed HSI agent and reached out and tried to restrain the agent by forcibly grabbing him."
The charging document also states that McIver "pushed an ICE officer & used her forearms to forcibly strike the agent."
McIver rejected the charges in a public statement, arguing they are "purely political."
"Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district," she wrote. "We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka."
Witnesses told The Associated Press that the arrest happened after Baraka attempted to join McIver and New Jersey Reps. Robert Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman when entering the facility. When federal officials denied Baraka access, an argument then broke out, the AP reported, citing an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.
Prosecutors said McIver helped create a "human shield" and blocked agents from handcuffing Baraka after he ignored numerous warnings to leave the property and was told he would be arrested.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump's administration must maintain custody of illegal immigrants deported to South Sudan in case he rules the removals unlawful and they must be transferred back to the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts issued the ruling Tuesday night after lawyers for illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Vietnam accused the Trump administration of illegally deporting their clients to third-party countries. They argue there is currently a court order blocking such removals.
Murphy's ruling said the government must "maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful."
Attorneys for the immigrants argue that the deportations violated a court order mandating that migrants be granted "meaningful opportunity" to establish that sending them to a third country would make them unsafe.
The attorneys asked Murphy for an emergency court order to prevent the deportations. Murphy, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would "clearly" violate his ruling, which also applies to people who have otherwise exhausted their legal appeals.
Murphy said in his Tuesday order that U.S. officials must appear in court on Wednesday to identify the immigrants impacted, address when and how they learned they would be removed to a third country and what opportunity they were given to raise a fear-based claim. He also ruled that the government must provide information about the whereabouts of the migrants apparently already removed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in April that the U.S. would revoke visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and no others would be issued, effective immediately. Rubio attributed the change to "the failure of South Sudan's transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner," according to a statement posted on X.
The U.S. has third-party deportation agreements with only a handful of countries, the most prominent of which is El Salvador, which has accepted hundreds of Venezuelan illegal immigrants from the Trump administration.
The East African country, founded in 2011, is on the verge of civil war, with escalating armed conflict, mass displacement and severe food insecurity.
Previously, theU.S. Embassy in Khartoum,Sudan, suspended its operations to include visa, passport and other routine consular services on April 22, 2023.
Fox News' Alexandra Koch and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill to punish those who perform gender transition measures on minors.
"Left-wing activists and medical institutions are targeting America’s children with dangerous drugs, disfiguring surgeries, and permanent sterilization," Greene said, according to a press release. "My bill stops the mutilation of kids and holds those responsible for performing or facilitating these barbaric procedures accountable."
The bill would punish those who commit chemical castration of minors, or perform or attempt to perform "genital or bodily mutilation" on minors in circumstances linked to "interstate or foreign commerce," or when it occurs "within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or any territory or possession of the United States."
The bill indicates that chemical castration refers to puberty blockers and supraphysiologic doses of testosterone and estrogen.
The "Protect Children's Innocence Act of 2025" would slap offenders with a fine, imprisonment of not over a decade, or both.
The proposal would allow exceptions in certain circumstances, one of which would be if necessary for the minor's health, though the measure stipulates that this "does not include a mental health disorder."
The order declares that "it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures."
