Lawmakers propose new legislation to ban DeepSeek from federal devices
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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is demanding swift action after ABC News’ exclusive reporting about hidden links in DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence tool that could potentially send data to a Chinese state-owned telecommunications company.
“I think we should ban DeepSeek from all government devices immediately. No one should be allowed to download it onto their device,” Gottheimer, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News.
A new bill Gottheimer proposed on Thursday is called the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act” and it would require the Office of Management and Budget to develop guidelines within 60 days for the removal of DeepSeek from federal technologies, with exceptions for law enforcement and national security-related activity.
The bill would ban DeepSeek from federal devices as well as any future product developed by High-Flyer, the artificial intelligent tool’s hedge fund backers.
This comes after the U.S. House of Representatives chief administrative officer issued a memo urging staffers against using DeepSeek last week.
Gottheimer is one of the lawmakers behind the TikTok bill, which passed in April 2024 and led to a 24-hour blackout for the app’s American users the day before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
There are fears DeepSeek could pose a risk to national security after Ivan Tsarynny, CEO and founder of cybersecurity research firm Feroot, told ABC News he found hidden code with the capability to send data to servers under the control of the Chinese government.
“Even though we all know DeepSeek is a Chinese organization, what is really, really standing out is now we see direct links to servers and to companies in China that are under control of the Chinese government. And this is something that we have never seen in the past.”
“There are technologies that are embedded into the DeepSeek website that are tracking us. They have the capability to track across any other website… your interests outside of DeepSeek,” Tsarynny told ABC News. “The type of queries, type of questions, types of topics that you ask and analyze in DeepSeek makes a very, very sensitive, very personal profile.”
DeepSake and High-Flyer have not responded to repeated requests for comment.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson met Thursday with Republican holdouts to his bid to retain the gavel in the new Congress, one day before the House convenes and votes for a speaker, which could come down to a single Republican vote.
Behind the scenes, President-elect Donald Trump and his top advisers were working to strike a deal with one lawmaker in particular, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, sources told ABC News.
Johnson does appear to have the support of the majority of his conference and has the endorsement of Trump. But there are at least 16 hardliners who won’t commit to voting for Johnson and at least one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has said publicly he won’t vote for Johnson.
Several members of the House Freedom Caucus, including those who won’t commit to backing Johnson, were spotted entering the speaker’s office on Thursday, including Republican Reps. Roy, Michael Cloud, Eli Crane, Ralph Norman, Victoria Spartz, Andy Harris, Andy Biggs, Scott Perry, Andrew Clyde and Andy Ogles.
Spartz told ABC News that she will decide on Friday whether she will vote for Johnson.
Most of the members leaving the 2 1/2-hour meeting dodged questions from reporters. The few who did talk said they thought they were making progress but none had committed to voting for Johnson.
Norman did speak to reporters after the meeting, saying that he was happy with how the meeting went but that the group who convened with Johnson weren’t yet committed to voting for him on Friday.
Asked if he was still far from voting for Johnson, Norman said, “No I wouldn’t say that.”
“A day in politics is like a minute. It’s always changing, we’ll see. I was very happy with the discussions, we’ll see,” Norman added. “He’s listening, Mike is listening, he’s a good listener…. Are we there yet on everything? No. But we will continue the discussions.”
Asked before the meeting if he and other Republicans are defying Trump by withholding support for Johnson, Norman defended their push for certain concessions from the speaker.
“We haven’t done anything yet. We are discussing it. We are discussing it. Look, the vote will take place,” Norman said. “You’ll see how it comes out.”
“Trump’s behind him. He does make a lot of difference. Donald Trump says he’s his chosen speaker. So, we will see how that goes,” Norman added.
Roy placed his hand in front of his face when asked after the meeting if he had spoken with Trump about the speaker’s vote.
