Congress
House Republican sues Capitol Police for $2.5 million over 2021 office search
A House Republican is suing the federal government for $2.5 million, claiming he was retaliated against by the Capitol Police four years ago for his vocal criticism of the department’s leadership after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.
Rep. Troy Nehls’ unusual lawsuit, filed in federal court in his home state of Texas, accuses the Capitol Police of improperly entering his office in November 2021 and taking pictures of a whiteboard that had notes related to legislation.
The Capitol Police declined to comment on the lawsuit, but the department has long denied the allegations that leadership targeted Nehls for his criticism. An officer indicated he entered the office during a regular security sweep, according to a department report, because the door was left ajar and took pictures of the notes because he found them concerning.
“If a Member’s office is left open and unsecured, without anyone inside the office, USCP officers are directed to document that and secure the office to ensure nobody can wander in and steal or do anything else nefarious,” Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said after Nehls first surfaced his allegations in 2022. “The weekend before Thanksgiving, one of our vigilant officers spotted the Congressman’s door was wide open. That Monday, USCP personnel personally followed up with the Congressman’s staff and determined no investigation or further action of any kind was needed.”
But Nehls called the actions part of an attempt to chill his criticism of the department. His lawyer, Terrell Roberts, has represented the family of Ashli Babbitt, a Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to enter the lobby near the House chamber.
A spokesperson for Nehls did not immediately return a request for comment.
It’s unclear why Nehls filed the civil claim in Texas rather than Washington, where his office is located and where the alleged breach took place. It’s also unclear why he waited more than three years to file the lawsuit.
The Texas congressman, who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was one of a handful of Republicans initially selected by then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to serve on the panel investigating the Capitol riot, then withdrawn by McCarthy after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed some of his other picks. Nehls continued to criticize the Capitol Police’s handling of the events at the Capitol that day and called for a grand jury investigation of the officer who shot Babbitt.
Nehls’ lawsuit accuses the Capitol Police of violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights, as well as the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which protects members of Congress from being questioned by authorities outside the legislative branch. However, the Capitol Police, as Nehls acknowledges, are housed within Congress, so it’s unclear how that clause would be applied.
Nehls’ allegations against the Capitol Police sparked an inspector general investigation that concluded in 2022 and undercut Nehls’ claim of nefarious actions by the department. The inspector general recommended the department update its policies on how to handle open office doors in a way that “strikes the proper balance of protecting congressional representatives and their staff from physical outside threats while simultaneously protecting their legislative proposals and work product from possibly inappropriate photography, scrutiny, and questioning by USCP employees.”
After the report, the Capitol Police swiped at Nehls for “spreading unfounded conspiracy theories” about its officers’ actions.
A clean energy group is launching a $1.5 million spend against Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), its latest effort this midterm cycle targeting Republicans who actively work against renewables.
The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition’s first ad in the spend, which was obtained by Blue Light News, focuses on an embarrassing incident for Boebert: when she was ejected from a live musical performance of “Beetlejuice” for allegedly vaping, singing and recording the show.
“If Lauren Boebert can’t be trusted in a room full of kids, then she can’t be trusted in the halls of Congress,” the ad says.
The spot makes no mention of clean energy or Boebert’s attacks on the so-called “Green New Scam.” The strategy mimics the group’s previous playbook that it has deployed to help defeat Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) in their Republican primaries earlier this year, as the latter two sought statewide office. The PAC had tried to paint Ogles as an absentee member of Congress and Roy as insufficiently MAGA.
The group, which is backed by solar executives, has become an increasingly forceful player this cycle, which has seen a massive influx of outside spending.
“This industry has been villainized and used as a punching bag at times by the right, and the industry hasn’t always punched back,” said Chris Coffey, the CEO of Tusk Strategies, which is helping run the group. “Maybe when they’re deciding who to villainize next year, they will at least be like, ‘You know what? I don’t need problems with those guys.’”
Boebert’s district is historically deeply red. But Invest in Tomorrow also commissioned a poll, which shows she is underwater: 39% of likely voters view her favorably and 55% view her unfavorably. It also found Boebert leading the district’s Democratic nominee Eileen Laubacher by 5 points.
The poll, conducted by Impact Research from Sept. 21 to 24, polled 403 likely voters and had a margin of error of ±4.8%.
Rep. Lori Trahan on Wednesday unveiled a discussion draft for a bill that would make artificial intelligence developers liable when their products cause harm.
The legislation comes after OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and autonomously hacked into AI platform Hugging Face and accessed U.S. government websites.
The Clear Liability for Artificial Intelligence Misconduct Act aims to make it easier for those harmed by so-called rogue AI to bring claims against developers. Trahan’s bill does not preempt new state laws on AI liability — historically a prerequisite for attracting Republican support in the House.
“When someone breaks the law and hurts you, you can take them to court. That shouldn’t change just because the wrongdoer is an AI agent,” Trahan (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “Developers have already built systems capable of acting on their own and causing real damage. The CLAIM Act makes sure they answer for what their systems do.”
Legal experts have warned that existing laws require proof of intent or negligence, standards that can be difficult to show in court when AI models go rogue.
Trahan’s bill would ensure AI developers are unable to argue that their AI systems are incapable of intent. Instead, courts “would presume an AI system acted with the state of mind a person taking the same actions would have had.”
Trahan spokesperson Francis Grubar said work on the CLAIM Act began almost immediately after theJuly introduction of the FRONTIER Act, legislation with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) that would grant the government power to restrict the deployment of AI models deemed to pose catastrophic risks. While that bill aims to prevent serious harms before they happen, Grubar said the CLAIM Act would address how to impose accountability for existing damages.
Unlike an AI liability proposal announced last week by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Trahan’s legislation would not amend the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Grubar said the CLAIM Act would instead impose clearer liability on a broader range of harms, as well as autonomous or AI-enabled cyberattacks.
The CFFA, an anti-hacking law that bars individuals from accessing a computer without consent, requires proof of intent to hack into a computer system, which can’t be as easily applied to AI agents.
The Hugging Face incident, along with a flurry of other disclosed hacking incidents by rogue AI agents from OpenAI and other AI developers, has sparked a debate over how companies should be held legally liable for their AI systems.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in an interview with Blue Light News’s Decoded podcast, said there should be a new “liability framework” to hold developers accountable for AI-powered cyberattacks. His comments come after White House officials like Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who was recently appointed as AI czar by President Donald Trump, previously said that existing product liability laws are sufficient for now in addressing AI’s risks.
Vice President JD Vance will take questions from Michigan voters in a CBS News town hall airing Oct. 17 as the Trump administration prepares a closing message to voters ahead of the midterms.
The town hall comes amid a blitz of campaign events for Vance and President Donald Trump as their party faces multiple headwinds that could cost them control of the House and Senate.
Michigan’s Senate contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has become one of the cycle’s closely watched battleground contests. Michigan also has several competitive House races and will elect a new governor for the first time in eight years.
Vance campaigned in Michigan with Rogers, gubernatorial nominee John James and Mike Bouchard Jr., the GOP nominee in the 10th Congressional District, at an Aug. 31 rally in Sterling Heights. Rep. Lisa McClain also appeared at the event.
The one-hour special, moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, will be recorded earlier in the week. Vance and Dokoupil will discuss issues facing voters, including affordability, tariffs, immigration, health care, artificial intelligence, the war with Iran and the state of American democracy, according to CBS News.
The two were scheduled for a town hall interview in March, but the vice president postponed due to the war with Iran.
The vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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