Congress

Charges dropped for Booker staffer who brought gun into Capitol without a license

Published

2 months ago

April 30, 2026

A staffer for Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) who was arrested in the Capitol last year for carrying a pistol without a license had his charges quickly dropped, according to the Justice Department.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia decided not to prosecute the staffer, Kevin Batts, in April 2025 after it received documentation from Batts showing that his “New Jersey retired law enforcement carry permit was active,” Timothy Lauer, a spokesperson for the office, said in a statement Thursday. Batts had been arrested about two weeks prior.

Batts is a retired Newark police detective who currently serves as a special assistant to Booker. The senator’s office said last year that he serves as a driver for Booker. Batts set up a legal expense fund and received $6,000 from donors, according to filings reviewed by Blue Light News.

At the time of Batts’ arrest, U.S. Capitol Police noted: “All weapons are prohibited from Capitol Grounds, even if you are a retired law enforcement officer, or have a permit to carry in another state or the District of Columbia.”

Batts was apprehended on the Senate side of the Capitol in March 2025 after he informed Capitol Police he was armed. Members of Congress are not typically subject to security screenings when entering the Capitol complex, and staff are often able to bypass security when accompanied by the members who employ them.

A Capitol Police spokesperson said the department “arrested Mr. Batts on March 31, 2025, for Carrying a Pistol Without a License (Outside Home or Place of Business), Unlawful Activities, Possession of Unregistered Firearm, and Possession of Unregistered Ammunition.” When asked separately what became of those latter three charges, the U.S. attorney’s office referred to their previous statement regarding Batts’ carry permit.

Batts established his legal expense fund in 2025 to pay for costs associated with his criminal arrest related to his official Senate duties, according to the filing.

He received two contributions: $5,000 from Elizabeth Naftali of Studio City, California, and $1,000 from Patrick Dunican Jr., of Ridgewood, New Jersey. Naftali is a prominent Democratic Party donor who has contributed to Booker’s campaigns in the past. She has also purchased artwork from Hunter Biden, the former president’s son. Dunican declined to comment; Naftali did not respond to a request for comment.

David Bergstein, a spokesperson for Booker, said in a statement that “the case was quickly dropped last year, and this fund follows standard Senate Ethics Committee rules to help pay for former Detective Batts’s legal bills associated with the investigation.“ Bergstein did not respond to a request to speak with Batts.

Typically, legal expense funds have been established by lawmakers in legal trouble, like former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). It’s rare for staffers to set them up.

In 2021, a House staffer brought an unregistered gun through security in a House office building but faced steeper consequences.

In that instance, Capitol Police missed a loaded Glock 9mm handgun as it passed through an X-ray screening machine at the Longworth House Office Building. The building was placed on lockdown until the staffer, Jeffrey Allsbrooks, came back to the screening area to have the gun inspected. Allsbrooks said he “forgot the gun was in the bag.” Ultimately, he agreed to a plea deal.

Congress

Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Published

1 day ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.

McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.

The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”

Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.

The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

Congress

House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements

Published

2 days ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.

In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.

Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”

Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”

Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”

The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.

The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

2 days ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”