Cloud wouldn’t answer questions, either, but said later in a post on X that he’s still “working to help find a third option” as he thinks Johnson’s speakership, or the “status quo,” would “undoubtedly fail Trump’s agenda” but that any delay in this process would also push back Trump’s ability to enact it.
Johnson told ABC News the conversations on Thursday were “going well” and he believed the election on Friday is “going to go smoothly.”
“People are talking through process changes they want and those kinds of things. And I’m open to that. And I think tomorrow is going to go well,” he said.
Johnson is navigating the speakership battle with a historically narrow House majority.
The resignation of former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz in December left the House with 434 members, 219 of whom are Republicans and 215 Democrats. That means if all members are present on Friday, Johnson could afford to lose only one Republican vote.
There is also an all-out push from Trump’s advisers to come to an agreement with Roy.
The Texas congressman, who posted on X on Wednesday that he was undecided, has spoken to both Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, who are personally involved in striking a deal with Roy, sources told ABC News.
In a call on New Year’s Day, Trump praised Roy’s work in the House but encouraged him to support Johnson, who was also on the call along with Vice President-elect JD Vance.
The sources told ABC News that discussions with Roy include making him the chair of the Rules Committee, one of the most powerful committees in the House that can block any legislation from advancing to the House floor. Roy also has indicated privately that he wants a commitment to major cuts in government spending.
The House will gavel in at noon Friday to embark on the start of the 119th Congress, in which Republicans will have control of both the House and Senate.
The first order of business in the House is its constitutional obligation to elect its speaker, a process that has created high drama in recent years as Kevin McCarthy took 15 ballots to ultimately seize the gavel at the beginning of the 118th Congress.
McCarthy later became the first lawmaker vacated from the speaker’s office after a revolt by a handful of Republican hardliners led by Gaetz.
Republicans then took three weeks to decide on a new leader and ultimately settled on Johnson as the 56th speaker of the House in October 2023.
The House cannot conduct any business until a speaker is elected, such as certifying Trump’s 2024 election victory — a process set for Jan. 6.
Johnson has expressed confidence that he will be successful, despite at times acknowledging the “numbers game” he faces.
Asked about his message to undecided Republicans, Johnson replied: “We need to stay unified so we can save the country. And I think that’s an important message.”
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, an assistant Republican whip who backs Johnson’s bid to remain speaker, said on CNN on Thursday she wouldn’t be surprised if the vote goes to multiple rounds.
“I don’t know if he has the votes right now, but I do believe that he will have the votes,” Malliotakis said. “And I’m not sure that it will be on the first round, but I do think by tomorrow we will have a speaker and that speaker will be Mike Johnson.”
Asked what would it say about House Republicans if he were to lose on the first ballot, Johnson said he hopes to have the necessary votes.
But if not, Johnson said, “That’s the process of Congress with a small majority, that’s what that says.”
(WASHINGTON) — Monday marks the fourth anniversary of the violent events of Jan. 6, 2021 — a day President-elect Donald Trump has continually tried to recast as a “day of love.”
Trump is vowing to pardon Jan. 6 rioters on the first day of his administration, saying while it will done be on a case-by-case basis, he believes a majority of them should not be in jail and have “suffered greatly.”
At an event at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, according to an audio recording obtained by ABC News, he continued to claim that the the electoral votes from the 2020 election “could have been sent back” and criticized then-Vice President Mike Pence for adhering to his constitutional duty to uphold the certification process and not unilaterally reject the election results.
President Joe Biden, on the other hand, penned an op-ed on Sunday in which he pushed back on attempts to “rewrite — even erase — the history of that day.”
“Violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol, threatened the lives of elected officials and assaulted brave law enforcement officers,” he wrote in the Washington Post. “We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault. And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.”
And in remarks to congressional Democrats, Biden said it was now their “duty to tell the truth.”
“You remember what happened, and don’t let Jan. 6 be rewritten or even erased,” he told them. “To honor the Constitution, not only the most extraordinary of days, but it’s one of the toughest days in American history: Jan. 6.”
On the campaign trail, Trump often aired grievances and false claims about the 2020 election and tried to downplay what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021.
One notable exchange came during a Univision town hall weeks before Election Day, when a Republican audience member pressed Trump on his actions that day as thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, temporarily disrupting the certification of Biden’s win.
Trump falsely claimed no one in the crowd was carrying firearms.
“That was a day of love,” Trump said. “From the standpoint of the millions, it’s like hundreds of thousands. It could have been the largest group I’ve ever spoken to before. They asked me to speak. I went and I spoke, and I used the term ‘peacefully and patriotically.'”
Nearly 1,600 individuals have faced charges associated with the Capitol attack, according to new figures released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
That includes 608 individuals who have faced charges for assaulting, resisting or interfering with law enforcement trying to protect the complex that day, the office said. Approximately 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the riot, the DOJ has said.
In a brief video message on Monday, Harris reflected on the importance of the peaceful transfer of power, saying the country’s witnessed how “our democracy can be fragile” and “it is up to then each one of us to stand up for our most cherished principles.”
Trump on social media called the upcoming certification a “A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY. MAGA!”
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Kristi Noem, South Dakota’s firebrand Republican governor, faced questioning Friday at her confirmation hearing to be secretary of homeland security.
Noem, the daughter of a farmer and a former representative from South Dakota, is being questioned before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
In an exchange with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, Noem said the border is not secure, but it will be soon.
“The southern border is not secure today. But in just three days, we will have a new president in this country, President Donald J Trump, and he will secure our border,” Noem said during the hearing.
She also told Hawley that, if confirmed, she will shut down the CBP One app. Some migrants have used the app in recent years in order to get screened, schedule appointments and make their case for asylum after entering the country.
“Yes, Senator, if confirmed and I have the opportunity to be Secretary, on day one, CBP One will be shut down,” Noem said Friday. “There’s data and information in there that we will preserve so that we can ensure we know who’s coming into this country and who’s already here that we need to go find.”
Noem first came on the national scene during the pandemic and gained notoriety when she did not shut down businesses and schools in the state — instead keeping it open and even hosting a Fourth of July fireworks show at Mt. Rushmore.
“We didn’t mandate anything,” Noem said at the Republican National Convention last July. “We never ordered a single business or church to close. I never even defined what an essential business was, because I don’t believe that the government has the authority to tell you that your business isn’t essential.”
During her last state budget address in December, Noem touted what she called progress on the state economy, education and public safety.
Noem was one of the Republican governors to send National Guardsmen to the southern border to help the Texas National Guard.
If confirmed, border security will be a main concern as Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would fall under her purview at the Department of Homeland Security.
“I have increased resources to combat the horror of human trafficking,” she said in December. “And when President Trump secures the southern border, we’ll cut off the primary pipeline for human trafficking into our country.”
In an interview on Newsmax shortly after President-elect Trump’s election victory, she said the border would be the “No.1 priority.”
“We’ve got to secure our country, and we’ve got to get the murderers and terrorists and rapists out of this country, and make America safe again. That’s really what his goal is. And I’m just so proud of him that he’s working so hard at it immediately,” she said.
A one-time potential vice-presidential prospect, Noem would oversee 22 agencies with more than 260,000 employees — on issues ranging from the border to federal disaster management to the Secret Service.
Earlier this year, she was embroiled in a series of controversies, including drawing scrutiny and a lawsuit over her social media endorsement of a dental work she received from a practice in Texas.
She was also criticized for writing in her new memoir about how she shot and killed her 14-month-old dog “Cricket” after she said it demonstrated an “aggressive personality, and she was forced to admit what she called “errors” in her book, including claiming she once met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. That description was removed from the book, according to the publisher.
Trump defended and praised her amid the controversies last year, saying she’s gone through “rough” days but that he likes her “a lot.”
